Crisis Management Policies Research Articles

Crisis Management Policies Concerning the Russo-Ukrainian War in the European Union’s Security and Defence Approach: Soft Power and EUAM

The European Union (EU) has long been formulating security and defense policies, and strategy documents, incorporating modern developments, based on joint assessment of threats and challenges against the security of Europe. European Union, while striving to optimize existing sources and boosting the overall efficiency of crisis management policies to address foreign crises, falls short of substantial progress in overcoming the challenges. This article aims to discuss the EU’s crisis management policies regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War, covering the years 2014-2022, from a historical perspective on the Union’s approach to security and defense. In this context, this article focuses on the use of soft power and European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) adopted by the European Union for Ukraine as part of its crisis management policy, and evaluates the security and defense approach it has displayed in resolving the crisis combined with the objectives pursued and the goals to be achieved.

Another loss of radioactive material in Thailand highlights the need for effective risk communication

On March 10th 2023, a cylinder containing caesium-137 was found missing from a power plant near Bangkok, Thailand. This generated lots of fear and anxiety, fuelled by social media and inadequate statements from the authorities. Later it was discovered in a foundry, compressed and partially melted. It is clear from this incident that risk communication was inadequate. Two case studies from Southeast Asia, the 2004 Asian Earthquake and Tsunami in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and the COVID-19 pandemic illustrate the significance of effective risk communication in crisis management and public policy. This incident in Thailand serves as a "wake-up call" for other countries in Southeast Asia and beyond, urging them to ensure the safe management of radioactive materials as well as to pay attention to their own investments in creating efficient risk communication frameworks to deal with future disasters.

Financial, policy, and ethical barriers to the expansion of living donor liver transplant: Meeting report from a living donor liver transplant consensus conference.

In October 2021, the American Society of Transplantation (AST) hosted a virtual consensus conference aimed at identifying and addressing barriers to the broader, safe expansion of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) throughout the United States (US). A multidisciplinary group of LDLT experts convened to address issues related to financial implications on the donor, transplant center crisis management, regulatory and oversight policies, and ethical considerations by assessing the relative significance of issues in preventing LDLT growth, with proposed strategies to overcome barriers. Living liver donors endure multiple obstacles including financial instability, loss of job security, and potential morbidity. These concerns, along with other center, state, and federal specific policies can be perceived as significant barriers to expanding LDLT. Donor safety is of paramount importance to the transplant community; however, regulatory and oversight policies aimed at ensuring donor safety can be viewed as ambiguous and complicated leading to time-consuming evaluations that may deter donor motivation and program expansion. Transplant programs need to establish appropriate crisis management plans to mitigate potential negative donor outcomes and ensure program viability and stability. Finally, ethical aspects, including informed consent for high-risk recipients and use of non-directed donors, can be perceived as additional barriers to expanding LDLT.

Crisis management and public policies. The trend toward regulatory practices in some countries

The article aims to investigate whether governments tend to implement regulatory policies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and to examine the type of citizen response to different types of policies. Given that active and collaborative citizen participation is an essential element of adequate crisis management, citizen resistance, active opposition, and demonstrations in public spaces are detrimental to the successful outcome of government poli cies in the face of a crisis. We employ the crisis management and institutional analyses theoretical perspectives, as well as the qualitative methods of study case and the comparative studies. We review the different types of policies implemented in different countries. Our analysis shows that there is indeed a tendency for implementing regulatory policies. It also identifies that the places where regulative policies are created and implemented wit hout taking into account contextual aspects, it usually catalyzes citizen’s discomfort. Therefore, we argue that the type of policy used is relevant to deciding what governments’ responses should be and their effect on legitim acy during crises. Keywords: COVID-19, Crisis Management, institutional analysis, normative, regulative. Resumo O artigo pretende investigar se os governos tendem a implementar políticas reguladoras em resposta à pandemia de Covid-19 e examinar o tipo de resposta dos cidadãos aos diferentes tipos de políticas. Dado que a participação a tiva e colaborativa dos cidadãos é um elemento essencial de uma gestão adequada da crise, a resistência dos cidadãos, a oposição ativa, e as manifestações em espaços públicos são prejudiciais para o êxito das políticas governa mentais face a uma crise. Utilizamos as perspectivas teóricas de gestão de crises e análises institucionais, bem como os métodos qualitativos de estudo de casos e os estudos comparativos. Analisamos os diferentes tipos de polí ticas implementadas em diferentes países. A nossa análise mostra que existe de fato uma tendência para a implementação de políticas de regulação. Também identificamos que os locais onde as políticas reguladoras são criadas e i mplementadas sem ter em conta aspectos contextuais, geralmente catalisam o desconforto do cidadão. Portanto, defendemos que o tipo de política utilizada é relevante para decidir quais devem ser as respostas dos governos e o se u efeito na legitimidade durante as crises. Palavras-chave: COVID-19, Gestão de Crise, análise institucional, normativa, reguladora.

