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The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a multi‐agent system (MAS) used to simulate a crisis response organization.

Following an agent‐based approach, the model is developed using the GAIA methodology and implemented in the Java Agent Development framework.

The GAIA methodology can be combined with an additional GAIA2JADE process to bridge the gap between design and implementation. Keeping the MAS organization separate from the crisis scenario model enables testing different configurations of the crisis response organization in different scenarios.

The simulation model is provided as proof of concept along with preliminary experiments. Additional detailed experiments and validation are ongoing.

The model can be configured differently to deal with an emergency scenario developed separately, providing a test bed for simulating coordination in crisis response. Such simulation forms the basis for exploring different coordination mechanisms and can also be adapted and extended for training and decision support.

The characteristics of the response organization and the study of structured vs emergent coordination fit with the capabilities and nature of a MAS. The structure and process are useful for modelling similar ad hoc, multidisciplinary organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to understand blog users’ negative emotional norm compliance decision-making in crises (blog users’-NNDC).

A belief–desire–intention (BDI) model to evaluate the blog users’-NNDC (the BDI-NNDC model) was developed. This model was based on three social characteristics: self-interests, expectations and emotions. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the BDI-NNDC model by using data retrieved from a popular Chinese social network called “Sina Weibo” about three major crises.

The BDI-NNDC model strongly predicted the Blog users’-NNDC. The predictions were as follows: a self-interested blog user posted content that was targeting his own interests; a blogger with high expectations wrote and commented emotionally negative blogs on the condition that the numbers of negative posts increased, while he ignored the norm when there was relatively less negative emotional news; and an emotional blog user obeyed the norm based on the emotional intentions of the blogosphere in most of the cases.

The BDI-NNDC model can explain the diffusion of negative emotions by blog users during crises, and this paper shows a way to bridge the social norm modelling and the research of blog users’ activity and behaviour characteristics in the context of “real life” crises. However, the criterion for differentiating blog users according to social characteristics needs to be further revised, as the generalizability of the results is limited by the number of cases selected in this study.

The current method could be applied to predict emotional trends of blog users who have different social characteristics and it could support government agencies to build strategic responses to crises.

This paper supports the creation of normative models and engineering methods to predict blog users’-NNDC and mitigate their effect in real-world crises.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the current practices of simulation exercises in Korea and to make desirable recommendations for the future of Korean simulations to increase their learning effectiveness.

This paper employs a case study strategy, and the data collection methods include documentary research, qualitative interviews, and participation observation. Three representative simulation exercises were observed: the Keungogae Subway Counter Terrorism Exercise 2009, the Safe Korea 2010 Earthquake Exercise, and the Safe Korea 2010 Subway Fire Exercise.

The current practices of simulation exercises in Korea can be categorised into four main themes: top-level commitment and support; repeating training through rehearsals; box seats, ill-structured scenario scripts, and a lack of adaptation; and podium and speech-based debriefing.

Korean simulation exercises need to allow adaptation and diversion to take place, encouraging communication and discussion between exercise players. Furthermore, ensuing after-action reviews (debriefs) should be a discussion-orientated rather than evaluation-orientated to promote individual and organisational learning. The empirical findings and resulting recommendations of this paper can help Korean exercise planners to change their current flawed practices into evidence-based ones, setting a new direction for an effective simulation exercise model.

This study is the first empirical research to investigate simulation exercises in Korea and to highlight their problems.

The best way to prepare an organization for a crisis is to start with the training and work backwards to the development of a manual, because crisis management calls for an instinctive understanding of the psychologies involved and a high degree of flexibility. Outlines a typical development programme to prepare an organization for a major crisis. Describes how to sell such a course to a management already committed to first preparing a plan and the author′s approach as trainer.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the danger period which extends before a crisis and to position issue management as an effective crisis prevention discipline.

The paper explores scholarship regarding the developing concept of active pre‐crisis management, the growing acceptance of crisis management as an integrated process and the implications of this holistic approach in providing opportunities for proactive intervention.

While crisis preparedness and prevention have become established as integral parts of organizational crisis management, there is no agreement on taxonomy and no accepted optimal process to formalize the methodology to deliver effective strategies.

After identifying and characterizing this gap in management research, the paper nominates issue management as an optimal option and identifies four broad areas where issue management can contribute to crisis prevention.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of organizational crisis and organizational change management and to provide a guide to crisis prevention, management and recovery by highlighting critical actions to be taken during each stage of an organizational crisis. A second aim is to compare the crisis management of two financial firms during the 2007 financial crisis: Lehman Brothers and Paulson & Company.

The methodology involved a review of the literature and a case analysis related to organizational crisis and organizational change management. The synthesis of these two approaches is a conceptual paper. Furthermore, the article is supplemented by comparing the management of the 2007 financial crisis by both Lehman Brothers and Paulson & Company in an attempt to compare the literature findings to a global organizational crisis.

The literature suggests that organizations with early crisis detection methods and crisis management plans already in place before the onset of a crisis are significantly better prepared to manage and survive a crisis event. In addition, these better prepared organizations have the opportunity to reposition themselves and turn a crisis event into a strategic opportunity. This is evident in the authors' comparisons of both Lehman Brothers' and Paulson & Company's different management of the 2007 financial crisis.

The demand for crisis management is on the rise as the 2007 financial crisis exposed the lack of preparedness among financial institutions, challenged the assumptions crisis management plans were based on and required a regulatory transformation of financial markets. Surviving firms are recovering and learning from the crisis as their crisis management proved to be ineffective.

