Humanitarian Information Management Network Effectiveness: An Analysis at the Organizational and Network Levels

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Humanitarian Information Management Network Effectiveness: An Analysis at the Organizational and Network Levels

ABSTRACT

Massive international response to humanitarian crises such as the South Asian Tsunami in 2004, the Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Haiti earthquake in 2010 highlights the importance of humanitarian inter-organizational collaboration networks, especially in information management and exchange.  Despite more than a decade old call for more research on the effectiveness of inter-organizational networks in the nonprofit context, to date limited work has been done.  The objective of this dissertation is to develop a theory that provides a better understanding of organizational and network effectiveness in the humanitarian relief field.  The study deals with two broad research questions. The first research question focuses on the relationship between network structural characteristics and network effectiveness.  The second research question concerns organizational effectiveness and focuses on the relationship between organizational internal characteristics (and especially the availability of information technology), ego-network characteristics, network structural characteristics and effectiveness.  To answer these research questions, I used a multi-method research design that applies social network analytic techniques in combination with statistical analyses (correlation and regression) and content analysis to analyze data collected through multiple sources including a webbased survey, semi-structured interviews, and database search. At the network level of analysis, my findings extend a previous model for assessing network effectiveness in the humanitarian relief field.  At the organizational level of analysis, my research proposes an integrated approach for assessing effectiveness that takes into account the characteristics of organization but also those of the network in which the organization is embedded.  My study also highlights the catalytic role of information technology on organizational effectiveness in humanitarian information management and exchange.  The dissertation concludes by highlighting both theoretical and practical contributions and by suggesting directions for future research.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, as the number of man-made and natural disasters has risen, so has the range of challenges faced by humanitarian organizations (Saab et al, 2008; Ngamassi et al, 2011). One of these challenges is the management of humanitarian information.  Effective information sharing is becoming increasingly important to the humanitarian relief sector. Humanitarian organizations need a large variety of information, such as population displacement, relief expertise, disaster situation, availability and movement of relief supplies, and meteorological satellite images or maps (Zhang et al., 2002). The need for effective humanitarian information exchange is not just for supporting emergency response operations but more importantly for enhancing the capacity of the international community to respond to disasters before and after they occur. Humanitarian organizations must therefore contend with the production, retrieval, processing, validation, consumption, and distribution of humanitarian information.

Criteria for success include the information’s relevance to decision-makers, timeliness and accuracy.

 

Researchers have identified numerous humanitarian information management related problems, including the quality and timeliness of information (e.g., De Bruijn, 2006; Fisher & Kingma, 2001), unpredictability of required information (Longstaff, 2005), unwillingness to share (Ngamassi et al, 2011), and mismatch in location, information overload, misinterpretation of information (Bui et al., 2000; Saab et al., 2008). Moreover, in addition to the challenges specific to the humanitarian context humanitarian organizations are also challenged by what are recognized as problems facing most organizations (see Galbraith, 1977). In an attempt to mitigate these challenges, organizations in the nonprofit sector including the humanitarian field are increasingly forming inter-organizational networks such as coalitions, alliances, partnerships, and coordination bodies, both within and across the sector (Guo & Acar, 2005; Stephenson, 2005; 2006; Arya & Lin, 2007).   Though an accurate census of these networks does not exist in the literature, several studies offer some insight into their growing presence (Guo & Acar, 2005; Feiock & Andrew 2006; Jang & Feiock, 2007; Arya & Lin, 2007).

1.1 Problem Definition

 

Massive international response to humanitarian crises such as the South Asian Tsunami in 2004, the Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Haiti earthquake in 2010 highlights the importance of humanitarian inter-organizational collaboration networks, especially in information management and exchange. Though, in recent years, humanitarian information management has considerably improved due to significant development in humanitarian information management principles and systems (Van de Walle et al., 2009), humanitarian information sharing continues to challenge the international community (Maiers et al, 2005; Wentz, 2006; Maitland et al., 2009; Bharosa et al., 2010, Tapia et al., 2010). In the humanitarian relief field, the number of inter-organizational networks has significantly increased with the rise in number and complexity of humanitarian disasters of the past few decades (Stephenson, 2005; 2006; Ngamassi et al., 2011).  The effectiveness of these networks in disaster response is still to be determined. Despite more than a decade old call for better understanding of the effectiveness of interorganizational networks in the nonprofit context (see O’Toole, 1997; Provan & Milward 1995), to date limited work has been done (Provan et al., 2007).

