Collaborative emergency management and national emergency management network

Introduction

The public increasingly expects better public sector leadership before, during, and after catastrophic disasters (emergencies) and extreme events (crises) than it has seen in the past ([6] Boin et al. , 2005; [32] Kapucu and van Wart, 2006). High standards of responsiveness and the ubiquitous media compel political leaders and administrative heads to coordinate resources effectively. The massive numbers of public, nonprofit, and private organizations involved in catastrophic disasters require extensive ability to have horizontal, as well as vertical, communication, and coordination. High performance in managing disasters and emergencies requires an ability to assess and adapt capacity rapidly, restore or enhance disrupted or inadequate communications, utilize uncharacteristically flexible decision making, and expand coordination and trust of emergency response agencies despite the hurly-burly of the response/recovery efforts. These requirements are superimposed on conventional bureaucratic systems that rely on relatively rigid plans, exact decision protocols, and formal relationships that assume uninterrupted communications. Yet:

[...] in crises circumstances the disparities between demand and supply of public resources are much bigger, the situation remains unclear and volatile, and the time to think, consult, and gain acceptance for decisions is highly restricted ([6] Boin et al. , 2005, p. 11).

Scholars of public administration see much utility of network analysis and network theory perspectives in analyzing recent developments in collaborative public management and governance ([5] Bingham and O'Leary, 2008; [23] Fountain, 1994; [34] Kilduff and Tsai, 2005). [23] Fountain (1994, p. 273) specifically states that "the network perspective offers both rich descriptive capacity and rigorous methodologies for study of both micro- and macro-level organizational and interorganizational phenomena of great importance to public management."

The following research questions are examined by the study:

RQ1. What is collaborative emergency management (CEM)?

RQ2. What are the benefits of collaborations in managing disasters and emergencies?

RQ3. Why we need collaboration in managing emergencies and crises?

RQ4. How do emergency management (EM) networks select objectives and meet the mission of the network?

RQ5. How are CEM principles applied in National Emergency Management Network (NEMN)?

The research will compile previous research on CEM research, identify widely used cases, identify research questions and common hypotheses tested and their results, and conclude with future research and practical implications. Contributions will be noted to public management networks, specifically...