Regional Integration in the Face of Modern Challenges: The Case of the EU and ASEAN

The article examines the effectiveness of interaction between states within the framework of regional integration associations in order to collectively overcome the crisis phenomena in the economic, political and social sphere. In the course of the study the tasks of studying the concept of integration as an important category of the modern political system and international relations were defined and solved. The study identifies a number of factors that have become prerequisites for the territorial association of states, such as: issues requiring joint decision-making, territorial proximity, the desire to create an area for export, thereby increasing the competitiveness and productive capacity of large enterprises, as well as meeting the needs of the domestic market. Among the above factors, the collective solution to crisis situations that affect the entire region is one of the important reasons for the association of countries in integration organizations, as integrated associations have more opportunities for rapid and effective decision-making and ensure the practical implementation of strategies in the face of global challenges. This paper analyzes the crisis management policies of the EU and ASEAN countries during the coronavirus pandemic. The outbreak of coronavirus infection has caused a decline in the economy, affected the social sphere, and made adjustments in the policies of individual states and the world community. COVID-19 showed the failure of many social institutions, revealed existing problems, and tested the strength of all spheres of human activity. The result of the work should be considered the identified characteristics of how the integrated actors of international relations responded and what measures were taken to solve the crisis situations in the context of COVID-19, as well as the consequences of the anti-crisis policies implemented. An important point is the assessment of the degree of interaction within the integrated associations themselves, the involvement of each member in the process. In addition, the coherence or, on the contrary, disunity makes it possible to talk about the depth, intensity of integration or its superficial, formal nature in this or that organization.     Key words: regional integration, crisis, COVID-19, EU, ASEAN, challenges of our time.

New sanctions of the European Union and United States against Russia and their impact on Tajikistan’s socio-economic development

The article examines the socio-economic relationship between Tajikistan and Russia, the new European Union and USA sanctions against Russia and their impact on the economy and well-being of Tajikistan, and the role of Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) in Russian and Tajik banks, including the disconnection of SWIFT from Russian banks and its impact on remittances of migrant workers in Tajikistan. Attention is paid to Tajikistan’s crisis management policy. After gaining independence, Tajikistan’s economy suffered greatly from the civil war in the republic. Russia is one of the main donors to Tajikistan’s economy. There are countries that are more connected to Russia than Tajikistan, but it is difficult to find a country that could compete with Tajikistan in terms of dependence on Russia. Almost all sectors of Tajikistan’s economy depend on Russia: Tajikistan is a donor country for migrant workers, and remittances from migrant workers play an important role in Tajikistan’s economy. Only, at the expense of money transfers of Tajik labor migrants, the banking sector of Tajikistan is supported. Over the years of independence, Tajikistan has not taken its economy out of the influence of Russia. The dependence of the Tajik economy on Russia manifested itself in the very first days of the conflict actions on the territory of Ukraine in February 2022. After the statement of Western countries on the introduction of new sanctions to restrict the access of some Russian banks to the SWIFT, the problems of the financial intermediation market of Tajikistan were exposed. An unprecedented package of sanctions by Western countries due to the situation with Ukraine has already led to a number of problems inside Tajikistan. European Union and USA sanctions against Russia have also had a strong impact on all sectors of Tajikistan’s economy, from food prices to the banking sector. The aim of the article is to assess the role of the new European Union and USA sanctions against Russia in connection with the conflict in Ukraine and their impact on the economy and welfare of Tajikistan.

