Interorganizational Coordination Research Articles

Muddling through troubled water: resilient performance of incident management teams during Hurricane Harvey

Modern communities face escalating threats from natural disasters. Thus, the resilience of incident management teams (IMTs) during adverse events becomes crucial to protect lives and physical systems. However, prior studies have only partially highlighted factors related to IMT resilience. To provide a holistic understanding of the resilience of the IMTs, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 experienced IMT personnel during Hurricane Harvey. Thematic analysis revealed six characteristics of resilient IMTs during a hurricane event: (i) establishing a common operating picture, (ii) adopting and adapting plans and protocols, (iii) proactive, re-prioritizing, and unconventional decision-making, (iv) enhancing resourcefulness and redundancy, (v) learning for improved anticipation and response readiness, and (vi) inter-organisational relationship to promote IMT functions. As an empirical investigation of the resilience of the IMTs, the findings inform future endeavours for developing incident information technologies and strategies to harmonise pre-established plans with adaptive actions in the field and fostering capabilities to learn from incidents. Practitioner summary: Resilient incident management teams establish a common operating picture; effectively adopt and adapt plans and protocols; make decisions in an unconventional and anticipatory fashion; constantly re-prioritize goals and tasks; enhance resourcefulness and redundancy; continuously learn skills for improved anticipation and response readiness; and exhibit good inter-organisational coordination and planning skills.

Interorganizational Coordination and Collaboration During the 2015 MERS-CoV Response in South Korea.

This study examined the way organizations were involved in the response to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV, MERS) outbreak that occurred in Korea in 2015. We collected organizational network data through a content analysis of online news articles and the government's white paper. Social network analysis was used to analyze the key organizations and their connections in crucial response tasks. Three national health authorities (Central MERS Management Headquarters [CMMH], Korea Centers for Disease Control [KCDC], Ministry of Health and Welfare [MOHW]) led the response. CMMH, which did not appear in the government's response plans, played a significant role in all 3 networks. KCDC also was involved in all 3 networks, but was most prominent in the laboratory testing network. MOHW appeared only in the patient management network. Each health authority coordinated and collaborated with distinctive types of organizations in the networks, but unclear lines of responsibilities also were found. The study demonstrated that the roles and responsibilities of health authorities at the national level were fragmented and lacked clarity. Public health emergency preparedness must consider carefully the way to establish collaborative response systems.

Iranian Nurses' Experiences of Workplace Violence in Prehospital Emergency Care

Prehospital emergency care nurses experience severe workplace violence. However, despite the widespread violence they experience, this phenomenon has not been well studied among these nurses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Iranian nurses working in prehospital setting regarding workplace violence with a focus on the factors leading to such violence. In this qualitative descriptive study, 23 prehospital nurses participated purposefully. The data were collected by individual face-to-face semistructured interviews and analyzed using content analysis methodology. Data analysis led to the identification of 4 main themes, including job competency mismatch, inadequate resources, criticality of the situation and circumstances, and inadequate awareness and misplaced expectations of society. These nurses have not completed specialized training courses, work in a system that is in a critical situation, and face many barriers and deficiencies in terms of intra- and interorganizational coordination. On the other hand, people in the community do not have sufficient awareness about the duties and services provided by prehospital nurses and thus have unrealistic expectations to receive services. The results showed that there was a deep gap between the prehospital emergency realities and public expectations, leading to workplace violence. Therefore, efforts to improve the working conditions of nurses with an emphasis on teaching specialized prehospital emergency courses, especially violence control courses, promoting intra- and interorganizational coordination, and increasing the equipment and personnel of ambulances for special missions, as well as raising the public awareness and outlining more realistic expectations, may reduce the prevalence of violence against prehospital nurses.

