Ku Minyoung, Han Ahreum, Lee Keon-Hyung
Department of Public Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, New York, NY 10019, USA.
Department of Health Care Administration, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Dec 21;19(1):18. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010018.
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.
关于哪种治理结构最适合协作式灾害应对，尤其是集权与分权之间的问题，争论仍在继续。本文旨在通过分析2015年韩国中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒（MERS）疫情爆发期间，在国家强力管控下出现并演变的一个多部门网络的结构特征，为这场争论做出贡献。本研究特别关注该网络内部和部门间协作关系的演变。研究数据通过对政府文件和新闻报道的内容分析收集。通过社会网络分析，作者发现该网络围绕中央层面的少数政府组织演变成了一种集权结构，以层级方式组织参与组织之间的联系。该网络在卫生组织与非卫生组织之间以及公共卫生组织与非公共卫生组织之间都呈现出大量内部联系，但受到不同结构特征的影响。这种趋势在高峰期加剧。基于这些发现，作者得出结论，灾害管理的集权化可能无助于或仅在一定程度上有助于公共卫生灾害期间的跨部门协作，因此需要精心设计灾害应对的治理结构。
