Strategies, Leadership and Complexity in Crisis and Emergency Operations will bring together the main themes of strategy, operational leadership, organizational dynamics and complexity in the context of crisis and emergency operations; creating a book that is timely and relevant for research and leadership in emergency services, the police, military and other organizations involved in operations in highly dynamic and critical contexts. Based on two recent Scandinavian cases, Strategies, Leadership and Complexity in Crisis and Emergency Operations identifies theoretically generalizable dimensions in the discussion of emerging strategies and leadership in complex, uncertain and dynamic situations during crisis and emergency operations. The book will offer original material and discussions from these cases on how strategies, leadership and organizational dynamics evolve during crisis and emergency operations - and further link these to existing international cases and research In light of theories and fields of knowledge emphasising complex organizational dynamics, discussions are coupled with examples from different organizations and countries. The knowledge fields draw on a wide range of new organizational complexity research, and insights from more established work. The intention is to integrate established and recent organizational research in order to understand dynamic practices of organizations during crisis and emergency operations.

Labour markets are becoming more dynamic in response to pressures from globalisation, new technologies and trade agreements, as well as cross-border migration, inter-generation differences, changing education imperatives and employer expectations. By focusing on several Asia Pacific countries, this book explores the differences in their workforces: ageing, or abundant in labour but lacking in skilled employees. One similarity these countries share is the difficulty in attracting and retaining employees with the required skillset and capabilities, and these constraints can stymie national economic growth and long term development. This book brings together national and international perspectives on employability challenges faced by selected countries in the Asia Pacific region. While the region is forecast to enjoy high growth in the coming decade, a recurring challenge is addressing skill shortages and ensuring effective transition from training colleges and universities into employment. Consequently, the book focuses on the roles of multiple stakeholders, primarily: governments, education providers and employers – in more effectively addressing these key socio-economic challenges.

Written with pace and clarity, this book is a comprehensive and compact overview and introduction to the research landscape of complexity in organizations. In addition to conveying a gripping history of how complexity has influenced organizational ideas, theories, and practices throughout the 20th century and into our present age, the book sheds light on how ground-breaking ideas in chaos and complexity research have emerged and challenged the very foundations of science into a changed vision of nature, society, and human organizations. As well as being an exciting investigation into complexity research in organizations, the book shows how, in the past, researchers who were immersed in the power politics of their day grappled with the theme of complexity in their quest to understand the dynamics of organization in nature and society. By welding fundamental theoretical themes and practical implications into the political and social contexts in which they emerged, this overview provides both depth and breadth to the history, as well as the future, of studies of complexity in organized activity. The book is a lucid and essential study of a topic that will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and students in the fields of business and management, especially those with an interest in the ways that complexity affects and transforms organizations.

Complexity theory including the concepts of chaos and emergence has been considered one of the most revolutionary products of the 20th century having influence on science, technology and economics among others. Any complex systems, such as organisms, societies, stock market or the Internet, have emergent properties that cannot be reduced to the mere properties of their parts. The theory has been used in organizational studies and strategic management where it offers an alternative way to look at organizations. The theory rejects the idea of organizations seen as machines and a planned approach to organizational change. Instead, the theory underlines understanding on how organizations adapt to their environments. Complexity theory suggests that organizations tend to self-organize themselves to a state where they regulate themselves. Complexity theory would advocate for approaches that focus on flatter, more flexible organizations. It shifts focus from management control to self-organization and individual interrelations between different people. The aim of Navigating through Changing Times: Knowledge Work in Complex Environment is to give insights on how complexity has changed the environment of many business organizations. The book aims at identifying and discussing special features of business organizations performing knowledge work in a knowledge-oriented economy. Navigating through Changing Times: Knowledge Work in Complex Environment will be vital reading for those scholar and researchers in the fields of knowledge and wisdom management as well as organizational behavior and communication, HRM, strategy, culture, change and development and other related disciplines.

What is happening to perceptions of time, durability, and reality in the twenty-first century - and how do we deal with it? This anthology explores a diversity of uncommon insights about time, as seen from our historical and geographical standpoint. All contributions discuss how time can be seen, and how these views relate to changes in nature, technology, economy, working life, politics, religion, or philosophy specific to our own time. Findings are discussed within three themed sections; In Search of a Deeper Theory of Time, Time as Social Expectancy, and Time as Lived Experience. Contributions in this volume span from classical theory on branching time to personal experiences of drug-addicts' time. Together, these diverse contributions shed new light on how construction, perception and regulation of time influences a person's whole being in the world, collectively and individually, in the short and very long run, from the beginning of the Anthropocene to future cybertime.

