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Yes / There is an agreement among European countries about the need to achieve efficient, effective and responsive evacuations as part of disaster management. Evacuations face uncertain and dynamic conditions, which often challenge the expectations at the planning stage. This research looks at the adoption of agility in evacuation operations. Managers involved in disaster operations in three countries were interviewed to identify current practices and needs during evacuations. This article looks at the potential of beneficiary engagement, staff and information, cooperation, and fitness for change to incorporate agile practices at each one of the stages of evacuation planning. The purpose is to provide an Agile Evacuation Operations (AEO) evidence-based framework to inform theory and practice. The analysis provided shows that along with current practices it is important to engage the beneficiaries more closely, empower and train the staff to react to unexpected conditions, and take advantage of local knowledge to enhance operations. / The data collection was funded with the support of the European Commission, Directorate-General Home Affairs.

Yes / Using data from world-leading digital-driven/technology multinational enterprises (DTMNEs), we draw from the resource orchestration theory to investigate the associations between business model (BM) drivers and firm performance during crisis periods. Drawing on data from the COVID-19 pandemic period, we deploy diverse analytical approaches including multivariate linear regressions and aggregated composite index statistical methods in examining how the BMs of our sampled DTMNEs drive firm performance. Our study highlights six methodological approaches that can be utilised by decision-makers in examining which variables in their BM drive better firm performance. Our findings revealed that the principal component analysis and multicriteria decision analysis (PROMETHEE methods) that espouse the use of aggregate composite index can provide significant and consistent predictive results in comparison to the traditional linear methods when examining the association between BM and firm performance during crisis periods. The paper provides policy and managerial implications on how firms and decision-makers can bolster business continuity, resilience, and plasticity by using analytical lenses that identify optimum resource orchestration during crises.

For several years, businesses and organizations have faced an increasingly volatile environment, marked with challenges such as increased competition, globalized markets, and individualized customer requirements. These challenges are accompanied by many changes in every organizational field. As a response, different concepts have emerged that should enable organizations to master these challenges. Agility is the most recent, but others like flexibility and leanness are mentioned often, too. Many research activities concerning agility and its related concepts have been conducted in the meantime. However, there currently exists no common understanding of what constitutes agility. This makes it difficult for both researcher and practitioner audiences to build upon the insights obtained thus far. On the one hand, researchers are missing a well-founded basis to develop the topic further, while on the other hand, practitioners cannot easily uncover what parts of their organizations have to be changed and in what respect they have to be changed to respond to new market challenges. This is of particular interest for organizations in the software and information technology (IT) service industry. With the appearance of agile software developing methodologies in the early 2000s, or in a broader sense agile values and principles, the advantages of these new approaches became visible. However, it turned out to be difficult to transfer the experienced benefits beyond the team level, though this step is necessary so that the whole organization can benefit from agility. Hence, the report presented here is part of a research project aimed at identifying the structure and components of an agile organization within the software and IT service industry. To fulfill this aim, a survey from a comprehensive organizational perspective has been carried out that was based on a systematic comparison of available agility frameworks. The purpose of this publication is to give an initial comprehensive overview over the collected data. Together with a comprehensive literature review conducted prior to this study, it answers the research questions: "What are potential components of an agile organization?" and "To what extent are these components reflected by the software and IT service industry?"

This doctoral study examines whether MFIs in Ethiopia have developed the managerial readiness to face emerging threats and seize the opportunities within the context of unpredictable changes and turbulences. The interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) has been used to collect, shape, and interpret the lived experiences, intuitions, and insights of 10 CEOs of MFIs. The data were interpreted using the double hermeneutic and analysed through the lenses of the theory of organisational agility and the Cynefin framework to make decisions. The premise of this study is that MFIs without agile organisational capability may fail to prepare and respond to changes in the external environment. The study results show multiple impediments that restrict MFIs from being adaptive towards achieving double bottom lines, i.e., the creation of social and financial value. MFIs in Ethiopia suffer from “pain points” such as inflation, illiquidity, and turbulences. The challenges include: the weak governance practice of nominal shareholders, outdated decision-making processes causing delays, staff turnover reducing enterprising capacity, and MFIs lacking sufficient digital and technological infrastructure. The study found most MFIs are incapable of responding quickly and innovatively to seize opportunities or to overcome adversities. The conclusion is that MFIs in Ethiopia have inadequate agile organisational capability to make strategic choices and execute operational processes during multiple and complex changes. The findings of the research are important, and pertinent for a better understanding of the organisational agility of social enterprises. The study has provided five recommendations to enhance policies and practical actions to build the agile organisational capabilities of social enterprises.

