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This chapter provides personal (auto-ethnographic) reflections on the career as a business leader in the software-development space and insights into the formation of an authentic leader. The author reviews his journey that led to running a leading video game developer at a valuation of $190 million with 1,200+ staff across 10 locations in eight countries and an array of global clients. Pohontu considers the social, economic, political and psychological elements that shaped his business methodology and discusses how he translated these into a mode of leadership. The development of foresight – a concept that emerged from the author's story – may be of interest to researchers looking to explore diverse leader contexts through theoretical lenses to achieve a greater understanding.

This paper explores how fire and rescue services in England responded to the challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the form and nature of fire and rescue services’ collaborations with the ambulance, police and other services and how effective their emergency planning arrangements prepared them for the pandemic.

The authors briefly set out the background to the emergency services response to recent events of national significance in the UK and North America, focussing on the collaborative aspects of the emergency services response. The authors then examine three sets of secondary sources, namely documents specifically related to Fire and Rescue Services’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.

All three investigations found that the pandemic had provided an opportunity for issues relating to planning and collaboration to be re-examined and for the emergence of new innovations (both technological and organisational) to provide new responses and solutions. Although the Inspectorate found that the services had generally responded well, it controversially criticised the role of the Fire Brigades Union in the national and local response to the pandemic.

The research is situationally bound to England although there may be transferable lessons to other services and jurisdictions.

Potential future improvements are identified at national and local levels for policy and for the operational response to widespread and long-term emergencies.

England has had very few contemporary public health emergencies on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic; this research presents an important opportunity for seeking to understand what is working well and where improvements are required to improve both the local and national response in relation to such a complex and dynamic environment.

This article seeks to discuss trust within the context of public health crises using an autopoietic systems perspective that positions communication as one of its core concepts. This article will explore trust studies conducted during public health crises in this Millennium (from SARS to COVID-19 pandemics), including their problems; briefly summarize Luhmann's concept of Vertrauen; and use this concept to analyze trust issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article will explore trust studies conducted during public health crises from SARS to COVID-19 pandemics, including their problems. The perspective used is an explication of Niklas Luhmann's theory regarding Vertrauen which was derived as a framework for reading empirical facts on trust issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design and exploration stages were inspired by the theory of autopoiesis systems by Niklas Luhmann.

From a systems perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extraordinary complexity of the linkages between social systems. Trust will continue to evolve dynamically as new variants emerge in society. Consequently, the pandemic has provided the momentum necessary for maximally exploring the concept of trust. Indonesia thus experienced significant obstacles when making and implementing disaster mitigation policies. Owing to the lack of a trust system, greater emphasis was given to control and power. There has been little preparedness to create and reinforce public trust, and this in turn has stifled efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.

This study of trust, communication and public health crises has provided space to reflect on the development of trust within the social system. This study shows that trust can prove to be a very important factor in resolving a crisis. However, the complexity of the interrelationships of the social system can affect the quality of trust. The context of Indonesia's social system which is very complex due to population density and the dynamics of the development of its social system which is very diverse as an archipelagic country has contributed to the originality of the study of trust in times of crisis in a growing contemporary society.

The present study investigated the impact of earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty on accounting comparability in an emerging economy and the moderating role of COVID-19 pandemic for the companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).

The data about 181 companies during 2014–2021 were examined. In this study, accounting comparability was predicted for the firms' accounting systems and the coefficient estimates were calculated. The present study used the coefficient of variation of sales to capture sales volatility as the primary environmental uncertainty measure.

The results showed that both the earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty have a significant negative effect on accounting comparability, and that COVID-19 significantly increases the negative impact of earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty on accounting comparability. The hypothesis testing based on robust, GLS, GMM, GLM, OLS regressions and t+1 test confirmed these results.

The present study aimed to develop knowledge-providing benefits for companies about the accounting comparability and managing more efficient decisions. The present findings help investors to understand and evaluate the performance of firms more accurately especially in earnings volatility and environmental uncertainty conditions and in the wake of a pandemic crisis such as COVID-19.

