Crisis Management Capacity Research Articles

Research on Critical Factors Influencing Organizational Resilience of Major Transportation Infrastructure Projects: A Hybrid Fuzzy DEMATEL-ISM-MICMAC Approach

To strengthen major transportation infrastructure projects’ (MTIPs’) organizational resilience and fortify their capacity for crisis management and project risk prevention. In this paper, based on the resilience theory development process, the connotation of organizational resilience of MTIPs is defined, and 20 influencing factors of organizational resilience of MTIPs are extracted from four categories of stability, redundancy, adaptability, and rapidity according to the literature analysis and case study method. The significance, causality, and multilevel recursive order structure of the influencing factors were investigated by the fuzzy DEMATEL-ISM approach, and their driving and dependent characteristics were analyzed through MICMAC. The results indicate that risk warning and prediction, human resources management, inter-organizational synergies, resource reserve situations, organizational leadership, and organizational learning are the crucial factors of organizational resilience in MTIPs. There are three levels and five ranks in the multilevel recursive rank structure of the factors affecting MTIPs’ organizational resilience. Among them, risk warning and prediction, equipment condition and performance, human resources management, and organizational leadership have the deepest impact on organizational resilience in MTIPs. The findings can clarify ideas for subsequent research on organizational resilience in this area and inform project decision-makers in developing strategies for optimizing organizational resilience.

Relationship of the Leadership Styles of Sports Business Managers and Their Levels of Crisis Management

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlations between sports managers' levels of crisis management and their leadership styles. Additionally, it was investigated whether managerial traits including age, gender, marital status, and length of employment affect the managers' leadership and crisis management capacities. The research's target population consists of people managing sports in Istanbul in 2023. The convenience sampling method was used to select 212 people from the identified universe who willingly agreed to take part in the study. An online data collecting instrument that included a personal information form, a self-leadership scale, and a crisis management scale was used to gather data for the study. On a computer, the collected data was examined using the statistical program SPSS 22.0. Correlation analysis was used to look at the connections between sports managers' leadership philosophies and how well they handle crises. The significance level for statistical procedures was set at 0.05. The study found that while sports managers' crisis management is at a moderate level, their leadership styles are displayed at a high level. Only two of the eight leadership attributes examined in the study were shown to have an effect on crisis management: setting self-reminders and focusing on intrinsic rewards. It was shown that these dimensions increased crisis management by 51.3%.

Nanomanagement networking: Organisational resilience to COVID-19 surge capacity in Egypt

This paper draws on the literature of nanomanagement and organisational resilience to explore the reality of surge capacity in the context of the Egyptian government’s effort to contain the recent COVID-19 pandemic. It utilises nanomanagement networking to explain the significant models of decision making, communication and sense making, taking into account the resilient interconnections and interdependence among organisations, to understand how these impact on the resilience of crisis management surge capacity. With a focus on COVID-19 crisis management in Egypt, the study analyses empirical data collected from interviews with actors from different governmental organisations. Following this, the paper focuses on the role of nanomanagement in realising the resilience of interorganisational network capacity to obtain accurate and up-to-date information in order to develop the system strategies and responses necessary to enable convenient surge capacity for COVID-19 crisis management.

Bezbednost u centralnoj i istočnoj Evropi u periodu strateških kriza

The study examines the security policy shocks and responses to these shocks in the countries and societies of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, and how these shocks and responses have changed the relationship of CEE countries with the European Union since 2008. It interprets the financial and economic crisis of 2008, the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea and Russian support for separatism in Eastern Ukraine from 2014, the migration crisis of 2015, the Covid-19 epidemic and the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February 2022 as a security shock. It concludes that while CEE countries have improved their crisis management capacity, they often rely more on national solutions than on joint European crisis management actions.

Transboundary crises and political development: why war is not necessary for European state-building

ABSTRACT Kelemen and McNamara (2022) have reinvigorated the debate on European state-building. Adopting a ‘bellicist’ perspective, they argue that the European Union is ‘incomplete, uneven, and dysfunctional’ due to the historical lack of an existential military threat. We take issue with this claim. War, in our view, is not a necessary condition for European political development, and ‘transboundary crisis’ acts as its modern-day functional equivalent. Whether a polity can uphold its provision of public goods in the face of such crises, and whether it does so more effectively than its competitors on the ‘market for governance’, decisively affects its further development. European integration, too, has progressed substantively in response to recent non-military threats. We demonstrate this on the Euro and Covid-19 crises, in which the EU has engaged in incremental and issue-specific capacity-building aimed at preserving and consolidating the regulatory state rather than approximating the Westphalian nation-state. The resulting capacity-building shores up the EU’s crisis prevention and crisis management capacities, without overcoming its fundamental regulatory nature. It is misleading to dismiss the resulting political development from a bellicist perspective that takes the nation-state as its implicit point of comparison.

