Command and control in emergency services operations: a social network analysis

Area of Science:

• Organizational behavior
• Network science
• Emergency management

Background:

• Growing interest in social network analysis for team and organizational performance.
• Limited application of social network theory to emergency services command and control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore command and control processes in emergency services using social network theory.
• To analyze network structures in real-world emergency incidents.

Main Methods:

• Conducted network analyses (visualization, mathematical metrics, procedural discussion).
• Observed six emergency service incidents: three hazardous chemical operations and three police immediate response calls.
• Categorized network structures against existing command and control archetypes.

Main Results:

• Identified distinct network structures in emergency service operations.
• Correlated network structures with incident types and operational contexts.
• Provided commentary on network qualities observed during incidents.

Conclusions:

• Social network analysis is a potentially valuable tool for studying command and control.
• Findings contribute to understanding network dynamics in high-pressure emergency situations.
• Suggests future research directions for applying network analysis in emergency management.