The concept of “Workplace Spirituality (WPS)” in the field of management has gained great interest in the last decade, especially due to its connection with profitability. There has been a rapid increase in research related to the topic. It is assumed that employees who spend a significant part of their time at work are willing to satisfy their spiritual needs at the workplace. Such unprecedented challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic have posed many difficulties for organizations to remain agile, develop and grow, and innovate to survive. At this very moment, the importance and meaning of WPS for managers appear to have increased even more. Workplace spirituality is related to motivation, belongingness, and loyalty, and the pandemic seems to have created significant issues concerning these topics with employees. Employees have been forced to work from home due to prolonged restrictions and have faced difficulties in returning to work post-pandemic. Workplace spirituality has the potential to help employees stay motivated in their work, increase their job performance, enhance job satisfaction, and improve their mental health during this difficult period. Organizations can support their employees by implementing different practices to develop workplace spirituality. In this article, approaches to satisfy the spiritual needs of employees post-pandemic, and the efforts of workplaces to meet these needs, are examined with insights from theoretical and practical life.

In a fast-paced and hypercompetitive environment, organizational members are awash with paradoxes where they are forced to accomplish opposing goals simultaneously (“both/and”) instead of choosing one over the other (“either/or”). The literature has acknowledged paradox as a common type of contradiction in managing information and information technology (IT), but few studies have investigated how individuals can leverage paradoxical tensions. Drawing upon paradox theory, this study develops a research model that embodies a “both/and” paradigm in paradoxical tensions via analytical alignment, a paradox mindset and resilience under environmental dynamism.

This study examines the research model using hierarchical regression analysis with 308 analytics experts.

Empirical results find that the alignment of analytical technology and data-driven culture (AT-2DC) has a positive effect on a paradox mindset. Results also show that a paradox mindset has a positive influence on resilience. AT-2DC alignment also mediates the relationship between paradox mindset and resilience. In addition, AT-2DC alignment is more critical to a paradox mindset under a high level of environmental dynamism.

This study sheds light on how individuals can leverage paradoxical tensions with a “both/and” perspective and stay resilient when managing opposing demands and changes.

The threat of cybercrime is pervasive. Corporations cannot be convinced, out of sheer luck or naïve conviction, that they will remain unaffected. When targeted, the stark reality is that a company also incurs a liability risk. This paper aims to explore the boundaries of liability resulting from a data breach and privacy concerns according to the emerging regulations on cybersecurity.

The nature of cybercrime and its constant evolution is analysed as a threat of liability. Its distinctly modern developments require consideration. In response to the threat of hackers, the protection that a corporation can invoke is also considered as a mitigating factor in ascribing liability.

Preventative steps to protect a corporation from cyberthreats must remain a consistent priority in the running of a company. The influence of human behaviour has become a foreseeable element in cybersecurity and as such the management of unreliable user behaviour is a key determining factor in ascribing liability in hindsight.

Foresight is everything in the prevention of cyberattacks. Cyberattacks can no longer be dismissed as an unlikely eventuality. Legislation on data security and data privacy is demanding higher standards of preventative action, under the duty of care to stakeholders. There is a substantial literature deficit on data security and data liability regulations in light of the liability risk incurred by cyberattacks.

In this chapter, the author explains the three components of Trilogy of Taoist Leadership – responsible business, responsible management and responsible leadership. The concepts of business, management and leadership are defined from multiple angles, including an etymological perspective. The historical origins and evolution of these three areas are explored to provide a comprehensive understanding. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the interconnections among the trilogy's components and illustrates how the trilogy can contribute to the development of sustainable organizations.

This study mainly aims to explore the impact of management practices and managerial behavioral attributes on credit rating quality in Tehran Stock Exchange.

In this study, 214 firms were assessed from 2014 to 2020. The credit rating quality was measured through Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution and the entropy weighting method. In accordance with the theoretical literature, managerial entrenchment, managerial myopia, managerial overconfidence and managerial narcissism were considered as the managerial attributes. Furthermore, to examine management practices, cash flow management and accrual management were explored.

The results of this study showed that the cash flow from operations management and the accrual management has a significant positive effect on the credit rating quality. The managerial entrenchment, managerial narcissism and managerial myopia have significant negative effects on credit rating quality, while the effect of managerial overconfidence on credit rating quality is not significant.

Understanding the factors that affect the credit rating quality is of a great importance. Considering the significance of cash management in the present era and the impact of managerial psychological and behavioral characteristics in the development of the organization, empirical results of this study can help investors, capital market regulators and other stakeholders to strengthen the firm and better decisions.