<p>Purpose</p><p>To study how improvisation allows a crisis manager to answer the crisis when it has occurred, and how the improvisational act and the environment are linked. Methodology/ApproachFirst, we led research on the concepts of crisis, crisis management and improvisation. We were able to distinguish two major characteristics of the crisis situation – uncertainty and time pressure – as well as two moments in crisis response – containment and recovery. In parallel, we studied improvisation. The improvisation act intervenes when one realizes the environment conditions, reduces the gap between thinking the action and executing the action, and increases the speed of his actual action. Also, we identified that improvisation was expressed through the use of creativity, bricolage and intuition. At last, some authors developed levels of improvisation whether based on creativity levels or on the distance between the way one acts and the procedures, the normal ways to act. From this literature review, we were able to highlight two research propositions: Proposition 1: As soon as a situation enters a crisis phase, improvisation is used. Proposition 2: The way and the extent to improvise depend on the extent of time-pressure and uncertainty.Our belief in a mainly subjective conception of reality and of our knowledge and the fact we could use enough existing knowledge to enunciate propositions led us to have a semi-inductive research approach and a qualitative strategy. Our data were collected by using recorded semi-structured interviews. Our sample was constituted of managers specialized in the management of a crisis – surgeons and high mountain rescuers.</p><p>Findings</p><p>Our data analysis allowed us to confirm the research propositions. Crisis managers improvise when responding to a crisis by being creative, aware and adaptable to the environment conditions, and by having quick decision-making processes. Their improvisation levels are dependent on the situation uncertainty/novelty levels. In fact, we could identify a “mirror effect”: the level of improvisation increases as uncertainty increases.</p><p>Limitations</p><p>Some points are factors of the limitation of this research. These limitations are essentially linked to a reduced transdisciplinary approach. The topic of this research deserves a larger sample of interviewees in order to improve the relevance of our findings and their capacity to be generalized.</p><p>Originality/Value</p><p>The value of this study comes from the relevance of the investigated fields – fields with recurrent crisis management – and from the experience of their interviewed members. This research was also led with philosophical considerations materialized by a transdisciplinary approach. Indeed, we interviewed persons from fields outside business management.</p>

The study examines the relationship between project leadership styles and success when affected by pressures such as time, project type, complexity and cultural diversity. The research examines the two well-known leadership approaches of transformational- and transactional leadership, and argues that transactional leadership, which has less focus on the leader-follower relationship, is more suitable and successful in projects with limited time. The transformational leadership style, which has more focus on vision and relationship between the followers takes time to build, and is therefore more successful for long-term projects. In order to examine this, a questionnaire was developed and sent out to 56 project leaders around the world. Findings indicate that time in projects have a negative effect on project success, and that both transformational and transactional leadership style has a dampening effect on this negative relationship, hence increasing the success. Furthermore, the study finds strong correlation between the two leadership styles, indicating that these should not be seen as two different attitudes, as leaders can show behaviors from both the transformational and transactional leadership style, possibly explaining the similar dampening effect. No further significant moderating effects were found in the variables project type, complexity and the project’s cultural diversity.

Nowadays modern organizations move in an incredible speed and have to be flexible and adaptable to constantly changing circumstances. Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) have been proved to be one of the means to handle this challenge. While it is said that GVTs bestow an organization with flexibility and enhanced creativity, research proves that the managing of these teams is quite challenging. The modern work stress factor time pressure is said to be omnipresent in nowadays organizations and therefore undoubtedly connected to this. However time pressure within teams has until now been somewhat “under-researched”. This study therefore aims to explore how time pressure is related to the main challenges of GVTs. The qualitative research is based on empirical data collected through 15 interviews with students who participated in a global virtual competition. The main findings show that time pressure affects GVTs and their functioning on several dimensions as well as the challenges connected to the teams can also cause time pressure.

