Design patterns: coordination in complex and dynamic environments

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual foundation and empirical basis for exploring issues related to the design framework for modeling coordination in complex and dynamic enqvironments.

Design/methodology/approach

Previous research suggests that interactions among actors in a complex and dynamic environment tend to be more elastic, offering a higher degree of adaptability. Actions of actors in such an environment need to be coordinated to achieve the desired goal. With that purpose, the authors suggest a social network‐based (SN‐based) framework to model coordination in complex and dynamic environments.

Findings

The authors successfully applied the proposed SN‐based framework to model coordination in the context of soft‐target organization and emergency response preparedness.

Originality/value

It is apparent that much work has been done in existing studies on modeling coordination considering the specific domain situation in a complex and dynamic environment. In this paper, the authors propose a unique framework to model coordination in a complex and dynamic environment.

Citation

Hossain, L. and Uddin, S. (2012), "Design patterns: coordination in complex and dynamic environments", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 336-350. https://doi.org/10.1108/09653561211234516