Crisis Management Activities Research Articles

An engaged public: Considerations for the use of social media in managing crises

Abstract This article draws upon desk-based research carried out during the Contribution of Social Media in Crisis management (COSMIC) project and examines the opportunities and challenges associated with citizens’ engagement with social media to contribute to crisis management activities. Opportunities include the involvement of citizens in providing assistance during crisis, as well as alternative ways to request assistance. Alternatively, challenges include those associated with the increased involvement of citizens in crisis communication activities: the recording and safety of information, the threat of online vigilantism and the danger to the security of citizens. This article shows that it is necessary to consider the role and behaviour of citizens within crisis management. However, further research is required to continue to understand social dynamics of citizen behaviour operating in the virtual and offline realm and its impact on crisis management and preparedness.

Approaches of Humanitarian Crisis Management - Associated Risks with the ICT-based Crowdsourcing Paradigm

Since the early fifties of Twentieth Century, numbers of guidelines, frameworks and methodologies have been developed by countries, UN and other agencies to provide humanitarian assistance and manage humanitarian crisis properly. There are numbers of national policies and plans on disaster risk reduction and national plans for disaster management have also been established. However, in this Age of ICTs, anyone engaged in humanitarian crisis management activities understands that effective crisis management is now more demanding than ever before. Thus, crisis coordinators and crisis management researchers have started developing and using new ICT tools and technologies to deal crisis efficiently and effectively. However, all these tools and techniques create some critical challenges in data protection, privacy and security of users and some risks related to Malware, fear and confusion, government surveillance and so on. On this background, this research paper aims to provide a brief analysis on evolution of humanitarian crisis management approach and several risks related to Crowdsourcing for Humanitarian Crisis Management.

Слияния и поглощения компаний в кризисные периоды: особенности управления

Рассмотрены особенности слияний и поглощений бизнеса в условиях экономического кризиса. Сделан вывод о влиянии высоких процентных ставок в экономике и жесткой монетарной политики на активность процессов слияний и поглощений. Рассмотрены особенности оценки стоимости бизнеса при анализе перспектив его приобретения.

CRISIS AWARENESS OF THE MUNICIPAL DISTRICT RESIDENTS: IMPLICATION FOR CRISIS MANAGEMENT AT THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL

Purpose: This main aim of the study is to examine the crisis (emergency) awareness of the population (forming an integral part of overall crisis preparedness) and its role in crisis management. Frequency and impact of emergencies and disasters in recent years induce the need for effective crisis management. Although it is impossible to prevent disasters from happening, it is possible to have control over prevention and local actors' preparedness. Methodology/Approach: Primary data collection was carried out on the basis of a questionnaire survey which monitors the overall crisis awareness among the population of Kosice district, specifically awareness of concepts related to crisis management and actions within collective protection of the population. For the analysis have been chosen three areas related to crisis management processes in terms of collective protection at the discretion of local self-governments, namely evacuation, hygiene, and communication. Findings: The results showed relatively good but still not sufficient level of population awareness about concepts related to crisis management and public (civil) protection activities. In response to the survey results are conceived proposals and recommendations. Research Limitation/implication: In Slovakia, the issue of crisis management is most elaborated in the business area, the area of public administration lags behind. Examination of crisis (emergency) preparedness is not the current practice in our country. Originality/Value of paper: The originality and value of the study lies in the fact that it conceptually develops a theoretical framework for monitoring and assessment of residents' crisis awareness and evaluating effectiveness of crisis communication within self-government. The study represents one of the rare attempts to find out how residents of large cities (with increased population density) currently perceive the necessity of knowledge in the field of crisis management.

The role of Social Media in health crisis management and health promotion activities: Is there such thing as a code of conduct?

Social media is an interactive online communication method that offers the ability to provide immediate information, create dynamic relationships with the community, and disseminate information to media outlets. Social media are nowadays recognized as a strong tool for …

Rescued euro rescue?