 

The appeal for assessing inter-organizational network effectiveness in the nonprofit context, and especially in the humanitarian relief field, appears to stem from several different perspectives among which, the following four seem to be the most important.  First, apart from establishing the value of networking for a member of the network, evaluating the entire network has become increasingly important for all the stakeholders who share an interest in systematic efforts of network (Sydow & Milward, 2003).  Second, evaluating the effectiveness of humanitarian inter-organizational networks is critical for understanding whether networks are effective in meeting the goals of the network as a whole, those of the individual network members and more importantly especially in the humanitarian relief field, the extent to which the needs of the affected people have been met. Third, establishing the level of network effectiveness is also important for member organizations and those whose policies and funding support the network.  Ideally, an effective inter-organizational collaboration network would enhance the quality of service provided to its clients and optimize use of resource by reducing redundancies. Finally, given the high failure rates reported by network researchers in both the for-profit and the nonprofit sectors, organizations are often overly optimistic about the benefits of network participation (Barringer & Harrison, 2000, p. 368). A thorough evaluation of networks could contribute to a more realistic attitude towards interorganizational networking (Sydow & Milward, 2003).

 

Assessing the effectiveness of inter-organizational networks is however a daunting task (Alter & Hage, 1993; Provan & Milward, 1995; Sydow & Windeler, 1998; Provan et al., 2007). There is no consensus on the criteria of measuring effectiveness among researchers and no clear classification of the different levels of effectiveness.  Assessing effectiveness at the network level is more complex than at the organizational level due to the involvement of multiple heterogeneous organizations in a network (Provan & Milward, 1995; Sydow & Windeler, 1998). Moreover, networks use multiple organizations to produce one or more pieces of a single service, thus making their evaluation more complex than that of a single organization. Network effectiveness issues are also problematic because networks usually have multiple stakeholders and it may be harder to satisfy all of them (Provan & Milward, 1995; Sydow & Windeler, 1998; Sydow & Milward, 2003).

 

1.2 Previous Studies

 

Notwithstanding the difficulties of assessing the effectiveness of inter-organizational networks, there have been some attempts. Researchers have done some conceptual studies on inter-organizational network effectiveness (Alter & Hage, 1993; Provan & Milward, 2001; Sydow & Windeler, 1998; Staber & Sydow 2002).  For example Alter &

Hage (1993) propose a “performance gap” model to assess inter-organizational network effectiveness. Performance gap is defined as the difference between the current situation and the idealized standard. According to Alter & Hage, effectiveness is usually best measured by the expectation of what is a reasonable outcome, given the context and the barriers to goal achievement. They argue that effectiveness is achieved when goals are met within the context of technological and resource constraints, given certain levels of internal conflict and pressure from external constituencies.

 

Moscovice et al., (1995) offer a network typology, a framework for assessing network performance, and examples of measurable performance indicators.  Provan & Milward (1995) develop a model of inter-organizational network effectiveness through a comparative study of four community mental health networks. They investigated the relationship between the structure and context of mental health networks and their effectiveness. In this study, effectiveness measures were linked to “enhanced client wellbeing”.  In addition to structure and context, Provan & Milward (2001) examined network effectiveness at different levels. These three levels are (i) community, (ii) network, and (iii) organization / participant. The paper argues that organization/participant and network-level effectiveness criteria can be satisfied by focusing on community-level effectiveness goals.  Weech-Maldonado et al., (2003) build upon Provan & Milward’s (2001) network effectiveness framework and Gamm’s (1996) accountability framework to develop a “stakeholder accountability approach” in assessing network effectiveness. The authors use this approach to evaluate the effectiveness of community health partnerships.

