One of the duties of each municipality, regardless of the size of the administrative territory, number of citizens or type, is to protect its population against imminent danger, i.e. to be duly prepared for solution of extraordinary or crisis incidents that can affect the municipalities. I have chosen the name of the thesis, "Place and role of municipality bodies in preparation for extraordinary incidents and crisis situations" mainly due to the fact that, according to my experience, the area of safety is neglected and underestimated, or postponed, or the municipality bodies deal with this issue only marginally. Municipalities with extended competence or bigger municipalities have some advantage as they are better equipped in terms of staff, professionalism and material and a lot of tasks within preparation for extraordinary incidents and crisis situations are performed, for their benefit, by regional fire brigades. The first goal of the thesis consists in presenting the principles of working of the municipality and its bodies, in defining the duties and competences of the municipalities in extraordinary incidents and crisis situations. It consists further in drawing up a basic summary of legislative tools of territorial self-government units and their essential position within crisis management and safety system of the Czech Republic. The second goal consists in evaluating the crisis potential of the administrative territory of the municipality of Loučovice under use of crisis plan of the South Bohemian Region and of the crisis plan of the municipality with extended competence, Český Krumlov. The following research question was created to fulfil the goals of the thesis: Do risks and tasks of the municipality constitute a motive for the municipality bodies to elaborate a crisis preparedness plan? To answer the research question, I made use of specialized literature, lectures and legal standards. That allowed characterizing the public administration system with focus on the competence of territorial self-government units and their bodies when preparing for and dealing with extraordinary incidents. Subsequently, the safety risks of the municipality of Loučovice in case of potential danger to its territory were evaluated, and the acquired information served as base to elaborate a draft of crisis preparedness plan, as one of indispensable parts of crisis management, i.e. planning. The dangers and their causes were identified under use of the crisis plan of the South Bohemian Region, of the crisis plan of the municipality with extended competence, Český Krumlov, and of the extract from the plan of actions for protection of citizens under the Lipno I and II Dam against special flood for the municipality of Loučovice. Further important information was acquired thanks to the cooperation of the Fire Brigade of the South Bohemian Region, the employees of Povodí Vltavy, s. p., and from archive documents of the municipal authority. The own data collection served to elaborate a comprehensive document with a list of the most important tasks of self-government in preparation of and dealing with extraordinary incidents and crisis situations that will be used as a manual for the mayor and the bodies of the municipality of Loučovice within expansion of knowledge in the area of preparation for and dealing with extraordinary incidents and crisis situations. The practical part of the thesis includes the crisis preparedness plan of the municipality of Loučovice that can be used in case of emergence of and dealing with a crisis situation on the territory of the municipality. At the same time, the plan will be used for training of employees of the municipality and for familiarization of corporate bodies and citizens with the character of potential danger.

Theoretical part of the diploma thesis is focused on preparedness and crisis management of healthcare services during occurrence of emergency event with mass health disability. The first chapters provides simple and complete overview of various types of catastrophes, the explanation of emergency events, their causes and outcomes. Theoretical part deals with analysis of Integrated rescue system and puts emphasis on Medical rescue service and its role in mass health disability control in pre-hospital phases. The whole chapter is devoted to recommended procedure of resolving emergency event with mass health disability in the medical facility. Other chapters emphasize on medical facility crisis preparedness focused on traumatological plan. The aim of the diploma thesis was to find out the contemporary state of crisis preparedness of Nemocnice Písek, a.s. emphasizing on traumatological plan and to identify its potential deficiencies as well as to find the best possible solutions that would eliminate the problem to minimum or would remove the problem completely. The second mainstay of the diploma thesis was to evaluate knowledge of medical staff in Nemocnice Písek, a.s. concerning the issue of traumatological planning and evaluate their preparedness to admission of patients during mass health disability and providing quality medical and nursery health care. In my diploma thesis I also looked into the case whether the researched medical facility organises practices of crisis preparedness of traumatological plan in collaboration with the Integrated rescue system, which make the major presumption for quality and professional managing of emergency event with mass health disability. SWOT analysis was used to achieve the set goals, a managerial tool which aims at evaluation of internal and external environment of medical facility through strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, was used. Quantitative research was also used in the thesis, particularly the method of questionnaire survey which gathered data about traumatological planning awareness and attitude of researched group of respondents. The results of questionnaire survey were surprising. Medical staffs are theoretically aware enough of procedures necessary for handling with emergency event with mass health disability according to the traumatological plan. On the other hand, the negative finding is the fact that 74% of medical staff do not participate in practice to handle mass admission of injured people, which in my opinion shows underestimation of the preparedness of the medical facility for emergency event or crisis. The traumatological plan of the chosen medical facility follows the regulations given by the valid legislation and is regularly updated but the interview with the head doctor of the surgical department MUDr. Marta Horáková reveals the weaknesses of traumatology planning. The traumatological plan contains practical deficiencies so that it is recommended to make it more specific, detailed and adapted to technical disposal of the hospital. In particular, the system of calling out the staff in case of traumatological plan activation during out of working hours has not been fully resolved; furthermore, direction points for the Integrated rescue system and the public have been marked insufficiently or have not been marked at all. The last major weakness is the absence of contact point for the media or the public. In the final part of my thesis I suggested measures for elimination or at least reduction of the crisis points.

