Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has resulted in numerous civilian deaths, damage of transportation and power infrastructure, and forced millions of Ukrainians to seek safety, protection, and assistance abroad. The humanitarian crisis caused by war is beyond the normal capacity of any single agency, institution, or organization and requires collaboration and coordination of various public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Networks connect various organizations and agencies to share and accumulate resources, including financial, human, technological, knowledge, and information, necessary to respond to the changing and uncertain environment and to achieve goals that cannot be accomplished by a single organization. The collaboration of actors within a network is a crucial aspect for service delivery and assistance during the humanitarian crisis caused by war. Even though collaboration among network participants is desirable, the establishment of collaborative ties within the network remains a challenging task for various reasons. This study uses a mixed method approach to answer eight research questions: 1) What is the role of collaborative capacity within interorganizational networks? 2) How do organizations manage the process of collaboration in serving the impacted people in a constantly changing military environment? 3) What is the structure of the humanitarian response network in the response to the crisis caused by war in Ukraine? 4) What humanitarian response partners were involved and what were their roles and responsibilities? 5) What humanitarian response partners were involved and what were their roles and responsibilities? 6) What are the characteristics of the network aiming to respond to the humanitarian crisis? 7) How does network structure impact the collaborative capacity of an interorganizational network during a humanitarian crisis? 8) How do key environmental and organizational factors impact the collaborative capacity of a network during humanitarian crisis? Content analysis (n=229), social network analysis (SNA), and semi-structured interviews (n=14) were used to analyze network collaborative capacity in humanitarian response network in Ukraine. The findings suggest that the network collaborative capacity is influenced by common goals and shared visions, pre-existing ties and relationships between humanitarian response partners, organizational learning, and knowledge sharing. Power asymmetry can both facilitate and hinder network collaborative capacity. The strength of ties, communication, resource dependence, and environmental complexity were also found to play influential roles in building, developing and sustaining the network collaborative capacity. Powerful network members should consider developing better information system that reflects ongoing projects and allow participants to share data and report, and exchange ideas and feedback. Moreover, the efforts should be focused on involving Ukrainian nonprofit organizations in the response because currently they are excluded from the response due to the lack of experience and language barriers.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Kapucu, Naim

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Community Innovation and Education

Department

School of Public Administration

Degree Program

Public Affairs; Public Administration

Identifier

CFE0009895

Language

English

Release Date

February 2025

Length of Campus-only Access

1 year

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Campus-only Access)

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Restricted to the UCF community until February 2025; it will then be open access.

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