 

Sydow & Windeler (1998) define inter-organizational network effectiveness as viable and acceptable outcome and practices. They argue that network effectiveness form a structurationist perspective and,  is more than embedded in social interactions and structures. It is rather social in character. Building upon Sydow & Windeler (1998),  Staber & Sydow (2002) propose the concept of adaptive capacity as an appropriate approach to assess organizational and inter-organizational network effectiveness in highly volatile and complex environments such as the case in the humanitarian assistance sector. They define adaptive capacity as the ability of organizations or networks to cope with unknown future circumstances. Organizations / networks with adaptive capacity can reconfigure themselves quickly in changing environments.

 

These different conceptual models for assessing network effectiveness found in the literature often borrowed from the four models traditionally used to study organizational effectiveness. They include (i) the Goal Model (Parson 1964; Price, 1971; Cameron & Whetten 1981), (ii) the System Resource Model (Yuchtman & Seashore, 1967; Price, 1971), (iii) the Internal Processing Model (Alter & Hage, 1993; Lee, 2006) and (iv) the

Multiple Constituencies’ Model (D’Aunno, 1992; Zammuto, 1984; Sowa et al., 2004).  All these models for assessing organizational/network effectiveness have been criticized in the literature for their respective shortcomings.

 

Previous research has also identified important antecedents of inter-organizational network effectiveness (Provan & Milward, 1995; Moscovice, et al., 1995; Wright et al., 1995; Provan & Sebastian, 1998; Schumaker, 2003; Lemieux-Charles et al., 2005).  For example, several authors (e.g., Provan & Milward, 1995; Moscovice, et al., 1995; Wright et al., 1995; Provan & Sebastian, 1998) highlight the importance of integration of network members to network effectiveness. Provan & Sebastian (1998) argued that achieving integration across an entire network of organizations is difficult. Their findings also suggest that to be the most effective, clique integration must be intensive, involving multiple and overlapping relationships both with and across organizations that compose the core of a network. Similarly, the diversity of network membership is also deemed relevant by several authors (e.g., Moscovice, et al., 1995;  Schumaker, 2003). Schumaker (2003) for example found that effectiveness is influenced by external and internal factors that are operationalized through external control, technology, structure, and operational process variables.  Other important effectiveness predictors include the degree of multiplexity in the network, revenue sources, and the duration of the network.

 

While several predictors of network effectiveness have been identified throughout the literature, as well as conceptual models provided, limited research has used these models or any other approach to empirically analyze the possible antecedents of network effectiveness, particularly for humanitarian inter-organizational networks.

 

1.3 Motivation of the Study

 

The motivations of this study are theoretical and practical. Theoretically, my research is motivated by the growing literature that highlights the increasing number of interorganizational networks in the nonprofit sector including in the humanitarian field and stresses the need for better understanding of the effectiveness of these networks.  Despite more than a decade old call, to date limited work has been done (Provan et al., 2007). The few existing studies have been conducted in the public health sector.  In the literature, there is virtually no study that investigates the effectiveness of inter-organizational network in the humanitarian relief field.

 

The practical motivations of my research are related to three main issues including (i) the need for better humanitarian information, (ii) the critical role of information technology disaster response and (iii) the growing number disaster victims. First, effective humanitarian response depends highly on the quality and timeliness of information.  The faster humanitarian organizations are able to collect, analyze and disseminate information, the more effective the response becomes and the more lives are potentially saved. In humanitarian relief operations, organizations deal with information that are by nature multi-sector, multi-dimensional, multi-source, and non-standardized. Though humanitarian information management has improved in recent years, some constraints (such as funding, tools and technical skills) continue to handicap information from becoming a core component of humanitarian relief operations (Wentz, 2006). More effective inter-organizational networks would help to mitigate these constraints.