The thesis rounds up fundamental information about municipalities and cities concerning crisis management. Further analyzed are responsibilities and duties of municipal and city authorities in resolving major emergency incidents and crisis situations, and status of municipalities in the security system of Czech republic. The thesis further describes the ensuring of crisis preparedness at the level of municipalities and cities. The aim of the research part of the thesis was to analyze, describe and evaluate present state of crisis preparedness of municipalities and cities in South Bohemian region and, at the same time, to find suggestions for systemic solution to the current situation. And this for a reason that the status of municipalities in the security system of Czech republic is irreplaceable because a municipality, most importantly represented by a mayor, is closest to a citizen, and therefore a help in resolving major emergency incidents and crisis situations must primarily be ensured from the level of a municipality. For this purpose the hypothesis was set that municipalities, as opposed to municipalities with extended powers, are professionally, personally and materially not sufficiently prepared for resolving emergency incidents and crisis situations. Furthermore, the thesis deals with methodical tool ? procedure for solving emergency incidents and crisis situations by municipality bodies that could directly serve mayors of municipalities. And also, a proposal for tasks and measures is dealt with which could improve crisis preparedness of municipalities and cities.

Sverige är, och har varit, relativt skonat ifrån personskador förknippat med skogsbränder och sett ur ett internationellt perspektiv är det få skogsbränder som har tvingat människor att lämna sina hem. Med ett varmare klimat och en förtätning av tätorter kan frekvensen av händelser som kräver evakuering som riskhanteringsmetod komma att öka i olika delar av landet. Litteratur som berör ämnet ur ett svenskt perspektiv är ytterst begränsat och det finns ett behov att undersöka hur evakuering vid skogsbränder hanteras, eller inte hanteras i Sverige. Syftet med studien är således att studera Sveriges skogsbrandshantering när det kommer till evakuering. Detta inkluderar den akuta hanteringen vid skogsbränder samt det långsiktiga arbetet med förberedelser inför en evakuering. Målsättningen är att jämföra den svenska hanteringen med internationell forskning och se vilka potentiella förbättringar som skulle kunna implementeras i Sverige. Studien genomförs med kvalitativ studiedesign och data inhämtas med semistrukturerade intervjuer samt med en kompletterade litteraturöversikt. Det insamlande datamaterialet behandlas med en kvalitativ innehållsanalys.  Resultatet av kartläggningen och analysen tyder på att kunskapen och förmågan att genomföra en evakuering vid skogsbrand är bristfällig. Resultatet indikerar att det finns behov för att vidta åtgärder, framför allt förebyggande åtgärder, för att reducera de osäkerheter som idag existerar vid en evakuering.  Det argumenteras för att det förebyggande arbetet bör utgå från en risk- och sårbarhetsanalys, där risker och sårbarheter identifieras och bedöms utifrån de lokala förutsättningarna. Risk- och sårbarhetsanalysen bör resultera en handlingsplan med åtgärdsförslag i förhållande till styrdokument, resursbehov samt bör identifiera kunskapsluckor och behov av utbildning och övning för alla inblandande i processen. / Sweden is, and has been, relatively spared from injuries associated with wildfires, as seen in global perspective, and wildfires that have required evacuation as a risk management strategy are relatively few. As a result of global warming and a densification of urban areas, the frequency of incidents that could require evacuation as a risk management method may increase in different parts of the country. Literature on the subject is limited from a Swedish perspective and there is a need to examine how evacuation in the event of wildfires is managed in Sweden. The aim of the study is to examine Sweden's wildfire management when it comes to evacuation. This includes the more urgent handling of wildfires as well as the long-term preventive work with evacuation mitigation. The aim is to compare risk management from a Swedish perspective with international research and identify potential improvements that could be implemented in Sweden. The chosen method is semi-structured interviews with a supplemented literature review. The collected data material is treated with a qualitative content analysis. The result of the analysis indicates that the knowledge and ability to carry out an evacuation in the event of a wildfire is inadequate. The results indicate that there is a need to take preventive measures to reduce the uncertainties that are currently associated with an evacuation from wildfire. Preventive measures should be based on a risk and vulnerability analysis, where risks and vulnerabilities are identified, and probability and consequence are assessed based on the local conditions. The risk and vulnerability analysis should result in a management plan with proposed measures, related to policies, resources, and identify gaps in knowledge and the need for education and training for everyone involved in the process.

