COVID-19 has devastated the global community at an alarming rate. Conventional approaches like command and control are ineffective to respond to this pandemic. The complex and interdependent nature of the pandemic demands collaborative efforts among actors across diverse segments and different levels of government. Collaboration is critical during this pandemic because it can enable a more coordinated response, resources can be shared, trust among the parties can be enhanced, and duplication of efforts can be minimized. In this commentary, drawing on the literature on collaboration, we discuss the importance of vertical and horizontal collaboration by examining the U.S. response to COVID-19. This commentary underscores the importance of vertical and horizontal collaboration among all levels of government, private entities, and nonprofit organizations in effectively responding to COVID-19 and ensuring the health and safety of Americans. This commentary concludes by making recommendations for improving both vertical and horizontal collaboration during the current pandemic and future public health emergencies.
BardachE. (1998). Getting Agencies to Work Together, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC.
3.
BenavidesA. D. & NukpezahJ. A. (2020). How Local Governments Are Caring for the Homeless During the COVID-19 Pandemic.The American Review of Public Administration, 0275074020942062.
BentonJ. E. (2020). Challenges to Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations and Takeaways Amid the COVID-19 Experience.The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 536–542.
6.
BoinA. & HartP. T. (2003). Public leadership in times of crisis: mission impossible?Public administration review, 63(5), 544–553.
BentonJ. E. (2020). Challenges to Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations and Takeaways Amid the COVID-19 Experience.The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 536–542.
9.
BoinA. & HartP. T. (2003). Public leadership in times of crisis: mission impossible?Public administration review, 63(5), 544–553.
BowmanA. O. M. & ParsonsB. M. (2009). Vulnerability and resilience in local government: assessing the strength of performance regimes.State and Local Government Review, 41(1), 13–24.
ComfortL. K. (2007). Crisis management in hindsight: cognition, communication, coordination, and control, Public Administration Review, 67(1), 189–197.
14.
ComfortL. K., YeoJ. & ScheinertS. R. (2019). Organizational adaptation under stress: tracing communication processes in four California county health departments during the H1N1 threat, April 28, 2009, to March 11, 2011.The American Review of Public Administration, 49(2), 159–173.
DolinskayaI. S., ShiZ. E., SmilowitzK. R. & RossM. (2011). Decentralized approaches to logistics coordination in humanitarian relief. In IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings (p. 1). Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE).
17.
DzigbedeK. D., GehlS. B. & WilloughbyK. (2020). Disaster resiliency of US local governments: Insights to strengthen local response and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.Public administration review, 80(4), 634–643.
Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Center (2020). COVID-19 Dashboard, Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
25.
JungK. & SongM. (2015). Linking emergency management networks to disaster resilience: bonding and bridging strategy in hierarchical or horizontal collaboration networks.Quality & Quantity, 49(4), 1465–1483.
26.
KapucuN., ArslanT. & DemirozF. (2010). Collaborative emergency management and national emergency management network.Disaster prevention and management: An international journal.
27.
KapucuN. & GarayevV. (2012). Designing, managing, and sustaining functionally collaborative emergency management networks.The American Review of Public Administration, 43(3), 312–330.
28.
KettlD. F. (2020). States Divided: The Implications of American Federalism for Covid-19.Public Administration Review, 80(4), 595–602.
LeeS., YeoJ. & NaC. (2020). Learning from the past: Distributed cognition and crisis management capabilities for tackling COVID-19.The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 729–735.
McAllisterD. J. (1995). Affect-and cognition-based trust as foundations for interpersonal cooperation in organizations.Academy of Management Journal, 38(1), 24–59.
34.
McGuireM. & SilviaC. (2010). The effect of problem severity, managerial and organizational capacity, and agency structure on intergovernmental collaboration: Evidence from local emergency management.Public Administration Review, 70(2), 279–288.
35.
MoynihanD. P. (2008). Combining Structural Forms in the Search for Policy Tools, Governance, 21(2), 205–229.
NolteI. M. & BoenigkS. (2011). Public-nonprofit partnership performance in a disaster context: the case of Haiti.Public Administration, 89(4), 1385–1402.
O'SullivanT. L., KuziemskyC. E., Toal-SullivanD. & CorneilW. (2013). Unraveling the complexities of disaster management: a framework for critical social infrastructure to promote population health and resilience.Social Science & Medicine, 93, 238–246.
43.
PearsonJ. C. & NelsonP. E. (2000). An introduction to human communication: Understanding and sharing. McGraw-Hill.
SadiqA. A., TharpK. & GrahamJ. D. (2016). FEMA versus local governments: Influence and reliance in disaster preparedness.Natural Hazards, 82(1), 123–138.
48.
SadiqA. A. & KessaR. (2020). US procurement in the age of COVID-19: challenges, intergovernmental collaboration, and recommendations for improvement.The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 635–641.
49.
SadiqA. A. & TylerJ. (2017). Agency Coordination and Cross-Sector Collaboration in Fragile States. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science.
50.
SobelsonR. K., WigingtonC. J., HarpV. & BronsonB. B. (2015). A whole community approach to emergency management: strategies and best practices of seven community programs, Journal of Emergency Management, 13(4), 349–357.
XuH. D. & BasuR. (2020). How the United States Flunked the COVID-19 test: some observations and several lessons.The American Review of Public Administration, 50(6–7), 568–576.
58.
YeoJ. & ComfortL. K. (2017). An expected event, but unprecedented damage.Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 26(4), 458–470.
59.
YeoJ. & LeeE. S. (2020). Whole Community Co-production: A Full Picture Behind the Successful COVID-19 Response in KoreaS.. Transforming Government: People, Process, and Policy.
60.
ZakocsR. C. & EdwardsE. M. (2006). What explains community coalition effectiveness?a review of the literature, American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 30(4), 351–361.
