Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management最新文献

A resilient healthcare system is key to responding to sudden crises, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Homecare services have been an important platform of healthcare delivery during the pandemic, and healthcare staff on the frontlines of homecare have been confronted with major challenges requiring adaptation to sustain high quality healthcare services. Managers' capacities to adapt to disruptions and challenges are important for an adequate response to challenges on the frontlines. To explore healthcare staff's perspectives on managers at different managerial levels (meso-level) handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Norwegian homecare services. A qualitative multiple case study was designed including four cases. A case was defined as a homecare service within a Norwegian municipality (public organization). Data were collected through 16 interviews with healthcare staff. Interviews were conducted by using a semi-structured interview guide. Healthcare staff reported their managers as proactive, prepared and responded quickly. Present and supportive managers that provided effective and targeted information, and involved staff in decision-making were key to handling the pandemic in Norwegian homecare services. Our results underscore the interaction between healthcare staff and managers at different managerial levels as essential for quickly react, adapt, and resiliently respond to disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations need to have the flexibility to interact across levels and encourage managers to apply strategies for collaboration and staff involvement, especially during a crisis.

‘When people's emotions are at stake, there is the constant need to be seen to engage and connect with them in their hours of need’. This study contributes to the literature on Integrated Crisis Mapping, a stakeholder-centric crisis communication framework that attunes organisational leaders to the emotional responses and coping needs of their primary publics. Building on Weick's insight about the importance of an attitude of wisdom in making sense of a crisis, the study proposes crisis attitude as a keystone concept to help bridge the gap between theory and practice in crisis communication. The study illustrates the concept with an attitude of humility, explaining how it could be apposite to navigating the dynamics of a crisis and serve a sensegiving function that decreases stakeholders' negative emotions and fosters their trust in leadership.

In the realm of addressing large-scale emergencies, interorganizational collaboration emerges as a crucial strategy for effectively mitigating crises. However, the existence of institutional and procedural disparities poses significant challenges in establishing collaborative networks among diverse organizations. Moreover, the determinants influencing cooperative formations exhibit heterogeneity across distinct network structures. This research employs proximity theory and the Exponential Random Graph Model (ERGM) to comprehensively examine the dynamic evolution of interorganizational collaboration networks. Our primary objective is to investigate the effects of institutional proximity, organizational proximity, geographical proximity and social proximity on the formation of interorganizational collaboration networks. Textual data was meticulously collected from the Wisers database and official websites. The findings underscore the pivotal roles of institutional and organizational proximity in fostering interorganizational collaboration networks, while the impact of geographical proximity is relatively insignificant. Additionally, we delve into the driving factors that influence the formation of diverse structural networks. Social proximity emerges as a significant catalyst for horizontal collaborative networks but impedes the establishment of vertical collaborative relationships. Furthermore, we partition the entire emergency response process into six stages to explore the dynamic evolution characteristics of these networks. The results reveal an overall decentralized structure with a tendency toward clustering in the collaborative network. These findings hold substantial significance as they elucidate the influential factors driving the formation of diverse collaborative networks in a dynamic context. Therefore, this research bears implications for policymakers and practitioners aiming to enhance their emergency response capabilities with optimal efficiency.

With the scope and severity of disasters continuing to grow, encouraging public engagement in emergency preparedness activities is becoming increasingly important. Recently, this has included governments introducing emergency alert systems to warn people of nearby danger to life. However, to date, little research focus has been directed towards understanding what mechanisms affect public willingness to engage in preparing for emergencies. Accordingly, this study aims to improve understanding of what social and cognitive factors impact public willingness to take action to prepare for emergencies. Data was collected from 157 members of the public in one region of the UK using focus groups (N = 36) and questionnaires (N = 121). Thematic analysis of data highlighted six key themes of importance for improving public engagement in emergency preparedness activities: (i) provide information that allows people to Assess potential risks; (ii) Create a sense of community and responsibility; (iii) use Trustworthy sources; (iv) Inform the public regularly about risk updates; (v) provide feasible and practical information on how to Overcome risks; and (vi) Normalize engagement (‘ACTION’). Findings pose important implications for emergency planning theory and practice, including improving how multiagency emergency planning and response partnerships engage with local communities to promote emergency preparedness.