Att vara en ledare kan vara svårt, även under normala förhållanden. Att vara en ledare under en kris ställer ledaren inför ytterligare utmaningar. Vi befinner oss just nu mitt i en kris, en pandemi orsakad av sjukdomen Covid-19. Pandemin har resulterat i restriktioner, som avråder folk från sådant som kan sprida smittan, såsom resor eller trängsel. Detta har resulterat i att hotellbranschen lidit svåra nederlag i form av sviktande kundunderlag. Ledare i den svenska hotellbranschen befinner sig just nu mitt uppe i en kris, där de ska navigera sin personal och sin organisation ut ur detta. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera ledarskapet i en bransch som befinner sig i kris. I detta fall är det den svenska hotellbranschen under påverkan av Covid-19-pandemin. Uppsatsen har gjorts med en kvalitativ undersökning, i form av semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledare inom den svenska hotellbranschen. På grund av det speciella läget har intervjuerna genomförts digitalt med ledarna. Intervjuerna transkriberades, för att sedan kunna användas i analys tillsammans med tidigare forskning och teorier. Studiens slutsats är att alla kriser är till viss del unika i hur de utspelar sig vilket innebär att även krishanteringen skiljer sig. Även om det här är en helt ny kris som organisationerna har ställts inför så stämmer resultatet med tidigare forskning överens till stor del. Ingen av organisationerna har haft någon krisberedskap för att kunna hantera detta men har ändå till viss del haft nytta av tidigare erfarenheter. Organisationerna har behövt struktur och vara flexibla och anpassningsbara för att kunna fungera vilket ställt stora krav på ledarskapet. / Being a leader is considered a difficult task, even under normal circumstances. Being a leader in times of a crisis means the leader is faced with further challenges. Right now, we are in the middle of a crisis, a pandemic caused by the viral infection Covid-19. The pandemic has resulted in restrictions that advise against activities that could spread the disease, such as travelling or being in crowds. Due to this, the hotel industry has suffered great losses in the form of a lacking customer base. The leaders of the Swedish hotel industry are in the midst of a crisis, where they are trying to navigate their staff and their organisation out of it. The purpose of the thesis is to study leadership in an industry facing a crisis. In this case, the Swedish hotel industry during the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is being studied. The thesis has been conducted with qualitative research, in the form of semi structured interviews with leaders from the Swedish hotel industry. Due to the special situation, the interviews have been held digitally. The interviews were transcribed, to then be used in the analysis with earlier research and theories. The conclusion of the study is that all crises to some extents are unique regarding how they play out, which means that the crisis management differs as well. Even if this is a new type of crisis that the organisations now are facing, the result of earlier research holds up to a large extent. None of the organisations have had a crisis readiness to cope with this but have still benefited from earlier experiences. The organisations have required structure as well as flexible and adaptive to be able to function which in turn has put strain on the leadership.