Effects of the Counseling Program on Strengthening Mental-Crisis Management to Strengthen Adolescent Life Crisis Awareness.

A mental crisis is a dangerous state with many subsequent harmful effects on the adolescent. It is a state in which the adolescent needs help and must get that help immediately. If they do not receive the assistance they require, they may end up isolating themselves from social interaction and become completely preoccupied with themselves. The counseling program is therefore being put into effect to strengthen the mental crisis management capacity of adolescents and to offer counseling and assistance to students who find themselves beset with a mental crisis so that they will be fully able to manage their mental crises, restore a sense of balance to their psyches, and carry on with their lives effectively. The aim of the study was to compare the life crisis awareness scores of adolescent students enrolled in a program of study at Thammasat University. This research was quasi-experimental and consisted of a two-group pretest-post test design. They were subdivided into two groups of 30 students each by simple random sampling, of which one group was the experimental group and the other was control group. The experimental group underwent a counseling program of bolstering mental crisis management capacity once a week for a period of six weeks. Results were assessed using a crisis awareness evaluation form. Results were assessed twice, before testing and after testing. The data were analyzed by the statistics of percentage, mean, dependent t-test, and independent t-test. 1. The average life crisis awareness scores of the adolescents in the experimental group following acceptance into the counseling program by fortifying their mental crisis management capacity (M=132.77, SD=11.03) were higher than they were prior to program entry (M=113.73, SD=14.40), with a statistical significance (t=6.81, p<0.001).2. The average life crisis awareness scores of the experimental group that had been accepted into the above-mentioned counseling program were higher after undergoing testing (M=132.77, SD=11.03) than the scores for the control group (M=118.83, SD=10.73), with a statistical significance (t=4.95, p<0.001). This program thus helps the adolescent restore a sense of mental balance and live a normal happy life.

Development of Organisational Resilience within SMEs through Implementation of Strategic Thinking

The focus of entrepreneurial, strategic and managerial concerns regarding the ensuring of survivability and achievement of successful competitive leverage within, primarily, the turbulent international commercial and business environments, has become concentrated on the development of organisational resilience to withstand the pernicious implications imparted by business discourses by situational complications. The recurrent global financial crises, trigger by divergent and multiplicity of factors, have impinged upon the survivability of business organisations of differential demeanours. The corresponding research endeavour has been oriented towards evaluation of development of constructive response based strategic policies of such SMEs from the organisational resilience angle through determination of the implications of strategic planning and thinking processes which could be employed by such business entities to foment crisis management capacities at the functional and operational domains. Specific research effort has been utilised to demonstrate the characteristics and constituents of the concept of organisational resilience and the influence of strategic management doctrines on such conceptual disciplines. The focal point of the research has been to assessment the empirical evidence regarding achievement of required degrees of organisational resilience, especially by the SMEs. The research undertaking has been cognisant equitably about the inherent deficiencies of SMEs and has involved considerable academic rigour regarding analysis of the prospects of latent opportunities within crisis situations which could be achieved through proficiencies of strategic planning and implementation of the same. The utility of the conducted research has been envisioned as outlining strategic features through which SMEs could ensure organisational resilience-based survivability.

Corporate Social Irresponsibility Punishments from Stakeholders—Evidence from China

Corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) scandals are frequently reported in China and have a huge impact on the enterprise and society. Aiming to understand the underlying mechanisms between CSIR and enterprise outcomes, this study uses a sample of 2618 firms from the 2018 National Survey of Private Entrepreneurs Survey and examines the corporate social irresponsibility punishments from the perspective of stakeholders by introducing transaction costs. The results indicate that although the punishments for corporate irresponsible behaviors may not be strong enough to deter enterprises from irresponsibility in China, punishments from various stakeholders are increasing in terms of transaction costs. In addition, crisis management capacity may negatively moderate the relationship between CSIR and transaction costs, while regional economic development positively moderates it. This study adds to the extant research on CSIR consequences by combining stakeholders with transaction costs and provides new insights into transaction costs.

