The Dynamics of Cross-Sector Collaboration in Centralized Disaster Governance: A Network Study of Interorganizational Collaborations during the MERS Epidemic in South Korea

Minyoung Ku, Ahreum Han and Keon-Hyung Lee
Additional contact information
Minyoung Ku: Department of Public Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, New York, NY 10019, USA
Ahreum Han: Department of Health Care Administration, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212, USA
Keon-Hyung Lee: Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-15

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.

Keywords: disaster governance; public health; network management; collaboration; social network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/18/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/18/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:18-:d:707353

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().