 

Second, information technology (IT) has also been shown to play a critical role in mitigating the informational related issues for inter-organizational humanitarian response (Comfort, 1990; Graves, 2004; Comfort & Kapucu, 2006; Moss & Townsend, 2006). According to Lee & Whang (2000), the advances in information technology have significantly facilitated inter-organizational information sharing.  High use of technology can result in the achievement of high levels of information sharing. However, the literature also shows that information technology has hindered inter-organizational collaboration (e.g., Bui et al., 2000; Junglas & Ives, 2007; Miller et al., 2005; Saab et al., 2008). Inter-organizational collaboration issues related to technology include technical interoperability, semantic interoperability, non-matching data formats, different presentation forms, and heterogeneous systems. More research is needed to further explore the solutions to these problems.

 

Third and lastly, the numbers of humanitarian natural disasters and the people affected by these disasters have increased over recent years. According to the IFRC, (2005) the average annual number of humanitarian disasters during 2000-2004 was 55% higher than during 1995-1999.  The number of people affected by humanitarian disasters has continued to grow (ISDR, 2006). This growing trend  in the number and impact of humanitarian disasters and the high scale of international response efforts have brought growing attention to the need for effective and efficient humanitarian disaster response operations. More effective inter-organizational networks would help to meet this need.

 

1.4 Research Objectives

 

The objective of my research is to develop a theory that provides insight into interorganizational information management and exchange relationships in the field of humanitarian relief.  To this end, I combine two theoretical lenses including Social Network and Resource Based View to assess effectiveness at two levels, organizational and network levels. Network structural characteristics (density, centrality, clique and clique overlap) have been found to have implications on performance/effectiveness (Ahuja & Carley, 1999; Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998; Tsai, 2000; Nohria & Garcia-Pont, 1991; Wasserman & Faust, 1994; Kilduff & Tsai, 2006; Provan et al., 2007). Similarly, the embeddedness of organizations in networks of external relationships with other organizations holds significant implications for organization performance / effectiveness (Granovetter, 1985; Uzzi, 1996; 1997; 1999; Gulati et al., 2000). Resource Base View (RBV) explains performance/effectiveness exclusively through internal resources (Barney, 1991; Prahalad & Hamel, 1990; Barnett et al., 1994). As mentioned earlier, information technology (IT) has also been shown to play a critical role in mitigating the informational related issues for inter-organizational humanitarian response (Comfort, 1990; Graves, 2004; Comfort & Kapucu, 2006; Moss & Townsend, 2006).

 

I studied multidimensional networks of collaborative relationships among humanitarian organizations that are members of a community of interest in humanitarian information management.  Communities of interest, as defined by Arias & Fischer (2000), are groups from different backgrounds coming together to solve a particular problem of common concern. According to Arias & Fischer (2000), members of communities of interest need to learn to communicate with and learn from others who have a different perspective and perhaps a different vocabulary for describing their ideas and establish a common ground and a shared understanding. The goal of the community of interest studied in this research is to foster collaboration on humanitarian information management projects and to disseminate best practices of information exchange.  This community also aims to (i) sensitize its members on the critical aspects of humanitarian information management preparedness, (ii) facilitate headquarter-field partnerships and (iii) advocate for more funding from donors for humanitarian information management related projects. My study focuses on members which actively participate in the activities in the community and have developed collaborative relationships with other members within the community. Also, the multidimensional networks that I investigated are not directly involved in disaster assistance. They lay groundwork at the headquarter level, for collaborative humanitarian disaster response.

 

Multidimensional networks refer to networks examined at more than one level, with more than one set of nodes and more than one type of link (Lee, 2008). Understanding networks in the field of humanitarian relief can be enhanced by considering the content of relationships that exist among organizations.  Katz & Anheier (2005) identify the major types of relationships among stakeholders (e.g. nongovernmental organizations, international nongovernmental organizations, and international governmental organizations) in responding to humanitarian disasters. They include information exchange, project collaboration, participation in meetings and forums, or joint membership in advocacy coalitions.  My study is concerned with two types of collaborative relationships, namely projects and advice.

