Search results

To develop a theoretical understanding of leadership in stressful, complex rescue operations.

A grounded theory approach was used. Twenty rescue operation commanders from four complex rescue operations in Sweden were interviewed.

A model was developed which suggests that leadership in stressful, complex rescue operations can be understood as a causal process consisting of three broad time‐related categories. The pre‐operation everyday working conditions affect the leadership during rescue operations, which in turn affects the post‐operation everyday working conditions, etc. Everyday working conditions include training and exercises, previous mission experiences, personal knowledge of co‐actors, and organisational climate. The leadership during a complex rescue operation is affected by the leader's appraisal of the balance between what is at stake, human lives in particular, and the manageability of the situation. Patterns of stress reactions among rescue commanders and their leadership behaviour and managerial routines, were identified. Three problem areas were noted: role shifts during long‐lasting operations, staff work, and practical routines. The post‐operation conditions include the leader's evaluation of the outcome, organisational climate, and post‐event stress reactions.

Small sample, lack of representativeness, and lack of illumination of possible gender‐related aspects.

The model may be valuable in training and exercises with rescue operation commanders.

A new integrative, theoretical process model of leadership in complex, stressful rescue operations.

The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the methodology of developing rescue plans and the concepts of applying recommended response schedules in the context of the State Fire Service’s planning responsibilities (preparation) and public administration (reconciliation and approval), according to the legal order in force in Poland. In the proposed concept, recommended schedules are built on the basis of the matches and successes identified according to the criteria, i.e. the best carried out rescue actions from the register of reports.

The paper is based on the analysis of existing legal status and policy in Poland as well as the selected relevant academic literature.

The result is the formulation of a methodology for drawing up the rescue plans to the extent required by law and proposing a concept for the method of developing and applying recommended response schedules, supporting operational planning and conducting rescue operations.

The proposed methodology is to support the procedure of drawing up rescue plans by implying and implementing them into IT solutions. The suggested recommended response schedules, based on observations and conclusions from the analysis of the past rescue operations, may present circumstances and sequences of the use of forces and measures that have had beneficial effects in the past. An in-depth analysis of historical data from the conducted rescue operations may also be used to determine time indicators for the response phase.

The proposed solutions complement the methods currently used by public administration in Poland. The concept can also be inspiring for the State Fire Service (PSP) which has its own analytical tools in the form of a decision support system and registers of rescue operations carried out. The PSP may undertake the practical verification of the presented methodology for preparing rescue plans and recommended response schedules.

Business rescue, as a mechanism to aid financially distressed companies in South Africa, has received considerable academic and practical recognition. However, the business rescue plan is an overlooked and, perhaps, underdeveloped aspect of the regime. For stakeholders, this is the ultimate decision-making document. Creditors are the most influential stakeholders in business rescue proceedings owing to their voting rights. For creditors to make informed decisions and exercise their votes meaningfully, the business rescue plan should be transparent and adequately disclose relevant and reliable information. This study aims to identify creditors’ primary information needs to enhance the sufficiency and decision-usefulness of business rescue plans, not only to entice the vote of creditors but to enforce accountability from practitioners.

Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 executives from 10 South African financial institutions.

The findings reveal that comprehensive disclosure of financial, commercial and legal information in business rescue plans was a critical antecedent for stakeholder decision-making. Additionally, leadership and social impact information were influential determinants. This study advances academic knowledge and, for practitioners, adds value to the development of business rescue plans. This can enhance creditors' confidence in supporting the rescue effort and approving the plan.

This study advances academic knowledge and, for practitioners, adds value to the development of business rescue plans. This can enhance creditors' confidence in supporting the rescue effort and approving the plan.

The originality of this article lies in its investigation of how creditors assess the information in BR plans as a precursor to supporting the company’s reorganisation in a creditor-friendly business rescue system such as South Africa. This study provides novel insights into the decision-making process, particularly how creditors assess BR plans, address information asymmetry and vote on the plan.

Based on the perspective of knowledge management, this study aims to discuss how to build cross-city emergency management collaboration mechanism in major emergencies and explore the important role of knowledge management in emergency management collaboration.

Based on the theoretical analysis of knowledge management and the typical case study of cross-city emergency management collaborative rescue, this study provides an in-depth analysis of how these cities achieve high emergency management performance through multidimensional and multilevel knowledge collaboration, thus revealing the mechanism of knowledge transfer, integration and sharing in achieving high emergency management performance.