Purpose To study how improvisation allows a crisis manager to answer the crisis when it has occurred, and how the improvisational act and the environment are linked. Methodology/ApproachFirst, we led research on the concepts of crisis, crisis management and improvisation. We were able to distinguish two major characteristics of the crisis situation – uncertainty and time pressure – as well as two moments in crisis response – containment and recovery. In parallel, we studied improvisation. The improvisation act intervenes when one realizes the environment conditions, reduces the gap between thinking the action and executing the action, and increases the speed of his actual action. Also, we identified that improvisation was expressed through the use of creativity, bricolage and intuition. At last, some authors developed levels of improvisation whether based on creativity levels or on the distance between the way one acts and the procedures, the normal ways to act. From this literature review, we were able to highlight two research propositions: Proposition 1: As soon as a situation enters a crisis phase, improvisation is used. Proposition 2: The way and the extent to improvise depend on the extent of time-pressure and uncertainty.Our belief in a mainly subjective conception of reality and of our knowledge and the fact we could use enough existing knowledge to enunciate propositions led us to have a semi-inductive research approach and a qualitative strategy. Our data were collected by using recorded semi-structured interviews. Our sample was constituted of managers specialized in the management of a crisis – surgeons and high mountain rescuers. Findings Our data analysis allowed us to confirm the research propositions. Crisis managers improvise when responding to a crisis by being creative, aware and adaptable to the environment conditions, and by having quick decision-making processes. Their improvisation levels are dependent on the situation uncertainty/novelty levels. In fact, we could identify a “mirror effect”: the level of improvisation increases as uncertainty increases. Limitations Some points are factors of the limitation of this research. These limitations are essentially linked to a reduced transdisciplinary approach. The topic of this research deserves a larger sample of interviewees in order to improve the relevance of our findings and their capacity to be generalized. Originality/Value The value of this study comes from the relevance of the investigated fields – fields with recurrent crisis management – and from the experience of their interviewed members. This research was also led with philosophical considerations materialized by a transdisciplinary approach. Indeed, we interviewed persons from fields outside business management.

Aim and scientific issues The aim was to identify potential health risks, for full-time working parents with small children, caused by time shortage. The intention was to better understand and help this particularly time-pressured group in society to achieve a healthier lifestyle. The identification was built upon their own opinions about possible health risks and upon an interpretation of the health risks from a health promoter’s perspective. How do full-time working parents with young children handle time-shortage in a health perspective, specified in the categories: sleep, recovery, nutrition, physical activity, social health and mental health? What consequences for health does time–shortage have for full-time working parents with young children? What do parents with young children think could help them to obtain a better health in everyday life?  Method The study was based on a literature overview and semi-structured interviews with 6 people who were strategically selected: the interview objects were all full-time working or studying, had one child under 7 and lived together with a partner. All interviews were recorded using two dictaphones and were implemented, transcribed and analyzed by both writers of this essay to increase the reliability of the results. Results Time shortage is shown to be handled especially through priorities in the respondent’s lives. Depending on individual preferences, knowledge and lifestyle the interview objects give up different activities. Common for all respondents was that they gave up activities necessary for their health in the long term. The consequences of time shortage for their health therefore depended on what kind of activity they gave up. It is clear that time-shortage signifies an increased risk for lifestyle diseases in the long term. The parents’ own suggestions for improvements included household services, economic help, social networks, a more flexible working market and a more flexible society. Conclusions Time shortage is a problem for parents with small children and the consequences of it are that crucial activities for promoting a long-term good health are given up. Input from the community is needed and the health educator can be a part in the work of teaching parents –to-be about lifestyle changes that could occur. Based on the results of this study, different methods can be used for the solution of specific problems in different families. / Sammanfattning Syfte och frågeställningar Syftet var att identifiera tidsbristens potentiella hälsorisker för heltidsarbetande småbarnsföräldrar. Avsikten var att i hälsopedagogyrket bättre kunna förstå och hjälpa denna särskilt tidspressade grupp i samhället att uppnå en mer hälsosam livsstil. Identifieringen byggde på både deltagarnas egna åsikter om tänkbara hälsorisker och på en tolkning av hälsoriskerna ur ett hälsopedagogperspektiv. Hur hanterar heltidsarbetande småbarnsföräldrar tidsbrist ur ett hälsoperspektiv, specificerat i kategorierna; sömn, återhämtning, kost, fysisk aktivitet, social hälsa och psykisk hälsa? Vilka konsekvenser för hälsan får tidsbrist för heltidsarbetande småbarnsföräldrar? Vad upplever småbarnsföräldrar skulle kunna hjälpa dem till en bättre hälsa i vardagen? Metod Uppsatsen är baserad på en litteraturstudie samt semistrukturerade intervjuer med 6 personer som rekryterades strategiskt: intervjupersonerna var alla heltidsarbetande eller heltidsstuderande, hade ett barn under 7 år och bodde tillsammans med partner. Alla intervjuer spelades in på två diktafoner och genomfördes, transkriberades och analyserades av båda författarna för att öka reliabiliteten i resultaten. Resultat Tidsbrist visade sig framförallt hanteras genom prioriteringar i respondenternas liv. Beroende på individuella preferenser, kunskaper och livsstil prioriterade man bort olika aktiviteter. Gemensamt för alla respondenter var att de prioriterade bort aktiviteter som var nödvändiga för hälsan på lång sikt. Tidsbristens konsekvenser på hälsan beror därmed på vilken typ av aktivitet som prioriteras bort. Det är tydligt att tidsbrist innebär en ökad risk för s.k. livsstilssjukdomar i längden. Småbarnsföräldrarnas egna förslag på lösningar rörde sig kring hushållstjänster, ekonomisk hjälp, sociala nätverk, en flexiblare arbetsmarknad och ett flexiblare samhälle. Slutsats För småbarnsföräldrar är tidsbrist är ett problem vars konsekvenser blir att viktiga aktiviteter för en långsiktigt god hälsa prioriteras bort. Insatser behövs från samhället och hälsopedagogen kan spela en viktig roll för att utbilda blivande föräldrar om de livsstilsförändringar som kan inträffa. Med hjälp bland annat av denna studies resultat kan olika metoder användas för att lösa olika familjers specifika problematik.