 

In the field of humanitarian relief, inter-organizational networks can be classified into two types: those oriented to project implementation and those oriented to informationsharing (Lee, 2008).  The purpose of the implementation network is to implement humanitarian relief projects.  Implementation networks are activity-focused, projectbased networks which rely on partnerships to draw on resources such as funding, and skills from various partners (Unwin, 2005). This type of network applies more to the field of humanitarian relief since projects are more often implemented by numerous project partners. Knowledge-sharing networks on the other hand are often formed through affiliation to common events, such as global and regional committees, forums, conferences, and publication activities (Katz & Anheier, 2005). These networks enable organizations to be informed of their partner’s and community’s activities as a whole. The networks investigated in this dissertation can be considered as a hybrid between these two types of networks (implementation network and knowledge-sharing networks).

 

Humanitarian relief activities often involve nonprofit and for-profit organizations.  There is a vast body of literature that compares nonprofit and for-profit organizations from different perspectives (for example, see Vladeck, 1988; Moore, 2000) including (i) revenue sources, (ii) goals, and (iii) stakeholders.  With regards to revenue sources, forprofit organizations draw their revenue mainly from customers who pay for goods and services while nonprofit organizations get their revenues from people and organizations that expect no economic benefits in return (Moore, 2000).  Concerning the goals, forprofit and nonprofit organizations differ in that while for-profit organizations seek to make profits and provide financial returns to their shareholders (Boland & Fowler, 2000) nonprofit organizations try to achieve their social purpose and mission (Moore, 2000).  For-profit and nonprofit organizations are also distinguishable in terms of their stakeholder characteristics. For-profit organizations have a privileged interest group that is clearly defined and homogenous with respect to interests (Speckbacher, 2003). This privileged group owns the business. On the other hand, nonprofits serve a multitude of constituencies whose goals and needs may be heterogeneous (Speckbacher, 2003).

 

Most of the limited studies on nonprofit inter-organizational network effectiveness have examined networks in which an administrative organization serves as a governing authority (Provan & Milward, 2001). Most of these previous studies also focused on networks of collocated organizations and explored one type of collaborative relationship. Moreover almost all of these studies are in the domain of public health service delivery. Studies on inter-organizational network effectiveness in the domain of humanitarian relief are virtually nonexistent. Recent research in this domain provides a new context for the study of inter-organizational effectiveness (Maitland & Tapia, 2007a; 2007b; 2008; Maitland et al., 2008; 2009). These networks are formed and maintained with support from foundations and multilateral donors (e.g. Gates Foundation, European Commission Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO)), including funding for meetings, administration, report generation, and research to define the barriers to coordination. Despite the recognized need for and support of such entities by the humanitarian relief community there is little systematic analysis of their effectiveness, in other words the extent to which they meet the goals the network and the donors set out to achieve.  My study is conducted in this new context.

 

1.5 Research Design

 

In this study, I use a mixed methods research design (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003) to explore effectiveness of multidimensional inter-organizational networks of collaborative relationships among humanitarian organizations, members of the Global Symposium. I investigate how organizational characteristics and network structure properties influence effectiveness.  I explore effectiveness at two levels of analysis, organizational and network. At the network level, I conduct a clique analysis using Provan & Sebastian’s (1998) framework for evaluating public-sector organizational networks, to determine the extent to which this framework explains network effectiveness in the humanitarian relief context. At the organizational level, I use multiple regression analysis method. I combine two theoretical lenses including Social Network and Resource Based View to discuss my findings and develop my theory.  Network effectiveness was assessed using three different criteria including one subjective criteria – perceived network effectiveness and two objectives criteria – number of organization funded projects measuring the level of activities and number of organization funding partners measuring the level of collaboration.

 

I collected data through multiple sources including surveys, interviews and online database search. A survey instrument that also contains network-related questions was my main data collection source.  I conducted a series of three surveys during October 2007, May 2008 and July 2009. I conducted during the period of September to December 2009, 19 personal phone based semi-structured interviews with representative of organizations members of the Global Symposium.  My intent was to supplement the quantitative survey data with a more detailed description and explanation of activities in the Global Symposium community.  My third and last data source was the ReleifWeb Financial Tracking Service (FTS). FTS is an online database which records all reported international humanitarian financial assistance (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2010). I collected data related to the amount of funding raised, the number of funded projects and the number of funding partners of organizations member of the Global Symposium community. I used the UCINET software (Borgatti et al., 1999) to analyze network data.

