Dynamic analysis of emergency inter-organizational communication network under public health emergency: a case study of COVID-19 in Hubei Province of China

Abstract

Public health emergencies, especially major infectious diseases, may cause global crises. Timely and effective communication is essential for response to such incidents. However, the emergency response to such incidents usually lasts longer and break out repeatedly, and the existing static emergency communication network (ECN) analysis cannot fully reflect the dynamic information interaction between organizations during the emergency process. Therefore, this article takes the recent COVID-19 epidemic in Hubei, China as a case, and uses social network analysis to reveal the dynamic evolution of communication networks, positions, roles, and tasks of organizations from the time dimension. The results show that: (1) the ECN has changed from concentrated to decentralized over time; (2) the positions and roles of participating organizations in the ECN has changed, but there are still a few key organizations that at the central position in all phases of emergency communication; (3) the core tasks have changed due to emergency needs at each stage; (4) under the concentrated management system, the core organization of the ECN mainly comes from government organizations. The research results reveal the dynamic evolution of communication networks between different types of emergency organizations, which is beneficial to guide emergency management of public health emergencies. In actual emergency, the emergency communication mode should be dynamically adjusted based on the characteristics of the emergency situation at different stages, comprehensively using the advantages of the concentrated and decentralized emergency network. In addition, communication between different types of organizations such as governments, research institutions, and enterprises should be strengthened, and channels for diversified organizations to participate in emergency communication should be set up. The research helps to improve communication between emergency response organizations and is of great significance to controlling and reducing the harm caused by public health emergencies.

Complex network-based research on organization collaboration and cooperation governance responding to COVID-19

“…(2021b), which convincingly supports this study. Besides, a three-stage research framework was also adopted by Choi (2020) and Lu et al. (2021) based on pandemic development.…”

“…Currently, stage division standard has not been unified by scholars due to different time span investigated in different studies, which exists in three-stage division (Choi, 2020;Lu et al, 2021) and four-stage division perspectives. Nevertheless, these papers all divided the period according to pandemic development trends.…”

“…According to characteristics of initial data extracted from document analysis of COVID-19-related materials and interviews with firstline people in Wuhan, four sub-stages (routine prevention and control period, exploration period of targeted prevention and control strategies, mature period of prevention and control strategies, and recovery period) were formulated by Chen et al (2021b), which convincingly supports this study. Besides, a three-stage research framework was also adopted by Choi (2020) and Lu et al (2021) based on pandemic development. In spite of different consideration of division, the general rules of Wuhan's cooperation governance were all found, including (1) only a few types of organizations participated in the early phase while a large number of organizations jointed in gradually; (2) communication between non-governmental organizations was relatively weak, and the interaction between the government system and the non-governmental system was limited; (3) positions and roles of organizations have changed at different phase while central nodes of networks are mostly composed of government organizations; (4) governance tasks were highly related to emergency demands (Chen et al, 2021(b); Lu et al, 2021).…”

“…Besides, a three-stage research framework was also adopted by Choi (2020) and Lu et al (2021) based on pandemic development. In spite of different consideration of division, the general rules of Wuhan's cooperation governance were all found, including (1) only a few types of organizations participated in the early phase while a large number of organizations jointed in gradually; (2) communication between non-governmental organizations was relatively weak, and the interaction between the government system and the non-governmental system was limited; (3) positions and roles of organizations have changed at different phase while central nodes of networks are mostly composed of government organizations; (4) governance tasks were highly related to emergency demands (Chen et al, 2021(b); Lu et al, 2021). Nevertheless, regarding the constantly changing organization collaboration system as several discrete objects would still restrict accuracy and veracity of results, which could be resolved only if real-time tracing models was built.…”

Dynamic Evolution Analysis of the Emergency Collaboration Network for Compound Disasters: A Case Study Involving a Public Health Emergency and an Accident Disaster during COVID-19

“…Research suggested that emergency response networks tend to be decentralized over time. Lu et al constructed an emergency communication network by taking the COVID-19 outbreak in Hubei, China, as an example [ 48 ]. The study revealed the dynamics of emergency organizations and functions in their communication networks.…”