Improving long-term care services: insights from high-reliability organizations

PurposeLong-term care (LTC) organizations have struggled to protect their vulnerable clients from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although various suggestions on containing outbreaks in LTC facilities have gained prominence, ensuring the safety of residents is not just a crisis issue. In that context, the authors must reasses the traditional management practices that were not sufficient for handling unexpected and demanding conditions. The purpose of this paper is to suggest rethinking the underlying attributes of LTC organizations and drawing insight from the parallels they have to high-reliability organizations (HROs).Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyzed qualitative data collected from a Canadian LTC facility to shed light on the current state of reliability practices and culture of the LTC industry and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional management approaches.FindingsTo help the LTC industry develop the necessary crisis management capacity to tackle unexpected future challenges, there is an urgent need for adopting a more systemic top-down approach that cultivates mindfulness, learning and resilience.Originality/valueThis study contributes by applying the HRO theoretical lens in the LTC context. The study provides the LTC leaders with insights into creating a unified effort at the industry level to give rise to a high-reliability-oriented industry.

How does corporate social irresponsibility affect transaction costs? Evidence from China

Corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) scandals frequently reported in China, which has a huge impact on enterprises and even society. This paper examines the effect of CSIR on the transaction cost of Chinese private enterprises by focusing on the irresponsible behavior of enterprises. By introducing listed companies, crisis management capacity, we further studied whether CSIR behaviors of enterprises with high visibility bring higher costs, and how enterprises reduce the impact of CSIR on transaction costs under the unique institutional environment of China. Based on data from the 2018 National Survey of Private Entrepreneurs Survey, we found that CSIR increases the transaction cost for firms, especially in listed companies. Moreover, crisis management capacity plays a moderating role in reducing the threat. The conclusion of this study contributes to the understanding of CSIR behavior and its influencing mechanism, as well as the sustainable development strategy of enterprises.

Evidence-Based Assessment of Readiness to Solve Wicked Problems: The Case of Migration Crisis in Croatia and Slovenia

The migration crisis was and, in some aspects, still is one of the biggest challenges that the European Union (EU) has faced recently. In the crisis peak in 2015/16, most of its member states were affected in different ways. This paper contributes to the ex-post dialog of this transboundary crisis and attempts to present the level of readiness to solve wicked problems and manage a transboundary crisis, looking at the perspective of two countries—Slovenia and Croatia. The paper focuses on the following areas of migration governance: (1) border management, (2) reception policies, (3) migrant protection regimes, and (4) national security, which represented the main issues for transit countries and are embedded in the capacity assessing tool Survey Tool used in the paper. With its set of questions and using a multiple case studies methodology and comparative analysis, the paper’s results show the rather immature level of mass migration capacities at both transit levels studied. In the absence of migration crisis studies, the proposed paper retains its originality and adds value, especially in multi-level systems, in assessing the complexity of the crisis from a national perspective and providing the numerical assessment of crisis management capacity.

Seeking opportunities from crisis? China’s governance responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a challenge to state capacities on all countries of the world and a genuine test of their abilities of opportunity management. In comparison, China has managed to promptly get the pandemic under effective control and firmly enhanced domestic support for the government. This article argues that China’s successful opportunity management was firmly shaped by its institutional settings, governing structures, and actor strategies. While the noncompetitive regime, unitary government, performance legitimacy, and high citizen trust afforded strong political commitment, China’s crisis management experiences and capacities facilitated quick and effective coordination. Further, top leaders made use of the crisis to demonstrate accountable leadership and push forward a grand reform agenda. The nature and functioning of these pro-success factors are inherently rooted in the unique Chinese context. Points for practitioners This study shows a successful story of opportunity management in crises in the Chinese context under the COVID-19 pandemic scenario. Political leaders and public managers should enable systematic and prompt governance responses to such major challenges by building up a broad political consensus and coordinating evidence-based emergency responses. The study shows that clear accountability in crises is a major factor determining the capability of a system to take decisive actions and should be seriously reconstructed by countries struck by the pandemic.

