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The purpose of this paper is to identify and gain a deeper understanding of environmental, organizational, and group conditions, and leadership-related issues in particular, in severely stressful situations involving a moral stressor faced by military and police officers.

A combined deductive and inductive approach was used, and in total 23 military and police officers, all having experience of morally difficult decisions during severely stressful conditions, were interviewed.

A hierarchical conceptual framework of contextual characteristics was developed. The environmental, organizational, leadership-related, and group aspects identified in this study on morally stressful situations resemble findings from general research on work and stress. However, a stronger emphasis was put on leaders’ handling of values and his or her ability to confront senior management when needed.

The results suggest that well-documented methods aimed at the prevention of, and recovery from, work-related stress, also can be used in the case of extreme situations involving moral stressors.

The interplay between leadership and extreme situations involving moral stressors is, to the best of the knowledge, understudied.

The purpose of this study was to investigate military officers’ perception of the implicit expectations the organisation has for the officer’s private life and what implications it may have for gender norms at the organisation, family and individual levels.

A qualitative approach, using an inductive thematic analysis, was performed. The data was based on 20 interviews with military officers, including 18 men and 2 women.

Two main themes, with three subsequent subthemes, were identified. These themes were interpreted as being necessary for the military officer to be able to manage organisational demands. The first included the implicit expectations the organisation had for the family. The three subthemes included the officer’s acceptance of frequent travel demands, adapting private life in accordance to organisational demands and picking a partner that matches the goals of the organisation. The second identified main theme included the military officer’s descriptions of implicit expectations the organisation held for the officer’s partner. Three subthemes were identified, including the partner’s need to be independent and psychologically strong, to take the main responsibility for managing family life and to engage in emotion work with the extended family.

The findings identify important perceptions that military officers have regarding the military’s expectations for their private life and the adaptive behaviors regularly performed. These adaptive behaviors allow the military officer to be able to engage in work that sustains the organisation.

The aim of this article is twofold: validation of a theoretical model of a civil contingencies agency management system, and methodological development by employing qualitative means for analysis.

The theoretical model to be validated serves as a starting point for a qualitative reanalysis of logic‐deductive character, aimed at verification of the pre‐existing theory that is already discovered and developed. Data from three previously published case studies were used as a frame of reference.

The theoretical model of a civil contingencies management system for disaster aid is validated in most respects. The qualitative testing for high trustworthiness proves reasonable with regard to selected reference studies.

The theoretical model of a civil contingencies agency management system for disaster aid was mostly confirmed and partly modified when being compared to empirical data and models from three previous case studies. Also, the qualitative approach to validating the theoretical model is, to the best knowledge of the authors, new.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper theoretical understanding of a civil contingencies agency that, as part of its ordinary task, executes humanitarian aid and rescue operations following disasters in an international milieu, from a management perspective.

The approach taken is a qualitative interview study using a grounded theory approach to analysis.

A theoretical model was developed consisting of a hierarchical system of codes, categories, and superior categories. One superior category labelled underlying conditions consists of factors influencing the operative organisation abroad, such as political rule, availability of financiers, and the everyday activities of the organisation. Another superior category labelled the operation contains the dimension of time (before, during, and after the operation). Two core variables underlying rationale and resource structure of the operation were identified, whereby underlying rationale may be efficiency and humanity‐related, whilst the resource structure of the operation consists of person‐related qualities and physical, administrative, and material‐logistic‐related qualities. A cross‐tabulation of these two core variables is the most developed part of the model.

In terms of providing evidence, the theoretical model has limited value, as it has been developed through a qualitative grounded theory approach. Thus, there is a need to test its universal applicability.

The findings may serve as a starting point for a better understanding of civil contingencies agencies from a management perspective and as such provide a theoretical instrument of analysis for improved humanitarian aid and rescue operations.

The theoretical model of a civil contingencies agency management system for disaster aid executing humanitarian aid and rescue operations within the frames of supranational or international organisations in an international milieu is new and can be regarded as a context‐specific contribution to complex system theory of organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the thesis “bad is stronger than good” also holds true for a number of leadership issues, more specifically: trust in the immediate leader, emotional exhaustion, work atmosphere and propensity to leave.

Questionnaire responses were obtained from military personnel in Estonia, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands (n=625).

Multiple regression analyses revealed a certain pattern. Constructive leadership behaviours showed stronger positive associations with trust in the immediate supervisor and work atmosphere, than destructive leadership behaviours showed negative associations. On the other hand, destructive leadership behaviours showed stronger positive associations with emotional exhaustion and propensity to leave, than constructive leadership behaviours showed negative associations. This suggests that constructive leadership behaviours possibly have a greater impact on positive phenomenon and/or phenomenon associated with work-related relationships. On the other hand, destructive leadership behaviours appear to have a greater impact on negative phenomena with a stronger personal meaning. The results also show that the passive forms of destructive leadership are the behaviours that had the strongest impact on the investigated dependent variables.

