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Purpose: This case study aims to examine and understand South Korea’s (S. Korea) COVID-19 response operations, a notable case for other countries to emulate, and suggests some practical implications for other countries struggling with coping with the current pandemic. Approach: To examine the case, the authors propose a new theoretical framework based on concepts of the whole community approach in the emergency management field and on co-production in public administration studies, and use the theoretical framework to analyze the details of S. Korea’s whole community co-production for COVID-19 Response. Findings: The findings demonstrate that the successful pandemic response in S. Korea is attributable to a nationwide whole community co-production among multiple actors, including government, various industries, sectors, jurisdictions, and even individual citizens, within and across relevant public service and public policy domains. Originality: This article suggests a new theoretical framework, whole community co-production, that contributes to the conceptual advancement of co-production in the field of public administration and a whole community approach in the field of emergency and crisis management. The framework also suggests practical implications for other countries to integrate whole community coproduction that may transform current response operations to cope with COVID-19.
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Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy
1
Whole Community Co-production:
A Full Picture Behind the Successful COVID-19 Response in S. Korea
Abstract
Purpose: This case study aims to examine and understand South Korea’s (S. Korea) COVID-19
response operations, a notable case for other countries to emulate, and suggests some practical
implications for other countries struggling with coping with the current pandemic.
Approach: To examine the case, the authors propose a new theoretical framework based on
concepts of the whole community approach in the emergency management field and on co-
production in public administration studies, and use the theoretical framework to analyze the
details of S. Korea’s whole community co-production for COVID-19 Response.
Findings: The findings demonstrate that the successful pandemic response in S. Korea is
attributable to a nationwide whole community co-production among multiple actors, including
government, various industries, sectors, jurisdictions, and even individual citizens, within and
across relevant public service and public policy domains.
Originality: This article suggests a new theoretical framework, whole community co-production,
that contributes to the conceptual advancement of co-production in the field of public
administration and a whole community approach in the field of emergency and crisis
management. The framework also suggests practical implications for other countries to integrate
whole community coproduction that may transform current response operations to cope with
COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19 response in South Korea, Whole community co-production, Pandemic
response, Public health crisis, Emergency management, Crisis management
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Introduction
Since the first outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
became a pandemic in about four months (American Library Association [ALA], 2020). As of
August 3, 2020, there have been more than 18.3 million infected cases and close to 700,000
deaths in 215 countries and territories around the world (Coronavirus Resource Center,
2020). The surge has overwhelmed health care and emergency response systems around the
world in just a few weeks from the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration in March
2020. Medical professionals have been burnt out dealing with the steep rise of cases (Weible et
al., 2020). Treatment equipment and facilities have reached capacity. Protective gear for
medical workers has become scarce.
Facing devastation, most of the world’s governments have focused on flattening the
curve, meaning a gradual increase of COVID-19 infection rate over time. The flattened curve is
to prevent overtaxing critical infrastructure and resources. Affected countries have implemented
various measures to flatten the curve, including social distancing, travel restrictions, and various
forms and levels of lockdown. Still, many countries struggle to flatten the curve regardless of
the mass efforts, reaching a grim new record of death tolls and confirmed cases every day
(Regencia et al., 2020).
Amid the hopelessness, the Republic of Korea (S. Korea) has been recognized as a
notable model to emulate (Normile, 2020). While on February 29, 2020, it recorded the world’s
highest number by far of confirmed cases (909 new cases) outside of China, S. Korea has been
flattening and reversing the curve, rapidly reducing the total number of confirmed cases, and
maintaining fewer than 100 daily new cases without going through a strict lockdown (Beaubien,
2020; Kim, 2020).
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What has made such a difference in S. Korea? Often, effective leadership and a well-
established public service and health care system have been praised for S. Korea’s current
promising outcome (Beaubien, 2020; Kim, 2020). Some have pointed out cultural and
contextual differences such as strong collectivism, or citizens’ conformity to authority, or
citizen’s preference for safety over their privacy rights (Borowiec, 2020). Each of these factors
has been an important contributor to the country’s current successful response to the pandemic.
However, at a meta-level, what resulted in such a difference in S. Korea has been an active
nationwide co-production across diverse actors from different sectors, jurisdictions, industries,
organizations, and even individual citizens.
In response to increasing needs for a successful model to emulate, this research examines
the case of S. Korea’s successful COVID-19 response operations, asking “how has nationwide
whole community co-production across diverse jurisdictions, sectors, units, industries, and actors
in S. Korea resulted in effective and efficient pandemic response?”. To answer the research
question, the authors analyze the case and propose a new theoretical framework that is built
based on co-production in public administration studies (Ostrom, 1972, 1996; Alford, 1998,
2009; Nabatchi et al., 2017), and the ‘whole community approach’ in emergency management
literature (Waugh and Streib, 2006; Nowell and Steelman, 2015). From the case study, the
authors suggest some practical implications for other countries to consider in their own response
to COVID-19.
The following section introduces a new theoretical framework, whole community co-
production. The next section describes the methods, data, and context followed by the
descriptive findings from the case study. Then, the authors discuss the findings and suggest
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some practical implications. Lastly, the conclusion section summarizes the study with directions
for future research.