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hat im Marz 2014 uber die Verfassungsmasigkeit des Europaischen Stabilitatsmechanismus entschieden. Diese wurde grundsatzlich bejaht. Bereits im Vorwege der Urteilsverkundung hat der Senat die Verfahrensgegenstande, die sich auf den OMT-Beschluss beziehen, abgetrennt, und dem Gerichtshof der Europaischen Union zur Vorabentscheidung vorgelegt. Der Autor meldet sowohl juristische als auch okonomische Zweifel an.

Evaluating Design Principles for Temporality in Information Technology for Crisis Management

This work evaluates a set of design principles for temporality in crisis management information systems by reflecting on the design principles based on two national crisis management information systems. Interviews were used as data collection method where: crisis managers discussed how the interface supports the design principles, crisis managers demonstrated common tasks in the system, and information from past crisis management activities was used as an indication of how the system is used in actual crisis management. The evaluation indicates that the design principles: 1) can be used to identify interface flaws, 2) can be a foundation for discussing temporality in design, and 3) can be used to explore temporality in general, including temporality found in: work tasks, the crisis context, and the interaction between crisis manager and information system. In addition, the evaluation suggests two new design principles as a complement to the original six principles.

Entering new territory: A study of internal crisis management and crisis communication in organizations

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss some of the main findings from a large survey of internal crisis management and crisis communication conducted in the spring of 2011 among public and private organizations in Denmark (the ICMCC survey). The survey was conducted among the 367 largest private companies (selected from DK 1000, established by Børsen business magasin) and among 98 public organizations (municipalities). The overall goal was to get a preliminary idea of how these companies or organizations perceive, plan, coordinate and implement internal crisis management and crisis communication activities before, during and after a crisis. The survey questionnaire comprised 36 questions and was sent to respondents who typically are responsible for the crisis-preparedness of their organizations. The results from the survey show that the vast majority of organizations have a crisis or contingency plan, and most of these plans contain an internal dimension relating to the management and communication with the internal stakeholders during a crisis. Thus, the study shows a rather professional and formalized behavior towards crisis management in general, but also when it comes to managing a crisis in relation to the internal organizational stakeholders in specific. In addition, the results clearly indicate a strong relation between organizational size and crisis management; the larger the organization the more likely to have a crisis plan. This particularly pertained to the private organizations. The ICMCC survey forms part of a major collaborative research project, financed by the Danish Council for Independent Research/Social Sciences (2011–2014), entitled Internal Crisis Management and Crisis Communication in Danish Organizations. The purpose of this three-year long project is to shed light upon the role of internal crisis management and crisis communication before, during and after an organizational crisis and/or a societal crisis leading to downsizing or major changes within an organization or an organizational field.

(A144) Health Status Casualty Model for Simulation of Crisis Management Activities (EU SICMA Project)

IntroductionThe European Project SICMA (Simulation of Crisis Management Activities) provides a modeling of the behavior of the entire Health Service System during field emergency operations, as well as the rules it operates by. The first step toward chain procedure modelling in the management of major emergencies is the representation of a traumatized patient whose health status can be followed in time during simulation. Since management of the trauma patient follows criteria of stabilization of main physiological functions, a trauma patient model was developed based on fundamental pathophysiological functions independently of specific lesion characterization. Methods: Each patient's health status was modelled according to 5 parameters (ATLS): A(airway), B(breathing), C(circulatory), D(disability), E(Exposure). Patient samples are extracted from a 10.000.000 patient database, generated by considering real anatomical lesions compatible with type and severity of considered scenarios (explosion, building collapse, fire, gunfight). Simulated lesion characteristics were then converted to pathophysiological parameters. Each physiological compensation parameter was represented by: (1) baseline value expressed as percentage of altered function; (2) function reduction rate over time, obtained by a mathematical approximation of clinical worsening. From level of function, rate of worsening and function-specific death thresholds, estimated time-to-death according to sustained damage is computed.ResultsThis model allows simulation of evolution of patient health status both in absence of medical care, but also under therapy, in terms of immediate increment of each single parameter (“temporary” treatment), and of reduction or zeroing of parameter dec14rement rate (“definitive” treatment).ConclusionThis model, based on evaluation of physiological parameters, presents an advantage over the consideration of single lesions, because simulating logical procedures that guide treatment choice in real situations can provide a more accurate assessment of casualities for those actors assigned to management of major emergencies.

