2.2. Establishing networks for promoting inter-organizational collaboration in the management of crises
Establishing pre-crisis relationships between the organizations that may be jointly involved in managing a crisis, paves the way for more effective collaboration and communication; building trust and create professional relationship across organisations during and post crisis responses.
Contents
- 1 Implementation
- 2 Understanding the context
- 3 Relevant material
- 4 Navigate in the DRMG
Implementation
Introduction
Identifying relevant stakeholder organizations prior to a crisis and cultivating positive relationships with these is extremely important for successful crisis response. Effective crisis response and management require coordinated actions among multiple organizations across many jurisdictions under conditions of urgent stress, heavy demand and tight time constraints. During crises, numerous interdependent organisations—government agencies, private companies, no profit organisations, etc.—are part a common network, as they have to work together towards a common goal.
If inter-organisational relations in the network are too weak, organisations may provide insufficient support, may withdraw it during a crisis, may fail to or may even intensify the threat. Thus, organisations should allocate effort to establishing adequate communication channels and alliances with other organisations during the pre-crises phase.
Once it is established, a collaboration network will create opportunities for both promoting a common ground among different organizations (see Card Promoting Common Ground), and defining agreements for a periodic coordination and continuous crosschecking of the respective roles and responsibilities in the management of a crisis (see Card Roles and Responsibilities).
Before a crisis
Before any crisis has occurred, a five-step protocol is recommended to establish effective inter-organizational collaboration across the relevant organizations that may have to work together in the management of a crisis or emergency. The protocol is presented from the point of view of each individual organization. Depending on its size and relevance in a specific crisis management domain, the managerial levels of an organization should consider whether they prefer to play an active role in the establishment of the network or to respond to the initiatives of other organizations.
- Identify the organizations to include in the network. Based on analyses of crisis/emergency scenarios resulting from internal risk assessment activities, identify the relevant organisations with whom collaboration may be necessary at the time of a crisis response. These may be located at International, National, Regional, and local level(s). Looking at the different types of crises that the organization might experience one day, priority should be given to links with the organizations expected to be involved in the largest number of types. However, also the organizations potentially involved only in very specific types of crisis scenarios, who are considered very unlikely to occur, should be taken into consideration, having in mind that the strength of the links to be established can be variable.
- Specify the rationale for collaborating with an organization. For each organization identified for a potential involvement in your network, specify the rationale for collaborating with it, depending on different types of crisis scenarios. As part of the exercise, clarify as a minimum what are the expectations with respect to the type of cooperation needed with the partner organization and the communication means to be used for establishing and/or maintaining the cooperation.
- Approach the organization to include in the network. Approach the relevant organisations in order to establish a communication exchange and organize at least a meeting with representatives of the other organizations. Depending on the opportunities and status of relationships the meetings might be either bilateral or multilateral, i.e. involving more than one partner organization at the same time.
- Establish collaboration terms of reference. Establish Terms of Reference of the collaboration to provide the basis for joint shared actions. Two possible options are envisaged:
4a. Define a Memorandum of Understanding. Formalise a declaration of intent that clarifies the current rationale (why do we need to collaborate?), objectives (what do we want to achieve?) and mechanisms (how shall we collaborate?) for inter-organisational collaboration. The same declaration should also clarify the potential for future developments (how the scope of the present collaboration may increase in the future?).
4b. Define a stable framework for collaboration. The framework defines the actual collaboration measures that have to be implemented, including details of resources to be committed, roles involved, type and frequency of meetings, either bilateral or multilateral involving also other organisations. The framework should consider at least one of the mechanisms proposed in the parent CCs 2.1: Promoting common ground and 2.3 Roles and Responsibilities. The first mechanism is particularly recommended if the collaboration has just started and the representatives of the organizations need to better know each other. While the second mechanism should be preferred when there is already a long lasting collaboration and it was possible to design some kind of shared procedure regulating how the organization should operate jointly in different types of crises/emergencies. - Maintain a record of the status of inter-organizational relationships. Create and periodically update a record about the status of the relationship with the other organizations.
Triggering questions
- When thinking of a specific type of crisis, are there organizations that may be involved together with us in the management of it. Among these organizations, are there any with whom we do not have any collaboration yet in place?
- If there is no collaboration yet in place, would it be worth establishing it?
- When thinking of new possible collaborations, are we considering all relevant levels, including the local, regional, national and international level?
