Disaster readiness assessment model using integrated statistical variance and proximity value index

Purpose - The regular occurrence of natural disasters elevates the need for an effective method to measure organizational preparedness in responding to the adverse impact of disasters. In this context, this paper presents a new decision support model to assess organizational disaster preparedness using both subjective and objective disaster preparedness criteria in a multi-criteria decision-making context. Design/methodology/approach - The statistical variance method is integrated with the proximity value index (PVI) technique to determine priority scores in order to rank organizational disaster readiness.Findings - The results of applying the integrated model developed herein enable decision-makers to make informed decisions for assigning priority ranking of organizational disaster preparedness in a simpler and more efficient way. Research limitations/implications - Human resource is the most impacting criterion affecting hospital preparedness in undertaking action to cure disaster victims.Practical implications - This paper offers an exemplar of a simple and efficient decision-making process considering the subjectivity associated with decision-making as well as the objectivity of data used for determining the priority ranking of organizational disaster preparedness.Originality/value - Integrating statistical variance method with the PVI technique is novel and it has not been presented in previous studies. In fact, this study is the first to integrate both methods for selecting the priority ranking of organizational disaster preparedness.