Participation by Emergency Managers in Disaster Response Planning: A Test of Bonding and Bridging Hypotheses

The extent to which regional planning can provide an effective way to resolve emergency planning issues depends upon the commitment and willingness of stakeholders to participate in the planning activities. The social relations developed by managers help resolve the coordination problems that impede planning, but are often difficult to maintain. Without effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, the costs of establishing and maintaining interpersonal relations are relatively high The social relations established by emergency managers are important for the emergence of joint activities designed to increase regional planning effectiveness. We propose emergency managers utilize two different strategies to obtain information about the planning activities in the region: Bonding structures create multiple sources for the same information by utilizing direct and indirect sources. Managers embedded in these structures may be less active in regionwide planning, because they strategically establish close contacts with those they believe can provide them with valuable planning information. Alternatively, when managers serve to bridge otherwise unconnected parts of the network, they will be more active participant in regionwide planning activities. We examine these propositions with an analysis of participatio