 

My research questions are formulated as follows:

RQ#1: To what extent do network structural characteristics explain effectiveness in humanitarian inter-organizational collaboration networks?

  1. How accordingly does Provan & Sebastian model of network effectiveness explain network effectiveness in the international context of inter-organizational collaboration in the humanitarian field?

RQ#2: How accurately does a linear combination of organizational internal attributes and network structural properties explain effectiveness at organizational level in humanitarian inter-organizational collaboration networks?

  1. To what extent do resources internal to organizations and especially information technology explain effectiveness?
  2. To what extent do ego-net properties explain network effectiveness?
  • To what extent do network level structural characteristics (e.g. density) explain effectiveness?
  1. To what extent does the interaction of information technology and network structural characteristics impact organizational effectiveness?

1.6 Key Findings

 

1.6.1 Network Level

Consistent with those of Provan & Sebastian (1998) my findings suggest that at the network level of analysis, an inter-organizational network in the field of humanitarian relief is more effective when it is more integrated at the subnet level (clique) and displaying higher level of multiplexity.  My study however makes one significant additions to Provan & Sebastian model. Unlike Provan & Sebastian, in my study, I used three different measures of network effectiveness (one subjective and two objectives). Using these effectiveness measures allowed me to find consistent ranking pattern for each of the six network structural characteristics I used. It is important here to note that Provan

& Sebastian’s study which is the foundation of my study, matched two out of the six network structural characteristics. Moreover, my findings suggest that the subjective and objective forms of network effectiveness are better explained by different network structural attributes. Whereas subjective network effectiveness is better explained by the number of cliques and clique membership, objective network effectiveness is better explained by the multifaceted nature of inter-organizational relationships as measured by clique overlap and multiplexity. These findings highlight the importance of multiple criteria for assessing network effectiveness.  In a nutshell, my research extends Provan &

Sebastian’s model.

 

1.6.2 Organizational Level

At the organizational level, I found that effectiveness can be accurately explained by a   linear combination of organizational internal attributes and network structural properties.

Regarding the resources internal to organizations, my findings suggest that information technology was an important determinant of effectiveness. My research also highlighted the importance of ego-net level attributes such as degree centrality and bridging structural holes in collaborative networks of organizations in the humanitarian relief sector. Moreover, my study also revealed that network level attributes had some implications on organizational effectiveness.  My findings suggested that the density score in humanitarian inter-organizational networks may be detrimental for explaining effectiveness.  Overall my results were for the most part consistent with those of the two similar studies (Zaheer & Bell, 2005; Arya & Lin, 2007).  However, none of those two previous similar studies had explored the network level attributes. My study therefore extends the Resource Based View theory by adding network level attributes as predictor of organizational effectiveness.

 

1.7 Organization of Dissertation

 

My dissertation begins with a background chapter which provides some information on the humanitarian relief context in which the study is conducted. I then continue with an overview of relevant literature on organizational and network effectiveness. This literature review is followed by a theoretical framework chapter in which I develop my research models and hypotheses. The theoretical framework chapter is followed by the methods chapter which (i) provides detailed explanation on my research design; (ii) describes the methods of data collection which consists of preliminary a series of three surveys, semi-structured interviews, and database search; (iii) depicts the analyses that were done on the data which includes a description of the variables used in the analyses conducted; and (iv) provides an overview of the limitations of this research. The methods chapter is followed by a findings chapter. This chapter begins with a discussion on my three criteria for measuring effectiveness. The chapter then provides an analysis of network effectiveness at two levels, organizational and network levels. Finally, a concluding chapter is presented. This chapter discusses the implications from the findings. Limitations of the study and future research directions are suggested.

Humanitarian Information Management Network Effectiveness: An Analysis at the Organizational and Network Levels

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