American Intergovernmental Relations - System Failure

Annotated Bibliography – Efficiency and Effectiveness

Leigh Gileno

PPA307: Intergovernmental Relations & Issues

Instructor Rian Williams

November 20, 2017

Increasing Effectiveness and Efficiency Federal-State Cooperation and Intergovernmental Cooperation during a Disaster by Proper Coordination, Training, and Communications

Thesis

Efficiency and effectiveness when disaster strikes are the relay needed from the emergency responders; however, it has not been achieved over time due to loopholes in the corporations and communication means between the Intergovernmental and inter-organizational agencies. With proper training preparedness, communication and coordination international cooperation in face of a disaster can and will be taken to the next level.

Annotated bibliography

Stephens, G. R., & Wikstrom, N. (2007). American intergovernmental relations: A fragmented federal polity. Oxford University Press, USA.

The article states that the major problem that has been facing the American federal system is change and the change has appeared in several ways as from the change in the number of government, number of agencies, mechanisms, and power relations. However, the major focus was on fragmented federalism and intergovernmental relations. To better understand the fragmented federalism hurricane Katrina is used as a case study.

The article noted that the major factors that complicated the response during hurricane Katrina were lack of adequate systems for the proper flow of communications between the regional, local and the FEMA officials from all the three states involved; Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Lack a central point of control was also blamed for the failures that were experienced during this period. The article also outlined that failure by FEMA to conduct an analysis of the situation which lead to a wrong perception of the magnitude and the severity of the situation and hence more casualties.

The authors suggested that the situation could have only been put under control if and only if there were proper coordination and direction of officials from all the federal agencies including hundreds of local government and the government of the state that were affected.

McGuire, M., & Silvia, C. (2010). The effect of problem severity, managerial and organizational capacity, and agency structure on intergovernmental collaboration: Evidence from local emergency management. Public Administration Review, 70(2), 279-288.

The article states that in the current situation where there were several disasters that the local emergency managers operated in a complex environment that was full of uncertainty. They indicate that the severe changes in the occurrence of the disaster and catastrophe prompted the intergovernmental collaborations to start looking into the challenges that the local emergency teams were facing.

The authors used data collected from local emergency response team directors, as well as data coming from the variations within intergovernmental collaborations In addition; they also analyzed the influence that arose due to the severity of the problems, managerial capacity, and structural factors.

The article concluded that these managers who look at problems as severe, have a specific managerial skill to operate in less complex agencies structure and run high capacity organizations and are fond of collaboration so they fit well across governmental boundaries.

The authors of this article Michael McGuire and Chris Silvia have enough experience to justify their finding and results. Michael coauthored Collaborative Public Management: New Strategies for Local Governments a book which won 2003 Louis Brownlow Book Award and has done extensive research on Public Administration. Chris Silvia on the other hand does research which focuses on networks, performance management, and leadership and who is currently a doctoral candidate at Indiana University–Bloomington

Kapucu, N., Arslan, T., & Collins, M. L. (2010). Examining intergovernmental and inter-organizational response to catastrophic disasters: Toward a network-centered approach. Administration & Society, 42(2), 222-247.

This article was compiled by scholars in the field of Public Administration. The first scholar named Naim Kapucu is a renowned writer who has done several types of research in the field of crisis management and decision making in disasters situation. She is currently an associate professor in the department of Public Administration for the University of Central Florida. The second author Tolga Arslan is a Ph.D. student in Public Administration at Georgia University and has conducted several types of research on public-private partnerships as well as in the field of policy analysis. Finally, the last of the authors Matthew Lloyd Collins has been in the field of Public Administration and has published several journals on Public Administration Disaster Prevention and Management.

In this article, the authors seek to find how inter-organizations and intergovernmental organization responded to hurricane Katrina and Rita. Unlike the other scholar's these authors gave this research a different approach and utilized the current techniques of network analysis

The study found that the use of inter-organizational and intergovernmental response in coordinating operation that is complex in a multi-organizational environment during a disaster was never successful in responding to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The authors gave a recommendation that more investment should focus on community capacity building both at state as well as at local levels too since they are the faster repose teams.

Augustin, M. E., Kapucu, N., & Garayev, V. (2009). Interstate partnerships in emergency management: Emergency management assistance compact in response to catastrophic disasters. Public Administration Review, 69(2), 297-313.

The article was authored by Naim Kapucu a professor in the department of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida and has majorly been focusing on crisis management and homeland security. Another author was Maria-Elena Augustine; a Masters students in Public Administration at the University of Central Florida with a vast knowledge in emergency response and intergovernmental relations. The last one is Vener Garayev a research analyst in the field.

In the article, the authors look at how EMAC responded to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita in 2005. The major aim was to address the need for an analysis of the emergency management at different state levels. In their research, the authors examined government documents, news reports and various reports given by different organizations to determine the operations of EMAC and how they responded during the hurricane Katrina and Rita.

The major result of the research was that there was lack of training by the EMAC responders and this lead to a reduced level of communication, coordination, efficiency, and effectiveness of the teams involved in the response. They never trained together yet they were expected to operate as a team.

However, the authors noted that EMAC provided skilled personnel and 65,929 to be precise during the hurricane Katrina. They added that it played a significant role in coordinating emergency resources during the catastrophe and suggested that the only thing that EMAC need to do is to conduct more joint training to make their response better.

References

Augustin, M. E., Kapucu, N., & Garayev, V. (2009). Interstate partnerships in emergency management: Emergency management assistance compact in response to catastrophic disasters. Public Administration Review, 69(2), 297-313.

Kapucu, N., Arslan, T., & Collins, M. L. (2010). Examining intergovernmental and inter-organizational response to catastrophic disasters: Toward a network-centered approach. Administration & Society, 42(2), 222-247.

McGuire, M., & Silvia, C. (2010). The effect of problem severity, managerial and organizational capacity, and agency structure on intergovernmental collaboration: Evidence from local emergency management. Public Administration Review, 70(2), 279-288.

Stephens, G. R., & Wikstrom, N. (2007). American intergovernmental relations: A fragmented federal polity. Oxford University Press, USA.