DISASTER RECOVERY
JOURNAL

Return to the Winter 2001
Index

P. O. Box 510110
St. Louis, MO 63151
(314) 894-0276
Fax: (314) 894-7474
Internet www.drj.com
E-mail drj@drj.com

PUBLISHER &
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

SENIOR EDITOR
Janette Ballman
janette@drj.com

EDITOR
Michelle Saab
michelle@drj.com

COPY EDITORS
Edward H. Pearce, CBCP
drj@drj.com
Richard Sandhofer
richards@drj.com

INTERNET /
ADVERTISING
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

_____________

Corporate

President/CEO
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

Vice President
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

CONFERENCE COORDINATOR
Patti Fitzgerald, CBCP
patti@drj.com

CONFERENCE REGISTRAR
Merce Knese
mercedes@drj.com

CIRCULATION
Laura Baugh
laurab@drj.com

INTERNATIONAL
CONTACTS
England: Thom Hetherington
Business Continuity
Phone: 0161-237-1007
thomh@tempus.demon.co.uk

Australia: Anthony J. Harvey
Journal of Business Continuity
Phone: 0011-613-953-0055-8
fax: 0011-613-953-0528
sector@notability.com.au

Japan: Shinji Hosotsubo
Quake Japan Co., Ltd.
Phone: 03-3215-2880
fax: 03-3215-2881

Brazil: Jose Carlos Ferreira
Disaster Recovery Mercosul
Phone: 55 11 3666-9506
conc2000@uol.com.br
ww.drms.com.br

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What’s in a Name? What Do Position Titles Tell Us about the Development of our Profession?

- by Dr. Thomas D. Phelan

Who are the people involved in business recovery planning and disaster recovery services? Each time we gather at an International Disaster Recovery Symposium and Exhibition, PPBI Board Members personally greet literally hundreds of professionals in the field. We also, like many vendors, collect business cards that contain position titles. What follows is a discussion of an unscientific analysis of the titles on those cards from the last three symposia, and a few thoughts on what they mean for our discipline.
Deidrich Towne, Jr., PPBI Chairman, expressed a curious appreciation for the title, Senior Coordinator, Mission Continuity & Recovery. The title belongs to Charlie Anderkin at the University of Cincinnati. When Dee mentioned his curiosity generated by Charlie’s title, I was reminded of a study by my doctoral advisor at Syracuse University, Roger Hiemstra. His work in Self-Directed Learning spans years of research, study and writing for scholarly publications. Following an annual International Symposium on Self-Directed Learning, Roger and some of his graduate students researched the number of terms used in the literature that referred to self-directed learning. There were hundreds.
As a niche activity in the world of work becomes a discipline, it defines itself on the organization charts of companies, large and small, and gives the person responsible for our work a title. In my review of the business cards of symposium attendees, I found 107 titles for professionals in the field of business recovery planning and/or disaster recovery services. Here are my observations. PPBI would be interested in your thoughts on how we define ourselves through titles.
(1) In the 107 titles collected, there were key words naming the field: Business Contingency Planning, Business Continuity Planning, Business Recovery, Business Resumption, Disaster Recovery, Emergency Management, Loss Prevention, Risk Management, and Crisis Management.
(2) There are many levels in the organization to which the duties are assigned: Analyst, Specialist, Coordinator, Planner, Administrator, Consultant, Manager, Director, and Vice President. Many of these have qualifiers such as Lead Analyst, Program Manager, and so forth.
(3) Different fields call their business recovery staff by different names. Insurance uses “Loss Prevention.” Information Technology units use “Systems Manager,” “Network Consultant,” “Computer Disaster Recovery,” “Specialist, IT Business Continuity,” and others.
(4) Many companies use terms suggesting a hierarchy: Senior Analyst, Deputy Director, Chief, and Assistant Vice President.
(5) Many titles include professional certification such as CBCP, certified business continuity professional.
(6) Public titles differ slightly from those in the private sector: Director, Emergency Management Office; Chief, Change and Impact Analysis Branch; Information Security and Contingency Planning, Disaster Recovery Administrator, Certified Emergency Manager, Coordinator -Disaster Management.
Based on this “business card” data, I offer the following observations:
(1) There is a great deal of attention being given to loss prevention, mitigation, response and recovery as events impact the ability of an organization to perform critical functions regardless of what might interrupt those functions.
(2) There is a growing profession of talented individuals whose responsibility it is to attend to matters of business continuity and loss prevention.
(3) The evidence of a hierarchy suggests a career path for business continuity professionals. The evidence doesn’t yet indicate promotional opportunities within an organization as much as it supports career advancement by changing organizations to one where the responsibilities are handled at a higher level.
(4) In many cases, business continuity services are only part of a job. Many titles indicated that a single employee has multiple responsibilities. There were many dual titles.
(5) There is an indication of specialties being created. The systems side of the business is clearly more technical than the disaster management side. There appears to be a need for both. Training in computer science is one way to become involved, and training in disaster preparedness and response is another way. I recommend learning about both aspects.
PPBI is dedicated to bridging the gap between private businesses and public agencies that deal with all aspects of prevention, mitigation, response, recovery and restoration. We feel that, regardless of position title, there is much to be gained by having professionals from both private and public enterprises sharing, training, drilling, communicating and working together. We’ve designed training to help you realize the benefits of private and public partnerships. Next fall, we’ll add a course on Command Post Operations based on the experience of professionals, both private and public, in the trenches of disasters and business interruptions.

Dr. Phelan is a Board Member of PPBI and a PPBI Instructor; Treasurer, Business Network of Emergency Resources, Inc.; and an active member of the American Red Cross Disaster Services Human Resource Team and the National Disaster Mortuary Operational Resource Team (D-MORT Command). PPBI is interested in your thoughts on what we’ve observed with respect to position titles and the development of our profession. Please send your thoughts to me via e-mail at phelant@niagaramohawk.com. I’ll send you the list of 107 titles.