Literature Review: A Whole Community Co-production for Pandemic Management
In public administration literature, ‘co-production’ has been defined as both the processes and
outcomes produced by multiple various actors collectively contributing to the delivery of
relevant public services and achieving desired common goals (Alford, 1998, 2009; Nabatchi et
al., 2017). Evidenced by a growing amount of research and programs, co-production has
become imperative in transforming many public services and public policy domains such as
budgeting (da Silva Craveiro and Albano, 2017), education (Sicilia et al., 2016; Wybron and
Paget, 2016), environment (Association for Public Service Excellence, 2013), health (Penny et
al., 2012; Realpe and Wallace, 2010), neighborhood safety (Alford and Yates, 2016), and
transportation (Copestake et al., 2014).
Despite the increasing volume of research and programs on co-production, there have
been ongoing debates on the level of co-production and who is involved in what domains of
public service (Alford, 2014, 2016; Jo and Nabatchi, 2016). In general, existing literature
categorizes the co-producers into two groups, state actors (government professionals) and lay
actors (citizens producers), and categorizes the domain(s) of co-production as a specific issue or
several relevant issues (Nabatchi et al., 2017). In their review of co-production studies, Nabatchi
et al. (2017) propose typologies of participants, individuals, groups, and collectives based on the
scope of the role of the lay actor and the scope of the benefits of co-production in order to
eliminate the confusion of the ambiguous boundaries of co-producers and the public service
domain.
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However, given the growing complexity and interdependence of public service domains
in contemporary society, the boundaries of co-producers should be flexible and those of co-
production domains should be permeable in practice (Alford, 2014, 2016). In the emergency
management context, in particular, the types and numbers of co-producers need to be more
inclusive than other ordinary public service domains. An emergency or and a crisis may affect
all segments of society (Fisher et al., 2015; Sobelson et al., 2015; Zakocs and Edwards, 2006).
For example, COVID-19 not only affects the public health service domain and infection control
but also other health domains such as patients with pre-existing conditions or other surgical
emergencies. Also, the response to the pandemic affects the domains of transportation, local
economy, social welfare, and information. Furthermore, a response in one public service domain
affects other domains. For example, city lockdown affects the city’s local economy. Therefore,
the co-producers of emergency management become everybody and anybody who is affected by
the incidents (Khanlou and Wray, 2014).
In response to the flexible and wider scope of who co-produces what public services, the
authors suggest a new theoretical framework, ‘whole community co-production’ to increase the
applicability of the concept of co-production in the public administration studies by combining
the whole community approach widely used in the fields of emergency management and public
health (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2020). This study defines whole community
co-production as the full engagement of the entire societal capacity—residents, emergency
management practitioners, organizations across sectors, community leaders, professional
associations, government officials, and ordinary citizens, to transform relevant and interlocking
public services to minimize damage from emergencies and to build resilience (See figure 1). The
whole community co-production framework reflects the complex nature and the localness of any
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emergency or crisis, and the collective capability of communities to transform public services
(Erkan et al., 2016; Leonard and Howitt, 2010; Sobelson et al., 2015). Hence, the approach
focuses on initiatives and encourages transformation by diverse ranges of stakeholders who
know the context and who have extra resources that can be utilized within affected areas (Kumar,
2019; Khanlou and Wray, 2014).
[Figure 1 here]
The whole community co-production approach is indispensable during large-scale
disasters and extreme events such as the COVID-19 pandemic (Weible et al., 2020). The
pandemic strains government capacities and asks communities to do more with less (Lee et al.,
2020; Weible et al., 2020). Strong leadership and good public health systems are necessary.
However, they alone are not sufficient to cope with a large-scale emergency (Boin and Hart,
2003; Comfort, 2007; Leonard and Howitt, 2010; Yeo and Comfort, 2017). While governments
make policy decisions and implement programs to respond to the current emergency, they take
inputs from their contractors, suppliers, and partners to implement their decisions. Citizens are
the general beneficiary of government programs, but their feedback reshapes both current and
future emergency services, and they can participate proactively in public programs (Kumar,
2019). In the process, whole community stakeholders share information, resources,
understandings, and responsibilities (Comfort, 2007). The multifaceted sharing leads to a greater
collective social outcome. It helps to identify best practices to organize and utilize strained
resources, transform response operations, and enhance community security and resilience in the
face of emergencies and crises (Zakocs and Edwards, 2006; Comfort, 2007; O'sullivan et al.,
2013; Sobelson et al., 2015).
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Methods
The study adopted a qualitative case study method to explore S. Korea’s whole community co-
production to cope with COVID-19. A case study method is appropriate given the research aim
focusing on 1) understanding current phenomena and the uniqueness of a situation rather than
developing a concept or testing theories (Stenhouse, 1980) assessing complex social relations
embedded in a case (George and Bennett, 2005), and 3) suggesting some practical lessons based
on findings from an in-depth analysis of an exemplary case of COVID-19 response practices in a
specific context (Yin, 2003; McNabb, 2002).
