R. Flin, Z. Pender, L. Wujec, V. Grant and E. Stewart
The aim of this study is to identify the dimensions used by police officers in Scotland to discriminate and categorise operational situations.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to identify the dimensions used by police officers in Scotland to discriminate and categorise operational situations.
Design/methodology/approach
This article was based on two studies: study 1 was a card‐sorting task: 23 officers categorised a set of 19 typical police operational situations, analysed using multi‐dimensional scaling; study 2 was a judgement task: 112 police officers rated 20 situations (19 from study1) in terms of amount of time to make a decision, risk to self, risk to others, familiarity and stress. Frequency data and correlations were calculated.
Findings
Study 1 results showed that the two main dimensions used to discriminate between situations were “familiarity” and “risk to the officer”. Study 2 found that most situations required a decision in less than three minutes. Rank and experience were related to familiarity but not to the other judgements. The situations requiring the fastest decisions were also judged to be of higher risk and more unfamiliar. Risks to self and to others were highly correlated, and higher risk situations were judged as more stressful.
Research limitations/implications
This preliminary study shows that knowledge elicitation techniques can be used to improve our understanding of police officers' knowledge and cognitive skills for operational policing.
Practical implications
Good situational judgements form the basis of effective operational decision‐making. Understanding how officers “read” situations and how this develops with expertise can provide valuable information for police training and critical incident management.
Originality/value
Police officers' cognitive skills have rarely been studied in relation to routine operational policing. This study is a first attempt to examine situational judgement skills.
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The purpose of this paper (including three studies) is to investigate the idea that individuals in an emergency situation experience significantly a higher level of emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper (including three studies) is to investigate the idea that individuals in an emergency situation experience significantly a higher level of emotional activation, lower performance of task, and change in decision making, escaping behavior and conformity as compared to being in a non-emergency situation. It is also suggested that the level of emotional activation mediates the association between situation and the performance of task.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 was an experimental study with 43 university students and revealed that different situations induced different levels of emotional activation and they are positively and significantly related. Study 2 was a further exploration of study 1, in which 49 participants were asked to watch a recomposed video telling a reasonable story about escaping from the emergency and complete several tasks associated with two kinds of situations (non-emergency vs emergency). In study 3, 168 participants, randomly assigned to three groups, were asked to work on judgment tasks with different numbers of options.
Findings
Results revealed that individuals in an emergency situation experience significantly lower performance of task and higher conformity tendency than in a non-emergency situation. Also, the causal effect of the situation on the performance of task is mediated by the level of emotional activation. Moreover, results found that the performance of task is also a mediator between the level of emotional activation and conformity. Result showed that the number of choices is negatively related to conformity, and performance is a mediator between the number of choices and conformity.
Originality/value
This paper suggested that the level of emotional activation mediates the association between situation and the performance of task.
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The purpose of this paper is to connect sociology, criminology, and social psychology to identify specific factors that keep protests peaceful, discusses empirical examples of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to connect sociology, criminology, and social psychology to identify specific factors that keep protests peaceful, discusses empirical examples of effective peacekeeping, and develops practical peacekeeping guidelines.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis systematically compared 30 peaceful and violent protests in the USA and Germany to identify peaceful interaction routines and how they are disrupted. It employed a triangulation of visual and document data on each demonstration, analyzing over 1,000 documents in total. The paper relies on qualitative analysis based on the principles of process tracing.
Findings
Results show that specific interaction sequences and emotional dynamics can break peaceful interaction routines and trigger violence. Single interactions do not break these routines, but certain combinations do. Police forces and protesters need to avoid these interaction dynamics to keep protests peaceful. Communication between both sides and good police management are especially important.
Research limitations/implications
The paper highlights the need to examine the role of situational interactions and emotional dynamics for the emergence and avoidance of protest violence more closely.
Practical implications
Findings have implications for police practice and training and for officers’ and protesters’ safety.
Originality/value
Employing recent data and an interdisciplinary approach, the study systematically analyzes peacekeeping in protests, developing guidelines for protest organizers and police.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine two aspects of the increasing body of research in the field of project management, namely improvisational working and agile project…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine two aspects of the increasing body of research in the field of project management, namely improvisational working and agile project management (APM).
Design/methodology/approach
This is a comparative paper, considering the extant literature on improvisational working within projects and APM. The paper is essentially conceptual, and concludes with a comparative table of constructs, and their segregation into components and outputs. The growth in the recognition of improvisation as a useful addition to the armoury of the project manager stems from the shift that is taking place within the body of project knowledge generally, in that historically the greater proportion of the project management literature has been the epitome of planning in the prescriptive mode, but that a shift has taken place over the last decade or so towards a more behavioural, and as a result of this, a less structured and more improvisational focus. The second area of scrutiny within this paper seeks to position the limited emerging literature on APM within the wider project literature, and to examine overlaps and commonalities with improvisational working within projects.
Findings
Common areas across the two working styles are exposed and documented, and there is analysis of recent attempts to combine them with more traditional models. Linkages with complexity theory and complex adaptive systems are also briefly addressed.
Practical implications
There is growing awareness amongst practitioners of the potential benefits of improvisational working and “agile” methods, and some potential benefits are identified.
Originality/value
This paper moves further from the “traditional” project‐based paradigm of “plan – then execute”, offering insights into potential emerging best practice for practitioners in some organisational contexts.
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In times of organizational thirst for employee engagement and meaning through designing corporate stories, the aim of this article is to explore and identify key sources (engines…
Abstract
Purpose
In times of organizational thirst for employee engagement and meaning through designing corporate stories, the aim of this article is to explore and identify key sources (engines) of engagement during LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) corporate learning pre-pandemic events of various types and size in Poland.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper. The research was conducted using participant observation from the perspective of a certified facilitator of the method. This position ensures a prime access to the organizational events. Eight training sessions (four LSP and four non-LSP workshops) have been analysed using thematic analysis. The structure of thematic codes has been conceptualized and reflected as the EPIC framework.
Findings
The findings include (1) the importance of the experience of emerging realities as a key generator of engagement, (2) the significance of social collaboration and peer-to-peer interactions (experience of collective intelligence), (3) the observable rise in engagement and willingness to contribute when real business situations, especially labelled as “strategic issues” are discussed and (4) the role of image-capturing (“snapshot experience”) in creation of an engaging learning experience.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations refer to the potential conflict of interests as the researcher is also the facilitator of the workshop. To ensure the neutral point of view of the researcher, the sessions have been recorded to enable transparency of the observation and non-biased logic of key findings. The “learning experience” research is also culture- and context-sensitive, thus it may be problematic to replicate the research procedure in different countries, however, the EPIC model can be treated as a universal framework to explore and identify the engines of engagement.
Practical implications
The concept of this paper is designed from the practical point of view. The findings are adaptable to the corporate practices aimed at empowering employees and are compatible with management models such as agile, human enablement and human-centred design in organizations.
Social implications
Serious play methods of learning and experiencing are said to be of the highest importance when finding new ways of organizational learning in the pandemic situation and work from home as a standard learning environment.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper is visible in the conceptualization of the moments that shape an engaging experience. This is also the first academic paper presenting the perspective of a certified facilitator of LSP from Central and Eastern Europe region.