At the onset of a crisis, an initial organizational statement sets the tone for subsequent discussion. While existing literature provides strategic guidance, it offers limited insight into the message-level execution of such statements. This study synthesizes insights from literature and trade publications to complement strategic literature by proposing a practical set of ‘crisis essentials’ which practitioners can leverage in composing an initial crisis statement. Upon identification of these elements from scholarly and industry literature, two online surveys presenting a hypothetical crisis scenario are released to Gen Z stakeholders and crisis communication practitioners in the United States; respondents rate the relative importance of each element. Gen Z was selected as the stakeholder population of interest due to their high activity on social media, their role as the talent which will be entering the workforce and eventually leadership roles, and the more limited existing analysis of this segment. Comparative analysis is conducted, based on two online surveys among adult individuals from these two populations, to evaluate whether gaps exist in stakeholder expectations and practitioner approaches. Findings reveal: the proposed elements (e.g., statement of the crisis, attribution, expert quote; 11 in total) were of nonzero importance to both Gen Z stakeholder respondents and crisis communication practitioner respondents, essentials related to the assuring stakeholders (e.g., action steps) were rated more highly than informational essentials (e.g., timeline), and importance ratings across survey samples were generally consistent. Practitioners should consider each of these proposed essentials when developing communication materials, and that while stakeholders expect sufficient information to understand a crisis event, they ultimately care about what the crisis means for the future of the organization. This study, grounded in crisis communication theory, provides a relevant, practical contribution to the implementation of effective strategic crisis communication in situations concerning Gen Z stakeholders.

The study challenges the conventional belief that expertise enhances crisis decision-making. Analyzing crisis simulations, it reveals that crisis cells with minimal expertise achieved a commendable 69% decision quality, surpassing those with specialists. The research underscores the importance of collective intelligence and adherence to fundamental ‘metarules’ in decision-making, irrespective of expertise. It questions the presumed benefits of expertise, suggesting that excessive reliance on experts may hinder information processing and flexibility during crises. The findings advocate for a reconsideration of the role of expertise in crisis management, emphasizing the significance of collective decision-making and adherence to metarules. The study calls for further exploration of expert leaders' potential influence within crisis cells.

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized that supply chain resilience is an essential remedy for companies recovering from supply chain disruptions. In the VUCA era, many studies have identified three dimensions (sensing capability, seizing capability and reconfiguring capability) as organizational antecedents that contribute to supply chain resilience from the perspective of dynamic capability. However, the current literature on the antecedents of supply chain resilience largely lacks a managerial perspective. Research has shown that firms rely on supply chain managers when developing supply chain resilience. Nevertheless, little is known about the mechanisms at play in supply chain resilience and its organizational antecedents. Based on existing research, this study explores the paths and effects of managerial antecedents (dynamic management capability) and organizational antecedents (dynamic capability) on supply chain resilience by integrating dynamic and management capabilities. Through a questionnaire survey of supply chain managers in Chinese manufacturing companies, 223 valid sample data points were collected and tested empirically. The results show that the three dimensions of dynamic management capability (managers’ social capital, human capital and cognition) are positively related to supply chain resilience and that supply chain resilience is influenced by the mediating effect of the three dimensions of dynamic capability (sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities). We argue that managers should focus on developing their social capital, human capital and cognition to improve supply chain resilience. This study explains dynamic management capability's role and logical path in supply chain resilience. Furthermore, it examines the mediating effects and internal logic of the three dimensions of dynamic capabilities, providing a new perspective for supply chain resilience research and bringing some management insights for managers to effectively improve firm supply chain resilience in terms of social relationship management and related learning skills.

This study examines the influence of Business Continuity Management (BCM) practices on tour operator companies' financial and nonfinancial performance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing purposive and cluster sampling, a survey was conducted with 331 tour operators, and the study hypotheses were evaluated using Partial Least Squares—Structural Equation Modelling. Findings reveal that the organizational preparedness and embeddedness of continuity practices significantly influence both financial and nonfinancial performance. Additionally, management support and external requirements impact either financial or nonfinancial performance. The study reveals tour operator companies' resilience demonstrated through their continuity management skills, particularly in adapting to business challenges during the pandemic. The research contributes a fresh perspective on the interplay between BCM practices and organizational performance, emphasizing the importance of robust business continuity strategic planning for the future of tourism operator companies.

Australia's Higher Education and Research Sector (HERS) must adopt digital resilience strategies to tackle cybersecurity challenges and manage major crises effectively. In this study, we have developed a digital resilience framework to mitigate these cybersecurity issues. Our findings suggest a range of keystone factors for crisis management, such as implementing cybersecurity awareness programmes, providing cyber support, redefining roles and responsibilities, implying risk management tools, partnerships with external security organizations, introducing policies, reconfiguring technologies, adopting new technologies, and evaluating current changes to combat these issues. These keystone factors will help achieve digital resilience and significantly minimize cybersecurity issues in HERS, not only during the current major crisis but also in the future. This research offers valuable theoretical and practical contributions that can be applied beyond the context of the recent crisis.

The study examined the role of people's perceptions of attribute similarity between two brands in determining and responding to spillover crises and compared the efficacy of three response strategies in mitigating spillover crises. An experiment was conducted using a 2 (attribute similarity: high, low) × 3 (crisis response strategy: bolstering, differentiation, strategic silence) factorial design. The results demonstrated that to protect their brand from negative spillover effects, rival brands with high similarity to the brand in crisis should choose either the bolstering or differentiation strategy rather than staying silent. For rival brands with low similarity, using the bolstering strategy is better than using the strategic silence or differentiation strategy to prevent a decline in brand attitude.