Public safety is regarded as the mainstay of the abundant and well-functioning society, as well as it is a result of state policy pursued. It ranges from social policy, through regional and criminal policy, to emergency... [ view full abstract ]
Public safety is regarded as the mainstay of the abundant and well-functioning society, as well as it is a result of state policy pursued. It ranges from social policy, through regional and criminal policy, to emergency management (Tomasino, 2011; Williams et al., 2009).
Operations conducted in public safety management rely on collaboration, and units involved in these operations are mutually complementary and form a network. However, inter-organisational collaboration is difficult to accomplish and it does not always enable to achieve the assumed goals (Gulati et al., 2012; Huxham and Vangen, 2005), also in the domain of public safety management (Berlin and Carlström, 2011). Common operations in this field require both meticulous organisation and planning, and spontaneous actions entailing adaptation to developing situations, because even the best plan does not always fit to the circumstances (Waugh and Streib, 2006; Kożuch and Sienkiewicz-Małyjurek, 2017). Consequently, organisational capabilities play a vital role in public safety management network, as they enable managing jointly the resources and processes in order to reach goals. On the other hand, inter-organisational collaboration depends also on the antecedents, context, and conditions of conducting the operations. In addition, the way the collaborating parties behave influences the strength of inter-organisational relations and determines whether the nature of these relations will be long-term, or one-time (Kim, 2007). Therefore, there is a need for organisations to have appropriate abilities to collaborate, which are manifested in relational behaviours focused on common conducting of actions. These behaviours determine the level of organisational capabilities in public safety management networks (Comfort et al., 2004). However, it is not known how the dimensions of relational behaviour affect organisational capabilities and which of these dimensions have a decisive influence. This research gap would be filled in by analysing the influence of relational behaviours dimensions on organisational capabilities in the public safety management networks, which is the aim of this paper. Achievement of that aim will be made possible by conducting the following research:
- desk research analysis of international literature;
- structured direct interviews realised in June 2016 with 100 experts of public safety management network.
As a result, the relational behaviours and the organizational capabilities will be characterised, dimensions of these constructs will be identified and the relations between dimensions in both constructs will be statistically analysed. This paper will provide new insights into the public safety management by assessment of the ties between the researched constructs and by identifying relevant directions in managing activities in dynamic context.