An institutional analysis of glacial floods and disaster risk management in the Nepal Himalaya

Institutional factors of disaster risks have rarely been studied for glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which are threatening high mountain regions such as the Andes, Alps, and Himalayas. Exacerbated by climate change, much of the focus in the Himalayas so far has been on GLOF risk anticipation. Recent research suggested the gaps in how scientific information on GLOFs has been communicated to local communities and the resulting distrust in government-led mitigation efforts such as, lake lowering and early warning systems. These gaps are largely driven by a set of socio-economic, cultural and institutional factors, which are poorly understood. Applying an institutional analysis framework, this research examines the institutional conditions under which Himalayan communities can create effective strategies to address GLOF risks. This research applies a mixed-methods approach by combining a) quantitative analysis of household social surveys, and b) qualitative analysis that maps out the various institutional factors that influence the success of community-level mitigation efforts. Additionally, GLOF case studies from Nepal are compared to those of Peru, where a long history of managing GLOFs exists. A set of critical institutional factors and barriers have been identified, including lack of cross-scalar communication networks, a mismatch between the agenda of external agencies and priorities of local communities, failure to recognize the value of local knowledge and participation in policy processes, and ineffective inter-organizational coordination of knowledge sharing and funding streams for mitigation projects. Bridging these disconnects is a significant step toward successful adaptation and mitigation efforts to reduce future GLOF disaster risks.

Inter-organizational dynamics and the ecology of localized entrepreneurship

ABSTRACTIn this paper, a set of ecological principles (actor-type, interaction-type, nestedness) that have been theoretically associated with organizational ecosystems guides a qualitative exploration of the ecology of localized entrepreneurial clusters (LECs). The focus of analysis is the Southern Arizona craft brewing sector (SACBS). The inter-organizational dynamic that characterizes the ecology of the SACBS is found to be based more on mutualism than on competition. This dynamic is primarily based on shared commitments to local beer brand identity, product quality, and sustainable production, as well as an overall sense of community connectedness. The SACBS is also shown to be a tightly nested LEC with craft breweries operating primarily as generalists within the local context rather than as specialists within the national and global contexts. Findings illustrate the strategic value of treating LECs as community-based sectors that are driven more by inter-organizational coordination and collaboration than by division and competition.

Downstream Logistics Performance Mastery in Moroccan Automotive Industry -Inter-Organizational Coordination Mastery Approach

Downstream Logistics Performance Mastery in Moroccan Automotive Industry -Inter-Organizational Coordination Mastery Approach

Modeling of inter-organizational coordination dynamics in resilience planning of infrastructure systems: A multilayer network simulation framework.

This paper proposes and tests a multilayer framework for simulating the network dynamics of inter-organizational coordination among interdependent infrastructure systems (IISs) in resilience planning. Inter-organizational coordination among IISs (such as transportation, flood control, and emergency management) would greatly affect the effectiveness of resilience planning. Hence, it is important to examine and understand the dynamics of coordination in networks of organizations within and across various systems in resilience planning. To capture the dynamic nature of coordination frequency and the heterogeneity of organizations, this paper proposes a multilayer network simulation framework enabling the characterization of inter-organizational coordination dynamics within and across IISs. In the proposed framework, coordination probabilities are utilized to approximate the varying levels of collaboration among organizations. Based on these derived collaborations, the simulation process perturbs intra-layer or inter-layer links and unveils the level of inter-organizational coordination within and across IISs. To test the proposed framework, the study examined a multilayer collaboration network of 35 organizations from five infrastructure systems within Harris County, Texas, based on the data gathered from a survey in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The results indicate that prior to Hurricane Harvey: (1) coordination among organizations across different infrastructure systems is less than the coordination within the individual systems; (2) organizations from the community development system had a low level of coordination for hazard mitigation with organizations in flood control and transportation systems; (3) achieving a greater level of coordination among organizations across infrastructure systems is more difficult and would require a greater frequency of interaction (compared to within-system coordination). The results show the capability of the proposed multilayer network simulation framework to examine inter-organizational coordination dynamics at the system level (e.g., within and across IISs). The assessment of inter-organizational coordination within and across IISs sheds light on important organizational interdependencies in IISs and leads to recommendations for improving the resilience planning process.

Improving Interorganizational Coordination Between Primary Care and Oncology: Adapting a Chronic Care Management Model for Patients With Cancer.