Institutional Mechanisms of the Turkish Foreign Policy: The Case of Russia - Turkey High-Level Cooperation Council

The article aims to examine and explore with pros and cons of High-Level (“Strategic”) Cooperation Councils (HLSCC) mechanisms in Turkish foreign policy and evaluate its effectiveness in foreign trade, foreign policy cooperation, and crisis management capacity of Turkey concerning the relations with Russia. Turkey has already started to establish High-Level Cooperation Councils to build institutional infrastructure for strategic partnerships in foreign policy and strengthen institutional power in the bilateral cooperation after 2006. The study of Turkish foreign policy is an academically attractive topic mostly in terms of its geopolitical dimensions. The institutional mechanisms that enable the country to interact with other states in a dynamic regional and international environment remain less researched heretofore. The article attempts to highlight the evolution of Turkish foreign policy in terms of institutional changes in the bilateral and multilateral mechanisms. The article applies a case study method with descriptive analysis examining Councils’ functions such as foreign policy coordination and determination of collective commitments and official bilateral targets in the case of Russia - Turkey High-Level Cooperation Council. The article found out that these institutional mechanisms partly justified themselves as a coordination mechanism, but they were relatively weak for achieving the pledged commitments. The Councils were flexible and innovative cooperation mechanisms of the foreign policy to develop bilateral and multilateral ties in the age of the global power restructuring and the volatile conjuncture in world politics.

Resilience in Practice: Responding to the Refugee Crisis in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon

Little is known about how the idea of ‘resilience’ translates into practice. It has nonetheless emerged as a dominant theme in the governance of crises, such as political instability, armed conflict, terrorism, and large-scale refugee movements. This study draws on interviews with humanitarian and development practitioners in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon working under the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan to explore how resilience is interpreted and translated on the ground. Results suggest that resilience is translated as the economic self-reliance of refugees, and the capacity for crisis management of refugee-hosting states, enacted through ‘localization’ and strengthening the ‘humanitarian-development nexus.’ The prominence of the political and economic context and the power relations between crisis response actors that it generates reveals the limits of what a buzzword like resilience can achieve on the ground. The findings highlight the need for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to engage in continuous critical reflection on whether the ways in which resilience policies and programmes are implemented actually improve the ability of systems and vulnerable populations to recover from crisis, as well as on the validity of the assumptions and interpretations on which such policies and programmes are built.

Balancing Governance Capacity and Legitimacy: How the Norwegian Government Handled the COVID-19 Crisis as a High Performer.

This essay addresses how the Norwegian government has handled the coronavirus pandemic. Compared with many other countries, Norway has performed well in handling the crisis. This must be understood in the context of competent politicians, a high‐trust society with a reliable and professional bureaucracy, a strong state, a good economic situation, a big welfare state, and low population density. The Norwegian government managed to control the pandemic rather quickly by adopting a suppression strategy, followed by a control strategy, based on a collaborative and pragmatic decision‐making style, successful communication with the public, a lot of resources, and a high level of citizen trust in government. The alleged success of the Norwegian case is about the relationship between crisis management capacity and legitimacy. Crisis management is most successful when it is able to combine democratic legitimacy with government capacity.

Grupo SMU: su compleja reestructuración corporativa

El presente caso relata el proceso de reestructuración corporativa del Grupo SMU, ligado a la industria chilena de supermercados minoristas, detonado por una situación interna provocada por ineficiencias operativas posteriores a un agresivo proceso de adquisiciones ocurrido entre los años 2007 y 2012. Esta problemática la experimentó el Grupo SMU, quien a través de una política de “Buy and Build” se convirtió en el tercer actor de la industria de supermercados en Chile a finales del año 2012. Si bien esta estrategia le permitió afianzar la posición competitiva del conglomerado, causó un crecimiento inorgánico que ocultó las diferencias en el desempeño operacional de las diferentes cadenas y no permitió el aprovechamiento de sinergias propias en el proceso de consolidación de un holding. Por ello, a mediados del año 2013, la falta de definición en la estrategia competitiva de SMU tuvo como consecuencia un fuerte debilitamiento en su posición financiera debido al significativo endeudamiento que se utilizaba para financiar las adquisiciones, así como por la insuficiente generación de flujos de caja. &#x0D; Por otro lado, comparado con los dos principales actores de la industria, SMU mostraba menores niveles de rentabilidad y de ventas por metro cuadrado. Así, para hacer frente a la crisis, SMU implementó un plan estratégico trianual (2014-2016) sobre el fortalecimiento de tres pilares fundamentales: financiero, operacional y comercial, cuya meta era devolver la viabilidad financiera al conglomerado a finales del año 2016. Tras la implementación de dicho plan, SMU logró una mejora a nivel operacional y comercial. Sin embargo, en los primeros meses de 2017 las Clasificadoras de Riesgo aún tenían dudas sobre el desempeño futuro de SMU y su capacidad de gestión de la crisis. Por ello, Álvaro Saieh, quien se desempeñaba en ese momento como presidente del Directorio de la empresa, tenía diversas interrogantes relacionadas principalmente a si: ¿Fue exitoso el plan de reestructuración operacional y estratégico que llevó a cabo SMU en los últimos tres años? ¿Cuáles serían las variables críticas para asegurar la sostenibilidad de la compañía y su crecimiento en los próximos años? ¿Volveré a ser cuestionado como en 2013? Finalmente, ¿qué posibilidades tengo para crear valor corporativo en el futuro?

