Enhancing response coordination through the assessment of response network structural dynamics

Preparing for intensifying threats of emergencies in unexpected, dangerous, and serious natural or man-made events, and consequent management of the situation, is highly demanding in terms of coordinating the personnel and resources to support human lives and the environment. This necessitates prompt action to manage the uncertainties and risks imposed by such extreme events, which requires collaborative operation among different stakeholders (i.e., the personnel from both the state and local communities). This research aims to find a way to enhance the coordination of multi-organizational response operations. To do so, this manuscript investigates the role of participants in the formed coordination response network and also the emergence and temporal dynamics of the network. By analyzing an inter-personal response coordination operation to an extreme bushfire event, the networks’ and participants’ structural change is evaluated during the evolution of the operation network over four time durations. The results reveal that the coordination response network becomes more decentralized over time due to the high volume of communication required to exchange information. New emerging communication structures often do not fit the developed plans, which stress the need for coordination by feedback in addition to by plan. In addition, we find that the participant’s brokering role in the response operation network identifies a formal and informal coordination role. This is useful for comparison of network structures to examine whether what really happens during response operations complies with the initial policy.

[1]  Jieh-Jiuh Wang,et al.  Post-disaster cross-nation mutual aid in natural hazards: case analysis from sociology of disaster and disaster politics perspectives , 2013, Natural Hazards.

[2]  Myrna Mandell,et al.  Evaluating Network Arrangements: Toward Revised Performance Measures , 2007 .

[3]  C. Ansell,et al.  A Preliminary Theory of Interorganizational Network Effectiveness : A Comparison Study of Four Community Mental Health Systems , 2013 .

[4]  Jeroen Wolbers,et al.  Incident Command Systems: A Dynamic Tension among Goals, Rules and Practice , 2014 .

[5]  Jeroen Wolbers,et al.  A Dynamic Perspective of Emerging Coordination Clusters in Crisis Response Networks , 2016, ISCRAM.

[6]  Dennis F. Galletta,et al.  Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems – Foundations , 2006 .

[7]  Naim Kapucu,et al.  A longitudinal study of evolving networks in response to natural disaster , 2016, Comput. Math. Organ. Theory.

[8]  John Scott.  Social Network Analysis , 1988 .

[9]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  Betweenness centrality as a driver of preferential attachment in the evolution of research collaboration networks , 2011, J. Informetrics.

[10]  Nadia Saad Noori,et al.  Network based discrete event analysis for coordination processes in crisis response operations , 2016, 2016 Annual IEEE Systems Conference (SysCon).

[11]  David Mendonça,et al.  Decision support for improvisation during emergency response operations , 2001 .

[12]  R R Dynes,et al.  Organizational adaptation to crises: mechanisms of coordination and structural change. , 1979, Disasters.

[13]  Alireza Abbasi,et al.  Link formation pattern during emergency response network dynamics , 2014, Natural Hazards.

[14]  M. Newman.  Clustering and preferential attachment in growing networks. , 2001, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[15]  Robert B. Olshansky.  Designing Resilience: Preparing for Extreme Events , 2011 .

[16]  Alex Bavelas,et al.  Communication Patterns in Task‐Oriented Groups , 1950 .

[17]  Louise K. Comfort,et al.  Communication, Coherence, and Collective Action , 2006 .

[18]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Structuring of Organizations , 1979 .

[19]  Nadia Saad Noori.  Coordination Dynamics in Disaster Response Operations: A Network Based Discrete Event Analysis , 2016 .

[20]  Sergiy Butenko,et al.  Clique Relaxations in Social Network Analysis: The Maximum k-Plex Problem , 2011, Oper. Res..

[21]  Michael Aiken,et al.  Organization Structure and Communications , 1971 .

[22]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  What is coordination theory and how can it help design cooperative work systems? , 1990, CSCW '90.

[23]  H. Leonard,et al.  Organising Response to Extreme Emergencies: The Victorian Bushfires of 2009 , 2010 .

[24]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Determinants of Coordination Modes within Organizations , 1976 .

[25]  David L. Banks,et al.  Social Network Methodology in the Study of Disasters: Issues and Insights Prompted by Post-Katrina Research , 2009 .

[26]  Sarah McCaffrey,et al.  Best practices in risk and crisis communication: Implications for natural hazards management , 2012, Natural Hazards.

[27]  Rui Chen,et al.  Coordination in emergency response management , 2008, CACM.

[28]  C. Reezigt.  Zicht op Interne Communicatie. Ontwerp van een bedrijfseconomisch georienteerd diagnose-instrument. , 1995 .

[29]  Naim Kapucu,et al.  Interorganizational Coordination in Dynamic Context: Networks in Emergency Response Management 1 , 2005 .

[30]  Pär J. Ågerfalk,et al.  The Language Action Perspective on Communication Modelling , 1999 .

[31]  Christopher Steven Marcum,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration in the Hurricane Katrina Response* , 2012, J. Soc. Struct..

[32]  L. Freeman.  Centrality in social networks conceptual clarification , 1978 .

[33]  Naim Kapucu,et al.  Structural Dynamics of Organizations during the Evolution of Interorganizational Networks in Disaster Response , 2012 .

[34]  Á. M. Hernáez.  Borgatti, Stephen; Martin Everett i Lin Freeman. UCINET IV. Network Analysis Software. Version 1.0. Columbia: Analytic Technologies, 1992 , 1995 .

[35]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994, Structural analysis in the social sciences.

[36]  Hans Weigand,et al.  Coordination through Communication , 2003 .

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

[38]  Liaquat Hossain,et al.  Social connectedness and adaptive team coordination during fire events , 2013 .

[39]  Duncan J. Watts,et al.  Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks , 1998, Nature.

[40]  AbbasiAlireza,et al.  A longitudinal study of evolving networks in response to natural disaster , 2016 .

[41]  D. Krackhardt.  Graph theoretical dimensions of informal organizations , 1994 .

[42]  Christine Owen,et al.  Emergency Incident Management: An Evolving Incident Control System Framework , 2009 .

[43]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  The interdisciplinary study of coordination , 1994, CSUR.