Case: COVID-19 Response in S. Korea
For its rapid control of the spread of the disease, S. Korea’s response to COVID-19 has been
recognized as an exemplary case. From the first case on January 20, S. Korea confirmed one or
two cases on average in the subsequent days. However, after February 19, the number of cases
exponentially increased due to multiple cluster infections (Ryall, 2020; Shim et al., 2020). S
Korea experienced its surge peak on February 29 with 909 new confirmed cases. Since then, the
number of new cases has decreased significantly. In particular, since April 10th, the number of
new cases per day has remained under 50 and even declared zero daily confirmed cases of
domestic origin for multiple days.
Data and Analysis
Applying the ‘whole community co-production’ approach, the authors examine how the whole
community (actors from varying scales and levels) have co-produced which kinds of public
services to contribute to the country’s notable mitigation of and response to the pandemic. This
study collects multiple qualitative data from multiple sources. First, the authors analyzed 242
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documents and press releases published by government agencies and departments such as the
Korean Center for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC)and the Ministry of Economy and
Finance, multiple newspapers from January 31, 2019, to April 30, 2020. To collect information
about changes in legislation and policies regarding S. Korea's infectious disease control, the
authors also reviewed minutes of the National Assembly published since the 2015 Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak.
The authors conducted a documentation review and a series of systematic content
analyses of the qualitative data from multiple sources above mentioned. First, from the
documentation review, the authors identified three domains, including institutional arrangements,
incident command systems, and response operations in practice. Second, the authors conducted
content analyses to identify who were the whole community actors, how they were involved in
response to COVID-19, and what types of public services were co-produced in each domain as
well as multiple intersections of the domains. In particular, the authors analyzed minutes from
the National Assembly and associated news articles to understand institutional arrangements
supporting the whole community coproduction. The authors explored the incident command
systems domain by analyzing documents and press releases by government agencies. News
articles and government documents and press releases were analyzed to examine the contents of
the response operation domain. When analyzing the contents of the response operation domain,
the authors identified five emerging sub-domains. Each of the sub-domains has distinctive
objectives for response operations but shares collective goals that support whole community co-
production at the collective level. These sub-domains include massive testing and diagnosis,
intensive contact tracing, information sharing, expansion of health care system capacities and
patient care, and supply chain management.
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Findings: Multifaceted Whole Community Co-production in S. Korea’s Pandemic
Response
This section presents how whole community co-production has operated which public service
and policy domains in response to COVID-19 in S. Korea.
Whole Community Co-production for Institutional Arrangements
The legitimacy of S. Korea’s formal response operations to COVID-19 is supported by the
Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, the Medical Service Act, and the Quarantine Act.
These Acts define the incident commanders and guide detailed authorities, measures, and
methods for emergency operations to control infectious diseases.
The details of supporting articles in these Acts have been added and/or amended since the
2015 MERS outbreak in S. Korea. After the outbreak, public opinion pointed out the absence of
such an established system, lack of practical power of the incident commander, and weak
information sharing and collaboration across relevant organizations as the inhibitors of early and
effective intervention to the previous infectious disease. In response to emerging public opinion
over the past five years, a series of amendments have been made which have provided a
fundamental steppingstone for the current promising COVID-19 response of S. Korea (Lee et al.,
2020).
Whole Community Co-production for Multi-tier Incident Command Systems
Based on the Infectious Disease Prevention and Management Act, the KCDC became the
nation’s first incident commander for infectious disease control on December 31, 2019. As the
country experienced an abrupt surge of cases in early February 2020, the country declared an
emergency alert level. Accordingly, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures
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Headquarters (CDSCH) assembled under the Prime Minister’s office on February 23, 2020, to
assist the KCDC. In the CDSCH, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MoHW) has assisted the
KCDC with public health capacities and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety has assisted the
KCDC with its emergency management capacity.
[Figure 2 here]
Regardless of the confirmed number of cases in their jurisdictions and in accordance with the
national incident commanders’ directions, the 17 municipal governments voluntarily assembled
the Local Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (LDSCH). Since then, LDSCH
has been identifying critical information, requesting national assistance for local sites, assisting
local public health facilities, and sharing information with local citizens.
At the community level, multiple medical professional organizations, such as the Korean
Society for Preventive Medicine, the Korean Medical Association has promoted a social
distancing campaign (Hong, 2020). With a couple of extreme exceptions, most individual
citizens, as incident commanders of their own life, have voluntarily followed government
recommendations such as self-quarantine and minimizing contact with other people. They, also
have continuously practiced safe health habits such as washing hands, wearing masks,
minimizing person-to-person contact throughout the incident (Yoon, 2020).
Whole Community Co-production for Pandemic Response Operations in Practice
Massive testing and diagnosis: S. Korea has taken the most aggressive testing strategy in the
world (Yoon and Martin, 2020). As of August 3, 2020, a total of 1,579,757 people has been
tested for COVID 19 in S. Korea (ALA, 2020) by 638 testing centers including 60 drive-through
centers operated by 8,638 public health centers and medical institutions. Samples collected have
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been analyzed at 118 diagnostic centers (MoHW, 2020). The service is free of charge to all
suspected, referred, and/or confirmed cases. Currently, S. Korea can test and analyze up to
20,000 samples per day (3,000 in March 2020) (MoHW, 2020).
