Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management最新文献

This study investigates the dynamic pathways of organisational resilience among Ukrainian firms operating in a war economy. Our research highlights the profound impact of armed conflicts on commerce, emphasising the need for businesses to develop resilience strategies to mitigate risks and maintain operations. Through an examination of organisational data representing the 2-year period following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, our findings support the presence of two resilience pathways previously described in the extant literature, ‘bounce-back’ and ‘bounce-beyond’ and expose two new pathways which we have labelled ‘bounce-less’ and ‘bounce-boom.’ Our findings reveal the complex and varying paths of organisational resilience resulting from changes in market demand and resource availability, underscoring the importance of organisational adaptability, resourcefulness and innovation. We also propose a broader definition of resilience than is currently found in the literature – one which recognises the challenges of achieving a baseline of organisational survival in a time of crisis. The article concludes with practical implications and recommendations for future research on resilience in wartime conditions.

This study inventories and identifies communication challenges faced by emergency management agencies in Central Appalachia as they engage communities in preparation, response and recovery efforts for extreme weather events (EWEs). Drawing on data from nine group discussions and guided by the Social Ecological Model, the analysis discerned an array of barriers to effective risk communication, originating from cultural, organizational, interpersonal and individual dynamics. It was found that a pervasive distrust of emergency agencies and broader climate governance, articulated through the notion of ‘mining,’ undermines organizational legitimacy. Conflicting messages from emergency sources with ambiguous or overlapping roles create confusion, numb and desensitize populations, and further erode source credibility. Poor internet and cellular connectivity constrain timely information delivery and exacerbate vulnerabilities. Additionally, the region's ingrained culture of ‘riding-it-out’, while a valuable source of organic resilience and self-efficacy, is seen by some emergency managers as ‘stubbornness,’ which leads to misalignment in risk communication. This study re-contextualizes these cultural attributes as essential ‘social capital’ and offers strategies to align communication practices and resources with local identity and agency needs. Findings contribute to culturally responsive approaches to participatory risk communication.

Research in crisis communication has emphasised the complexity of emotions that crises breed. Recently, exploitation crises have received significant scholarly attention. Scansis has been termed as a type of exploitation crisis, which is characterised by strong perceptions of injustice and greed. This study corroborates previous findings pertaining to the effects of scansis on key crisis outcome variables such as purchase intentions and negative word-of-mouth. Additionally, we extend on existing research by testing the effectiveness of stealing thunder and explicit recognition of moral outrage following a scansis. Specifically, the study employs a 2 (perceived source of transgression disclosure: organisation vs. media) by 2 (corrective action coupled with moral recognition response: yes vs. no) between-subjects factorial design. The results indicate that scansis leads to desire for third-party punishment (i.e., retaliation), which has not been tested in the context of scansis before. Additionally, there is empirical evidence for the robustness of stealing thunder and its effects on purchase intentions, as well as support for the value of moral recognition statements following a scansis, a proposition made by previous research.

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is an approach aimed at ensuring the continued delivery of essential functions during crises. While BCM originates from the private sector, it has increasingly also been adopted by public sector organizations. Yet, no comprehensive overview of peer-reviewed literature on public sector BCM and its largely equivalent counterpart, Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP), has been conducted to explore the status of current research and identify avenues for future studies. This paper presents a scoping review of public sector BCM, examining the development of this approach, factors affecting its implementation, its current maturity, and remaining challenges. The findings reveal a limited but growing scholarly interest, with the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increasing attention to public sector BCM. The review highlights key factors influencing BCM implementation, including leadership support, organizational commitment, and training, as well as challenges such as the complexity of multi-stakeholder collaboration and resource constraints. While the literature often points to low BCM maturity within public sector organizations, it also indicates steady progress. Several implications for researchers and practitioners are identified. Public sector organizations play an essential role in multi-stakeholder collaborations aimed at strengthening continuity of operations across entire communities, and further studies are needed to better understand the implementation of BCM in such multi-actor contexts. Moreover, a research gap relates to how public sector organizations can overcome inherent limitations of BCM. In particular, research is needed to complement BCM with adaptive strategies to support organizations' adaptive capacity in the face of complexity and uncertainty characterizing contemporary crises.