ОБЩЕЕ И ОСОБЕННОЕ В ПОДХОДАХ К ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЮ СОЦИЕТАЛЬНОЙ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ КАК КРИЗИСНОГО МЕНЕДЖМЕНТА В ЕС И ЧЕШСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКЕ В ПЕРИОД ПАНДЕМИИ COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge for the EU as an integration association and for all its member states. To counteract the cross-border crisis triggered by the coronavirus, policies within the association and the interaction of member states had to be clearly coordinated. In reality, however, the approaches taken by member states to deal with the pandemic differed at almost every stage of it. An example of that was the Czech Republic and its unique approach to a significant number of aspects of crisis management. Using the concept of societal security as a theoretical basis, the article analyzes the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic to the EU, revealing the specifics of the Czech Republic's approach to crisis management (in comparison with the general European approach), and analyzing the public perception of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related crisis management policies at the EU and Czech Republic levels. It is concluded that the peculiarities of the approach to social security in the Czech Republic are primarily due to the peculiarities of the perception of the coronavirus as a threat, as well as to the anti-crisis policies implemented at the Czech and EU levels.

Difficult Times, Difficult Decisions: Examining the Impact of Perceived Crisis Response Strategies During COVID-19.

Crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, require rapid action to be taken by leaders, despite minimal understanding of the impact of implemented crisis management policies and procedures in organizations. This study's purpose was to establish a greater understanding of which perceived crisis response strategies were the most beneficial or detrimental to relevant perceptions and outcomes during the recent COVID-19 crisis. Using a time-lagged study design and a sample of 454 healthcare employees, latent profile analysis was used to identify strategy profiles used by organizations based on several policy/procedure categories (i.e., human-resource supportive, human-resource disadvantaging, behavioral/interactional human safety and protection-focused, and environmental and structural safety supports-focused policies and procedures). Results indicated that four perceived crisis response strategies were employed: (1) human resource-disadvantaging, (2) maximizing, (3) safety and human resource-supportive, and (4) inactive. Perceived crisis response strategy was linked to several employee well-being (e.g., work stress) and behavioral (e.g., safety behavior) outcomes via proximal perceptions (i.e., perceived organizational support, ethical leadership, and safety climate). Proximal perceptions were the most positive for employees within organizations that enacted safety and human resource-supportive policies and procedures or that utilized a maximizing approach by implementing a wide array of crisis response policies and procedures. This paper contributes to the literature by providing crucial information needed to reduce organizational decision-making time in the event of future crises.

Housing and energy consumption in Greece. Households’ experiences and practices in the context of the energy crisis

This paper investigates the challenges households face in Greece in the context of the current energy crisis. “Energy transition” policies, climate adaptation and mitigation goals, geopolitical tensions and COVID-19 pandemic have raised new stakes for the energy sector. Although the ‘big picture’ of the energy crisis is of high importance, it is significant to reflect on the consequences of the rise of energy prices on households. The aim of this paper is to address the impacts of the energy crisis and the crisis management policies on households in Greece. Our intention is to analyze the problems households face with regards to coping with their energy needs at home, investigate how the rise of energy prices has affected living standards and evaluate existing policies. We claim that focusing on households’ experiences and practices could contribute to a deeper understanding of energy poverty; a social problem which is expected to expand in the context of “energy transition.” Understanding energy poverty is also important for developing efficient policies, as well as for supporting bottom-up initiatives. The adopted methodology is based on a survey at national level that was implemented through a structured questionnaire, conducted in May 2022.