S. Korea’s testing and diagnosis capacity has been co-produced by the government,
medical professionals, and medical industries. First, KCDC, the Korean Society for Laboratory
Medicine, and the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service have developed
and approved the current testing methods. Then, KCDC shared the information with
manufacturers and assisted them to develop and mass-produce a commercialized version of the
testing kit. The commercialized version has significantly reduced the time for the diagnosis from
24 hours to 6 hours (Kwon, 2020a). Since February 7, the manufacturers have supplied the
testing kits to the testing centers, continuously supporting the massive testing capacities
(Normile, 2020).
Intensive contact tracing: The S. Korean government has been intensively tracing the possible
points of contact of confirmed cases to identify potential confirmed cases and to prevent further
disease transmission. The epidemiological investigation has been integrated as one of the
services provided at the 638 testing centers. Upon arrival and registration at a testing center, the
person is asked to provide recent travel histories (both domestic and overseas) to the
investigators. If the person’s case is diagnosed as positive, then the person’s travel log is
anonymized and shared with the municipal and national government to inform the public. If
further information is necessary, the government formally requires investigation of multiple
CCTV recordings, the person’s mobile phone GPS data, and credit card transactions based on the
Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act (MoEF, 2020). The functional operations of this
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additional data collection have been coordinated through multiple private service providers, such
as mobile phone or credit card companies.
Information sharing: Information sharing has been the key to the response operation in S. Korea.
KCDC first shared the information about the virus outbreak in China on December 31, 2019.
COVID-19 information, such as symptoms, testing centers, and protocols, has been shared
through the official COVID 19 website (http://ncov.mohw.go.kr) and KCDC’s hotline 1339 (or
regional code+120).
Since January 20, the day of the first case, the chief deputy of the KCDC has held a daily
briefing at 2 p.m. to share information such as the number of new cases and mortality, and cases
treated and recovered (Kwon, 2020b). During the briefing, anonymized travel logs of all the
confirmed cases are presented for early identification and treatment of potentially infected cases,
and prevention of further spread. The daily briefing records have been shared on the official
homepage of KCDC, the official COVID-19 website, 17 municipal government websites, and
their social media webpages
The information shared by the government has been reiterated and redistributed by
multiple channels. Both national and local media and broadcasting companies have been
providing summaries of the information. The Naver, the major web portal used by S. Koreans,
has set up a banner on its main page to provide the most up-to-date information. Utilizing the
published information, ordinary citizens have developed free mobile phone applications that
display all the travel logs of all the confirmed cases on a map and send alerts to users within a
100-meter radius from the route. The first application was downloaded and used by 2.4 million
people within about 20 days from its launch date on February 3, 2020 (Ha, 2020). All these
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private, nonprofit, and individual’s efforts have contributed to citizens’ information accessibility
and disease awareness.
Expansion of health care system capacities and patient care: During the response, S. Korea has
continuously expanded the health care system capacity to prevent overtaxing of the core medical
staff and facilities. A total of 9.62 billion USD has been assigned to the nation’s response to
COVID-19.
Initially, 29 public hospitals were assigned as COVID-19 treatment facilities (KCDC
2020). However, in the face of a shortage of hospital beds and emergency rooms during the
surge, patients have been triaged based on their symptoms, and only severe cases have been
admitted for hospital care to protect medical staff and provide needed care to all patients (Yoon,
2020). Meanwhile, 16 treatment support centers were opened to isolate and treat cases with mild
symptoms. Initially, the government designated seven public employee training facilities to be
used as treatment centers. Later, nine treatment support centers were added with the donation of
space by several large corporations such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motors, Hanhwa, Kia
Motors, a university, and a Catholic Church organization (CDSCH, 2020b). The confirmed
asymptotic cases have been ordered to self-quarantine at home for 14 days and report their
symptoms to designated officers of the district government through a ‘safety protection
application’ on their mobile phone (MoHW, 2020). With some exceptions, the majority of
individual citizens who self-identified their possible contact with confirmed cases or traveled
abroad have self-quarantined for 14 days.
Furthermore, tons of donations of medical supplies, goods, food, and lodging have been
provided to support medical staff on the front line of the response (Kang, 2020). Thousands of
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citizens, nurses, doctors, social workers, community organizations, and nonprofits have
volunteered for patient care and facility care at hospitals and treatment centers across the country
(Kang, 2020). All these efforts together have eased the burden on the core medical staff and
facilities and have contributed to raising the nation’s public health capacity to combat the disease
(Kang, 2020).
Supply chain management: There have been no observable panic buying behaviors or
exceptional shortages of daily necessities or protective gear for medical staff in S. Korea. The
only exception was the shortage of face mask supplies and the abrupt price increase of masks in
early and mid-February. The government immediately intervened with the mask supply chain by
producing state-sponsored KF 94 masks through 123 mask manufacturers. Each manufacturer
has contributed 50% of its production to the government supplies (CDSCH, 2020a). In addition,
the government halted unauthorized international export of masks and discouraged profiteers by
imposing up to $5,000 fine or a two-year prison sentence. Violations are detected and
investigated through coordinated investigations by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the
Fair-Trade Commission, the National Tax Service, the17 municipal governments, or individual
citizens’ reports of violators and profiteers. As a result, the government was able to initially
release 24,000 state-sponsored masks (1.2 USD per mask) through district post offices on
February 27, 2020, and since then has been able to maintain national inventories that support
stable mask supplies (two per person weekly). Citizens have contributed to supply change
management at the local level by developing mobile phone applications updating mask
inventories at district levels. The applications also contributed to managing social distancing
between people wanting to buy masks.
