Success Factors for Crisis Management of Major Municipalities

The number of crises is increasing and being prepared for one is crucial. The aim of the study was to find critical success factors for municipalities in dealing with crises. The inspiration for writing this thesis is taken from one of the more recent global unpredictable events, COVID-19. Given its significant consequences, an interest arose in exploring ways to enhance crisis preparedness to limit potential damages. Due to the limited research on bigger organizations during times of crises, the choice became to focus on major municipalities. Coombs' three-stage model of crisis management is used as the theoretical foundation for the study. With a qualitative case study, the thesis attempts to fill the gap in the literature about municipalities in times of crises. The thesis examines various crisis-related elements to determine what is most important at the different stages in the three phases of a crisis. This study has found critical success factors in dealing with a crisis, as well as factors that are seen as important. The success factors are being adaptable, having a crisis management plan, effective communication, as well as documenting everything clearly. The critical success factors are influenced and enhanced by several other factors looked at throughout the thesis

Success Factors for Crisis Management of Major Municipalities

The number of crises is increasing and being prepared for one is crucial. The aim of the study was to find critical success factors for municipalities in dealing with crises. The inspiration for writing this thesis is taken from one of the more recent global unpredictable events, COVID-19. Given its significant consequences, an interest arose in exploring ways to enhance crisis preparedness to limit potential damages. Due to the limited research on bigger organizations during times of crises, the choice became to focus on major municipalities. Coombs’ three-stage model of crisis management is used as the theoretical foundation for the study. With a qualitative case study, the thesis attempts to fill the gap in the literature about municipalities in times of crises. The thesis examines various crisis-related elements to determine what is most important at the different stages in the three phases of a crisis. This study has found critical success factors in dealing with a crisis, as well as factors that are seen as important. The success factors are being adaptable, having a crisis management plan, effective communication, as well as documenting everything clearly. The critical success factors are influenced and enhanced by several other factors looked at throughout the thesis

Rebooting Europe: a framework for a post COVID-19 economic recovery. Bruegel Policy Brief Issue 1 | MAY 2020.

To slow the spread of COVID-19, European governments have adopted stringent containment measures. These have led to a severe recession and policymakers in European Union countries are providing generous support to help companies cope with the immediate consequences. The basic approach has been to provide generous and indiscriminate emergency support to help cash-strapped firms meet their immediate liquidity needs. But as lockdown measures continue and the recession gets deeper, a more comprehensive strategy for the future needs to be designed. The success of support measures as COVID-19 lockdowns are relaxed depends on the type of recovery the EU wants to achieve. At the same time, decisions taken today will have long-term implications for the single market and government debt. How should further fiscal support provided to companies be structured? What implications will different approaches have for the single market, government budgets and the EU’s climate strategy? Difficult trade-offs lie ahead: a speedier recovery could run counter to green ambitions; national rescues could hurt neighbouring markets. The hard choices in the next phases should follow a set of four principles, and the recovery effort should be structured around equity and recovery funds with borrowing at EU level

On Your Mark, Get Set, Self-Control, Go: A Differentiated View on the Cortical Hemodynamics of Self-Control during Sprint Start

Most sports are self-control demanding. For example, during a sprint start, athletes have to respond as fast as possible to the start signal (action initiation) while suppressing the urge to start too early (action inhibition). Here, we examined the cortical hemodynamic response to these demands by measuring activity in the two lateral prefrontal cortices (lPFC), a central area for self-control processes. We analyzed activity within subregions of the lPFC, while subjects performed a sprint start, and we assessed if activation varied as a function of hemisphere and gender. In a counterbalanced within-subject design, 39 participants (age: mean (M) = 22.44, standard deviation (SD) = 5.28, 22 women) completed four sprint start conditions (blocks). In each block, participants focused on inhibition (avoid false start), initiation (start fast), no start (do not start) and a combined condition (start fast; avoid false start). We show that oxyhemoglobin in the lPFC increased after the set signal and this increase did not differ between experimental conditions. Increased activation was primarily observed in ventral areas of the lPFC, but only in males, and this increase did not vary between hemispheres. This study provides further support for the involvement of the ventral lPFC during a sprint start, while highlighting gender differences in the processing of sprint start-induced self-control demands

Boredom is the root of all evil-or is it? A psychometric network approach to individual differences in behavioural responses to boredom.

Functional accounts of boredom propose that boredom serves as an impartial signal to change something about the current situation, which should give rise to adaptive and maladaptive behaviour alike. This seemingly contrasts with research on boredom proneness, which has overwhelmingly shown associations with maladaptive behaviour. To shed light on this discrepancy, we disentangled boredom proneness from individual differences in (i) the urge to avoid and escape boredom and (ii) adaptive and maladaptive ways of dealing with boredom by developing corresponding trait scales. In a study with N = 636 participants, psychometric network modelling revealed tight associations between boredom proneness and less adaptive and (especially) more maladaptive ways of dealing with boredom. However, its associations with the urge to avoid and escape boredom were rather weak. Importantly, a higher urge to avoid and escape boredom was linked not only to more maladaptive but also to more adaptive ways of dealing with boredom. This pattern of results was robust across various specific behaviours that have previously been linked to boredom. Our findings provide novel evidence for functional accounts of boredom from an individual difference perspective, cautioning against a shallow view of boredom as being associated with purely maladaptive behaviour

Fertility preservation in >1,000 patients: patient's characteristics, spectrum, efficacy and risks of applied preservation techniques

Introduction: Data on the characteristics of female patients counselled for fertility preservation and the efficacy and risk of the applied procedures are still poor. We therefore analysed the registry of a network of 70 infertility centers which are involved in fertility preservation in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, called FertiPROTEKT (hhtp://www.fertiprotekt.eu). Materials and methods: 1,280 counselled patients (15-40years) were analysed regarding characteristics and different fertility preservation treatments before cytotoxic therapy in 2007-2009. Results: 34.8% of the counselled patients were diagnosed with breast cancer, 30.5% with Hodgkin's lymphoma, 25.4% with other malignancies and 9.3% with non-malignant diseases. 89.6% of the treated breast cancer patients were 25-40years of age, and 87.5% of the lymphoma patients were 15-30years of age. At the time of counselling, 85.3% of the breast cancer patients and 92.7% of the lymphoma patients were childless. 1,080 patients received a single or combined therapy such as GnRH agonists (n=823), cryopreservation of ovarian tissue (n=500), ovarian stimulation (n=221) and transposition of the ovaries (n=24). Only one severe complication, requiring postponement of the chemotherapy, was documented. In stimulated patients, 2,417 oocytes (mean n=11.6, SD±7.7) were received. Fertilisation rate per received oocyte was 61.3%. Conclusions: Fertility preservation programmes mainly involve women without children, diagnosed with breast cancer or Hodgkin's lymphoma. Fertility preservation techniques can be applied with low risk. The limited and age-dependant success rate of the different therapies require individualised approaches of single or combined fertility preservation technique