Bakgrund: Agility är en egenskap som är avgörande för tennisspelares prestation. Det är således en egenskap som regelbundet bör tränas och utvärderas. Till detta projekt presenteras ett nyutvecklat och tennisspecifikt test som kan användas för att utvärdera tennisspelares reaktiva agilityförmåga.  Syftet med studien var att utvärdera testets reliabilitet och validitet för att fastställa dess övergripande kvalitet. Ett andra syfte var att undersöka vilka fysiska egenskaper som korrelerade med prestationen på agilitytestet. Metod: Deltagare till studien var 18 tennisspelare (9 flickor och 9 pojkar; ålder 14.5 ± 1.5) med erfarenhet av matchspel på regional samt nationell nivå. Under ett testtillfälle på deltagarnas respektive tennisklubb genomfördes kroppsmätningar, fysiska tester samt agilitytester med en reaktiv komponent (RAG: reactive agility) och utan en reaktiv komponent (CODS: change of direction speed). Resultaten visade på en hög absolut reliabilitet (CV%: 2.69–4.28%) samt hög relativ reliabilitet (ICC:0.802–0.943). Fysiska egenskaper som korrelerade med agilityförmåga var spänst, sprintsnabbhet samt reaktiv styrka. Konklusion: Slutsatsen som kan dras är att det nyutvecklade tennisspecifika agilitytestet är ett reliabelt test som tennisspelare kan använda för att utvärdera sin agilityförmåga men där validiteten inte gick att uttala sig om i några mätbara termer och mer forskning är nödvändig. / Background: Agility is an important ability in tennis and should be trained and evaluated on a regular basis. In this project a newly developed tennis specific reactive agility test is presented.  Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the agility test. A second aim was to analyze correlations between agility performance and physical abilities. Method: The sample consisted of 18 tennis players (9 males and 9 females; age 14.5 ± 1.5) who competed at regional and national level. The variables comprised body dimensions, sprint speed, jump height measures, single leg balance, change of direction speed (CODS) and reactive agility (RAG).  Results: The results showed a high absolute reliability (CV%: 2.69–4.28%) and high relative reliability (ICC:0.802–0.943). Physical abilities that correlated with agility performance was jump height, sprint speed and reactive strength.  Conclusion: The conclusion is that the newly developed reactive agility test is reliable and can be used by tennis players to evaluate agility. The test´s validity is not possible to determine, and more studies are needed.

Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Background Dog agility has become one of the most popular canine sport disciplines, growing annually with many owners enrolling their canines without an educated understanding of what the sport of agility entails. Various factors have been identified that can contribute to the injury of the agility dog, these include coming into contact with the agility equipment, the experience of the dog, nutrition, supplementation, handler training in warm up technique and participation in additional sporting activities such as flyball, and risk factors such as breed, sex and age of the dog have been shown to have an impact on the prevalence and type of injury that sporting dogs are at risk for, most commonly, injuries to the shoulder, wrists, hip and an extensive range of soft tissue injuries. There is a significant knowledge gap in the literature that describes injury prevalence, profiles and the potential risks facing the sporting canine participants in a South African context and that, as more and more owners are seeking out CAM therapies such as chiropractic, literature is needed in order to enable these owners and veterinary chiropractors to better understand the risk that the sport of agility entails. Chiropractic treatment can offer both treatment and prevention, from enhancing the performance of the canine athlete, allowing them to compete more effectively and for a longer period at national and international level, to improving the quality of life of the geriatric canine patient. Aim The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence and selected risk factors of musculoskeletal conditions affecting working canines registered in the herding breed category in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Study Design This study was a cross sectional, prospective survey of sporting canine owners registered with the KZNDAA. The study employed a quantitative descriptive design. Participants The study comprised of 70 dogs registered to 38 owners who are affiliated with the KZNDAA. Methodology Potential participants were identified on the KZNDAA membership list. These members were approached by the researcher at registered agility shows and invited to participate in the study. Once it has been established that the owners and the canines met the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study, participants were required to sign a letter of information and confidentiality and a consent form and were included as participants in the study. The research questionnaire was then given to participants, who then completed the questionnaire on site and returned it by hand to the researcher. Data was captured on excel and transferred to IBM SPSS version 23. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and range were used to describe continuous variables which were normally distributed, while median and inter-quartile range were used for skew variables. Categorical variables were summarized using frequency tables. Associations between lifetime prevalence and risk factors were tested using Pearson’s chi square tests for categorical risk factors, or Fischer’s Exact tests for continuous variables. Results The period prevalence of MS conditions was found to be 8.5% and the lifetime prevalence 45.8%. Injuries were found to occur most often during play, followed by injury during agility competition, a very small percentage of the injuries incurred were due to direct contact with agility equipment. Shoulders and hips were the areas most commonly affected, with arthritis and DJD being the most prevalent type of conditions and muscular strains being the most prevalent type of injury. The breed with the highest prevalence of injury was the Border Collie(63%). Neutered males had the highest prevalence of injury (52%), followed by spayed females (30%). The 8-10 year old category had the highest prevalence of injury (30%), followed by the 2-4 year old category (22%). Large breed dogs in the 15-20kg weight category had the highest prevalence of MS injury (40%). Dogs participating in dog jumping showed a decreased risk of MS injury, while dogs participating in flyball showed an increased risk of developing MS injuries. Handlers with training in specific warm up techniques showed a decreased risk of having dogs developing MS injury. Reverse casualty associations were found between the increased risk of MS injury and dogs fed on Hills specific diets, dogs supplemented with glucosamine and chondroitin, and dogs currently receiving anti-inflammatories. Conclusion The prevalence of musculoskeletal (MS) injuries in agility dogs in KZN is low when compared to studies done outside of South Africa. Factors such as breed, age, sex, and weight of the dog influence the prevalence of MS conditions. Risk factors influencing the development of MS conditions include contact with the equipment, nutrition, participation in other sporting activities and whether warm up periods are allowed. A larger population is needed in order to further analyse the risk of injury in sporting dogs in a South African context. / M