(A143) European Project SICMA (Simulation of Crisis Management Activities) for Medical Management of Maxi Emergency Trauma Patients

IntroductionModern emergencies and disasters are progressively changing from relatively simple, predictable events controllable with standard management solutions to complex critical situations for which managers and first responders require innovative and affordable tools.MethodsThe European Project SICMA (Simulation of Crisis Management Activities) provides a modeling of the behavior of the entire Health Service System during field emergency operations, as well as the rules it operates by. Use of simulation technologies offers a significant improvement on current management activities allowing decision makers to confront several organizational alternatives not only with static situations but with evolving scenarios.ResultsSICMA simulates main structural and behavioral elements of maxi emergency and mass casualties, from individual casualties and evolution of their health status, activity of the police force and fire brigade on the accident site, crowd dynamics, sanitary personnel expertise, to ambulance and helicopter transportation depending on traffic and weather conditions. The system also simulates rescue doctrines (i.e. “Casualty Clearing Station” or “Scoop and run”), transportation priorities according to color codes, doctrines for assignment of new casualty to neighboring hospitals, hospital resources and involvement, final clinical outcome of individual casualties. Patient health status and physiological reserve of single casualty is based on the ABCD ATLS system, considering with a simple algorithm both level of damage and rate of worsening in time.ConclusionUtilizing this simulation system, managers who predispose organizational and logistic procedures may modify the main elements in order to identify the optimal resource allocation and the best procedures to save the most human lives.

FY2012-FY2014 Medium-Term Budget

With the global financial landscape still unsettled, temporary spending looks set to remain at current levels over the next few years. Lending commitments and crisis-management activities have surged since the onset of the crisis: by the end of December 2010, there were 60 program and financial arrangements in place, compared with 40 at the time of the Fund’s restructuring in early 2008. The higher lending has generated a sharp but temporary rise in income, but has also required an increase in temporary spending. This expenditure will unwind over time, but only marginally over the FY 12–14 MTB period

Оценка влияния экономического кризиса на российские научные организации

Кузык Михаил Георгиевич- руководитель направления, Межведомственный аналитический центр. E-mail: kuzyk@iacenter.ru Адрес: 121069, а/я 35, г. Москва, ул. Поварская, д.31/29, стр.2Глобальный финансовый кризис в той или иной степени отразился на деятельности каждого субъекта российской экономики. При этом, если влияние кризиса на финансовую и производственную сферы с самого начала находилось под пристальным вниманием исследователей, то деятельность научных организаций в подобных условиях изучена в гораздо меньшей степени.В статье на основе итогов опроса руководителей оцениваются некоторые значимые аспекты воздействия экономического кризиса на функционирование научных организаций. Рассматриваются изменения в объемах выполнения исследований и разработок, структуре заказов, барьеры на пути кооперации науки и бизнеса, новые возможности развития научных организаций.