Specifying the rationale for collaborating with an organization
- What type of collaboration do we expect to have with an organization we have decided to include in our network?
- What do we expect to achieve from the collaboration?
- Which communication modalities do we want to adopt in order to interact with such organizations?
Approaching the organizations to include in the network
- Do we know with which person/s should we get in touch in order to activate the collaboration?
- Do we know if there are interpesonal relationship already established in previous activities that may be exploited to facilitate this process?
Establish Memorandum of Understanding
- Have we clearly defined why we need to collaborate?
- Have we clarified what we expect to achieve from the collaboration?
- Have we defined the specific way we intend to collaborate?
- Have we discussed and agreed with the other organization about possible extensions of the scope of our collaboration in future?
Establish a Framework for Collaboration
- Have we defined how often we should get in touch with the other organization to review reciprocal roles and responsibilities in the management of crises?
- Have we defined shared activities to improve the common ground among us and the other organization in the management of crises (e.g. common training sessions)?
- Have we developed inside our organizations a documentation to record the status of our collaboration with the other organization?
During a crisis
During the development of crisis requiring the collaboration among different organizations, the conditions to establish a new network of organizations or to reinforce an existing one can be very different, depending on the type of crisis. When the crisis takes the form of an emergency where time is a critical factor, the organization will mostly count on the collaboration network that was established before the crisis itself. On the other side, if the crisis has a longer timeframe (e.g. at least two days, up to several months), it may be necessary to either create an ad-hoc network of collaborations or to extend the existing one to accommodate for specific needs emerged during the development of the crisis. Therefore, limited to the crises with a longer timeframe, the first 4 steps of the protocol designed for the Before Crisis case could be considered:
- Identify the organizations to include in the network. Based on analyses of the ongoing crisis/emergency scenarios, identify the relevant organizations with whom collaboration is necessary to make the crisis response more effective. These may be located at International, National, Regional, and local level(s).
- Specify the rationale for collaborating with an organization. For each organization identified for a potential involvement in the network, specify the rationale for collaborating with it, depending on different types of crisis scenarios. As part of the exercise, clarify what are the expectations with respect to the type of cooperation needed with the partner organization and the communication means to be used for establishing and/or maintaining the cooperation.
- Approach the organization to include in the network. Approach the relevant organizations in order to establish a communication exchange and organize at least a meeting with representatives of the other organizations. Depending on the opportunities and status of relationships the meetings might be either bilateral or multilateral, i.e. involving more than one partner organization at the same time.
- Establish collaboration terms of reference. Establish Terms of Reference of the collaboration to facilitate joint shared actions. In the During Crisis phase this can be limited to a short Memorandum of Understanding clarifying the current rationale (why do we need to collaborate?), objectives (what do we want to achieve?) and mechanisms (how shall we collaborate?) for inter-organizational collaboration. Once the crisis is terminated the managers of organizations which were engaged in a collaboration should consider whether to upgrade the memorandum of understanding to a stable framework for collaboration.
Triggering questions
- When considering the ongoing crisis, are there organizations that may be involved together with us in the management of it. Among these organizations, are there any with whom we do not have any collaboration yet in place?
- If there is no collaboration yet in place, would it be worth establishing it?
- When thinking of new possible collaborations, are we considering all relevant levels, including the local, regional, national and international level?
Specifying the rationale for collaborating with an organization
- What type of collaboration do we expect to have with an organization we have decided to include in our network?
- What do we expect to achieve from the collaboration?
- Which communication modalities do we want to adopt in order to interact with such organizations?
Approaching the organizations to include in the network
- Do we know with which person/s should we get in touch in order to activate the collaboration?
- Do we know if there are interpesonal relationship established in previous activities that may be exploited to facilitate this process?
Establish Memorandum of Understanding
- Have we clearly defined why we need to collaborate?
- Have we clarified what we expect to achieve from the collaboration?
- Have we defined the specific way we intend to collaborate?
- Have we discussed and agreed with the other organization about possible extensions of the scope of our collaboration in future?
After a crisis
After a crisis has occurred, the managers of organizations that were collaborating in the response to it may consider whether there is a need to establish a stable framework of collaboration for future needs or to extend the network to new organizations. The following 5 stage process is proposed in order to extend the network of collaboration. The organizations which were already collaborating among them previously to the crisis may consider reinforcing their framework of collaboration by applying only the steps 4b and 5 and reflect on lesson learned about the process of establishing a new network.