Through analyzing typical cases, this study finds that building a smooth mechanism for multichannel emergency rescue information can promote the diversification of knowledge transfer methods, building a platform-based integration mechanism for emergency rescue information can enhance knowledge integration capabilities and building a linkage mechanism for emergency rescue materials between cities can promote knowledge-sharing level, thereby improving emergency management performance level.

This study has great significance for how to build cross-city emergency management collaboration mechanism in the digital era. In the future, the authors need to further discuss the following two aspects in depth: research on the impact of cross-city emergency management collaboration mechanism on improving the knowledge management capabilities of government emergency management departments; and research on the impact mechanism of knowledge management capabilities on city resilience.

Through case analysis of cross-city emergency management collaborative rescue for major emergencies in China in recent years, this study proposes three specific strategies for cross-city emergency management (smooth, integration and linkage mechanisms) and reveals that these three strategies are essentially aimed at improving the government’s knowledge management level.

The success rate of business rescue in South Africa is concerningly low as it currently ranges between 10% and 12%. This study intends to make a positive contribution towards addressing this problem by obtaining insight from professional business rescue practitioners regarding the feasibility of making use of the practice of business rescue to assist South African state-owned enterprises to avoid them going into insolvency and indefinitely stopping operations. This study, which is a generic qualitative study, will rely solely on the experience and insights of the business rescue practitioners in order to obtain a better understanding of the problem at hand. Nine participants were interviewed during September and October 2020. The study found that business rescue practitioners are confident that the business rescue proceedings are a solution to preserving state-owned enterprises. However, the level of political interference by the unions, government officials, and also the continued bailouts from the government to support these state-owned entities are some concerns raised by the participants as they hinder the effectiveness of the proceedings with regard to state-owned enterprises. Academically, the study expands to the literature on business rescue in the context of state-owned enterprises and what challenges are hindering the process. For managers, the study identifies the key constraints which are most likely to be encountered when conducting business rescue proceedings in a state-owned enterprise which, if not observed, will negatively impact the success rate.

This chapter reviews the new inspectorate, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and the new Inspection Framework for Fire and Rescue Services in England. It will look at the antecedents of the inspectorate and the history of inspections in both the police and in the fire and rescue services. Prior to the Policing and Crime Act 2017, Fire and Rescue Services in England were without a dedicated independent inspectorate for almost 10 years and the government promised a new independent and a rigorous inspection regime. This chapter critically evaluates the government's response and the early development of the new regime.

In the attempt to address food insecurity and food waste, food rescue has been presented by advocates in high-income countries as an alternative model to conventional food banks. Although supermarkets and restaurants in industrialized nations – including New Zealand, the focus of my case study – are constantly stocked with 150–200% of surplus food over what it takes to nutritionally feed their populations (Stuart, 2012), they continue to report high rates of food insecurity, such as in New Zealand where just 60.8% of households report being fully food secure (NZ Ministry of Health, 2019). To explore one approach to food security initiatives in urban areas, I conducted a nine-week ethnographic case study of Kaibosh Food Rescue, a non-profit food aid initiative in Wellington, New Zealand, which collects and redistributes ‘food waste’. By following the food through its social life and interviewing an array of stakeholders, I found that once food is declared as ‘waste’ by supermarkets, in its afterlife rescued food continues to embody multiple values. I argue that not only does this rescued food still hold much nutritional value, but it can also create social spaces, facilitate action and help empower recipients, all of which were facilitated by the presence of food that in the commercial food industry realm was declared to have no value.

Although it is widely acknowledged that health care delivery systems are complex adaptive systems, there are gaps in understanding the application of systems engineering approaches to systems analysis and redesign in the health care domain. Commonly employed methods, such as statistical analysis of risk factors and outcomes, are simply not adequate to robustly characterize all system requirements and facilitate reliable design of complex care delivery systems. This is especially apparent in institutional-level systems, such as patient safety programs that must mitigate the risk of infections and other complications that can occur in virtually any setting providing direct and indirect patient care. The case example presented here illustrates the application of various system engineering methods to identify requirements and intervention candidates for a critical patient safety problem known as failure to rescue. Detailed descriptions of the analysis methods and their application are presented along with specific analysis artifacts related to the failure to rescue case study. Given the prevalence of complex systems in health care, this practical and effective approach provides an important example of how systems engineering methods can effectively address the shortcomings in current health care analysis and design, where complex systems are increasingly prevalent.