Crisis Management through Network Coordination: Experiences of Swedish Civil Defence Directors

In this article we explore and analyse Swedish Civil Defence Directors' views on coordination and cooperation in crisis management. The directors work at County Administrative Boards (CABs) which by law are required to coordinate all relevant actors – national agencies, municipal, private and voluntary – by leading their cooperation in extraordinary events. How do CABs manage this, especially against a backdrop of increasing demands on clarity, command, control and explicit goals in crisis management? Through the lens of research on governance we analyse the directors' views and find that although they support horizontal, inter‐organizational network based coordination and cooperation, there is frustration regarding the decision‐making capacities of the CABs, the lack of conflict management mechanisms in networks and resource allocation.