- Identify new organizations to include in the network. Based on analyses of the recently occurred crisis, identify the relevant organizations with whom collaboration is necessary to make the crisis response more effective in future occasions. These may be located at International, National, Regional, and local level(s).
- Specify the rationale for collaborating with an organization. For each new organization identified for a potential involvement in the network, specify the rationale for collaborating. As part of the exercise, clarify a what are the expectations with respect to the type of cooperation need with the partner organization and the communication means to be used for establishing and/or maintaining the cooperation.
- Approach the new organization to include in the network. Approach the relevant organizations in order to establish a communication exchange and organize at least a meeting with representatives of the other organizations. Depending on the opportunities and status of relationships the meetings might be either bilateral or multilateral, i.e. involving more than one partner organization at the same time.
- Establish collaboration terms of reference. Establish Terms of Reference of the collaboration to facilitate joint shared actions in future occasions. Two possible options are envisaged:
4a. Define a Memorandum of Understanding. Formalize a declaration of intent that clarifies the current rationale (why do we need to collaborate?), objectives (what do we want to achieve?) and mechanisms (how shall we collaborate?) for inter-organisational collaboration. The same declaration should also clarify the potential for future developments (how the scope of the present collaboration may increase in the future?);
4b. Define a stable framework for collaboration. The framework defines the actual collaboration measures that have to be implemented, including details of resources to be committed, roles involved, type and frequency of meetings, either bilateral or multilateral involving also other organizations. The framework should consider at least one of the two mechanisms proposed in the parent CCs 2.1 Promoting common ground and 2.3 Roles and Responsibilities. The first mechanism is particularly recommended if the collaboration has just started and the representatives of the organizations need to better know each other. While the second mechanism should be preferred when there is already a long lasting collaboration and it was possible to design some kind of shared procedure regulating how the organization should operate jointly in different types of crises/emergencies. - Maintain a record of the status of inter-organizational relationships. Create and/or periodically update a record about the status of the relationship with the other organizations.
Triggering questions
- When thinking of a recently occurred crisis, are there organizations that may be involved together with us in the management of it. Among these organizations, are there any with whom we do not have any collaboration yet in place?
- If there is no collaboration yet in place, would it be worth establishing it?
- When thinking of new possible collaborations, are we considering all relevant levels, including the local, regional, national and international level?
Specifying the rationale for collaborating with an organization
- What type of collaboration do we expect to have with a new organization we have decided to include in our network?
- What do we expect to achieve from the collaboration?
- Which communication modalities do we want to adopt in order to interact with such organizations?
Approaching the organizations to include in the network
- Do we know with which person/s should we get in touch in order to activate the collaboration?
- Do we know if there are interpesonal relationship established after the crisis that may be exploited to facilitate this process?
Establish Memorandum of Understanding
- Have we clearly defined why we need to collaborate?
- Have we clarified what we expect to achieve from the collaboration?
- Have we defined the specific way we intend to collaborate?
- Have we discussed and agreed with the other organization about possible extensions of the scope of our collaboration in future?
Establish a Framework for Collaboration
- Have we defined how often we should get in touch with the other organization to review reciprocal roles and responsibilities in the management of crises?
- Have we defined shared activities to improve the common ground among us and the other organization in the management of crises (e.g. common training sessions)?
- Have we developed inside our organizations a documentation to record the status of our collaboration with the other organization?


Understanding the context
Detailed objectives
Rationale. Identifying relevant stakeholder organisations prior to a crisis and cultivating positive relationships with these is extremely important for successful crisis response (Kapucu 2006). Effective crisis response and management require coordinated actions among multiple organizations across many jurisdictions under conditions of urgent stress, heavy demand and tight time constraints (Comfort and Kapucu 2006). During crises, numerous interdependent organisations—government agencies, private companies, no profit organisations, etc.—are part a common network, as they have to work together towards a common goal. The need to establish an effective pre-crisis network is also exacerbated by the large the scale of recent emergencies such as pandemics, cyber-attacks and prolonged critical infrastructure failure, which have large scale impact and accentuate the challenge that public and private organisations have to jointly address (Ansell & c. 2010). If inter-organisational relations in the network are too weak, or there is insufficient reciprocal trust, organisations may provide insufficient support, may withdraw it during a crisis or may even intensify the threat (Ulmer 2001). Thus, organisations should allocate effort to establishing adequate communication channels and alliances with other organisations during the pre-crises phase. Once it is established, a collaboration network will create opportunities for both establishing a common ground among different organizations (see CC 2.1 Promoting Common Ground ) and defining agreements for a periodic coordination and continuous crosschecking of the respective roles and responsibilities in the management of a crisis (see CC 2.3 Roles and Responsibilities). Therefore, the present card has limited applicability to the situations in which a stable network of organization is already in place and in which the efficacy of the response to a crisis largely depends on the quality of the relationship and on the mutual understanding of respective roles and responsibility.
