Enhancing Network Centric Operations Doctrine to Support Civil Military Cooperation in Disaster Management

Network Centric Operations is a promising command doctrine in both military operations and during civil disaster management. As both sectors started intensifying their joint operational capacity through civil-military collaboration, it becomes increasingly relevant to address the different command doctrines underlying Network Centric Operations in both sectors. In this Chapter I explore the origins of network governance in both sectors and argue what steps need to be taken in order overcome the differences. I argue that governing the heterogeneous set of organizations that operate in disaster response networks requires a new approach for Network Centric Operations that does not only rely upon information sharing and self-synchronization. Instead, it requires negotiation, sensemaking, and network switching in order to overcome the different functional, normative and knowledge boundaries that come into play in heterogeneous disaster response networks.

[1]  Guy H. Walker,et al.  WESTT (workload, error, situational awareness, time and teamwork): an analytical prototyping system for command and control , 2008, Cognition, Technology & Work.

[2]  Rebecca Solnit.  A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster , 2009 .

[3]  Karlene H. Roberts,et al.  The Incident Command System : High Reliability Organizing for Complex and Volatile Task , 2007 .

[4]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[5]  John C. Morris,et al.  Reaching for the Philosopher's Stone: Contingent Coordination and the Military's Response to , 2007 .

[6]  Jeroen Wolbers.  Drawing the Line: Cross-boundary Coordination Processes in Emergency Management , 2016 .

[7]  Kathleen M. Sutcliffe,et al.  Special Issue: Frontiers of Organization Science, Part 1 of 2: Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking , 2005, Organ. Sci..

[8]  Louise K. Comfort,et al.  Inter-organizational coordination in extreme events: The World Trade Center attacks, September 11, 2001 , 2006 .

[9]  N. Kapucu.  Interagency Communication Networks During Emergencies , 2006 .

[10]  Ruey‐Lin Hsiao,et al.  Collaborative Knowing: The Adaptive Nature of Cross‐Boundary Spanning , 2012 .

[11]  A. Boin.  Public Leadership in Times of Crisis: Mission Impossible? , 2003 .

[12]  Yan Xiao,et al.  Coordination in Fast-Response Organizations , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[13]  C. Gibson,et al.  Team Implicit Coordination Processes: A Team Knowledge–Based Approach , 2008 .

[14]  L. Sproull,et al.  Coordinating Expertise in Software Development Teams , 2000 .

[15]  Russell R. Dynes,et al.  Community Emergency Planning: False Assumptions and Inappropriate Analogies , 1994, International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters.

[16]  Emmanuelle Vaast,et al.  The Emergence of Boundary Spanning Competence in Practice: Implications for Implementation and Use of Information Systems , 2005, MIS Q..

[17]  K. Tierney,et al.  Metaphors Matter: Disaster Myths, Media Frames, and Their Consequences in Hurricane Katrina , 2006 .

[18]  Julia S. Mollee,et al.  Incorporating Time Dynamics in the Analysis of Social Networks in Emergency Management , 2013 .

[19]  Bart van Bezooijen,et al.  Mission Command in the Information Age: A Normal Accidents Perspective on Networked Military Operations , 2015 .

[20]  Richard E. Hayes,et al.  Understanding Information Age Warfare , 2001 .

[21]  Jeroen Wolbers,et al.  Beyond the myth of control: Toward network switching in disaster management , 2014, ISCRAM.

[22]  Neville A Stanton,et al.  Command and control in emergency services operations: a social network analysis , 2006, Ergonomics.

[23]  Kathleen M. Carley,et al.  A structural perspective on the emergence of network organizations , 1999 .

[24]  Jeroen Wolbers,et al.  The Common Operational Picture as Collective Sensemaking , 2013 .

[25]  Ann Majchrzak,et al.  Coordinating Expertise Among Emergent Groups Responding to Disasters , 2007, Organ. Sci..

[26]  Paul R. Carlile,et al.  A Pragmatic View of Knowledge and Boundaries: Boundary Objects in New Product Development , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[27]  S. Barley,et al.  Bringing Work Back In , 2001 .

[28]  Donald P. Moynihan,et al.  The Network Governance of Crisis Response: Case Studies of Incident Command Systems , 2009 .

[29]  Beth A. Bechky,et al.  10 Coordination in Organizations: An Integrative Perspective , 2009 .

[30]  L. Comfort.  Crisis Management in Hindsight: Cognition, Communication, Coordination, and Control , 2007 .

[31]  Nancy Taber,et al.  Policies versus Practice: “Grey” Areas and “Organized Chaos” in Emergency Response , 2008 .

[32]  Richard E. Hayes,et al.  Power to the Edge: Command, Control in the Information Age , 2003 .

[33]  E. Quarantelli,et al.  Response to Social Crisis and Disaster , 1977 .

[34]  M. Castells.  The rise of the network society , 1996 .

[35]  Diane Vaughan,et al.  The Rôle of the Organization in the Production of Techno-Scientific Knowledge , 1999 .

[36]  Eitan Shamir.  The Long and Winding Road: The US Army Managerial Approach to Command and the Adoption of Mission Command (Auftragstaktik) , 2010 .

[37]  Jeroen Wolbers,et al.  Negotiating the 'Trading Zone'. Creating a Shared Information Infrastructure in the Dutch Public Safety Sector . , 2012 .

[38]  R. Turner,et al.  Organized Behavior in Disaster. , 1972 .

[39]  K. Provan,et al.  Modes of Network Governance: Structure, Management, and Effectiveness , 2007 .

[40]  S. Maitlis,et al.  Sensemaking in Crisis and Change: Inspiration and Insights from Weick (1988) , 2010 .

[41]  Jerome Bracken,et al.  Measurements of Effectiveness for the Information-Age Navy: The Effects of Network-Centric Operations on Combat Outcomes , 2002 .

[42]  JoAnne Yates,et al.  Life in the Trading Zone: Structuring Coordination Across Boundaries in Postbureaucratic Organizations , 2006, Organ. Sci..

[43]  Beth A. Bechky.  Sharing Meaning Across Occupational Communities: The Transformation of Understanding on a Production Floor , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[44]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Perceived discontinuities and constructed continuities in virtual work , 2011, Inf. Syst. J..

[45]  Nathan E. Busch,et al.  Integrating Federal Approaches to Post-Cyber Incident Mitigation , 2013 .

[46]  Klaus Weber,et al.  Making Sense with Institutions: Context, Thought and Action in Karl Weick’s Theory , 2006 .

[47]  I. Helsloot,et al.  Citizen Response to Disasters: A Survey of Literature and Some Practical Implications , 2004 .

[48]  Astrid Scholtens.  Controlled Collaboration in Disaster and Crisis Management in the Netherlands, History and Practice of an Overestimated and Underestimated Concept , 2008 .