Interorganizational Networks in Disaster Management: Theory and Practice

Disasters are complex and challenging situations, in which people often expect governments to solve problems swiftly and effectively. Managing catastrophic disasters is fundamentally different than routine emergencies.... [ view full abstract ]

Disasters are complex and challenging situations, in which people often expect governments to solve problems swiftly and effectively. Managing catastrophic disasters is fundamentally different than routine emergencies. Although such extreme events happen relatively rarely in any one place, they cause significant disruption in the society. Successful management of catastrophic incidents typically requires a broad set of skills and resources that could only be provided by multiple stakeholders in a horizontal and collaborative web of relationships. In other words, inter-organizational networks are the norm in dealing with disasters.
Disaster management is not the only business of government that benefits from interorganizational networks. There are wide variety of services from healthcare to social services that are delivered through cross-sector networks and partnerships. Transition of service delivery from hierarchical bureaucracies (direct government) to cross-sector partnerships dramatically influences the position of networks in disaster management. Understanding how networks are designed and developed and function and evolve before, during, and after disasters help us get better disaster management outcomes when networks are used.
Because of disasters create conditions in which altruistic behavior and need for collaboration becomes salient altruistic nature of disasters and the collaborative nature of disaster management, networks may occur naturally in handling stressful situations (but whether they are effective or not is a different subject).
Disaster management requires efforts from all levels of government ; however, government’s capacity and resources are usually inadequate for handling major disasters and collaboration with private and nonprofit organizations becomes vital. Intergovernmental, interorganizational, and collaborative nature of disaster management provides an opportunity to study networks. This multi-level, multi-sector, and collaborative nature of disaster management makes it an ideal context to research interorganizational networks. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical overview of interorganizational networks in disaster response and recovery. The paper will outline the nature of disaster management as being a layered function that involves multiple networks of inter-governmental and cross-sector agencies.
The paper will address how does multi-level network governance influence interorganizational coordination in disaster preparedness and response. First, it will present a brief historical perspective on interorganizational networks including the disaster management field. It, then, continues with explanations of various types of interorganizational networks and how they are used in the context of collaborative emergency management. Finally, it will develop a basic framework that explores the various factors that facilitate and hinder effective collaboration between agencies in disasters.