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Discussion
S. Korea’s effective COVID-19 response operation is based on co-production by whole
community actors in multiple public service domains including legislation, incident management
systems, massive testing, intensive tracing, public health capacity, patient care, information
sharing, and supply chain management that all contributed to the notable COVID-19 response in
S. Korea. Each of these public services represents the outputs of co-production among
multifaceted actors at all levels who have acted on their shared responsibilities. Furthermore,
whole community co-production in one domain has supported co-production in other domains
during the response period. Putting the people’s safety first, a wider range of actors have
contributed to the pandemic response operations with respect, care, and trust. The whole
community’s efforts across multifaceted actors have resulted in S. Korea’s continuing
effectiveness in COVID-19 response operations.
Whole community co-production should not be unique to S. Korea. Many countries have
established policy frameworks that encourage a whole community approach in emergency
management practice. In addition, co-production has been an imperative part of public service
around the world. In many countries, there is strong involvement in COVID-19 response by
citizens, professions, and communities, as well as co-production between governments and
companies, industries, and nonprofit organizations (Weible et al., 2020; Yeo, 2020). Yet, as the
situation demands everyone to do more with less, it seems the previously taken-for-granted
whole community approach has not been incorporated well with the co-production operating in
practice. In this situation, co-production has become something to be reintroduced or
reintegrated into the whole community response operation in practice. It is, also possible that
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COVID-19 might have been recognized as just one of many public health issues. Thus,
emergency response systems for COVID-19 have operated differently than for other types of
hazards, such as natural disasters, that could immediately mobilize a whole community co-
production. Furthermore, facing the wicked nature of the novel virus, societies might have been
easily distracted by nonessential issues (Weible et al., 2020) such as fighting about wearing
masks or scapegoat hunting. Such distractions could encourage defensive routines in relevant
public organizations that were expected to take lead in response to the situation (Comfort et al.,
2019; Weible et al., 2020). Meanwhile, issues, problems, systems, and people might be more
segmented and isolated, thereby wasting limited information and resources that could be utilized
in COVID-19 response.
Concerning these possible impediments, we suggest several ways for other countries to
reintroduce or reintegrate whole community co-production into their response to COVID-19.
The authors suggest it is important to approach the pandemic as a large-scale emergency, just
like other hazards, which needs a whole community approach for effective responses (Yeo and
Comfort, 2017; Comfort et al., 2019; Weible et al., 2020). In addition, countries may establish
an ultimate goal for the situation, putting the people, and saving their lives, first. This goal
cannot be stressed enough to develop distributed cognition on collective pandemic response
across all segments of society. Lastly, connectedness among all the issues and needs in the
current situation can be iteratively communicated with everybody and anybody who are currently
or potentially affected by the pandemic to establish shared responsibilities of stakeholders at all
levels. Government agencies and policymakers may transform current communication from one-
way—government push information down to the public, to two-way—the public and government
directly exchange information (Houston et al., 2015). The transformation may be achieved by
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utilizing information and communication technologies and social media (da Silva Craveiro and
Albano, 2017; Malawani et al., 2020).
Conclusions
This study aims to introduce a new emergency management approach, whole community co-
production, to current pandemic management practice by examining how the approach has
worked and resulted in the successful COVID-19 response practice of S. Korea. Findings
indicate that S. Korea’s effective COVID-19 response operation is based on co-production
among whole community actors in multiple public service domains including legislation,
incident management systems, massive testing, intensive tracing, public health capacity, patient
care, information sharing, and supply chain management.
Whole community co-production may not sound very new in all-hazards emergency
management since either a whole community approach or co-production systems might have
operated well in the past. However, given the complexity of disease control and subsequent
social and policy issues, government, society, and communities may not relate their existing
whole community emergency response capacities to managing the novel type of public health
crisis. The lack of whole community co-production might be attributable to ongoing struggles to
flatten the curve in many countries. Concerning possible impediments for pandemic
management, this article suggested several implications to encourage or enhance whole
community co-production.
Despite the contributions of this case study to theory and practice, this study has
limitations to be addressed in future research. This is an exploratory single case study of whole
community co-production for pandemic response systems in a single country. Therefore, to
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expand our discussion and findings, future research may utilize different methodologies or data
sources to examine the same case. Through surveys or in-depth interviews, researchers may
measure factors or conditions that facilitate whole community co-production in the country or
examine the impact of whole community co-production on pandemic response performance.
Furthermore, to expand theoretical implications and understanding for the whole community co-
production, future studies may apply the theoretical framework, whole community co-
production, to analyze or access the pandemic response systems of other countries. Or they may
conduct a large-N case study by either comparing similar cases or contrasting different cases.
