Abstract
The debate continues as to which governance structure is most appropriate for collaborative disaster response, particularly between centralization and decentralization. This article aims to contribute to this debate by analyzing the structural characteristics of a multisectoral network that emerged and evolved under strong state control during the 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS) in South Korea. This study particularly focuses on the evolution of intra- and inter-sectoral collaboration ties in the network. The data for the study were collected through a content analysis of government documents and news articles. Using social network analysis, the authors found that the network evolved into a centralized structure around a small number of governmental organizations at the central level, organizing the ties between participating organizations rather hierarchically. The network displayed a preponderance of internal ties both among health and non-health organizations and among public and nonpublic health organizations, but under different influences of structural characteristics. This tendency was intensified during the peak period. Based on these findings, the authors conclude that the centralization of disaster management may not or only marginally be conducive to cross-sector collaboration during public health disasters, calling for a careful design of governance structures for disaster response.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic and the history of infectious diseases have reinforced the importance of cross-sector collaboration in containing and responding to public health disasters
We examine the influence of state-led centralization on cross-sector collaboration, among government, civil society, and private sectors, in response to a public health disaster from an evolutionary perspective, within the context of South Korea’s response to the 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS) outbreak, by answering the following questions: (1) How was the network of organizations that responded to the epidemic shaped over time?; (2) How did collaborations between health and nonhealth sectors and between public and nonpublic health sectors unfold in the network? In particular, how did the ratio of intra- and inter-sectoral collaboration ties change during the response phases?; and (3) How did the structural characteristics of the network influence these patterns of cross-sector collaboration?
We focus on the structural dynamics of response networks that emerge under strong state control and on the evolutionary patterns of interorganizational collaboration in the networks within and across sectors in response to disasters caused by infectious diseases
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic and the history of infectious diseases have reinforced the importance of cross-sector collaboration in containing and responding to public health disasters. In times of health-related disaster, those caused by infectious disease outbreaks, the demand for emergency health and medical services, such as patient diagnosis, transfer, and treatment, as well as the distribution of supplies and equipment, waste treatment and disposal, transportation, childcare, and remote learning could surge, revealing the vulnerability of communities. Collaborations between public and nonpublic sectors and between health and non-health sectors are imperative to protect public health during disasters. These collaborations increase community resilience and sustainability by gaining control over situations that produce uncertainty and complexity [2]. In countries that rely heavily on the private sector to meet health goals, such as Germany, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, and the US, regardless of their regime type, public health’s
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