This study is to empirically analyze the influence of the characteristics of the social network built between the members of the disaster management organization on the effectiveness of their organization.
Compared with the general interest in the disasters themselves, less attention has been given to the behavioral characteristics of firefighters who performed these disaster management operations. Therefore, I came to pay attention to the effectiveness of the disaster management organization that was to be influenced by the behavioral results that the members made out of their social relationships they have built on the basis of their behavioral patterns. And I analyzed the correlation of the effectiveness of the disaster management organization and the characteristics of the social network that has been formed by the task-based relationships and the friendship-based ones of the firefighters and the effectiveness of the organization that an individual has shown according to his standpoint in his social network. On the basis of the data that I acquired through a survey I did the Social Network Analysis (SNA). And I set up the results of the survey data as independent variables, the innovative behavior as mediating variable, and the job performance as dependent variable. Given these variables, I established a hypothesis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).
Through this research I found out that the degree centrality of the task-based network has made an affirmative effect on the job performance when there was no mediation of the innovative behavior. On the contrary, the degree centrality of the friendship-based network has made a negative effect on it when there was no mediation of the innovative behavior. And my research showed that the structural hole of the task-based network did not affect the job performance directly, but made an affirmative effect on the job performance indirectly when it was mediated by the innovative behavior. On the contrary, the structural hole of the friendship-based network made a negative effect indirectly on it even when it was mediated by the innovative behavior.
And all these results gave me the implications as below:
First, the higher degree centrality of the task-based network explains how much advice the members of a disaster management organization ask their co-workers for to do the effective job performance. In other words, when the members have the deeper interest in their tasks, they need more advice, and advice and tips, information and knowledge given by their co-workers contribute to the improvement of their job performance. This shows that the firefighters have an interest in seeking attention from their organization where they belong and they are aware that is the way of securing professionalism in their job performance. So it is important to make high the degree centrality of the task-based network of the firefighters in order to conform themselves to their organization, to commit themselves to achieve its goals and to expect to be satisfied by performing their job.
Secondly, the higher the density of the structural hole of the task-based network is, the higher is the frequency of behavior for seeking tip and advice from the various task-related co-workers. The density of the structural hole of the task-based network is not to be expected to make a direct effect on job performance, but to achieve the task with the mediation of the innovative behavior. The members in the structural hole can make relationships of various kinds of co-workers and save time and cost for maintaining his or her network by avoiding overlapping of information. Therefore, when they perform their jobs in the task-based network, the relationships with the co-workers from various positions and ranks gives them the opportunities to get promotions, to take a variety of information and to improve their personal performance that is required in their organization. And the outcome from this whole process can also improve the effectiveness of their organization.
It has been thought generally that the members in the hierarchical organization would be more active in their informal relationships than in the formal ones. But as for the effectiveness of the organization that has been affected by the personal achievement and satisfaction within the systems and the rules, the task-based network is more desirable compared with the friendship-based one.