The Function of Volunteer Organizations in Public Crisis Management: From the Perspective of Transaction Cost

Abstract

In the fight against the COVID-19 in China, many volunteer organizations emerge, which are both efficient and flexible in some situations. To summarize the experience of these organizations in public crisis management, this paper divides the work situations faced by organizations into conventional situations and unconventional circumstances and to compare the functions of formal and informal organizations in conventional and unconventional circumstances from the perspective of transaction cost and analysis factors which influence their cooperation in public crisis management. By examining the functions of NCP in the fight against the COVID-19, this research proposes that transaction cost is a critical factor to consider in the function and structure of informal organizations. Thus, this paper suggests that in the governance of public crisis, the government should incorporate informal organizations into the social governance system and focus on their organizational advantages. It is essential to classify social organizations, innovate the management mode of social organizations, and elucidate the correlation between vertical government governance and horizontal social governance, changing the “inverted T” operation mode into the “cobweb” cooperation mode