As a result of the prosperous growth of electronic commerce businesses and the rapid progress of the information technologies, various innovative e-commerce business models are emerging. In recent years, there is a new and very successful e-commerce business model called ¡§One Deal a Day.¡¨ It is surprising that the way how the One Deal a Day violates many principles of doing good business in the past. For this reason, the purpose of this thesis is to study why and how One Deal a Day can succeed by analyzing the empirical data collected from WOOT! which is the starter of One Deal a Day business model. Overall, the unique characteristics of One Deal a Day include single item only at any moment, 24 hours only or even shorter of selling, great discounts, funny story as marketing tactics, and full of uncertainty. Based on these characteristics and literature, we conclude the success of One Deal a Day is resulted from hedonic consumption and impulse buying behaviors. According to the analysis of empirical data, when the selling time is shorter and more uncertain, or when the price is cheaper, it will encourage more impulse buying. However, the time pressure will negatively moderate the impact of the price on impulse buying. From the aspect of consumer loyalty, we found that One Deal a Day business model is easy to build up consumer loyalty. In addition, when the selling time is shorter and more uncertain, it will attract more consumers with high loyalty, but less new consumers.

As the e-coupon group-buying is getting popular, there are many sellers using e-coupon group-buying as an advertising strategy by providing e-coupon with big discount. However, there were many complaints from consumers saying that they couldn¡¦t reserve the services on peak time as they wished. It turns out that the sellers could not achieve the advertising effect but the negative image. We found the good time for sellers doing advertising by selling e-coupon is on the off-peak time. Based on above observation, this study tried to explore whether the service industry can enhance the impulse buying behavior and thus improve yield management performance by selling e-coupons through mobile devices. An online experiment with questionnaire was implemented to collect research data. The research results include: (1) The quantity of e-coupon provided by the sellers will not have significant impact on time pressure perceived by the consumers directly. However, if the limited quantity lets consumer recognize its scarcity, it will increase consumer perceived time pressure and perceived value as well. (2) In addition to the perceived scarcity, the e-coupon discount also has positive influence on consumer perceived value. (3) The shorter distance the location of the store is, the better perceived location will be. (4) The consumer impulse buying intention will be impacted by the perceived time pressure, perceived value, perceived location and impulse characteristic of the consumer. Among them, the perceived value has highest influence and the second is consumer impulse characteristic followed by the perceived location.

The popularity of global e-business and the rapid development of Web technologies have made e-negotiation an integral part of the daily lives of many managers in all types of business affairs. Moreover, the presence of severe competition has made making business processes both efficient and effective a necessity for enterprises to survive. This has made time pressure a crucial factor in e-negotiation, and hence it is important to understand how time pressure affects the both the process and outcome of e-negotiation. Most of the many studies on time pressure have considered face-to-face negotiations, and the findings therefore cannot be directly applied to the e-negotiation context because the degree of media richness has been shown to affect negotiations. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effects of time pressure on e-negotiations from three aspects: negotiation strategy, process, and outcome. Though research results did not find the relationship between time pressure and negotiation strategy, we still found the significant negative relationship between time pressure and perceived control over the negotiation. Moreover, we also found that perceived control over the negotiation had significant positive influence on outcome satisfaction.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.