Detection the Coordinators by using of Social Network Analysis: Case study: in an Emergency Management

The adverse consequences of emergencies obviously support the need for integrated preparedness of operational teams at the emergency response management to do their best to response most reasonably and effectively. The main obstacle to this preparedness is the lack of coordination across the various groups which obstruct attempts for preparation. Achievement of proper coordination requires effective relationship among all team members. One way to improve coordination is to identify effective individuals that play vital roles as coordinators in the network. This survey has been done among 142 responders of the emergency management, as a case study. To identify members who occupy the central positions as coordinators, this study utilized centrality indicators including degree, closeness, and betweenness of social network analysis at the individual level. The data were collected through structured interviews and were analyzed into social network analysis program, UCINET 6.0. This study, also, performed an attempt to investigate the relationship between demographic factors and centrality indicators. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 16 and GraphPad. According to the findings, individuals with high mutual selections in both directions (in and out degrees) had more chance to be accepted as powerful and influential members by other members (P0.05).Also, there was a significant relationship between demographic variables such as work experience, type of unit and the number of the experience in the emergency situation and the centrality indicators (P