TEACHERS’ RIGHT TO HEALTH IN THE POLICY DEBATES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN HUNGARY AND ROMANIA

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, governments worldwide suspended face-to-face education in schools to manage the spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus. Romania and Hungary were not exceptional in this regard during the first wave of the pandemic. However, further along, the two countries’ policy pathways strongly diverged. Hungary strategized keeping schools open to ensure parents could attend to their employment obligations. Romania suspended face-to-face education in schools for long periods. The paper looks at these two national cases through a Critical Frame Analysis (Dombos et al., 2012) of education policy debates during the initial three waves of the pandemic (March 2020 – July 2021). It answers the question: How were the health rights of teachers and the health crisis in education framed in the education policy debates during the Covid-19 pandemic? Policy documents and policy related position documents by non-government actors were selected by country experts from both countries and coded inductively looking at the right to education, the right to health, and the relationship between economic activities and education. We present our findings concerning how teachers’ rights to health are featured in the policy debates between the government, oppositional political parties, trade unions and other stakeholders. Finally, we use our analysis to point to recommendations addressing the complex challenge of equally ensuring vulnerable pupils’ rights to education and teachers’ rights to health through coherent crisis management policies.

Coordinative Discourse of Strategic Sovereignty Tilting the European Union’s Institutional Balance

The article studies how a discursive contestation among the EU institutions (the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union) of the concept of "strategic sovereignty" ("strategic autonomy") affects the institutional balance among them. Institutional balance is a dynamic process in which institutions challenge each other's authority. This process is conceptualized in the article in terms of discursive neo-institutionalism as a coordinative discourse, which forms, challenges and justifies the idea of “strategic sovereignty”. The article uses the cases of the EU industrial, trade policy, and the common security and defense policy to demonstrate the changing institutional balance.The results of the study show that the main institutional beneficiary of "strategic sovereignty" is the European Commission. Most likely, there will be a strengthening of the Council, which reserves broad powers in crisis management and foreign policy. The position of the Parliament is ambivalent: although the growth of its institutional weight is possible, it will depend both on the Parliament’s own initiatives and on whether the European Commission will succeed at communitarizing new issues and spheres. The findings demonstrate that under crisis, the institutional balance of the EU will continue to tilt in favor of the supranational level of regulation.

La libertà di culto ai tempi della pandemia da SARS-CoV-2. Standard di tutela in Italia, Francia e Belgio

SOMMARIO: 1. Premessa - 2. L’adozione delle misure di contenimento tra uguale tempestività e diversità procedurale - 3. Sostanziale uniformità dei provvedimenti - 4. Reazioni diverse alle misure restrittive da parte dei gruppi religiosi e delle associazioni filosofiche non confessionali - 5. Osservazioni conclusive.
 Freedom of worship in the time of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Standard of protection in Italy, France and Belgium
 ABSTRACT: the contribution intends to analyze, through a comparative key, the operational strategies adopted by the Belgian, French and Italian governments and the responses of religious groups affected by the restrictive measures of freedom of worship. The choice of these three States - Belgium, France, Italy - is motivated by the specificity of their models of relations between the State and the religious phenomenon; it allows a perspective view able to offer constructive food for thought. The analysis does not claim to be exhaustive, since the pandemic situation is, unfortunately, still evolving, which makes crisis management policies susceptible to sudden changes and adaptations.

Communicating health-related risks to non-Arabic-speakers in Qatar: policies and practices

ABSTRACT This study examines policies adopted by the government of Qatar for the communication of essential information during crises, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, to residents who do not speak Arabic – the official language of Qatar. A set of relevant official documents are examined for their discussion and utilisation of ‘translation’ and related activities and policies, including Qatar’s policies on the use of Arabic as an official language and its efforts to improve multilingual communication in published laws, regulations, and policies. Additionally, the utilisation of social media by Qatari authorities to disseminate essential COVID-19 information to non-Arabic-speaking residents is assessed: information from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook posted by six official bodies is used to assess public engagement and interaction (shares, likes, retweets, replies, and comments) with COVID-19-related posts. The study finds that translation and other methods related to multilingual communication are not unambiguously defined in Qatar’s crisis management policies. The Qatari government needs to formulate more effective methods for using translation on social media as an emergency management tool to communicate with non-Arabic speaking residents during the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises.