This book is for anyone who is interested in crisis leadership. The concepts offered apply to anyone whether he or she is a seasoned leader or inspiring new one, for public or private life, for any type of crisis or any type of discipline. This is a comprehensive examination of all aspects of crisis leadership. We will cover several overarching themes. We will look at the skills needed to be an effective crisis leader. We will examine leadership styles, how best to communicate in a crisis, and the human component of a crisis. We will examine the team concept of crisis management. We will look at how leadership can and should function during the prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery phases of a crisis. We will examine decision making and problem solving. We consider how we might use after action reporting to enhance future responses or prevent, prepare for, or mitigate crises.

Organizations increasingly use temporary designs. Many temporary organizations are assembled by "mixing and matching" building blocks from static, bureaucratic, parent organizations into a temporary configuration. At the same time, such "mixed and matched" temporary organizations often operate under difficult and dangerous circumstances. During operations, these temporary organizations can experience numerous internal problems: ranging from friendly fire in a military context to budget and time issues in construction projects and problematic coordination in a crisis management context. This book develops insight into the relationship between a "mixing and matching" temporary design strategy and operational problems. To so do, military and crisis management contexts are systematically studied from a sociotechnical design perspective that emphasizes self-organization to develop organizational controllability. Operating Under High-Risk Conditions in Temporary Organizations demonstrates that a "mixing and matching" design strategy can be related to system failure. Furthermore, it is shown that a process of self-design emerged in which operators attempted to create ad-hoc networks for meaningful, safe and controllable operations. The analyses result in a model that shows mechanisms between characteristics of organizational design and controllability of operations. Not only does this model have relevance to the military and crisis management contexts, relevance is also demonstrated for a broader family of temporary organizations and application of sociotechnical network design theory.

In recent years, decision-makers from all sectors have been using 'resilience' as a keyword for managing societal turbulences. But what is resilience? How can we benefit from integrating digital transformation and resilience? In this book, some of the world's leading experts on resilience explore the issue and discuss possible answers to these questions. The editors of this book believe that resilience is the master key for the future. However, they also remind us that people are at the base of any process of resilience and, only by placing people at the center of transformation, can we aspire to have resilient organizations and a resilient society.

From natural disasters to cyber-attacks to global pandemics, the modern risk environment is highly complex and challenges our fundamental understanding of risk and crisis management. All senior risk and crisis managers face a similar challenge: maximizing their organization's ability to prepare for a potential high-impact event. Blending practical insights with rigorous research, Strategic Risk and Crisis Management provides a range of realistic solutions for any operational environment. It introduces concepts, frameworks and processes that will allow businesses to not only survive but respond and recover at a time of maximum chaos and confusion. Authored by a recognized global authority on the strategic management of complex events, the book covers the integration of multiple stakeholders and the importance of information exchange and critical decision-making under pressure at strategic, tactical and operational levels. It also includes material on leadership, sense-making, resilience, wicked problems and the challenges of global urban resilience, as well as case studies with detailed analysis of organizational failures and the lessons learned, including COVID-19, the WannaCry attack, the Texas snowstorm, and the Gatwick Airport Drone Incident. Strategic Risk and Crisis Management is an essential read for professionals working in security, risk, crisis management and emergency response. It will also be a valuable text for university students taking modules on security, risk, emergency response and crisis management.

As Singapore continues to grow as a nation, the happiness and wellbeing of Singaporeans and what matters to them also change. This book conceptualizes and measures the cognitive and affective aspects of subjective wellbeing from multiple perspectives and relates these to important factors such as values, trust, democratic rights, views about politics and the role of the government. Through nationwide surveys using representative samples, including insights from the most recent 2016 Quality of Life (QOL) Survey, this book examines how happiness and subjective wellbeing have evolved over the past 20 years in Singapore. This book is an invaluable resource for those interested in how the study of happiness and wellbeing in Singapore connects with and contributes to the ongoing research and discourse on happiness and wellbeing around the world.