Targeted actors
The card is directed to top management roles involved in strategic decision making (e.g., executive management, policy makers), and indirectly this will affect operational levels.
Expected benefits
Improved ability to respond, adapt and learn from a crisis, thanks to a more effective inter-organizational collaboration and communication, both during and after the concerned crisis.
Relation to adaptive capacity
Relation to risk management
This card requires an internal risk management approach sensitive enough to detect crisis situations in which collaboration is needed. The card brings and added value in that it increases the likelihood of successful implementation of the measures that may be defined in a risk management framework, especially those measures that are shared with or are dependent on the resources of other organizations.
Illustration
Implementation considerations
Challenges
This card has two main prerequisites:
- The existence of internal risk management framework sensitive enough to identify scenarios in which inter-organisational crisis collaboration may be needed (see CC Adaptation_relative_to_events).
- A continuous commitment of senior management over the practices mandated by this card.
Implementation cost


Relevant material
Relevant Practices, Methods and Tools
Practices
- Establishment of a European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell. Following the Icelandic volcano eruption in May 2010, the EU has established the European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell (EACCC) .The EACCC is in fact a network that includes representatives of EU, EUROCONTROL, EASA, airspace users, air navigation service providers, military and airport. The creation of the EACCC ensures both improved preparedness and coordination support at the time of the crisis. https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/European_Aviation_Crisis_Coordination_Cell_(EACCC)
- Establishing collaboration terms of reference. In a study of three Swedish municipalities (Nohrstedt 2013), the clarifications of terms of collaboration was identified as an important component of effective crisis management network: “The cases show that if the network participants collectively agree on rules and structures for collaboration, they can move on to identify operational goals and action plans for the network. But if the initial terms of collaboration remain undefined, the formulation of common goals will be difficult. Uncertainty may feed frustration and increase doubts among participants regarding the benefits of networking”. The creation of effective network requires the clarification of collaborations terms of reference.
References
- A. Alemanno, ‘The European regulatory response to the volcanic ash crisis between fragmentation and integration’, Eur J Risk Reg, p. 101, 2010.
- Ansell C., Boin A., and Keller A. (2010), ‘Managing transboundary crises: Identifying the building blocks of an effective response system’, J. Contingencies Crisis Manag., vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 195–207, 2010.
- Cavallo, A. and Ireland, V. (2014), Preparing for complex interdependent risks: A System of Systems approach to building disaster resilience. In International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Volume 9, September 2014, Pages 181-193.
- Comfort L. K. and Kapucu N. (2006), ‘Inter-organizational coordination in extreme events: The World Trade Center attacks, September 11, 2001’, Nat. Hazards, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 309–327, 2006.
- Djalante, R., Holley, C., Thomalla, F. and Carnegie, M. (2013), Pathways for adaptive and integrated disaster resilience. In Natural Hazards, Volume 69, Issue 3, December 2013, Pages 2105-2135
- Kapucu, N.,‘Interagency communication networks during emergencies boundary spanners in multiagency coordination’, Am. Rev. Public Adm., vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 207–225, 2006.
- Moynihan D. P., ‘The network governance of crisis response: Case studies of incident command systems’, J. Public Adm. Res. Theory, p. mun033, 2009.
- Nohrstedt D., ‘Networking and Emergency Management Performance: A Nested Analysis of Local Level Collaborations in Sweden’, in International Conference on Public Policy, 2013, pp. 26–28.
- Ulmer R. R., ‘Effective Crisis Management through Established Stakeholder Relationships: Malden Mills as a Case Study’, Manag. Commun. Q., vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 590–615, May 2001.
- SKYbrary Aviation Safety. European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell (EACCC). https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/European_Aviation_Crisis_Coordination_Cell_(EACCC). [Accessed: 05-sep-2018].
Terminology
- Resilience abilities
- Contributes to: Respond and Adapt
- Supported by:
- Categories: Collaboration, Communication
- Functions of crisis management: BEFORE, Preparation, Cooperation and coordination