Exploration of Network Theory to Evaluate Organizational Resilience

Abstract

Recent disasters and rapid changes in the environment have shown various open issues in organizational resilience, in particular the use of communications. We explore the use of Network Theory to study the robustness of communications in organizations regardless their structure and the communication mechanisms used. We focus on how a collapse in the communication mechanisms affects the communication structure in an organization. We use a case study based on an emergency management plan from a Nuclear Power Plant in Spain. We show that Network Theory along with the number of connected components in a network provides a cost-effective way to analyze the communication infrastructure and organizational relations. Network Theory also allows us to build awareness about the communication and information structure inside an organization, and to design a more robust communication network.

Keywords

• emergency plans
• robustness
• crisis management
• organizational structure
• communication mechanisms