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Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy
Page 25 of 25 Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy
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... Or they are digital volunteers using social media and crowdsourcing for providing and disseminating information, and sometimes, self-deploying and organizing themselves to go to the incident site (e.g. Yeo and Lee, 2020;Chatfield et al., 2013). ...
... In crisis and emergency response, studies on ICT and digitalization seldom speak about co-production and rather relate it to "digital volunteerism" or "digital volunteers" (e.g. Yeo and Lee, 2020;Chatfield et al., 2013). There are, however, some examples where ICT-enabled or digitalized co-production is used to frame the involvement of volunteer first responders in frequent emergencies in rural and urban settings Pilemalm, 2021). ...
Article
Volunteers play an increasingly important role in emergency response logistics. However, to make most use of their capabilities they need to be dispatched to the emergency site in an effective manner and coordinated on-site. The purpose of this study is to present a requirements specification and initial design proposal for ICT-enabled dispatch of volunteers as first responders, as part of emergency response digitalized co-production initiatives. The study uses a case study approach inspired by action research and the theoretical lens digitalized co-production. It includes a variety of methods for data collection, including interviews with volunteers, document analysis and participation of workshops. The major themes identified are geofencing, dispatch coordination, dynamic resource allocation and communication and collaboration. First priority requirements include geofencing alert and positioning, a joint API, receipt of alert, receipt of arrival at incident site, withdrawal of resources, chat functionality, and the ability to alert in descending order within the geofenced areas to avoid alarm fatigue. As to coordination and dynamic resource allocation, e.g., built-in alert restrictions, ability to pre-select profiles and to dispatch based on competence/training, capacity and equipment would enable a more optimized response.
... Explanation Example improved through the publicity of experts and the active disclosure of information by the government, thus promoting citizens' compliance behavior (Li, 2020;Wu et al., 2022). Delivering necessary services to the public, such as psychological counseling and sending disaster relief supplies, is also another sort of co-production (Yeo and Lee, 2020;Tu, 2022). Based on the background of South Korea, China, Italy and other countries, several case studies show that some volunteers with high altruism actively organized themselves to form various selforganized groups to meet the needs of the public for purchasing daily necessities, seeking medical treatment and protection against virus (Miao et al., 2021;Liu et al., 2023). ...
... Compliance and abidance with government regulations Self-quarantine and wearing masks Steen and Brandsen, 2020;Wong, 2022 Following isolation policies Rao et al., 2021 Minimizing contact with other people; Practicing safe health habits such as washing hands Yoon and Martin, 2020 Delivering necessary services to the public Psychological counseling and sending disaster relief supplies Yeo and Lee, 2020;Tu, 2022;Zou and Zhao, 2022 Purchasing daily necessities, seeking medical treatment and protection against virus Miao et al., 2021;Liu et al., 2023 Online engagement activities; Door knocking and phone calls Caperon et al., 2023 Source: Self-made by the authors. ...
Article
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Co-production is an important approach to enhance service resilience in disaster response. However, most existing studies did not differentiate various types of co-production (i.e., collective vs. group co-production) and consider the potential tension between them. Based on evidence from self-organized groups for people with disabilities in Shanghai, this study found that as a type of collective co-production, compulsory epidemic prevention measures during the Covid-19 pandemic produced unintended consequences for people with disabilities: both government-organized and independent NGOs were forced to close offices, causing formal social services to be discontinued. However, as a type of group co-production, self-organized groups played an indispensable role in helping restore service resilience by providing material and consultation services to people with disabilities through online and offline approaches. This study not only contributes to the co-production literature through unveiling the tension and discussing the relation between collective and group co-production, but also provides valuable guidance for the government on how to promote self-organized groups to improve emergency management capacity.
... For example (Palumbo, 2016, p. 73), claims that co-creation involving users makes provisions "more consistent with their health-related needs." The sharing of information and ideas that in the current work was made possible by the research circle methodology has also been confirmed in another study as important for expanding services, providing adequate ones, and contributing to service diversity and innovation in complex intervention situations (Yeo & Lee, 2020). Correspondingly, the ability to refer to new research-based knowledge seemed to increase the participants' well-being and skills when implementing the new services and their likelihood of being perceived as legitimate by the receiving organization. ...
Article
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Background Co-creation has become a guiding principle in public service innovation, but more knowledge is still needed on overcoming barriers and increasing the effectiveness of co-creation processes. This study explores the research circle method as a concrete methodology for co-creation, and its application within two cases involving the implementation of new services for drug death-bereaved persons in Norway based on new research-based knowledge. Method The study followed an action research design. The field notes and audio recordings were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results The analysis identified two key dimensions experienced as important for the implementation of the new services when research circles were used as a method for co-creation: 1) the inclusion of participants from different contexts and 2) support structures for service interventions. Discussion Research circles are discussed as an important support structure for promoting public value co-creation that can contribute to increasing stakeholders’ capacity for implementing services in the public system, especially when the focus is on the perspectives and interests of stakeholders, such as practitioners and management in public health and welfare services. However, the discussion also points to barriers relating to the co-creation process that need to be considered when planning research circle-based interventions.
