Spanning Organizational Boundaries in Emergency Management

Abstract

Multiagency emergency management coordination requires stakeholders to span organizational boundaries and facilitate collaboration among other agencies within temporary supraorganizations. Multiagency coordination is important in emergency management as disasters often require the collaboration of multiple agencies into temporary supraorganizations. However, little is known about the boundary spanning activities that influence this collaboration. Based on 39 semistructured interviews with senior emergency management practitioners spanning organizational boundaries, this paper proposes a typology of boundary spanning activities for emergency management. Embracing these activities may address some of the challenges associated with the collaboration of multiple agencies in a disaster.

• boundary spanning
• emergency management
• emergency operations center
• multiagency coordination