How does Leadership Manage Network-Level Tensions in a Turbulent Environment? A Case Study on the Antwerp Fire Service Network Leadership during the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

A crucial topic is how network leadership recognizes and responds to network-level tensions. However, when we focus on how leadership manages these tensions, we favor a one-sided view by focusing predominantly on how leadership manages tensions within the network, implicitly adopting a closed system assumption. In this article, we propose that why a specific network-level behavior is enacted can (partially) be explained by how network leadership is embedded within an organizational field and how environmental and population dynamics shape network tensions. The Social Network Analysis showed that the Antwerp Fire Service crisis response network developed from a core–periphery network to a smaller, denser network. Based on the thematic analysis, we provide insights into network leadership practices to recognize and respond to network tensions that arose during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic due to internal network characteristics and the organizational field's environmental and population dynamics.

MAD statement

This article aims to Make a Difference (MAD) by positioning the notion of network tensions and network leadership at the core of leadership theory and practice. This is done by introducing network tensions before suggesting that network leadership needs to respond to and manage network tensions shaped and constrained by an organizational field's environmental and population dynamics. The contributions show how leadership dealt with network tensions, and as a result, the article may help inform leadership practice and scholarship on how to deal with multiple network memberships, overlapping network involvement, and broader network-environment relationships that characterize collective goods.

KEYWORDS:

• Network leadership
• network-level tensions
• network management
• network governance
• fire service
• COVID-19 pandemic

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article is based on chapter four of the first author’s Ph.D. dissertation. Van den Oord, S. (2023). The governance of organizational networks. Doctoral dissertation, University of Antwerp. The dissertation can be retrieved here: https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1930630151162165141

2 A FAN board is a whiteboard (or a digital equivalent) in which ‘Facts’, ‘Actions’, and ‘Needs’ are collected and updated during a crisis. This is a structured Incident Command System (ICS) to provide decision-makers with an overview of a crisis.

3 In this study, we operationalize network tensions as a latent construct that can only be indirectly inferred from the network’s structural and relational patterns of the crisis response network activity. While a crisis is often perceived as an exceptional or an unexpected event, Roux-Dufort (2007) analyzes crises as a process of incubation that starts long before the triggering event. Emphasizing the processual nature of crisis (Turner, 1976), the role of crisis management lies in a ‘surge of meaning that fosters organizational change and transformations’ (Roux-Dufort, 2007, p. 110). This surge of meaning is based on the exchange of information within the network leading to collective enactment (Weick, 1993). In contrast, the leadership’s role is to bring events and structures within the network and set them in motion (Weick, 1988).

4 With permission, we may disclose that AFS42_X is the fire chief.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven van den Oord

Steven van den Oord is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Antwerp. In addition, he is a visiting lecturer in the Executive Master Public Governance & Leadership program at Antwerp Management School and a researcher at the Lectorate Smart Public Safety, Avans Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, Avans University of Applied Sciences. He received a Ph.D. from the Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Antwerp. His research focuses on the design, governance, development, and effectiveness of organizational networks.

Hugo Marynissen

Hugo Marynissen is a professor at the University of Antwerp and Ghent University. He is also a visiting professor at IE Business School (Madrid), Campus Vesta (Belgium), Cranfield University (United Kingdom), and Sun Yat-sen University - Lingnan College (China). In addition, he is a managing director and partner of PM • Risk Crisis Change, a Belgian-based agency specializing in risk and crisis management.

Matthieu De Block

Matthieu De Block is a company commander of the Antwerp Fire Service. He holds a master's degree in Bioscience Engineering, Catalysis, and Nanochemistry from KU Leuven and a postgraduate degree in Disaster Management from the University of Antwerp. He is also a visiting lecturer at Campus Vesta (Belgium) in asbestos, cases, and industrial firefighting.

Bert Brugghemans

Bert Brugghemans is the chief fire officer for the Antwerp Fire Service. The Antwerp Fire Service is recognized as one of the largest fire service organizations, employing a staff of 750 individuals responsible for safeguarding the extensive region surrounding Antwerp and the Antwerp Port, which constitutes the second-largest industrial cluster in Europe. Bert's primary focus lies in the rapidly evolving society and the implications these changes have on local and global firefighting efforts. Furthermore, Bert has authored several books and articles addressing topics such as crisis leadership, crisis intelligence, organizational culture, and the impact of technology on emergency response.

Bart Cambré

Bart Cambré is the associate dean of Research at Antwerp Management School and professor of business research methods at Antwerp Management School and the University of Antwerp. He studied sociology and research methodology at KU Leuven and development studies at U.C. Louvain-la-Neuve. He received his Ph.D. in the social sciences at KU Leuven in 2002. Currently, organizational networks and configurational methods are his main focus.

Patrick Kenis

Patrick Kenis is a full professor and head of the department in the Department of Public Governance, School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He received a Ph.D. from the European University Institute, Florence, Italy. His principal research object is organizational networks and collaborative governance. He has published widely on this and related topics in international journals such as the Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and Public Administration.