Complementarity of Communication and Coordination in Ensuring Effectiveness of Emergency Management Networks

Abstract

Inter-organizational communication, coordination, and network effectiveness have long been of great interest. However, the level of their complexity and situational dependencies still create challenges for researchers and public managers. It is usually assumed that inter-organizational communication leads to inter-organizational coordination, but little is known how these processes interact and complement each other. This article aims at identifying relationships linking these processes and analyzing their impact on effectiveness of emergency management networks. Achieving the goal of the article based on the survey questionnaire conducted with 83 experts. The results were analyzed using the principal components analysis (PCA), correlation analysis, hierarchical clustering, and partial least-square path modeling (PLS-PM). The analyses conducted allow for identifying the dimensions of the research processes, and relationships linking them. This was the basis for building the research models testing how relationships between inter-organizational communication and coordination influence the effectiveness of emergency management networks. Comparing analyzed models points to complementarity, parallelism, and the possibility of a non-sequential course of inter-organizational communication and coordination.