The objective of this study was to explore the implementation of a payment and delivery system innovation to improve coordination and communication between primary care and oncology. We employed a qualitative case study approach, conducting interviews (n = 18), and reviewing archival materials. Chronic care coordinators and the cancer center social worker acted as boundary spanners. The chronic care coordinator role built on medical home infrastructure, applying the chronic care model to cancer care. Coordination from primary care to oncology became more routinized, with information sharing prompted by specific events. These new boundary spanner roles enabled greater coordination around uncertain and interdependent tasks. Recommendations for scaling up include the following: establish systematic approaches to learning from implementation, leverage existing capacity for scalability, and attend to the content and purpose of information sharing.

Central applications of Tesfay coordination in transportation supply chain: Case of airline industry

Abstract This paper is extensions of the Tesfay (2014) paper on the Bullwhip effects and Tesfay (2015) paper on the foundations of the Bullwhip effect and its implications on the theory of organizational coordination. The major outcome of the Tesfay (2014) paper suggests that one way or another Bullwhip effect attacks all the business collaborates in supply chain. The major outcome of the Tesfay (2015) paper suggests that the solutions from the transaction cost economics are still insufficient to produce the most efficient organizational coordination. This paper extends stochastic analysis by applying various panel data regression models and structural equations of seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models on the experimental data from Beer game. Recursive autoregressive-SUR model estimation result confirmed that the Bullwhip effects can be cause by both intra-organizational coordination and inter-organizational coordination of the business collaborates of supply chain. In order to control the effect of intra-organizational coordination on the Bullwhip effects, the author outline a new coordination type known as the hyper-hybrid coordination. As a final point, the author has shown important applications of the hyper-hybrid coordination in the airline industry.

Implications of institutional frameworks for renewable energy policy administration: Case study of the Esaghem, Cameroon community PV solar electrification project

This study analyzed a rural renewable energy project—the Esaghem Village solar photovoltaic-based electrification project—in Manyu Division, Cameroon. The aim was to unveil impediments to the project rooted in the country's institutional framework for energy policy administration. The framework adheres to the country's Weberian-style administrative machinery. Conspicuous features of the machinery, including its pyramidal structure, tendency for top-down hierarchical communication, aversion for interorganizational interaction, and standardization are shown to constitute major institutional impediments. These features caused problems such as a lack of information, skills, and innovation. They also exacerbated problems relating to custom formalities and stand to threaten project sustainability. Administrative reform actions including the promotion of inter-organizational coordination, administration decentralization reinforced with the creation of renewable energy extension programs, and market-oriented liberalization measures are recommended. These reforms promise to facilitate the diffusion of solar PV electrification and other renewable energy technologies in Camerooon and other developing countries.

Morbidity and mortality from technological disasters in Iran: A narrative review.

Iran as a developing country is at risk of vulnerability to technological disasters. These types of disasters occur frequently in last years and affected thousands of lives. Technological disasters in Iran cause thousands of deaths, thousands of injuries, and millions of dollars’ economic loss in recent years. We searched suitable keywords in national and international disaster databases for gathering epidemiological data in these disasters in Iran. In addition, we searched suitable keywords in scientific databases including Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Scientific Information Database, Magiran, and Irandoc. After screening, only 19 articles discussed challenges of technological disasters in the country. Road accidents, explosions and fires, mine accidents, and railway accidents are common events in the country. After 2015, these types of disaster cause 823 deaths and injuries. Experience of response to these disasters showed that technological disaster management in the country faces too many challenges including comprehensive and prospective programs, weakness of necessary infrastructure for urban management, weakness in group work and interorganizational coordination, lack of coherent involvement of people and nongovernmental organizations, lack of information coverage during the disaster, volunteers in police service presence at scene, and normalization of these events. Due to interorganizational nature of mitigation in technological disasters, it must be developed coordination between various organizations to mitigate these types of disasters.

Managerial strategies to promote interorganisational and multisectoral collaboration in the South African public sector: a case study approach

This study argues that to effectively address the problem of food insecurity, there is a need for interorganisational and multisectoral coordination in program implementation in the South African public sector. This article identifies key challenges faced by government departments in the coordination of social assistance programs aimed at achieving food security. The article presents the results of a qualitative research approach, through the use of a multiple case study design to provide a detailed description of the challenges and limitations that government departments face in coordinating social assistance programs. The results of the investigation revealed the gaps that inhibit effective multisectoral and interorganisational collaboration. The article concludes by suggesting various managerial strategies that can be infused in the South African public sector to promote organisational effectiveness.

