Evaluation of the Organizational Structure of Air Force Emergency Operations Centers Using Social Network Analysis and Design Structure Matrices.

摘要

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 demonstrated that the United States' emergency response capability, while robust, was disorganized in that organizations were not prepared or equipped to coordinate response actions across multiple agencies at a national level. This research investigates whether NIMS and the AFIMS structure is optimal for Air Force emergency managers, or whether, while maintaining NIMS compliance, there is a more effective way for the Air Force to organize its emergency management and response forces. Specifically this research focuses on the organization of the EOC and investigates whether shifting from the current structure of the ESFs to the FLOP structure found in the ICS may be a more efficient use of personnel based on the organizational requirements of the Air Force. This research will employ DSMs to independently evaluate the merits of both the ESF and FLOP construct for specific scenarios based on the tasks outlined in the Air Force's CEMP 10-2. For seven of the eight scenarios examined, ESFs are reaching less than 60% capacity, in fact, most only reach 30% capacity or below. On the other hand, FLOP capacity is significantly increased, however, in some of the more demanding scenarios, capacities exceed more than 100%.