... Studies show that co-production is a strategy pursued by health services during the COVID-19 era (Andersen et al., 2020;Turk et al., 2021). The co-production approach emphasizes the role of the community as the leading actor in providing health services during the spread of COVID-19 (Yeo & Lee, 2020). In its development, coproduction provides healthcare services during a pandemic (Marsilio et al., 2021;Pestoff & Saito, 2022). ...
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This study analyzes the declining coverage of the co-production system in Posyandu health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research utilized qualitative analysis approach. Based on data obtained from the Indonesian Ministry of Health’s official website (2019–2020), journal related to maternal and child health services during the COVID-19 pandemic (2019–2022). Data focused on themes related to co-production in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were several sub-themes identified, including ANC, immunization, and monitoring toddler growth through weighing. Problems with implementing ANC at Posyandu during the pandemic occurred in several cities in Indonesia. While the coverage of some immunizations had decreased over the national scale. Furthermore, growth monitoring had decreased by up to 10% on a national scale. To prevent the recurrence of this condition, health service innovation is required. Posyandu has good principles to improve the health status of mothers and children, but the Government needs to support the quantity and quality of cadres so that this principle can be realized. Support from several community leaders also needs to be encouraged to facilitate Posyandu implementation.
... The involvement of multi-sector partners such as citizens, companies, community organizations, and NGOs is essential in supporting the concept of joint production, especially in the health or medical sector [53]. The involvement of many supporters such as the government, industry players, and law enforcement [54] will strongly influence effective and efficient joint production. The transformation of digital-based services, such as co-production specifically for the health sector, greatly influences cultural, structural, and resource changes [35]. ...
Article
In Sweden, a decade ago, digitalized co-production emergency response initiatives of a hybrid bottom-up type emerged. They targeted local efforts to recruit groups of citizens to provide first respons for other citizens in accidents. Benefits in terms of shorter response times, saved lives, reduced human suffering, and material damage have been demonstrated. Recently, national authorities recognized the need to support the initiatives to expand to all rescue services, and the potential to scale up the use of citizen first responders, also in large-scale crisis management and as part of civil preparedness. Previous research has studied the initiatives and developed three models aimed at supporting the implementation of digitalized co-production. In this study, we report from the initial phase of the nationwide effort, carry out an initial evaluation, and present revised models. The models are adapted to rural versus urban settings and complemented with a model providing national support. Information and communication technology plays a crucial role in all of them. We define the hybrid type as interdependent digitalized co-production where government citizen sourcing is not direct but includes the intermediate level of the rescue services. Implications are discussed, e.g., on how to achieve a balance between centralization and decentralization.
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The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented an unprecedented public health crisis across the globe. Governments have developed different approaches to tackle the complex and intractable challenge, showing variations in their effectiveness and results. South Korea has achieved exceptional performance thus far: It has flattened the curve of new infections and brought the outbreak under control without imposing forceful measures such as lockdowns and travel ban. This commentary addresses the South Korean government’s response to COVID-19 and highlights distributed cognition and crisis management capabilities as critical factors. The authors discuss how the South Korean government has cultivated distributed cognition and three core capabilities—reflective-improvement, collaborative, and data-analytical capabilities—after its painful experience with 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV). South Korea’s adaptive approaches and its learning path examined in this commentary provide practical implications for managing potential additional waves of COVID-19 and a future public health crisis
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Purpose This paper aims to examine tweet posts regarding Typhoon Washi to contend the usefulness of social media and big data as an aid of post-disaster management. Through topic modelling and content analysis, this study examines the priorities of the victims expressed in Twitter and how the priorities changed over a year. Design/methodology/approach Social media, particularly Twitter, was where the data gathered. Using big data technology, the gathered data were processed and analysed according to the objectives of the study. Topic modelling was used in clustering words from different topics. Clustered words were then used for content analysis in determining the needs of the victims. Word frequency count was also used in determining what words were repeatedly used during the course period. To validate the gathered data online, government documents were requested and concerned government agencies were also interviewed. Finding Findings of this study argue that housing and relief goods have been the top priorities of the victims. Victims are seeking relief goods, especially when they are in evacuation centres. Also, the lack of legal basis hinders government officials from integrating social media information unto policymaking. Research limitation This study only reports Twitter posts containing keywords either, Sendong, SendongPH, Washi or TyphoonWashi. The keywords were determined based on the words that trended after Typhoon Washi struck. Practical implication For social media and big data to be adoptable and efficacious, supporting and facilitating conditions are necessary. Structural, technical and financial support, as well as legal framework, should be in place. Maintaining and sustaining positive attitude towards it should be taken care of. Originality/value Although many studies have been conducted on the usefulness of social media in times of disaster, many of these focused on the use of social media as medium that can efficiently spread information, and little has been done on how the government can use both social media and big data in collecting and analysing the needs of the victims. This study fills those gaps in social big data literature.
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The world is in the grip of a crisis that stands unprecedented in living memory. The COVID-19 pandemic is urgent, global in scale, and massive in impacts. Following Harold D. Lasswell’s goal for the policy sciences to offer insights into unfolding phenomena, this commentary draws on the lessons of the policy sciences literature to understand the dynamics related to COVID-19. We explore the ways in which scientific and technical expertise, emotions, and narratives influence policy decisions and shape relationships among citizens, organizations, and governments. We discuss varied processes of adaptation and change, including learning, surges in policy responses, alterations in networks (locally and globally), implementing policies across transboundary issues, and assessing policy success and failure. We conclude by identifying understudied aspects of the policy sciences that deserve attention in the pandemic’s aftermath.
