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COMPARING COORDINATION STRUCTURES FOR CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN SIX COUNTRIES
Author(s) -
CHRISTENSEN TOM,
ANDREAS DANIELSEN OLE,
LÆGREID PER,
H. RYKKJA LISE
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/padm.12186
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , business , survey data collection , perception , perspective (graphical) , crisis management , quality (philosophy) , knowledge management , public relations , political science , economics , management , computer science , psychology , paleontology , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , epistemology , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , biology
The article analyses organizational structures and coordination mechanisms for crisis management in six European countries, focusing on the prevalence of hierarchical and network arrangements, administrative culture and perceptions of coordination quality. Our main research question concerns the importance of collaboration and cooperation in the management of crises. We apply a structural–instrumental and a cultural perspective, and examine data on formal organizational structures as well as survey data from administrative executives. The mapping reveals hybrid coordination arrangements with different national ‘flavours’. The survey data show that the executives accorded significant weight to coordination, but the use of different coordination mechanisms was only loosely linked to their assessments of coordination quality. Our findings support a view of public administration as a largely composite system combining contradictory organizational principles that have evolved through institutional layering. National context and the specific challenges from different types of crises therefore influence crisis management capacity profoundly.