Organizational Networks in Times of Crisis: Lessons from Katrina

Dynamic Evolution Analysis of the Emergency Collaboration Network for Compound Disasters: A Case Study Involving a Public Health Emergency and an Accident Disaster during COVID-19

Compound disasters are highly complex and can involve different types of disasters. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, compound disasters of public health emergencies, accident disasters, and natural hazards have occurred frequently all over the world; therefore, it is important to establish effective compound disaster emergency collaboration networks. Thus, this study examined the 7 March building collapse in Quanzhou City as a case study. This case was a typical compound disaster involving a public health emergency and an accident disaster during COVID-19. Based on the network analysis, the overall response and dynamic characteristics of the emergency collaboration for compound disasters were examined in this study. A compound disaster emergency collaboration network (ECN) was constructed by identifying the interactional relationships between emergency organizations. After applying time slices, the dynamic evolution of network structure, organizational-functional relations, organizational attributes, and cross-organizational relationships were discussed. The research results showed the following: (1) The density and connectivity of the compound disaster ECN first decreased before increasing. Meanwhile, the evolution of the network structure followed a path from decentralized to concentrated and from being uneven to an equilibrium. (2) The characteristics and practices of compound disasters during different periods indicated varied emergency needs for emergency organizations. We found that the formation of emergency tasks not only involved the passive adaptation to match the practice for compound disasters, but also the active choices of emergency organizations when facing compound disasters according to their collective experiences and decisions. (3) The national emergency management departments, the government emergency rescue organizations, and the local governments were the core organizations of the ECN. Public health management departments and social organizations were also required to participate in the ECN to improve the diverse and heterogeneous distribution of resources. (4) With increased demands during a compound disaster emergency, the number of cross-organizational collaborative relationships gradually increased. This study explored compound disaster emergencies from the perspective of network analysis to improve our understanding of the current and developing organizational relationships and practices during a compound disaster event. The dynamic characteristics of compound disasters require efficient adaptation and improvements of the collaborative mechanisms involved during emergencies.

Dynamic analysis of emergency inter-organizational communication network under public health emergency: a case study of COVID-19 in Hubei Province of China

Public health emergencies, especially major infectious diseases, may cause global crises. Timely and effective communication is essential for response to such incidents. However, the emergency response to such incidents usually lasts longer and break out repeatedly, and the existing static emergency communication network (ECN) analysis cannot fully reflect the dynamic information interaction between organizations during the emergency process. Therefore, this article takes the recent COVID-19 epidemic in Hubei, China as a case, and uses social network analysis to reveal the dynamic evolution of communication networks, positions, roles, and tasks of organizations from the time dimension. The results show that: (1) the ECN has changed from concentrated to decentralized over time; (2) the positions and roles of participating organizations in the ECN has changed, but there are still a few key organizations that at the central position in all phases of emergency communication; (3) the core tasks have changed due to emergency needs at each stage; (4) under the concentrated management system, the core organization of the ECN mainly comes from government organizations. The research results reveal the dynamic evolution of communication networks between different types of emergency organizations, which is beneficial to guide emergency management of public health emergencies. In actual emergency, the emergency communication mode should be dynamically adjusted based on the characteristics of the emergency situation at different stages, comprehensively using the advantages of the concentrated and decentralized emergency network. In addition, communication between different types of organizations such as governments, research institutions, and enterprises should be strengthened, and channels for diversified organizations to participate in emergency communication should be set up. The research helps to improve communication between emergency response organizations and is of great significance to controlling and reducing the harm caused by public health emergencies.