School-wide Responsive Services and the Value of Collaboration

From the myriad best practice alternatives, professional school counselors must apply efficacious activities in response to emerging or existing student challenges. Although the term is widely invoked across helping professions, the notion discussed here is used within the context of delivering a comprehensive school counseling program (e.g., American School Counselor Association's [ASCA] National Model, 2005; Burnham & Jackson, 2000; Studer & Diambra, 2010). By convention, responsive services involve those activities designed and performed by school counselors to meet the immediate needs and concerns of students. As initially conceived, these services include counseling, consultation, referral, and peer facilitation/mediation or information. The assistance and support of the entire school faculty and staff are essential for successful implementation (ASCA, 2005). In some cases, school counselors come to largely associate this component of a comprehensive program to crisis management, consultation, and referral activities. The research literature, however, has yet to confirm the efficacy of these three services in K-12 school counseling programs (Whiston & Quinby, 2009). Studies do indicate that individual and group counseling are modestly effective over the short term with at least students from the majority ethnicity (Gerrity & DeLucia-Waack, 2007; Whiston & Quinby). The value of any of these services for students of color and minority ethnicities and those with special learning or behavior needs remains equivocal at best. Furthermore, the current approach to delivering responsive services fails to adequately address the needs of the invisible mass of students. These learners maintain at least decent grades, move through the system with relative ease, graduate high school, and, as a rule, avoid chronic misbehavior that would provoke a formal disciplinary action from an administrator. They are often perceived by the staff as requiring minimal support and are doing just fine. To support this contention, a recent national study of 614 young adults who had involvement with some postsecondary schooling found that about 50% of the respondents felt like 'just another face in the crowd' in dealing with their guidance counselor (Johnson, Rochkind, Ott, & DuPont, 2010, p. 7). Despite the fact that these students exhibit normal developmental challenges and significant personal and family concerns, and would clearly benefit from high-quality responsive services, they may receive low priority from the school's counseling program. A variety of legitimate reasons for this exist (e.g., Johnson, Rochkind, O national average for 2008-2009 data is 457to-l) and the mounting paperwork allow mainly for triage counseling services, with the neediest students receiving the most attention. Even when counselors want to address students' chronic problems, they lack the time to fully implement targeted interventions and activities beyond a few months. Fourth, anecdotal evidence suggests that the classroom teacher-to-counselor referral and collaboration process is inadequate to effectively address all students' major concerns and their need for even limited counseling services. Finally, meaningful student intervention plans typically require ongoing teacher cooperation, support, and follow-up, and perhaps assistance from a school administrator, nurse, librarian, or psychologist. …

Government management of two media-facilitated crises involving dioxin contamination of food

Incidents become crises through a constant and intense public scrutiny facilitated by the media. Two incidents involving dioxin contamination of food led to crises in Belgium and the Republic of Ireland in 1999 and 2008, respectively. Thought to cause cancer in humans, dioxins reached the food supply in both incidents through the contamination of fat used for animal feed. The food and agricultural industries connected to each incident relied on crisis management activities of federal governments to limit adverse public reaction. Analysis of the management of the two crises by their respective federal governments, and a subsequent review of crisis management literature, led to the development of an effective crisis management model. Such a model, appropriately employed, may insulate industries associated with a crisis against damaged reputations and financial loss.

Space-enabled information environment for crisis management. Scenario-based analysis and evaluation in an operational environment

The paper presents analysis of usefulness of space applications in crisis management activities carried out on the national level. Analytical approach has been based upon development of realistic disaster scenarios and their evaluation with assumption of existence of space-related capabilities available to rescue forces. Building upon analysis's results, the experimental information environment has been developed and it successfully supported commanding of a large-scale crisis management field training. The results prove that many crisis management needs can be served with existing, commercially available products. The key to success lays in understanding operational needs; integration into common information environment; and standardisation of information exchange.

Civilian Crisis Management and the External Dimension of JHA: Inceptive, Functional and Institutional Similarities

The fragmented European competences in the field of security policy appear increasingly at odds in a context of cross‐border and transnational security threats. Discrepancies have initiated a process of adaptation, in particular with regard to external and internal security policies. This article investigates these developments and underlines the growing similarities arising between the European Union civilian crisis management activities and the external dimension of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). After examining the factors which led to their inception, as well as the respective institutional discourses supporting both fields, the article emphasizes the fact that civilian crisis management and the JHA external dimension not only share ‘functional similarities’ but also a common ‘functional frame’; that of protecting the EU’s internal security regime. The sociological institutionalist framework adopted reveals the mechanisms through which the rapprochement is taking place, for example by systematic recourse to security sector activities, and the proactive role played by European institutions and the various security actors — police officers, judges and border guards.

Crisis management systems: staff nurses demand more support from their supervisors

Aim This study illustrates the contributions of the necessity, comprehensiveness, and difference (between necessity and comprehensiveness) levels of crisis management systems to participants' general satisfaction with their working institutions' nursing-related crisis management activities. Crisis management systems include strategic, technical/structural, assessment, public communication, and psychological/cultural aspects. Background An effective institutional crisis management system might help to decrease the number of incidents related to medical disputes or to prevent a crisis from worsening and becoming disastrous. Method A cross-sectional survey was administered during a nursing conference held in Taipei, Taiwan, on June 27, 2005. Two hundred ninety questionnaires were distributed, and 121 were retrieved (response rate, 41.7%; nursing administrators and staff). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Findings Ordinal logistic regression analyses show that being a public hospital managed by the government and having more difference on the strategic aspect between the necessity and comprehensiveness levels contribute to lower satisfaction with nursing-related crisis management activities (Nagelkerke R 2 = .441). In addition, staff nurses perceive higher necessity levels on all five aspects compared to nursing administrators. Conclusion This study provides important insights into how the policies and activities of a medical institution's crisis management system can be prioritized and implemented. It is also important for students in nursing programs and for currently employed nurses to learn how to manage disputes related to nursing practice, so that early resolution can be achieved and crises can be avoided. These results suggest that staff nurses demand more support from their supervisors.