The scope of this paper offers readers a guide to organizational crisis management, supplemented with examples from a financial crisis that affected almost every organization in the world and from which many organizations are still recovering. Any organization, regardless of industry, can benefit from the guide presented in this research. Moreover, the framework of this paper can enable practitioners to formulate and improve their organization's crisis management plans and capabilities.

Cultures don’t clash … people do. Hidden below the veil of “incompatible cultures” is a complex network of human-to-human interaction involving information-exchange transactions that have gone awry. The multitude of these troubled exchanges results in what is often branded as “M&A failure, due to culture conflict.”

This chapter presents a theoretical discussion that features practical dynamics of the post-merger integration (PMI) process. The aim is to cultivate a deeper understanding of critical, less-acknowledged micro-level aspects of the post-merger integration stage, specifically, those which underlie the development and maintenance of an organization’s culture and lead to organization performance. It is the unseen information exchange among human actors that leads to the perceptible post-merger outcomes, such as cultural unity and task performance. The quality of these micro-exchanges leads to the value capture from the M&A transaction, thus determining the success – or not – of the combination.

Presented is a synthesis of numerous existing theories, perspectives, and ideas from various scholarly communities, combined with a drill-down to the basic human interactions that define a culture and lead to positive performance. Information flow is the sustenance of an organization, so when merging organizations restructure the information flow is abruptly disrupted, often at pronounced near-term cost. The information-flow channels must be mended for social unification and performance value goals of the combined organization to be realized. The information-transporting social networks of the organizational actors must therefore adapt and intermingle across the old-organizational faultlines. This is accomplished when individual actors alter their personal social networks and retool themselves for a new set of information-exchange interactions.

In closing, the author counsels managers to focus on the dyadic information exchange of their direct-reports as an actionable approach to PMI management. The chapter concludes by pointing researchers toward studying the micro-level aspects of PMI and offers computer modeling and simulation, and laboratory experiments as effective ways to study PMI dynamics at the micro-level of organization behavior. Such methods may also lead to an ability to forecast outcomes of specific post-merger integration scenarios.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer, who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

As cyclones, hurricanes, floods and fires wreak havoc with communities round the world, the warnings that global warming might make the weather even worse and less predictable are at last being recognized by even the most stubborn of “head‐in‐the‐sand” optimists. So how do you stay in business if you are flooded out, burned down or blown away? Surely you have a plan?

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

The current paper contributes to the vigorous debate about policies and regulations that would shield financial markets' participants from future events of the financial turmoil. In doing so, the paper aims to broaden the picture of the financial crisis contagion and set it against the background of contemporary European markets. The main purpose of this paper is to present novel aspects of the financial crisis contagion, hence clarifying the contagion theory that still remains confusing and ambiguous for both the academics and financial markets' practitioners.

The paper builds on a simulation model for the financial crisis contagion that is rooted in the qualitative query and backed by semi‐structured interviews with financial markets' participants who possess extensive knowledge about the functioning of European markets and their interconnectedness. With this in mind, the current paper adopts an international investor's perspective on implications that stem from the linkages between European financial markets, flawed regulations and the absence of cross‐border monitoring of the financial crisis contagion.

The findings constitute practical insights into the issues of the financial crisis contagion, hence providing useful advice on policies and regulations that could manage the cross‐market transmission of the financial turmoil and shield financial markets' participants from the episodes of financial crises in the future. The findings reported in this paper also present novel aspects of the contagion processes across the contemporary and systemically important financial markets in Europe.

The practical implications of the current paper gain in significance as the nascent financial crisis sparked off vigorous debate about the need for implementing regulations that would prevent financial markets' participants from the future episodes of global financial crises. At this point, the findings reported in the current paper might be of interest for policy makers and markets' authorities. In addition, the paper attempts to deliver findings that practitioners associated with the contemporary European financial markets would benefit from by understanding the linkages between these markets and ways the financial contagion spreads. Previously, little knowledge of ways financial crises spread across markets caused substantial losses that were incurred by investors.

The current paper addresses the issues of the financial crisis contagion that belong to the group of the most commonly referenced yet least understood notions in finance. Furthermore, the paper focuses on addressing the recently exposed fragility of financial markets' surveillance and regulations. In doing so, the paper employs a pioneering approach to a simulation of the financial crisis contagion by embarking on a qualitative query rather than empirical data. Henceforth, the limitations of the empirical simulations – experienced in the past studies devoted to investigation of the financial crisis contagion – were ameliorated and the findings presented in the paper became of practical use for the markets' practitioners and policymakers.

The U.S. has a deficit problem. Both political parties agree that the debt and the deficit must be addressed, but are at odds about how to do so. Worse still, there are members of both parties who make finding solutions difficult because of entrenched ideology. As we approach the second year of Congressional impasse, it appears that this crisis is far from over. It is little wonder that teaching students about this issue is difficult. There are myriad nuances and complexities that are challenging to get across to students through traditional means. Simulations are one way to introduce students to complex phenomena by allowing them to experience them. Simulations have proven to be effective teaching tools for addressing subjective experiences and fostering inquiry. Shifts in student dispositions also may occur with simulations. This paper walks the reader through an adaptation of the board game Monopoly to demonstrate how this simulation game can be used to teach students about the deficit crisis and debate from multiple perspectives across the socioeconomic spectrum.