Hospitals Strengthened Relationships With Close Partners After Joining Accountable Care Organizations.

The strategies that hospitals participating in Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) use to achieve quality and cost containment goals are poorly understood. One possibility is that participating hospitals could try to influence where their patients receive care. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether a hospital's participation in a Medicare ACO was associated with changes in its patterns of patient sharing with other hospitals. Between 2010 and 2014, patient sharing across hospitals increased 23.3%. After controlling for hospital and regional factors, patient sharing increased 4.4% more at ACO hospitals than non-ACO hospitals (p = .001 for difference). This increase occurred disproportionately among hospitals with which ACO hospitals already shared a high proportion of their patients prior to participation, and among hospitals in ACOs characterized as physician-hospital collaborations. The increased sharing of patients among closely affiliated hospitals may serve to achieve ACO quality and cost containment goals through increased interorganizational coordination.

Qualitative study of health system preparedness for traumatic incidents in a religious mass gathering

Background and ObjectivesTraumatic incidents may occur during religious mass gatherings. A lack of preparedness by the health system to respond to traumatic incidents may increase the mortality rate. This study investigated the factors that affect the preparedness of a health system to respond to traumatic incidents, and we provide appropriate suggestions for improving the response to such incidents during religious mass gatherings. MethodsA qualitative research method was used with a conventional content analysis approach. In total, 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted employing the content analysis method. The data were analyzed based on the means of the meaning units, condensed meaning units, sub-themes, themes, and codes. ResultsFour main categories and nine sub-categories emerged from the data: factors that increased or decreased the occurrence of incidents (with three sub-categories comprising risk perception and fatalism, pilgrims’ responses to incidents, and health system response to traumatic events); medical infrastructure (with two sub-categories comprising medical infrastructure in the host country and medical structures in border cities); organizational resource category (with two sub-categories comprising manpower, and equipment and facilities); and coordination of responsible organizations (with two sub-categories comprising inter-organizational coordination and inter-agency collaboration). All of the data were extracted from the experiences of the participants. ConclusionSimilar to other mass gatherings, Arbaeen requires multi-sectoral and international planning, organizing, and management. The key factors that could improve the preparedness to respond to traumatic events in Arbaeen include training, increasing the perception of risk, changing the attitudes and behavior of pilgrims, developing a national strategic plan of the health system preparedness for policymakers, and implementing scenario-based exercises for executives.

Governance Configurations for Inter-Organizational Coordination: A Study of Public Safety Networks

We focus on networked arrangements of digital resources that are shared among otherwise independent units to advance conceptual and empirical insights about their governance. We are motivated by the simple observation that, increasingly, independent organizations are engaging in shared activities, often relying on purpose-built digital infrastructures to support this move to inter-dependence. To advance current conceptualizations of networked governance, we draw on data from 42 public safety networks and use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. We do so because fsQCA allows us to account for the realities of inter-dependence among the concepts and variables we consider and to illuminate the multiple viable governance patterns that are possible. The results show the importance of network-level governance competencies to manage stakeholders and information infrastructure to achieve high effectiveness of PSN. Analysis makes clear that there exist five configurations of PSN governance practices that enable high levels of network governance effectiveness. Common to all these configurations are the network-level competence in managing both stakeholders and the digital infrastructure, suggesting these are necessary (but not sufficient) network-level governance competencies. Building from the analysis, we advance the role of specific network-level governance competencies, and the current conceptualization of network governance more broadly.

Evaluating the quality of municipal climate change plans in Canada

Plan quality has become an established framework for analyzing the contents of plans and assessing their strengths and deficiencies. The research presented in this paper contributes to academic scholarship on plan quality by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of climate change plans in 63 of the most populous communities across Canada. Plans were evaluated using a coding protocol consisting of 46 indicators based on eight plan quality characteristics: fact base, goals, policies, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, inter-organizational coordination, participation, and plan organization and presentation. The analysis revealed three key findings that are important for policy and practice. First, Canadian municipal climate change plans prioritize climate change mitigation over adaptation. Second, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation are relatively weak aspects of municipal climate change plans in Canada. Finally, despite the importance that scholars and practitioners ascribe to stakeholder engagement, Canadian municipalities appear to have given insufficient consideration to this element of the climate change plan-making process.