Major incident inquiries and research highlight persistent problems in interoperability. Evidence points to failures in the ability of responders from different organisations to work effectively together, which hinders collaborative efforts. Recently, researchers have argued that one reason why collaboration problems exist when different teams are required to work together is due to multiple identities within the overarching team. Whilst this perspective has been applied to other teams operating in extreme conditions, such as military teams, the evidence in emergency response teams has been scarce. In this paper, we summarise results from a programme of research in which the Social Identity Approach was applied to interoperability in the emergency services to better understand the role of social identities in collaboration, and to develop recommendations for training and policy. The findings from this programme of research show that, (1) shared identity among responders from different services improves interoperability; (2) factors such as strategic communication, context-driven salience processes, and interaction-driven salience processes can facilitate this shared identity; (3) structural barriers, cultural differences, and historically strained relationships can impede shared identity development; and (4) there is a need for psychological factors to be incorporated into interoperability training, which can be delivered either online or in-person. Based on this programme of research, we make five recommendations to improve interoperability in multi-agency teams, focusing on integrating social identity processes into training, promoting leadership practices that foster shared identity, addressing structural barriers to shared identity, developing support systems for emotional and social needs, and fostering inter-team collaboration and communication.

This framework advocates for theory-driven research on moral outrage-inducing sticky crises, aiming to clarify three key areas: (1) how the three preventable crisis clusters (i.e., human-error, management misconduct and scansis) and information-giving strategies (i.e., instructing and adjusting information) shape stakeholders' perceptions of moral outrage-inducing sticky crises; (2) how crisis-induced other-condemning emotions (i.e., contempt, anger and disgust) function within the triadic appraisal framework of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT); and (3) how these factors affect stakeholders' perceptions of morally related punitive organizational outcomes (i.e., boycott intentions, organizational punishment intentions and brand cancellation intentions). By addressing these gaps, this conceptual paper aims to deepen our understanding of the moral dimensions of crisis communication within the triadic appraisal framework of SCCT and to develop more effective response strategies that address the complexities of moral outrage-inducing sticky crises.

While the spillover effect of crises is an emerging research topic in the field of crisis communication, little attention has been given to how employees perceive the risk of crisis spillover due to a corporate misconduct of another company. Employees are important stakeholders in an organization and closer to it than any other stakeholder group. Understanding employees' judgments of crisis spillover risk and response strategies helps to assess their advocacy behavior, which can protect the organization's reputation. This research addresses how perceived crisis severity and corporate response strategies affect employee perceptions of crisis spillover risk and their subsequent advocacy behavior. A pre-test (N = 181) identified three types of corporate misconduct (overcharging customers vs. data leak vs. selling rotten meat) that are characteristic for the supermarket industry. These scenarios were used in an online experiment with retail employees (N = 300) to examine the effects of two crisis response strategies (issuing a denial vs. no response) by a competitor supermarket for which they were asked to imagine working. The findings indicate that higher perceived severity of corporate misconduct correlates with an increased perceived crisis spillover risk to the industry. This perceived risk mediates the relationship between perceived crisis severity and the perceived spillover risk to an individual's own company. Furthermore, issuing a denial is perceived as more appropriate than offering no response, and it fosters greater employee advocacy behavior.

In response to the global energy and climate crises, many countries have decided to invest in the construction of new nuclear power plants. However, these developments bring safety and security concerns, further exacerbated by the complex relationship between energy demands and escalating geopolitical tensions. Lessons from past nuclear emergencies (e.g., Fukushima and Zaporizhzhia) have highlighted the need for preparedness strategies to protect the public from potential nuclear incidents, with an emphasis on public awareness and effective nuclear instructional risk communication. This paper presents a content analysis examining themes and instructional components within nuclear instructional campaigns, assessing their evidence-based foundations. Specifically, this paper identifies key elements that should be included to enhance the effectiveness of risk communications, focusing on strategies like the IDEA model and audience segmentation, both of which are recognized as effective instructional communication methods. A total of 47 instructional communication campaigns from 28 different countries were analysed. The results show that while most campaigns include crucial instructions, they often fall short in fostering internalization by the public, an essential factor for ensuring effective learning to achieve behavioural outcomes in individuals dealing with risks. Moreover, inconsistencies in terminology and event phase specifications were found, which could affect clarity and comprehension. Given the effectiveness of the IDEA and audience segmentation models in communication, this paper recommends integrating these strategies into future nuclear risk instructional campaigns. Ultimately, the findings provide valuable insights to help governmental and nongovernmental organizations design and develop future communication efforts in this critical area.

Trust dynamics are known to impact an individual's compliance with information from different sources and their behaviors. It is helpful to explore the roles of trust in different entities in predicting people's behavioral intentions and behaviors in a mega-crisis. With the initial stage of a public health crisis in China as its context, this study extends the Theory of Planned Behavior by incorporating trust in four key entities: the government, scientists, healthcare providers, and others. Results show that trust in the government is a significant and positive predictor of an individual's self-care and social distancing behaviors. However, trust in scientists, healthcare providers and interpersonal trust do not affect such behaviors. This retrospective analysis enables a more panoramic reflection on the impact of trust on public behavior in the face of a crisis, offering valuable insights for the management of similar crises in the future.