A Decade of Netcentric Crisis Management: Challenges and Future Development

Abstract

Information exchange is regarded as a vital component of crisis management, yet organizations continue to struggle with the timely distribution of information across organizational and professional boundaries in a crisis. In this chapter, we reflect on the doctrine of “netcentric operations” in the Netherlands, which has been implemented to enhance the quality and speed of information exchange in distributed crisis management networks. First, we provide an overview of the principal tenets of netcentric operations: self-synchronization, distributed sensemaking, information superiority, transparency, and connectivity. Next, we highlight five key challenges from a decade of operations: (1) how to codify and make sense of information; (2) how to foster goal-directed collaboration; (3) how to enable collaborative decision-making; (4) how to overcome a reluctance to share information; and (5) how to maintain functionality in extensive distributed networks. Finally, we specify future directions to improve connectivity and transparency and reflect on finding an alternative for self-synchronization.