Educación en Negocios y Generación de Consciencia sobre la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres en Chile
| Autor | Leonardo Muñoz-Gómez |
| Cargo | Instructor. Departamento de Geografía. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile |
| Páginas | 201-222 |
201
AD-MINISTER
Business Education and Creation of Awareness for
Disaster Risk Management in Chile
Educación en Negocios y Generación de Consciencia sobre la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres en Chile
LEONARDO
MUÑOZGÓMEZ
JEL: I, M, Q
Received: 22/06/2016
Modified: 28/06/2016
Accepted: 29/06/2016
DOI: 10.17230/ad-minister.28.10
www.eafit.edu.co/ad-minister
Creative Commons (CC BY-NC- SA)
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the apparent disconnection between disaster risk management research and the
lack of tools for business continuity after disastrous events in Chile. As disasters are a common occur-
rence in business development, local firms are becoming aware of the need for having tools for pre-
paredness and mitigation of negative effects of disasters. Nevertheless, in Chile, this private awareness
seems to be part of the business aptitude of large-sized firms rather SMEs. Some of the arguments
presented here illustrate this gap between local firms and their need to integrate business continuity
management into their business operations and their decision making to cope with disaster risks. In this
vein, this document argues the need for innovative academic offerings in Chile and presents a proposal to
advance in linking disaster risk management and business education at the University of Chile. This pro-
gram is developed in the medium-term for each of its components, starting with undergraduate students
and achieving major actions with public and private stakeholders in a progressive ladder of initiatives.
KEYWORDS
Business Education; Disaster Risk Management; Innovation and Business Continuity Planning.
RESUMEN
Este documento discute acerca de la aparente desconexión entre la agenda de investigación para la
gestión de riesgos de desastres y la carencia de herramientas para la continuidad de negocios pos-
terior a eventos de desastre en Chile. En tanto los desastres son una instancia común en el desarrollo
de los negocios, las empresas locales son cada vez más conscientes de la necesidad de contar con
herramientas para su preparación y para la mitigación de los efectos negativos de los desastres. Sin
embargo, en Chile esta conciencia privada parece ser parte de la actitud de negocios de las empresas
de mayor tamaño más que de las PYME. Algunos de los argumentos presentados evidencian este vacío
entre las empresas locales y su necesidad de integrar la gestión para la continuidad de negocio en sus
operaciones y toma de decisiones para sobreponerse a los riesgos de desastre. En este contexto, este
documento argumenta sobre la necesidad de ofertas académicas innovadoras en Chile y presenta una
propuesta para avanzar en la vinculación entre la gestión del riesgo de desastres y la educación en
negocios en la Universidad de Chile. Este programa es desarrollado en el mediano plazo en cada uno de
sus componentes, se inicia con los estudiantes de pregrado y desarrolla acciones de mayor envergadura
con agentes públicos y privados en una secuencia progresiva de iniciativas.
PALABRAS CLAVE
Educación de Negocios; Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres; Innovación y Planeación de Continuidad de Negocio.
1 Instructor. Departamento de Geografía. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Universidad de Chile,
Santiago de Chile, Chile, Email: lemunoz@uchile.cl
AD-minister Nº. 28 enero-junio 2016 pp. 201 - 221 · ISSN 1692-0279 · eISSN 2256-4322
Leonardo Muñoz-Gómez
Business Education and Creation of Awareness for Disaster Risk Management in Chile
202
AD-MINISTER
INTRODUCTION
Latin America faces an increasing number of disasters related to anthropic, so-
cio-natural and natural origins. In fact, since the 90’s, these devastating events have
been linked to a great amount of national loss, both human and economic. Some
arguments that explain this situation are the process of continuing growth of cities
in regions with a history of natural hazards, and the weakness of local planning tools
to guide the appropriate location and organization of the economic activities, mainly
in areas of exposure. A clear synthesis in terms of understanding the scope of this
situation is stated by Wilches-Chaux (1992) and Chardon (2008) defining natural
disasters as socially-constructed events rather than purely natural ones.
Economic activities are one of the dimensions strongly aected by the occur-
rence of an event of natural origin. However, the field is still open regarding the
research of linkages between industrial location, private and public investments,
and disaster risk in cities. That knowledge may be helpful in building resilient local
businesses and regions (GAR, 2013). In recent years, authorities and investors have
become more aware of the importance of taking into account extreme events as a
real threat to business and the economy. This change in perspective consists of
assuming that natural phenomena will cause structural and economic damage in
both the short and long term.
In this context, considering the structure of Chilean economy and the perfor-
mance of firms and entrepreneurs, one of the emerging questions is how to prevent,
support and minimize the economic impact of natural and industrial disasters in
aected regions, mainly in SMEs and the local labor market. Thus, risk management
aims to organize and strengthen the joint work of dierent stakeholders located at
regional level, such as social, political and business bodies. Then, the scope of work
must be inter-agency and inter-sectoral, since collaborative and coordinated actions
may help in developing eective risk management initiatives. In addition, as stated
by Cardona (2008), a multi-tier governmental coordination is also important because
the decentralization of initiatives benefit local government and communities in de-
ploying context-specific actions oriented to manage risks, guarantee part of local in-
vestments and, ultimately, achieve eective results in the management of local risks.
The goal of this paper is to guide the higher education community toward im-
proved understanding of disasters and the complex issues involved in disaster risk
management. The Interdisciplinary Risk Disaster Reduction Program, the Vice-Pres-
idency of Research and Development and the Department of Geography of the Uni-
versity support this initiative. The program is structured upon a seminar that will be
grounded in a multidisciplinary perspective to be built in the medium term within
the University. The key idea is to develop an innovative approach to mainstream
disaster risk management content into undergraduate and graduate students, linked
to risk management, geography and business, and other academic oerings within
the University. As a result, we expect to generate a close relationship with public and
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