Cooperation in the Face of Transboundary Crisis: A Framework for Analysis

AbstractThe nation state is discovering the limits of its crisis management capacities. The Ebola and Zika outbreaks, the financial crisis, the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine, sinking ships overfilled with refugees, cyber-attacks, urban terrorism and existential environmental threats serve as strong reminders of the complex origins and transboundary dimensions of many contemporary crises and disasters. As these transboundary aspects of modern crises become increasingly manifest, the need for international, collaborative responses appears ever clearer. But that collaboration does not always emerge in time (or at all). Even in the European Union, which has various transboundary crisis management mechanisms in place, the willingness to initiate joint crisis responses varies. This observation prompted our research question: Why do states collaborate in response to some transboundary crises but not others? We bring together the crisis and collective action literatures to formulate a theoretical framework that can help answer this question. This article identifies crucial factors that facilitate a possible pathway toward a joint response.

Health system preparedness in Pakistan for crisis management: a cross-sectional evaluation study.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has strongly advocated health systems' preparedness for effective management of crisis situations globally for more than two decades. Pakistan is known for its high vulnerability to hazards and lack of coping and adaptive capabilities. Health systems' preparedness for locales with such high-risk profile is essential, yet there is a dearth of studies addressing the status of such preparedness in the country. This study aimed to assess the status of preparedness of health-system components for crisis management in the most disaster prone districts of Pakistan. A purposive sample of 12 of the most disaster prone districts in two provinces of Pakistan was evaluated for preparedness using the WHO's toolkit for assessing health-system capacity for crisis management. Six core functions of the Health Systems Framework, with a total of 229 indicators, were evaluated at the district management as well as secondary and tertiary health care facilities level. Proportions of indicators prepared were calculated and preparedness was classified as Acceptable (≥ 66%), Partial (36-65%) or Inadequate (≤ 35%). Seventy-two percent, 95% Confidence Interval [46.0, 90.0] of indicators in these most vulnerable districts were evaluated as partially or inadequately prepared for appropriate management of crises. Even the highest scoring core function, Leadership and Governance was partially prepared with a score of 53.6% (52.4, 54.9). Process elements were found to be less prepared compared with structure components. Federal level strategic planning, implementation, management and follow-up aimed at ensuring health-systems' preparedness need to be reviewed and strengthened.

How to Balance Individual Rights and Societal Security? The View of Civil Servants

How do Norwegian government officials perceive the dilemma between liberty and security after the 2011 terrorist attacks? A survey from 2016 shows that the central government officials’ attitudes are rather similar to the general population. Both are willing to trade individual rights for more societal security. Structural, cultural, and demographic features explain variations in the civil servants’ views. Position and perceptions of crisis management capacity make a difference. Officials responsible for crisis management are more willing to prioritize security. Low conflict, high trust, and a strong identification with central government creates support for security measures. Furthermore, age and gender matter.

The European Union's capacities for managing crises

This article draws on a comprehensive new data set of crisis management capacities at the European Union level to highlight key patterns in their development and use. Organised within the categories of detection, sense‐making, decision‐making, coordination, meaning‐making, communication, and accountability, the data show considerable accumulation of capacities in detection and sense‐making, while decision‐making capacities lag behind. We find that most capacities are sector‐oriented rather than cross‐sectoral, and reside primarily within the European Commission rather than other EU institutions. Comparing the data to previous studies, we note that capacities overall are increasing and some are undergoing evolution; for example, horizon‐scanning tools once limited to collecting information have increasingly been given an analytical, “information enrichment” function akin to sense‐making.