Changes in the crisis management policy – a case study of Poland

This article aims to provide insights into the research conducted in 2019 when recommendations for changes in the Act on Crisis Management in Poland were formulated and to evaluate the changes introduced in the form of an amendment to the Act on Crisis Management in 2020. The research presented in the article is based on the assessment of the recommendations formulated by the authors in 2019 according to the trends in public crisis management (New Public Management, Public Governments) made in comparison to the literature in this area. The practical part of the presented research consists of a comparative analysis in four categories (General, Risk, Critical Infrastructure, Other) and a discussion of the compliance of the formulated recommendations with the changes in the amended act in 2020. The research showed that the recommendations formulated in 2019 were accurate, especially in the categories of Risk and Critical Infrastructure. The recommendations in the General category relate to the concept of security at the state level, but not to this law on crisis management and thus appear to be neutral. In the theoretical context, compliance of individual recommendations with the trends in public management was indicated.

INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION ON PERFORMANCE OF BAR AND RESTAURANT BUSINESSES IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA DURING COVID-19 CRISIS

<p>The recent Covid-19 crisis has wreaked havoc on the performance of businesses in the whole world. The most hit is the hospitality industry, especially the bar & restaurant businesses, which are considered high human density areas. This study sought to examine the influence of technology & innovation as a survival strategy on the performance of bars & restaurants in Nairobi County, Kenya, in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The study was based on diffusion of innovation theory and business resilience theory. The population under study was a total of 6,383 licensed bar & restaurant businesses in Nairobi County. The study adopted a survey design and a sample of 100 dive bars & restaurants that was representative of the whole population was selected. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression models and used textual explanation, and charts to present the results. The study achieved a response rate of 89%, which was sufficient for generalization. The study found that the crisis had a major negative impact on profitability, staff reputation, supplier relationship, compliance and public reputation. It also noted that there was a loss of jobs and revenue from the establishments due to the crisis. The study noted that technology & innovation had a significant negative influence on business performance when adopted during a crisis. The study recommended that the government consider allocating a stimulus package to cushion businesses during the crisis as the finding noted the loss of revenue and massive job losses in the sector. Secondly, the government and investors should have a general crisis management policy for bar & restaurant businesses during the crisis as the study noted that performance was affected negatively attributable to non-preparedness or lack of policy. The study further recommended that the investors adopt mission-critical strategies earlier in their business cycle as opposed to adopting them only during a crisis, as the study noted that adopting rush strategies does not yield any positive influence on the performance. For the scholars, the study also recommended a further exploratory study on more factors influencing the performance of bar & restaurant businesses during crisis so that the subsequent studies will have an exhaustive list of strategies to examine.</p><p> </p><p><strong>JEL</strong>: L10; L20; J10</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0947/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Model Analysis of Effective Factors on the Implementation of Crisis Management Policies

INTRODUCTION: Crisis management maintains security, stability, and flexibility in society by integrating different social resources with appropriate decisions and strengthening the ability of the community to recover from the negative impacts. Therefore, the present study aimed to conduct a model analysis of effective factors in implementing crisis management policies. METHODS: The present study is a descriptive survey research with a mixed methods design. A total of 18 experts were non-randomly and purposefully selected for the qualitative section based on expertise and availability. In addition, 248 individuals were selected from managers and experts (658 people) of the National Disaster Management Organization of Iran and partner organizations for the quantitative section based on Krejcie and Morgan Table using Cochran's formula and simple random sampling. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire including 33 factors affecting the implementation of crisis management policy, the content validity of which was confirmed by professors, and its reliability by Cronbach's alpha test (α = 0.89). Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software and the AHP method was used to prioritize the factors. FINDINGS: Findings indicated that 33 components in the form of structural, organizational, environmental, and management factors, as well as financial and human resources, uniform practices, communication, information, and inter-organizational coordination, regulations, and policy implementers successfully affect the implementation of crisis management policies. Structural, organizational, and environmental factors significantly affect the implementation of policies. CONCLUSION: Defining the responsibilities of partner organizations as well as developing transparency and designing specific goals contribute to the successful implementation of crisis management policies.