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Objectives Since the first case of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) identified on Jan 20, 2020 in South Korea, the number of cases rapidly increased, resulting in 6,284 cases including 42 deaths as of March 6, 2020. To examine the growth rate of the outbreak, we aimed to present the first study to report the reproduction number of COVID-19 in South Korea. Methods The daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South Korea were extracted from publicly available sources. By using the empirical reporting delay distribution and simulating the generalized growth model, we estimated the effective reproduction number based on the discretized probability distribution of the generation interval. Results We identified four major clusters and estimated the reproduction number at 1.5 (95% CI: 1.4-1.6). In addition, the intrinsic growth rate was estimated at 0.6 (95% CI: 0.6, 0.7) and the scaling of growth parameter was estimated at 0.8 (95% CI: 0.7, 0.8), indicating sub-exponential growth dynamics of COVID-19. The crude case fatality rate is higher among males (1.1%) compared to females (0.4%) and increases with older age. Conclusions Our results indicate early sustained transmission of COVID-19 in South Korea and support the implementation of social distancing measures to rapidly control the outbreak.
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Urgent public health threats present a growing problem for public health surge. This study addresses tensions that occur in organizations as they confront unexpected, urgent demands for performance that exceed their existing allocation of resources and personnel, patterns of adaptation in response, and consequences for continued functionality in their mission. We view the problem through a conceptual lens of complex adaptive systems and distributed cognition to focus on patterns of organizational communication as critical factors in shaping organizational response to crisis operations. We employ a mixed-methods approach to examine communication and coordination patterns in a small-N comparative case study of four California county health departments during the H1N1 threat in late spring–summer of 2009 and the following 24 months. Findings indicate factors that contribute to, or inhibit, the communication process, such as organizational structure, past experiences, exercise of authority, and document the occurrence of defensive routines as a distortion of internal communication practices. Communication and coordination within and among entities engaged in response operations are critical to managing urgent public health threats, indicating that mechanisms which place a cognitive burden on staff exacerbate existing problems in performance.
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Purpose Although more public sector information is disclosed in an open format, the intermediaries are the key element to have value creation from it. This study aimed to identify elements about the role of these stakeholders: their characteristics, resources and partnerships within an ecosystem of budget transparency and open government data, in particular, to identify initiatives and opportunities that enable the co-production of value from public sector information. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted in four Latin American countries, and data collection was carried out through interviews and document analysis. Findings The paper identifies intermediaries’ profiles, their network, results achieved and lessons learned. Originality/value This is the first study to cover in depth the intermediaries in a regional budget transparency ecosystem. Some findings emphasize the intermediary’s role, and others offered the authors elements to propose a framework for citizen coproduction that extends citizen sourcing and government as platform models, as some co-production initiatives identified seem to extrapolate their limits definitions.
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This qualitative case study aims to gain a greater understanding of collective action among organizations assisting undocumented immigrants in South Apopka, Florida, following Hurricane Irma in 2017. In-depth semistructured interviews serve as the primary data sources. In addition, analysis of relevant documentation triangulates the interview data and identifies converging themes. For data analysis, qualitative data is structured through multiple coding steps: open coding, using the language of informants; axial-coding, using labels created by the researcher; and core-coding, central themes and constructs of the study. The following themes are identified as common descriptors of the collective action patterns in the context: heterogeneity, constituents, mediators, and collaboration. In addition, six themes emerge as factors of the collective action: acquaintance, boundary, communication, dedication, events, and flexibility. The author further discusses the themes and suggests policy strategies to encourage interorganizational collective action to protect vulnerable people from institutional blindness in disasters.
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Purpose The paper aims to examine a citizen-centric model of governmental entrepreneurship that transforms public service management for the empowerment of marginalized women. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative methodology to analyze the distinctive model of a rural livelihoods program in India. A fieldwork was conducted in four villages, a total of 250 women were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire and eight focus-group discussions were conducted. The data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis. Finally, the findings were shared with women in the study area. Findings The analysis suggests that the adoption of distinct management for social welfare program results in social legitimacy and social value creation. JEEViKA illustrates that citizen-centric social entrepreneurship model is an outcome of internal and external governance mechanisms, strategy that thrusts on skills and capacity as investment, tools local women (community resource persons) as instruments and targets spatial saturation as an intervention creates political and economic participation, and that marketability promotes power over economic resources that enable freedom from servitude. Research limitations/implications The model provides a direction to overcome multiple barriers to addressing poverty and marginalization. Practical implications Poor and government can leverage through the collaborative capacity to meet ever-evolving social needs by developing a state-society partnership in citizen-centric governmental entrepreneurship. Social implications The policies to overcome large-scale marginalization can adopt citizen-centric model to create social legitimacy that furthers social value among the poor and marginalized rural women. Originality/value This study provides a model that illustrates government ability to transform marginalized poor as co-producers of development benefits.