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Frances Perkins Building occupant emergency plan handbook.

Cover title.

Ontologies for crisis management:a review of state of the art in ontology design and usability

The growing use of a variety of information systems in crisis management both by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and emergency management agencies makes the challenges of information sharing and interoperability increasingly important. The use of semantic web technologies is a growing area and is a technology stack specifically suited to these challenges. This paper presents a review of ontologies, vocabularies and taxonomies that are useful in crisis management systems. We identify the different subject areas relevant to crisis management based on a review of the literature. The different ontologies and vocabularies available are analysed in terms of their coverage, design and usability. We also consider the use cases for which they were designed and the degree to which they follow a variety of standards. While providing comprehensive ontologies for the crisis domain is not feasible or desirable there is considerable scope to develop ontologies for the subject areas not currently covered and for the purposes of interoperability.

Governmental social media use for emergency communication

The possibility of crowdsourced information, multi-geographical and multi-organisational information flows during emergencies and crises provided by web 2.0 tools are providing emergency management centres with new communication challenges and opportunities. Building on the existing emergency management and social media literature, this article explores how institutions are using and adopting social media for emergency communication. By examining the drivers and barriers of social media adoption in two European governmental agencies dealing with emergencies, the paper aims to establish a framework to examine whether and how institutional resilience could be improved.

Effective knowledge integration in emergency response organizations

Natural and man-made disasters have gained attention at all levels of policy-making in recent years. Emergency management tasks are inherently complex and unpredictable, and often require coordination among multiple organizations across different levels and locations. Effectively managing various knowledge areas and the organizations involved has become a critical emergency management success factor. However, there is a general lack of understanding about how to describe and assess the complex nature of emergency management tasks and how knowledge integration can help managers improve emergency management task performance. ^ The purpose of this exploratory research was first, to understand how emergency management operations are impacted by tasks that are complex and inter-organizational and second, to investigate how knowledge integration as a particular knowledge management strategy can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency tasks. Three types of specific knowledge were considered: context-specific, technology-specific, and context-and-technology-specific. ^ The research setting was the Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the study was based on the survey responses from the participants in past EOC activations related to their emergency tasks and knowledge areas. The data included task attributes related to complexity, knowledge area, knowledge integration, specificity of knowledge, and task performance. The data was analyzed using multiple linear regressions and path analyses, to (1) examine the relationships between task complexity, knowledge integration, and performance, (2) the moderating effects of each type of specific knowledge on the relationship between task complexity and performance, and (3) the mediating role of knowledge integration. ^ As per theory-based propositions, the results indicated that overall component complexity and interactive complexity tend to have a negative effect on task performance. But surprisingly, procedural rigidity tended to have a positive effect on performance in emergency management tasks. Also as per our expectation, knowledge integration had a positive relationship with task performance. Interestingly, the moderating effects of each type of specific knowledge on the relationship between task complexity and performance were varied and the extent of mediation of knowledge integration depended on the dimension of task complexity. ^

Agency Costs, Bankruptcy Costs and the Use of Debt in Multinational Restaurant Firms

The purpose of this paper is to understand whether multinational restaurant firms (MNRF’s) have higher agency and expected bankruptcy costs. Given this expectation, this may have an impact on the amount of debt incurred by MNRF’s. Overall, the findings are consistent with the existing literatue in terms of the positive relationship between MNRF’s and agency and bankruptcy cost. However, it was found that MNRF’s also have more total debt. This is surprising given the higher agency and bankruptcy costs. The importance of this research is that there may be considerations other than agency and bacnkruptcy costs affecting the capital structure decisions of MNRF’s.

Effective Knowledge Integration in Emergency Response Organizations

Natural and man-made disasters have gained attention at all levels of policy-making in recent years. Emergency management tasks are inherently complex and unpredictable, and often require coordination among multiple organizations across different levels and locations. Effectively managing various knowledge areas and the organizations involved has become a critical emergency management success factor. However, there is a general lack of understanding about how to describe and assess the complex nature of emergency management tasks and how knowledge integration can help managers improve emergency management task performance. The purpose of this exploratory research was first, to understand how emergency management operations are impacted by tasks that are complex and inter-organizational and second, to investigate how knowledge integration as a particular knowledge management strategy can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency tasks. Three types of specific knowledge were considered: context-specific, technology-specific, and context-and-technology-specific. The research setting was the Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the study was based on the survey responses from the participants in past EOC activations related to their emergency tasks and knowledge areas. The data included task attributes related to complexity, knowledge area, knowledge integration, specificity of knowledge, and task performance. The data was analyzed using multiple linear regressions and path analyses, to (1) examine the relationships between task complexity, knowledge integration, and performance, (2) the moderating effects of each type of specific knowledge on the relationship between task complexity and performance, and (3) the mediating role of knowledge integration. As per theory-based propositions, the results indicated that overall component complexity and interactive complexity tend to have a negative effect on task performance. But surprisingly, procedural rigidity tended to have a positive effect on performance in emergency management tasks. Also as per our expectation, knowledge integration had a positive relationship with task performance. Interestingly, the moderating effects of each type of specific knowledge on the relationship between task complexity and performance were varied and the extent of mediation of knowledge integration depended on the dimension of task complexity.

State of Iowa Cybersecurity Strategy, July 2016

On December 21, 2015, Governor Branstad issued Executive Order 87 (EO87); a cybersecurity initiative for the State of Iowa. The executive order establishes a multi-agency partnership, the EO87 Leadership Team, with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, Iowa National Guard, Department of Public Safety, Iowa Communications Network, and the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department. The order directs these agencies to develop a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy which addresses lifeline critical infrastructure, risk assessments, best practices, awareness training, public education and communication, collaboration, K-12 and higher education, data breach notifications, and incident response planning to protect the citizens of Iowa and Iowa businesses. The EO87 Leadership Team, along with several key partners, worked diligently over the last six months to prepare recommendations that will have a direct and sustainable impact on protecting lifeline critical infra-structure, reducing risk to government operations, and creating sustainable partnerships in cybersecurity.

Agency theory and the family business

The conceptual domain of agency theory is one of the dominant organisational theory perspectives applied in current family business research (Chrisman et al., 2010). According to agency theory (Jensen and Meckling, 1976), agency costs generally arise due to individuals’ selfinterest and decision making based on rational thinking and oriented toward own preferences. With more people involved in decision making, such as through the separation of ownership and management, agency costs occur due to different preferences and information asymmetries between the owner (principal) and the employed management (agent) (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). In other words, agents take decisions based on their individual preferences (for example, short term, financial gains) instead of the owners’ preferences (for example, long term, sustainable development).