Limitations related to item construction, common method variance, response set tendencies, translation of the instruments, and lack of response rate are discussed.

The results emphasize the importance of focusing on both constructive and destructive leadership at the selection stage, as well as during training of military leaders. Focusing on them separately obstructs optimal leader development and prevents leaders from gaining authentic self-knowledge. The results also point at the importance of including both aspects of leadership in leader evaluation processes.

The use of both constructive and destructive leadership behaviours with respondents from multiple nations in the same analysis.

Supporting and communicating with citizens is a vital part of societal crisis management. Training exercises may offer an opportunity to develop capabilities among managers in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to examine this potential in an analysis of how citizens were portrayed and perceived by participants in a major crisis management exercise.

Observation, document analysis and short interviews during the exercise were used as data collection methods. Data were subjected to thematic analysis to capture core themes in relation to the research aim.

Patterns in how citizens’ reactions were portrayed in the exercise were identified to form a citizen behaviour typology. Observations during the exercise also demonstrated some of the challenges in incorporating the citizen perspective. However, findings regarding the perception of the citizen perspective also demonstrate the ability of exercise participants to meet and respond to public behaviours with respect and seriousness.

Variation is an important condition for learning in exercises, and the identified typology is suggested as a starting point for achieving this in incorporation of the citizen perspective in training scenarios. The results of the study are discussed in terms of a learning framework with the aim of explicitly developing crisis managers’ ability to interact and communicate with citizens in crisis situations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of a previously developed model of indirect leadership (qualitative Grounded Theory case study) in a broader military context.

The model was operationalised to specific questionnaires for high‐level managers, middle‐level managers, and lower‐level employees. Data were obtained from 147 Norwegian and 134 Swedish military officers, representing all three levels, and serving in the Army and Air Force respectively.

The theoretical model of indirect leadership was partly supported. Higher importance was attributed to image‐oriented top‐down influence, rather than to action‐oriented influence via directly subordinate commanders, which may be understood using developmental, transformational, and authentic leadership formulations. Meaningful patterns of subgroup differences were obtained.

Indirect leadership is complex and bottom‐up influences were not taken into account, not all aspects of the top‐down influence process were covered, only military contexts were studied, and no meaningful analysis of possible gender‐related differences was possible in this male‐dominated context.

The obtained support of the theoretical model legitimises its use as a tool in higher military management education and coaching.

The measurement tools of indirect leadership and the quantitatively based support of a Grounded Theory model with a how‐focus on indirect leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a short and easy to use yet psychometrically sound instrument designed to measure destructive leadership behaviours in a military context.

First, examples of destructive leadership behaviours in a military context were collected using a qualitative approach. Second, these examples were operationalised and pilot tested, which resulted in a 20‐item questionnaire called Destrudo‐L. Third, data were collected from three Swedish military groups (n=428). Dimensionality of the instrument was analysed using structural equation modelling. Conventional psychometric assessments of reliability and validity were performed.

A nested hierarchical model with a general factor and the following specific factors emerged: arrogant, unfair; threats, punishments, overdemands; ego‐oriented, false; passive, cowardly; and uncertain, unclear, messy. Meaningful subgroup differences and relationships with a criterion variable (lack of motivation/propensity to leave) were found. More use of active forms was reported by subordinates of younger military commanders and more use of passive forms was marked by subordinates of senior military managers.

The instrument is easy to administer and interpret (norm values are provided) and can be used in leader evaluation, as well as leader development, contexts.

The main contribution is methodological – the development of a new scale. Additional findings are a strong positive correlation between active and passive forms of destructive leadership behaviours in a military context, as well as significant differences between groups with different ranks.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a multinational survey on copyright literacy of specialists from libraries and other cultural institutions.

This paper is based on a multinational survey of copyright literacy competencies of Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals and those who work in the cultural heritage sector (archives and museums), conducted in 13 countries, namely Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (CR), Finland (FI), France (FR), Hungary (HU), Lithuania (LT), Mexico (MX), Norway (NO), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Turkey (TR), UK and USA in the period July 2013-March 2015. An online survey instrument was developed in order to collect data from professionals regarding their familiarity with, knowledge and awareness of, and opinions on copyright-related issues.

Findings of this study highlight gaps in existing knowledge of copyright, and information about the level of copyright literacy of LIS and cultural sector professionals. Also attitudes toward copyright learning content in academic education and continuing professional development training programs are investigated.

This study aimed to address a gap in the literature by encompassing specialists from the cultural institutions in an international comparative context. The paper offers guidance for further understanding of copyright in a wider framework of digital and information literacy; and for the implementation of copyright policy, and the establishment of copyright advisor positions in cultural institutions. The recommendations support a revision of academic and continuing education programs learning curriculum and methods.