Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management最新文献

The sometimes rapid development of (new) threats and extraordinary events calls for a robust, flexible, and well-equipped civil crisis preparedness system to respond and limit the damage of crisis events. To achieve this, Swedish municipalities and regions are required by law to regularly perform and report risk and vulnerability analysis ‘bottom up’ to governmental agencies. When performed in large and complex public organisations, crisis preparedness planning activities require negotiation, coordination, and cooperation among large numbers of people. Crisis preparedness planners facilitate and produce this proactive crisis preparedness work. However, research has revealed that preparedness planners face organisational and practical challenges when performing their work.

This study aims at increasing the knowledge of crisis preparedness planners' understandings and sense-making of their work in one Swedish region when fulfilling the requirements set by the Swedish national regulations. The objectives of this paper are to present findings on (1) how the preparedness planners understand and make sense of their crisis preparedness work; (2) which major enablers and barriers that affect their work; and, based on the results, (3) forward possibilities for improvement.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the 10 crisis preparedness planners. A narrative stepwise analysis approach was applied. The analysis results revealed challenges in the crisis preparedness work due to uncommitted managers, unclear goalsetting, and the planners' sometimes limited skills in crisis preparedness work. It also report on managers' autonomy and varying focus on crisis preparedness, planners' unclear individual work space, and many different and sometimes strong voices about the work performance and content. This raises the question whose interest that in practice sets the agenda for crisis preparedness planning in the organisation.

The study demonstrates needs for increased organisational sense-making on the concept of crisis preparedness and how it should be performed, and for conceptual and technical skills to perform the preparedness work. To increase sense-making and strengthen generic subjectivity on crisis preparedness work, further discussions are needed about enablers and barriers in preparedness work and an increased joint focus on possible internal and external threats. There are also needs for increased manager-coworker-planner cooperation when developing the preparedness work, and strategic changes in the organisational development involving goalsetting for crisis preparedness ‘top-down’ as well as ‘bottom-up’.

This article provides a systematic literature review of existing strategic crisis management training research. The review explores practices on which strategic crisis management skills to prioritize and how to train these skills to be prepared when a crisis strikes. Our research question was: How is strategic crisis management trained, and is there a best practice? In all, we identified 538 articles from 3 databases and read the abstracts. From this, we selected 41 articles based on the defined inclusion criteria and read them as a whole. In the end, eight articles were a part of this analysis. A thematic analysis based on the categorization of repetitions of concepts was used to analyse the data. The analysis resulted in two main categories: what to train, which focuses on the outcome and skills, and how to train, which focuses on the process and pedagogy. The outcome (what to train) categories were (1) related to working together, (2) related to understanding the situation, (3) related to making adequate decisions in complex contexts, and (4) related to practicalities. The process (how to train) categories were (1) training methods and (2) learning theories. A model considering three main strategic crisis management training approaches, outcome-focused training, process-focused training, and learning-focused training, was developed. The latter was concluded to be the desired option, as it is a balanced approach of both outcome and process focus.

The risk perception of lay people is believed to be guided by qualitative characteristics of risk they perceive. Outrage factors refer to perceived characteristics of risk that arouse emotional responses and thereby influence risk perception. Conducting a content analysis of coronavirus disease 2019 online news coverage, we identified outrage factors embedded in news stories to determine how those factors are associated with audience engagement, measured by counting news consumer comments and clicks on emotional expressions on each news story. As a result, the average outrage score for a news story was significantly associated with the number of clicks on emotional expressions and comments. When it comes to individual outrage factors, a news story covering a case of violation against social distancing or other governmental guidelines was found to be accompanied by more comments and more emotional expressions, indicating the strongest power of moral nature. The outrage factor of voluntariness, human origin, accident history and controllability were also associated with one or both types of the audience responses. The news stories of business owners who involuntarily shut down their businesses or those comparing the current pandemic to Middle East respiratory syndrome that broke out in 2015 in the nation showed a similar pattern of audience engagement. Furthermore, liberal media were more likely to convey outrage factors than media with a less liberal orientation, which was manifested in the outrage score for each story. We discuss the potential of outrage factors as a new content-based factor for audience engagement in online risk communication.

During COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions (HEIs) implemented new types of working, teaching and communicating quickly. Thereby, faculty staff faced multiple challenges in professional regards. They were in a ‘sandwich position’ between the HEIs and the students and they presumably took on the role of ‘on site’ crisis managers who often had to embed the situation communicatively. Against this background, this article addresses the questions: What challenges for HEIs revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic from the teachers’ perspective? And: To what extent can assumptions about turning points in the higher education (HE) system be derived from this? Answers are based on the triangulation of a literature review and data from an online survey. The results point to human, organizational and technical challenges, and opportunities in terms of communication, teaching, resilience and crisis management. At the end, some assumptions are derived that can be used for further research.

