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This paper is an exploratory study of one approach to incorporating situational information into information retrieval systems, drawing on principles and methods of discourse linguistics. A tenet of discourse linguistics is that texts of a specific type possess a structure above the syntactic level, which follows conventions known to the people using such texts to communicate. In some cases, such as literature describing work done, the structure is closely related to situations, and may therefore be a useful representational vehicle for the present purpose. Abstracts of empirical research papers exhibit a well‐defined discourse‐level structure, which is revealed by lexical clues. Two methods of detecting the structure automatically are presented: (i) a Bayesian probabilistic analysis; and (ii) a neural network model. Both methods show promise in preliminary implementations. A study of users' oral problem statements indicates that they are not amenable to the same kind of processing. However, from in‐depth interviews with users and search intermediaries, the following conclusions are drawn: (i) the notion of a generic research script is meaningful to both users and intermediaries as a high‐level description of situation; (ii) a researcher's position in the script is a predictor of the relevance of documents; and (iii) currently, intermediaries can make very little use of situational information. The implications of these findings for system design are discussed, and a system structure presented to serve as a framework for future experimental work on the factors identified in this paper. The design calls for a dialogue with the user on his or her position in a research script and incorporates features permitting discourse‐level components of abstracts to be specified in search strategies.

Prior research on the police decision to use deadly force has tended to neglect multivariate relationships, particularly at the situational level. This paper makes use of data describing deadly force incidents in Philadelphia during two time periods (1970‐1978 and 1987‐1992) and employs multivariate analyses to identify situational predictors of police shootings involving gun‐assaultive suspects. Findings from the multivariate analyses are then used in a pilot effort to develop predictive risk classifications of deadly force incidents. Identification of predictors of deadly force is helpful not only in assessing the relative contributions of situational variables but also in shaping our understanding of the behavior of line officers who are forced, by the nature of their work, to make split‐second decisions involving life and liberty with minimal guidance and support from the police department.

The study demonstrates the viability of situational segmentation in a market outside the USA. A number of situational segmentation studies in the USA have examined the snacking market. This study examines situational segmentation opportunities in the context of the Japanese snacking market. The study attempts to delineate a situationally‐defined market structure for a broadly defined array of snack products. This is done by characterizing 18 snacks in terms of pertinent situational factors via dummy variable regression analysis; and grouping the snacks in terms of the similarity of their situational characterizations via cluster analysis. The study reveals four multi‐product snack segments, including solitary snacking cluster, socializing ensemble cluster, high gravity socialization cluster, and morning home snack. The results show that situational segmentation is as effective in complementing more traditional segmentation approaches in Japan as it is in the USA.

This paper reports the use of situational analysis as a systems methodology to evaluate the voices of independence change and empowerment in the Stoke-on-Trent (VOICES) partnership project.

Using situational analysis and drawing on a range of secondary data sources, a three-stage conceptual mapping process provided a detailed picture of both the non-linear interlinkage and complexity of the local system that VOICES was working to influence, as well as the processes that shaped the experiences of those who act within the situation.

Data highlighted the systemic challenges facing VOICES customers (e.g. stigma and marginalisation and lack of legal literacy), progress made by VOICES in each of their priority areas and an overarching theme of VOICES promoting equity (rather than equality) to address failure demand in the system of support for people with multiple needs and disadvantage.

The authors present the novel application of situational analysis to demonstrate a substantial impact of VOICES while demonstrating the value of this methodology for complex systems thinking research and evaluation.

Most research related to consumer choice of retailers emphasizes retailer attributes and/or consumer characteristics. Since many retail formats, including online retailing, have emerged in recent years, knowledge of how consumers select retail formats must be updated. A source of influence that has been examined to a very limited extent for store retailers but not for emerging retail formats is situational influence. From a modern interactionism perspective, this study investigates the influence of situational as well as consumer and retailer factors on preference for online, catalog, and store formats. Key results show that situational factors have significant influence on online and catalog format selection and perceptions of attributes that are crucial to that selection.

The role that effective maintenance management plays in contributing to overall organizational productivity has received increased attention. Presents the development of a situational maintenance model that may be used to analyse and design the elements of a maintenance system. The situational approach to maintenance builds on contingency theory and considers both internal and external corporate dynamics. Using ideas from total productive maintenance (TPM), discusses how this model may be used to link corporate goals with maintenance policies. Defines design variables for maintenance systems that include the perspectives of individual behaviour, decision support systems, management systems and organizational structure, and corporate culture.