Billion-dollar disasters are projected to increase at a statistically significant rate of 5% annually. Crises affect the viability and lucrativeness of tourism business and implicate destinations in the process. Crisis preparedness is vital to improving outcomes and reducing consequential effects in the tourism industry-a key contributor to socioeconomic progress and infrastructural development worldwide. The study was an exploration of the strategies used for crisis preparedness to reduce business interruptions and improve the image of destinations affected by large-scale natural disasters and human-induced crises. A multiple case study was conducted based on the cycle of preparedness framework. Data were gathered from organization documents and semistructured interviews by telephone with 6 executives of 6 destination management organizations located in the south and west regions of the United States. Transcribed data were coded and then validated via member checking, revealing 3 themes: organizational preparedness, operational preparedness, and strategic communication. Specifically, possessing a crisis mindset, predetermining crisis risks and responses, and managing information to safeguard the reputation of tourism organizations and destinations were attributed to preparedness at the local and organization levels. Tourism and hospitality professionals may benefit from devising crisis plans, establishing rapport with crisis leaders and teams, and partnering with the media to promote positive perceptions and travel behaviors of tourists. Implications for social change include identifying strategies to limit the impact of crises on individuals and communities to improve the perceptions of safety of a tourist destination after a crisis and thus enhance its economic growth.

Crisis preparedness is the responsibility of every person, business, and leader, and leadership behavioral skills are an essential characteristic of crisis preparedness. The purpose of this case study was to explore the decisions of elected leaders along the Gulf Coast during Hurricanes Katrina and Ike in order to understand their leadership behaviors in crisis preparedness. The conceptual framework was based on the emergency management theory presented by McEntire in 2004, which helped to define the necessary components for leaders' successful crisis preparedness. Data were collected through interviews with 5 members from the National Emergency Management Agency along with a document review of elected leader responses and decisions during both Hurricanes Katrina and Ike from government reports, previous studies, and scholarly articles. Data were interpretively analyzed by listing out several leadership models and the behaviors that identify them and then by reviewing the document study information in 2 matrices for methodological triangulation and data saturation. The findings highlighted 5 emerging themes named as the five Cs of crisis preparedness: compassion, continuity, communication, common sense, and confidence. This study may contribute to social change by identifying key leadership traits that governors and other elected leaders should use in crisis preparedness, which may contribute to the safety, health, and well-being of constituents during a natural disaster.

Bakgrund: Utifrån det förändrade och förvärrade säkerhetsläget i Europa har frågan om livsmedelsberedskap aktualiserats i den svenska politiska diskussionen. Ansvar och utformande av en sådan beredskap saknar idag tydlig organisation. Livsmedelverket, Jordbruksverket och Statens veterinärmedicinska anstalt nämner i en utredning avseende underlag för beredskap att bland annat de regionala livsmedelsstrategierna bör adressera livsmedelsberedskap. Den aktuella studien fokuserar på hur de regionala livsmedelsstrategierna förhåller sig till livmedelsberedskap i nuläget, samt hur de beskriver ansvarsfördelning av teman i relation till detta.Metod: Genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av regionernas livsmedelsstrategier undersöks hur strategierna ser på livsmedelsproduktion i relation till livsmedelsberedskap och lokalisering av ansvar för detta. Analysen har ett deduktivt förhållningssätt där teman från tidigare forskning som relaterar till livmedelsberedskap ligger till grund för vilka fynd som eftersöks vid analysen.Slutsats: Hälften av strategierna nämner livsmedelsberedskap, vilket kan tyda på att det varken ses som självklart att det hör ihop med de regional livsmedelsstrategierna eller ej. Strategierna visar på en splittrad bild av livsmedelsproduktionen som dels en samhällsviktig verksamhet och dels en näringsgren med ekonomisk tillväxt som incitament. Uppfattningen om ansvar för livsmedelsproduktionen som samhällsviktig verksamhet kan tolkas som en fråga om altruism där frivilligt deltagande utifrån solidaritet ses som eftersträvansvärt. / Background: The growing political insecurity in Europe has made food preparedness a current discussion in the political discussion is Sweden. Accountability for and shaping such preparedness is today not clearly organized. The Swedish Food Agency, The Swedish Agency for Agriculture and The Swedish Veterinary Medical Institute has mentioned in an investigation regarding prerequisites for food preparedness that the regional food production strategies (among other instances) should address the achieving of food preparedness. The aim of this study is to describe how the current regional food strategies relates to food preparedness and how they describe division and location of responsibility for themas related to this.Method: The regional food production strategies is analyzed by qualitative content analysis. The study has a deductive approach where previous research structured into themes related to food preparedness has formed a base for which findings to search for in the analysis.Conclusion: Half of the strategies mentions food preparedness, which could be a sign of food preparedness not being seen as an obvious theme to address in the food production strategies but also not an obviously irrelevant one. The strategies display a shattered attitude toward food production as both a vital societal function and an industry with economical growth as primary incentive. Responsibility for food production as a vital societal function can be viewed as altruistic with solidarity and voluntary participation as aspirational ideals.

