From Preparedness to Response: Managing Inter-organizational Coordination for Emergencies and Disasters

Management of emergency or crisis events relies on the collaborative efforts of a wide range of organizations. How to coordinate their efforts becomes a pressing challenge for public administration. This three-essay dissertation informs our understanding of public agencies’ inter-organizational coordination in preparation for and response to emergencies and disasters. The first essay provides an overview of emergency coordination research by systematically reviewing the fragmented inter-disciplinary literature on the topic for the past two decades. Through the analyses of 64 articles, the essay maps major theoretical traditions of emergency coordination research and identifies the need for further theoretical explorations. The syntheses of findings from the literature provide empirical strategies for improving response coordination effectiveness. The review reveals that current research predominantly focuses on response coordination with little understanding of coordination at other emergency management phases. Building upon the first essay, the second essay examines coordination in the preparedness phase. By introducing the configurational approach to emergency management research, the study explores which configurations of organizational attributes – and environmental characteristics – lead to active emergency preparedness coordination. A configurational model for preparedness coordination is proposed along with three propositions. The study conducts a large-N fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to analyze U.S. public transit agencies’ inter-organizational coordination in preparation for extreme weather events. Findings demonstrate the value of configurational thinking and suggest the importance of managerial commitment. The third essay extends the current inquiry on response coordination by reorienting the focus to the role of human agency. Drawing from institutional logic theory, the study identifies the systems of cultural elements (i.e., institutional logic) that affect inter-organizational response coordination actions. Influential managerial practices are also specified. The empirical context of this study is the local government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Arizona. Findings demonstrate that coordination actions are under the influence of professional and community logics. Empirical evidence also corroborates the importance of management practices for coordination. Taken together, the dissertation contributes to emergency management research by engaging novel theoretical perspectives and diverse methodological approaches. It provides actionable strategies for public managers to improve coordination effectiveness.