In this study, the authors explored the situation of the doctoral candidate in the social sciences as they were confronted by crisis and forced to make changes to their dissertation research plans. The authors conceptualized this as a methodological pivot, or an unexpected shift in trajectory, in which candidates engaged and that culminated in new research plans.

Using situational analysis, a form of qualitative grounded theory, the authors conducted interviews and collected extant artifacts to understand the situations of the candidate engaged in the pivot. The analysis produced a situational map and a grounded theorizing. The authors also bound the analysis by a specific time period: the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.

The grounded theorizing evidenced stages of pivoting, reflected as an internal process of grieving. Participants also endured external institutional impediments around programmatic support, funding and policy. Each internal and external situation exerted some degree of pressure on the candidate’s pivot. Technology and its impact on fieldwork, methodological assets and epistemological shifts mediated internal and external situations to produce the pivot.

This work is unique in that it expands on the field of study and practice that has emerged from the complexity of crisis in education, situated predominantly in lower to middle-income countries. In higher income countries, like the USA, educational institutions remain unprepared for crisis. This work underscores this paucity. The authors also build on the literature that addresses the challenges graduate learners face with support and its implications for persistence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore situational influences on customers' actual choice between self‐service and personal service and to examine the impact of past experiences on self‐service technology (SST) attitudes and behavior.

A supermarket self‐checkout machine is the SST under investigation. A mixed qualitative research design was used and a total of 209 observations and 47 interviews were obtained from customers in five supermarket stores in Australia.

Perceived waiting time, perceived task complexity, and companion influence are the three situational factors that impact on a customer's actual choice between self‐service and personal service. Past experiences influence SST attitudes and behavior in a more complex manner than SST characteristics and other individual difference variables.

The findings may not be generalizable to internet‐ or telephone‐based SST contexts.

By understanding what factors affect a customer's choice, better strategies can be developed to manage and coordinate multiple service delivery options. The findings also highlight the importance of preventing frequent failure and providing speedy recovery in the SST context.

This paper goes beyond SST attitudes/intentions and focuses on the moderating effect of situational factors on a customer's actual SST behavior. It also examines the impact of focal product and product‐norm experiences on SST attitudes and behavior.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether patrol officers believe that police practices vary by precinct assignment and whether the precinct acts as a sub‐organizational level of analysis in police organizations.

The research design is a multi‐method ethnographic case study including observational fieldwork, both structured and unstructured interviews and official departmental documents.

The study finds that patrol officers overwhelmingly agree that police practices vary at the precinct level of analysis. This variation is perceived to be caused by: individual officer temperament/personality and level of experience,; culture, nature and expectations of the clientele/citizens; nature of calls for service, higher call loads and officer safety concerns; and command and precinct rules/norms. The study also finds that the precinct is a viable and important level of analysis within police organizations.

This study highlights the need to examine variation in police behavior within organizations at the precinct level of analysis.

The findings from this study have considerable practical implications because the findings indicate that to understand police patrol practices, police practitioners must investigate variation in the informal structures/cultures of police organizations at the sub‐organizational level of the precinct.

This paper is valuable because police researchers have investigated police behavior at the individual, situational, neighborhood, organizational and legal levels of analyses but have largely overlooked the intersection of these levels of analyses: the precinct.

There has been little research about incident management decision making within real-life, dynamic emergencies such as urban fire settings. So this research addresses the research problem: how do incident managers make decisions in urban fire settings? These decision behaviours cover five areas: assessment of the fireground situation, selection of a decision strategy, determination of incident objectives, deployment and management of firefighting resources and ongoing review of the incident. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Case research was used to examine management of different types of fires, through in-depth interviews with a range of incident managers.

This research identified five key behavioural elements associated with incident management in urban fire settings such as their application of a mix of recognition-primed, value based, procedural and formal decision strategies throughout the course of an incident rather than a single style.

The in-depth framework of decision making could provide foundations for later research about other emergency settings. And this research is limited to analytic generalisation (Yin, 2009); so quantitative research such as surveys and large scale interviews could be done to further extend the research for statistical generalisation.

The decision procedures uncovered in this research will assist incident managers in many emergencies, assist policy making and foster the development of future incident managers.

The findings expand the knowledge of how incident managers develop situation awareness, make decisions and plans, implement them, and review the incident as it evolves. Another contribution is the comprehensive framework of decision making developed from these findings.