The literature confirms that organizational ambidexterity (OA) is the key to increasing an organization's prospects for survival and success in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous (VUCA) international environment. A critical review of this literature reveals that the conceptualization of OA is disorganized and ambiguous when it establishes and labels relevant aspects of this construct, such as its development and implementation. This study provides a conceptual framework for OA and its dimensions and explains the mechanisms for building and implementing OA. The most important contribution resides in providing research guidelines to improve the consistency and rigour of OA conceptualization in the VUCA international context. To develop this research agenda, we use the VUCA framework, which allows us to identify possible future research and the application of theories and methodologies not previously used. Thus, in general terms, to respond to volatility, studies must be carried out on the agility of organizations. For uncertainty, the topics of knowledge and information management are interesting. To respond to the complexity, topics on restructuring are interesting. And to avoid ambiguity, studies on experimentation would be ideal. Based on this generality, this study proposes multiple future lines of research.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the global economy, particularly, in tourism and hospitality. However, they face challenges due to their vulnerability to external disruptions. A research model was proposed to enhance SME resilience in tourism through supply chain collaboration, strategic human resource and adaptive capability. Drawing on Dynamic Capability Theory, a total of seven hypotheses were presented. The data collection were conducted in Malaysia. There were 210 SME owners/managers participated in the survey. Data were analysed using Smart PLS software version 4. Results suggest that addressing business collaboration and human resource development are critical factors in developing capabilities that foster business resilience in tourism SMEs. The study addresses the dearth of theoretical and practical research on tourism SMEs. While calling SMEs for more attention to developing resilient businesses, this study serves as insights for disaster planning to withstand potential future shocks.

Most of the existing literature on crisis communication focuses on the crisis response immediately following a crisis. There is a dearth of research examining postcrisis communication efforts. Postcrisis communication is especially important in the context of tragic crises, which leave stakeholders deeply affected and traumatized. This paper examines the multifaceted nature of memorials and their significance in postcrisis communication. Using the 2015 Germanwings crash as an illustrative case study, the paper highlights how memorials serve as artifacts of grief, remembrance and celebration of life. Postcrisis communication that centres on victim needs is a keystone to better crisis management. Moreover, I argue that postcrisis communication should facilitate healing by serving the needs of victims, which supersede those of organizations. The paper examines the notions of victim-centred crisis communication and ethics of care by looking at memorials as artefacts of postcrisis communication.

This study takes listed companies that have experienced sudden crisis events as samples. The event study method and multiple regression analysis are further adopted to explore the relationship between sudden crisis events and the stock price fluctuations of listed companies from the perspective of multidimensional characteristics. Findings reveal that sudden crisis events have a significant impact on stock price fluctuations. However, the firms' response frequency and response time to crisis events can exert a buffering role in their adverse association. Further analysis shows that the stock price fluctuations also vary with different heterogeneous characteristics including crisis event types, ownership types, firm competitiveness and firm size. The multidimensional analysis targeting the impact of sudden crisis events on the stock market is conducive to helping firms grasp the rhythm of crisis events and further implement some practical and feasible crisis management measures.

Scholars have gradually shifted efforts to understand the COVID-19 crisis renewal stage. Viewing a gap in college communities' knowledge regarding COVID-19 renewal, this study drew upon the extended theoretical model of communal coping and explored college students' stressor coping in back-to-campus situations. Results of an online survey (N = 460) across nine US universities, first, supported the presence of communal coping in such a situation. Second, universities' transparent communication benefited students' communal coping appraisal, while online and offline bonding social capital boosted communal coping action; both the appraisal and action components positively contributed to student adaptivity, with life satisfaction being associated only with the action dimension. Theoretical and practical implications for interdisciplinary model concretization and public health crisis renewal are discussed.

In March 2023, headlines about a single ill-conceived press release amplified in the social media triggered a one-day, $42 billion bank run that threatened to destabilise the US financial system. The Silicon Valley Bank collapse represents an extreme example of headline risk, the potential for breaking news to trigger a PR crisis and corresponding brand and business shocks. This paper presents the results of exploratory research supporting the creation of risk management frameworks for measuring, monitoring, managing and ultimately mitigating financially material headline risk. Based on brand tracking data for 24 major companies covered by the news media queried and visualised using an AI-enabled analytics tool, the study confirms that news corresponds to tail risk—defined in this study as low-probability, high-impact events that major companies and national brands would term crises. Time-series data tracking the volatility of consumer attention and the valence of media buzz support an architecture for constructing rigorous communication research and headline risk management frameworks. Crisis communication emerges as the initial phase in managing exogenous, idiosyncratic shocks marked by significant negative shifts in brand perceptions and consumer purchase consideration.