Linking Crisis Management and Leadership Competencies: The Role of Human Resource Development

The problem and the solution. Most executives are aware of the negative consequences associated with an organizational crisis and focus on communications and public relations as a reactive strategy. However, many neglect the other leadership responsibilities associated with organizational crises.This may result from lack of formal training and on-the-job experiences that prepare executives to lead crises. Executives who enable their organizations to recover from a crisis exhibit a complex set of competencies in each of the five phases of a crisis—signal detection, preparation and prevention, damage control and containment, business recovery, and reflection and learning. In this article, through the use of qualitative research design and the analysis of firms in crises, we examine leadership competencies during each phase of a crisis. In addition, this article links the important role of human resource development to building organizational capabilities through crisis management activities.

Supporting Group Work in Crisis Management: Visually Mediated Human — GIS — Human Dialogue

Geospatial information is a fundamental component of many crisis management activities. However, current geospatial technologies do not support work by crisis management personnel, most of whom are not technology specialists—a key impediment is that the technologies require the user to learn the system's language. In addition, geospatial technologies are not ‘collaboration friendly’—they impede rather than facilitate group work. In this paper we address both issues by presenting (1) a theoretical framework for understanding the roles of visual mediation in map-supported human–human dialogues, and (2) a computational approach for enabling such roles in collaborative spatial decisionmaking contexts. Building upon our initial implementation of a map-mediated collaborative environment, the DAVE_G system [a natural, multimodal, dialogue-enabled interface to geographical information systems (GIS)], we model human–GIS and human–GIS–human dialogues as complex visual-cognitive signification processes in which maps become dynamic facilitators. Using a scenario simulating two crisis managers dealing with a major nuclear release event, we demonstrate how visual display (in DAVE_G) actively mediates human–human dialogue directed to situation assessment and action planning in real applications.

Model testing on the crisis interventions and actions to prevent medical disputes: a Taiwanese nursing perspective

This study investigated the contributions of comprehensiveness and necessity scales on crisis interventions and actions toward nursing practice-related medical disputes in Taiwanese hospitals and institutions' demographic characteristics, to overall satisfaction toward nursing-related crisis management policies and interventions and overall satisfaction toward their institution's crisis management system. In a health-care environment that is focused on cost containment, for overworked nurses and understaffed medical wards, patients still expect nurses to provide high quality, compassionate care. Patients usually regard nurses as the principal link between the technical and interpersonal aspects of their care. However, current hospital systems tend to require patients to be self-reliant in managing their own care. Patient mistrust of medical care providers might have contributed to the current medical error/dispute crisis. In this cross-sectional study, the subjects were nursing directors of Taiwanese hospitals (197 valid subjects). The author developed the questionnaire used in this study. The ordinal logistic regression analyses demonstrated that being a public hospital managed by the government, being a hospital operated by a corporate body, the more comprehensive the technical/structural aspect and the assessment aspect and the more needed the psychological aspect, contribute to higher general satisfaction levels toward nursing-related crisis management. The more comprehensive the strategic aspect and having more acute beds, contributes to higher satisfaction levels with their institution's overall crisis management activities. These findings inferred a possible change in a hospital's resource allocation or power structure when dealing with issues of patient care quality, including nursing practice-related crisis management policies, interventions and actions. RELEVANT TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: A good crisis management system may help to keep a crisis from worsening, which might lead to a serious situation that includes malpractice litigation. It is believed that the questionnaire used in this study may be used as a diagnostic tool for assessing a crisis management system within a hospital's nursing environment.