Qualitative Research Article Critique
In the article Interstate Partnerships in Emergency Management: Emergency Management Assistance Compact in Response to Catastrophic Disasters, Kapucu et al. (2009) discusses the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. This study focused on a need to address efforts for emergency management at the state level. Throughout the study, certain themes emerged from the data which support the idea that EMAC networks were not adequately trained for the situations. The article examines news articles and reports, government documents, after-action reports and other documents from participating or involved organizations and institutions, and a network analysis …show more content…
The key variables in this article seem to focus on the concept of effective networking. The UCINET program was used to evaluate the EMAC network based on the daily activities of partnering agencies. For the focus of this article I feel this methodology is effective and appropriate. A brief explanation of the UCINET program would have been helpful to the reader. However, I think the context in which the term is gives the reader enough information. Also, identifying the specific articles reviewed would have aided in promoting the validity of the …show more content…
As stated, effective disaster response is an important issue and the strategies, training, communication and collaboration efforts of responding organizations must be evaluated and continuously improved. The communication breakdowns, ineffective collaboration efforts, lack of central authority, and implied inefficiency in the use of available resources present a clear justification for a critical analysis of the EMAC network responses. The authors appear to present this information in a very normative perspective that demonstrates a general concern for the efficiency and effectiveness of these networks.
The authors conclude that EMAC has been proven to be of value in 72 times (as of the time this article was written). The suggestions are not to replace EMAC or suggest that FEMA should take control of these efforts. However, the article presents shortcomings for the EMAC network and identify areas for improvement.
In the article Interstate Partnerships in Emergency Management: Emergency Management Assistance Compact in Response to Catastrophic Disasters, Kapucu et al. (2009) discusses the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. This study focused on a need to address efforts for emergency management at the state level. Throughout the study, certain themes emerged from the data which support the idea that EMAC networks were not adequately trained for the situations. The article examines news articles and reports, government documents, after-action reports and other documents from participating or involved organizations and institutions, and a network analysis …show more content…
The key variables in this article seem to focus on the concept of effective networking. The UCINET program was used to evaluate the EMAC network based on the daily activities of partnering agencies. For the focus of this article I feel this methodology is effective and appropriate. A brief explanation of the UCINET program would have been helpful to the reader. However, I think the context in which the term is gives the reader enough information. Also, identifying the specific articles reviewed would have aided in promoting the validity of the …show more content…
As stated, effective disaster response is an important issue and the strategies, training, communication and collaboration efforts of responding organizations must be evaluated and continuously improved. The communication breakdowns, ineffective collaboration efforts, lack of central authority, and implied inefficiency in the use of available resources present a clear justification for a critical analysis of the EMAC network responses. The authors appear to present this information in a very normative perspective that demonstrates a general concern for the efficiency and effectiveness of these networks.
The authors conclude that EMAC has been proven to be of value in 72 times (as of the time this article was written). The suggestions are not to replace EMAC or suggest that FEMA should take control of these efforts. However, the article presents shortcomings for the EMAC network and identify areas for improvement.