AidAdom: Supporting Inter-Organizational Coordination for Home Help and Healthcare Services Through a Web Platform

PurposeFrom temporary need of help for household chores after a short stay at the hospital to complex healthcare due to chronic conditions, an important number of professional caregivers belonging to different organizations are involved in providing help and healthcare services at home. Despite the well-defined role of each professional, these organizations are complaining of a lack of coordination and visibility of each other work, especially in case of incident. Coordination between organizations appears here as essential but is at the same time the responsibility of all and of no one of the involved professionals. In this context, our research aims at supporting coordination for home care work through the design and implementation of a web platform. MethodsIn order to ground the design of an inter-organizational coordination platform (AidAdom), we first studied the work practices and coordination issues of two help services providers through interviews and observation with different stakeholders (n=11). Then we have conducted a pilot study at three homes (involving from 6 to 17 caregivers) during one month to evaluate the system use in the field as well as to address implementation issues at both technical and social levels. ResultsWe provide an account of inter-organizational coordination in home care and identify issues in terms of limited resources for articulation work and basic coordination information sharing requirements. This analysis supports the features of the AidAdom web platform that enable caregivers to easily register data and messages related to their interventions. The pilot study allowed us to identify deployment issues at regional scale. ConclusionThe AidAdom platform provides a lightweight system which enables organizations to share a minimal set of coordination information. Our future work is oriented toward opening the system to new help and healthcare service professionals and organizations.

Merging current health care trends: innovative perspective in aging care.

Current trends in health care delivery and management such as predictive and personalized health care incorporating information and communication technologies, home-based care, health prevention and promotion through patients’ empowerment, care coordination, community health networks and governance represent exciting possibilities to dramatically improve health care. However, as a whole, current health care trends involve a fragmented and scattered array of practices and uncoordinated pilot projects. The present paper describes an innovative and integrated model incorporating and “assembling” best practices and projects of new innovations into an overarching health care system that can effectively address the multidimensional health care challenges related to aging patient especially with chronic health issues. The main goal of the proposed model is to address the emerging health care challenges of an aging population and stimulate improved cost-efficiency, effectiveness, and patients’ well-being. The proposed home-based and community-centered Integrated Healthcare Management System may facilitate reaching the persons in their natural context, improving early detection, and preventing illnesses. The system allows simplifying the health care institutional structures through interorganizational coordination, increasing inclusiveness and extensiveness of health care delivery. As a consequence of such coordination and integration, future merging efforts of current health care approaches may provide feasible solutions that result in improved cost-efficiency of health care services and simultaneously increase the quality of life, in particular, by switching the center of gravity of health delivery to a close relationship of individuals in their communities, making best use of their personal and social resources, especially effective in health delivery for aging persons with complex chronic illnesses.

Factors affecting inter-organisational coordination: a case of policy implementation in rural Bangladesh

ABSTRACTThis article explores factors affecting coordination among actors involved in policy implementation at the upazila level in Bangladesh. Based on qualitative studies in 2009 and 2016, it suggests that inter-organisational coordination has been problematic at the upazila level due to the lack of use of both formal and informal procedures of coordination. Delayed execution, lack of quality, and wastage of resources are significant symptoms of when coordination of policy implementation is lacking among implementing actors. The article argues that formal procedures are required in combination with informal procedures to ensure better coordination.

A typology of inter-organisational coordination in public transport: The case of timetable planning in Denmark

State, regional, and municipal authorities, public transport authorities, and traffic operators at many levels are essential actors in public transport. This paper presents a typology of four coordination mechanisms relevant to interactions among public transport actors. These four mechanisms, i.e. ownership/instruction, contracts, partnerships, and mutual understanding, are all based on basic coordination mechanisms of markets, hierarchies, and networks. A case of timetable planning is examined, because inter-organisational coordination between actors is crucial in this field, and the usefulness of the typology is illustrated via three examples. The results stem from a Danish study of institutional constraints on timetable optimisation in inter-organisational relations. The empirical focus is eastern Denmark, including Greater Copenhagen.