A Machine-Learning Analysis of the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Small Business Owners and Implications for Canadian Government Policy Response.

This study applies a machine-learning technique to a dataset of 38,000 textual comments from Canadian small business owners on the impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Topic modelling revealed seven topics covering the short- and longer-term impacts of the pandemic, government relief programs and loan eligibility issues, mental health, and other impacts on business owners. The results emphasize the importance of policy response in aiding small business crisis management and offer implications for theory and policy. Moreover, the study provides an example of using a machine-learning–based automated content analysis in the fields of crisis management, small business, and public policy.

Lockdown and voting behaviour: a natural experiment on postponed elections during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The goal of this paper is to study the electoral impact of crisis management policies. With this aim, we exploit a natural experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic in France to evaluate the effect of the lockdown on voting behaviour. In particular, the country has been divided in two areas, red and green, subject to a ‘hard’ and a ‘soft’ lockdown, respectively. To measure voting behaviour, before and after the policy, we rely on the 2020 French municipal elections: the first round took place before the introduction of the restrictions, while the second round was delayed after the end of the lockdown. We estimate a spatial regression-discontinuity-design model comparing electoral outcomes around the border of red and green areas both in the second round and between the two electoral rounds. The main results suggest that lockdown regulations significantly affected voting outcomes. First, in localities under a harder lockdown, the incumbent’s vote share is higher. Second, voter turnout is larger where more stringent restrictions are adopted. These results suggest that lockdown policy mobilizes citizens and leads them to rally around the incumbent politicians.

Crisis Management Policy and Financial Performance - The Mediating Effect of Government Assistance and Cash Holding: Evidence from Italy

This research aims to investigate the main drivers of financial performance during the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly the role of national government and firm policy in relation to the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on firms' performance. A generalized linear model (GLM) has been conducted to test the influence of government assistance and cash holding on the financial performance of 79 firms listed in FTSE Italia over 2020. Likewise, our research adopts the Second Stage Least Squares Method (2SLS) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to examine the moderating effect of cash held on the association between COVID-19 outbreak and firms' performance. Our results suggest that the Italian government aids their firms during the COVID-19 outbreak to support their financial performance, and firms themselves increase the level of cash holding to continue their operations as a crisis management policy to face the COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, cash holding as a moderator weakens the negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the financial firms' performance. Therefore, during the COVID-19 outbreak, national governments and firms should consider a crisis management policy to reduce the negative effects on the firms' performance, mainly government financial assistance and cash holdings to sustain firms' operations during the outbreak.

In the Eye of the Storm: A Quantitative and Qualitative Account of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Dutch Home Healthcare

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected healthcare delivery across the world. However, little is known about COVID-19’s impact on home healthcare (HHC) services. Our study aimed to: (1) describe the changes in volume and intensity of HHC services and the crisis management policies implemented; (2) understand the responses and the experiences of HHC staff and clients. We conducted an explanatory sequential mixed methods study. First, retrospective client data (N = 43,495) from four Dutch HHC organizations was analyzed. Second, four focus group interviews were conducted for the strategic, tactical, operational, and client levels of the four HHC organizations. Our results showed that both the supply of and demand for Dutch HHC decreased considerably, especially during the first wave (March–June 2020). This was due to factors such as fear of infection, anticipation of a high demand for COVID-19-related care from the hospital sector, and lack of personal protective equipment. The top-down management style initially applied made way for a more bottom-up approach in the second wave (July 2020–January 2021). Experiences vary between levels and waves. HHC organizations need more responsive protocols to prevent such radical scaling-back of HHC in future crises, and interventions to help HHC professionals cope with crisis situations.