Risk and vulnerability analysis (RVA) is a widely used method to assess an organization's threat situation. Certain actors are obliged by law to perform the analysis to contribute to a national threat assessment. Among these are actors in the healthcare system. This study aims to understand how a systematized workflow for RVA can increase crisis preparedness and resilience within Swedish healthcare. In this context, a systematized workflow is defined as a systematic and uniform method within a designated digital tool to facilitate the analysis.  To understand how a systematized workflow could increase crisis preparedness and resilience, four semi-structured interviews were held with knowledgeable people within the area from different levels of the national risk and vulnerability chain. Further recurring meetings with people directly involved in such improvemenet work from AFRY were held, along with a review of existing literature. The result shows several challenges regarding RVA-related work; it is time-consuming, complex, resource-intensive, and lacks proper guidance in how it should be done. It shows a need for a better process, both in how they are performed and how the results are analyzed. It is concluded that a systematized workflow for risk and vulnerability analysis could increase crisis preparedness and resilience within Swedish healthcare. Having a designated tool with a set process, clear instructions, definitions, and guidelines would make RVAs easier to conduct and generate better outcomes regarding several aspects. Identifying essential dependencies would be facilitated for actors within the healthcare sector, which forms the basis to sustain those dependencies if a crisis occurs. Further, uniformly structured results would facilitate the analysis of results to make a nationwide risk assessment. In turn, this would probably increase crisis preparedness and resilience within the healthcare sector and several others. / Risk och sårbarhetsanalyser (RSA) är en utbredd metod för att värdera en organisations hotbild. Vissa aktörer är skyldiga enligt lag att genomföra analysen för att bidra till en nationell sammanställning av landets risker, varav skjukhussystemet är en av dessa. Denna studie ämnar att förstå hur ett systematiskt arbetsflöde för RSA kan bidra till ökad krisberedskap och resiliens inom svensk sjukvård. Genom denna rapport definieras ett systematiskt arbetssätt som en systematiserad och enhetlig metod i ett dedikerat digitalt verktyg för att underlätta analysen. För att förstå hur ett systematiserat arbetssätt kan öka krisberedskap och resiliens har fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer hållits med sakkunniga personer inom området. Dessa har varit från olika nivåer inom den nationella risk- och sårbarbetsanalyskedjan. Vidare har återkommande möten genomförts med människor som varit direkt involverade i denna typ av förbättringsarbeten från AFRY, tillika en granskning av befintlig litteratur. Resultaten från studien visar på flera svårigheter rörande RSA-arbete - det är tidskrävande, komplext, resursintensivt, och saknar tydlig vägledning i hur arbetet ska utföras. Dessutom visar resultaten ett behov av bättre arbetsprocesser, både rörande hur analyserna ska genomföras samt hur resultaten ska analyseras. De slutsatser som har kunnat dras är att ett systematiserat arbetssätt för risk- och sårbarhetsanalyser skulle kunna bidra till en ökad krisberedskap och resiliens inom svensk sjukvård. Genom att ha ett dedikerat verktyg med en satt process, tydliga instruktioner, definitioner och riktlinjer hade genomförandet av en RSA underlättats samt gett bättre resultat inom ytterligare områden. Att identifiera kritiska beroenden hade förenklats för aktörer inom sjukvården, vilket formar grunden till att upprätthålla dem vid en kris. Vidare hade enhetligt strukturerade resultat underlättat analysen av resultaten för att göra ett nationell riskbedömning. Detta i sin tur hade trolien lett till ökad krisberedskap och resiliens inte endast inom sjukvården, utan även inom andra sektorer.

Within various sectors of society, a shift of responsibility from society to the individual is visible. Within crisis preparedness a change is noticeable, but the issue is that it is not clear in the public debate what constitutes a reasonable distribution of responsibility. The purpose of this study is to examine how the distribution of responsibility between individuals and authorities is expressed in Sweden´s county boards risk and vulnerability analyses and to observe any changes over time between 2016 – 2022. Additionally, the study aims to investigate the methods authorities employ to involve individuals. The documents under study are analyzed from Michel Foucault´s governmentality perspective, which is a way of governing citizens without coercion. The study´s findings reveal that documents from 2022 more clearly delineate responsibilities of individuals, partly due to the altered security situation globally.