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

R J Houghton; C Baber; R McMaster; Neville A Stanton; Paul M Salmon; R Stewart; Guy H Walker

doi:10.1080/00140130600619528

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

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

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

R J Houghton, C Baber, R McMaster, Neville A Stanton, Paul M Salmon, R Stewart and Guy H Walker

Ergonomics, Vol.49(12-13), pp.1204-1225

2006

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130600619528

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Abstract

Human Movement and Sports Science

Design Practice and Management

Psychology

emergency response

command and control

social networks

teams

There is increasing interest in the use of social network analysis as a tool to study the performance of teams and organizations. In this paper, processes of command and control in the emergency services are explored from the perspective of social network theory. We report a set of network analyses (comprising visualization, a selection of mathematical metrics, and a discussion of procedures) based on the observation of six emergency service incidents: three fire service operations involving the treatment of hazardous chemicals, and three police operations involving immediate response to emergency calls. The findings are discussed in terms of our attempts to categorize the network structures against a set of extant command and control network archetypes and the relationship between those structures; comments on the qualities the networks display are put into the contexts of the incidents reported. We suggest that social network analysis may have a valuable part to play in the general study of command and control.

Details

Title: Command and control in emergency services operations: a social network analysis
Authors: R J Houghton (Author) - University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
C Baber (Author) - University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
R McMaster (Author) - University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Neville A Stanton (Author) - Brunel University, United Kingdom
Paul M Salmon (Author) - Brunel University, United Kingdom
R Stewart (Author) - Cranfield University, United Kingdom
Guy H Walker (Author) - Brunel University, United Kingdom
Publication details: Ergonomics, Vol.49(12-13), pp.1204-1225
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Date published: 2006
DOI: 10.1080/00140130600619528
ISSN: 0014-0139
Copyright note: This is an electronic version of an article published in Robert J. Houghton , Chris Baber , Richard McMaster , Neville A. Stanton , Paul Salmon , Rebecca Stewart & Guy Walker (2006) Command and control in emergency services operations: a social network analysis, Ergonomics, 49:12-13, 1204-1225, DOI: 10.1080/00140130600619528 . Ergonomics is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=0014-0139&volume=49&issue=12-13&spage=1204
Organisation Unit: Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450302502621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Engineering, Industrial; Ergonomics; Psychology; Psychology, Applied