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4571.pdf: 2835932 bytes, checksum: 857c4fae6471592b22f205d753d4cdcd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-13 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The theory of project management presents difficulties when applied to the development of innovative products. To solve these difficulties, a series of management methods were created. These methods receive the nomenclature of agile project management and increase the agility of the management process which would be a strategy to deal with the difficulties in those particular projects. However, the concept of agility is vague in the project management theory and the studies found that attempts to measure this performance was not satisfactory, presenting too much subjectivity in the definitions of constructs and starting from little robust definitions of agility. To try to solve this problem, a new model for agility in project management was proposed by Conforto (2011), relying on a definition coined from a systematic literature review of several areas that exhibit this same concept, and perform another systematic review on the models to measure agility in order to incorporate their strengths and create solutions to major weaknesses. This study aims to examine the relationships between the dimensions present in this model of agility to manage projects, in order to verify its validity and possibility its future use as a basis for measurement. Thus, the observed relationships between some features arising from the use of practices from the theory of agile project management theory, critical factors that may impact on the performance of the practices and indicators of agility. For this, a survey was made at the members from eight communities in Brazil Linkedin® chosen from among 79 candidates and selected according to 7 criteria. Also, was created the theoretical concept of "profile 500" which can be used in future research with have analysis made between members of this social network. There was obtained 172 valid responses from 966 users considered eligible for the study. Correlation analysis showed that the relationships proposed in the model of Conforto (2011) are valid and that agility is related to the presence of certain characteristics and are not inherent to the management method chosen, but this performance is related to customer participation and time taken decision. Finally, there was evidenced the importance of customer participation in the design and validation of partial results for a faster management process, and the necessity of carrying out the planning, development and validation with the participation of the client to perform better agility. / A teoria de gerenciamento de projetos apresenta dificuldades quando aplicada ao desenvolvimento de produtos inovadores. Para solucioná-las, surgiram uma série de métodos de gestão que podem ser agrupados sobre a nomenclatura de gerenciamento ágil de projetos. Esses, afirmam que o aumento da agilidade no processo de gestão seria uma estratégia para lidar com essas dificuldades. Contudo, o próprio conceito de agilidade é vago na teoria de gerenciamento de projetos e as tentativas encontradas de se medir esse desempenho não foram satisfatórias, apresentando demasiada subjetividade nos construtos e partindo de definições pouco robustas de agilidade. Para tentar solucionar esse problema, um novo modelo de agilidade para o gerenciamento de projetos foi proposto por Conforto (2011), se baseando em uma definição de agilidade cunhada a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática de diversas áreas que apresentam esse mesmo conceito, além de realizar outra revisão sistemática sobre os modelos de agilidade, de modo a incorporar os seus pontos fortes e criar soluções para os principais pontos fracos. Este estudo se propõe a verificar as relações entre as dimensões presentes neste modelo de agilidade para o gerenciamento de projetos a fim de verificar sua validade e possibilidade de utilização futura como base para medida. Desse modo, observa as relações entre algumas características advindas da utilização das práticas provenientes da teoria do gerenciamento ágil de projetos, fatores críticos que possam impactar no desempenho das práticas e os indicadores de agilidade. Para isso, foi realizado um levantamento estatístico entre os membros provenientes de 8 comunidades do Linkedin® Brasil escolhidas dentre 79 candidatas e selecionadas segundo a 7 critérios. Também cria o conceito teórico do perfil 500 o qual pode ser utilizado em pesquisas futuras que tenham como população de análise membros de comunidades dessa rede social. Obteve-se 172 respostas válidas dentre 966 usuários considerados aptos a participar do estudo. As análises de correlação mostraram que as relações propostas pelo modelo de Conforto (2011) são válidas e que a agilidade está relacionada à presença de certas características e não são inerentes ao método escolhido, sendo esse desempenho relacionado com a participação do cliente e tempo de tomada de decisão. Por fim, verificou-se a importância da participação do cliente no planejamento e validação dos resultados parciais para a agilidade do processo, e da necessidade realização do ciclo de planejamento, desenvolvimento e validação com a participação do cliente para um melhor desempenho em agilidade.

For several years, businesses and organizations have faced an increasingly volatile environment, marked with challenges such as increased competition, globalized markets, and individualized customer requirements. These challenges are accompanied by many changes in every organizational field. As a response, different concepts have emerged that should enable organizations to master these challenges. Agility is the most recent, but others like flexibility and leanness are mentioned often, too. Many research activities concerning agility and its related concepts have been conducted in the meantime. However, there currently exists no common understanding of what constitutes agility. This makes it difficult for both researcher and practitioner audiences to build upon the insights obtained thus far. On the one hand, researchers are missing a well-founded basis to develop the topic further, while on the other hand, practitioners cannot easily uncover what parts of their organizations have to be changed and in what respect they have to be changed to respond to new market challenges. This is of particular interest for organizations in the software and information technology (IT) service industry. With the appearance of agile software developing methodologies in the early 2000s, or in a broader sense agile values and principles, the advantages of these new approaches became visible. However, it turned out to be difficult to transfer the experienced benefits beyond the team level, though this step is necessary so that the whole organization can benefit from agility. Hence, the report presented here is part of a research project aimed at identifying the structure and components of an agile organization within the software and IT service industry. To fulfill this aim, a survey from a comprehensive organizational perspective has been carried out that was based on a systematic comparison of available agility frameworks. The purpose of this publication is to give an initial comprehensive overview over the collected data. Together with a comprehensive literature review conducted prior to this study, it answers the research questions: 'What are potential components of an agile organization?' and 'To what extent are these components reflected by the software and IT service industry?