Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Orientation in Times of Crisis'

This paper evaluates the impact of a large macroeconomic shock on poverty. In particular, we use longitudinal data from the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) comprising almost two million individuals from 29 European countries in order to quantify changes in poverty transition patterns caused by the 2007 global financial crisis. Because the crisis was largely unforeseeable, it provides an appealing natural experiment allowing us to isolate the causal effect of a substantial macroeconomic shock on poverty. Employing semiparametric mixed discrete time survival analysis, we find that conditional poverty entry hazards increased temporarily by 13.4% during the crisis, while post-crisis they are estimated to be 15.7% lower than before. Not only entry hazards have decreased, also conditional exit hazards are estimated to be 31.4% lower post-crisis compared to before. Ceteris paribus, the crisis therefore has made it more difficult to slip into poverty, yet those who were already poor face substantially lower prospects to escape. Exploring determinants of poverty transitions, we find that being retired, having a permanent job, owning one's dwelling instead of renting it, age, marital status, and household size are the most important protective factors against poverty. Finally, we show that mostly a housing cost overburden seems to be responsible for the persistence of poverty.<br>Series: INEQ Working Paper Series

Crisis represents an important contextual variable in the leader-follower relationship. Never is it as important as in times of “shock” when followers experience intense uncertainty and seek for sources of protection and guidance, that leaders are required to step in and find appropriate ways to alleviate fears, restore a sense normalcy, and maintain effective functioning. Over the years, studies from multiple disciplines have accumulated to a large body of literature on the topic of crisis leadership, informing the current understanding of how crises can be defined and the role of leadership in steering followers through them. However, despite a vast empirical base, important aspects in the analysis are missing, leaving the field to suffer from three fatal flaws. First, insights into the precise working of crisis leadership phenomena have remained restricted as the majority of existing studies limit their investigation to isolated and coarsely conceptualized crises. Second, past research efforts have focused on acute crisis management as the solitary leadership function, disregarding the potentially insightful study of crisis leadership across different stages of the crisis lifecycle. Third, a problematic imbalance is observable in the field that overemphasizes the analysis of particular leadership theories (i.e., charismatic-transformational leadership) to the neglect of testing the effectiveness of other leadership approaches as crisis responses. Altogether, there has been no effort to investigate crisis leadership in a systematic and integrative manner that acknowledges the breadth of what both the notions of crisis and crisis leadership encompass. This dissertation addresses these issues with the objective of gaining novel insights on the effectiveness of different leadership styles in different crisis contexts. Synthesizing the large and disparate body of literature of crisis leadership, the current work applies theories from the safety sciences, small group research, and the management field to widen the scope of previous analyses. Specifically, it develops a theoretical framework that integrates the insights gained from these domains by utilizing a tripartite crisis lifecycle approach, identifying the stages of pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis, as the basis for further study. Based on these stages, the notion of crisis is expanded by conceptualizing it in terms of (precursory) critical incidents, (acute) team crises, and (fully manifested) organizational crises. The framework broadens the research perspective by recognizing that prevention, intervention, and resolution of crisis are equally important functions of crisis leadership. Using this framework as a departure point for empirical investigation, relationship-based, motivation-based, and functionally-based leadership approaches are examined across the crisis stages in three empirical studies. Study 1 focuses on the pre-crisis stage and examines how relationship-oriented leadership forms support the preventive function of crisis leadership by promoting the reporting of critical incidents. Building on social exchange and social identity theory, this study disentangles how leader-member exchange (LMX) influences reporting of incidents in healthcare organizations through two different mechanisms. Using survey data of 15 hospitals in Germany (N = 436) and structural equation modelling, it reveals that LMX increases both reporting-specific trust and organizational identification of employees, which in turn positively affects reporting of incidents. Furthermore, top management support is found to moderate the link between LMX and reporting-specific trust, indicating a compensatory effect of LMX for followers who perceive management support to be low. In addition, codification of safety regulations is found to moderate the link between organizational identification and reporting of incidents, indicating that the institutionalization of safety norms through a strong follow-through of the organization facilitates reporting for highly-identified employees. The findings of Study 1 demonstrate that crisis leadership can be enacted at both the supervisory and top management level and illustrate that the resulting increase of followers’ crisis preventive behaviour can be motivated from different sources. Study 2 focuses on the crisis stage and examines how motivational leadership approaches aid the intervention function of crisis leadership by influencing follower performance in team crises. This study extends charismatic leadership research by identifying boundary conditions under which charismatic leadership in teams does not improve but can even hurt follower performance. Specifically, it proposes that while charismatic leadership generally leads to higher performance in team-based settings, the occurrence of a team crisis decreases performance. In addition, the follower attribute of self-direction is hypothesized to interact with charismatic leadership and team crisis such that charismatic leadership adversely impacts performance in a team crisis if followers’ self-direction is high rather than low. The theoretical propositions are tested in a laboratory setting that uses the cover story of a brainstorming competition (N = 88) intended to promote the sales of controversial consumer products, and experimentally manipulates team crisis in the form of value-based critical team events and leadership in the form of a rhetoric-based charismatic crisis intervention. The findings support the propositions of the three-way interaction. In sum, Study 2 provides first experimental evidence that charismatic leadership can have negative performance effects in specific types of team crises, if such leadership is enacted on highly self-directed followers. Study 3 focuses on the post-crisis stage and examines how functional leadership approaches assist the resolution function of crisis leadership in different types of organizational crisis. This study proposes that different crisis situations necessitate alternative leadership styles, which may additionally depend on follower characteristics. To this effect, it examines the interplay of (a) crisis types (sudden vs. gradual) with (b) leadership styles (pragmatic vs. charismatic), and (c) follower characteristics (pragmatism vs. idealism), hypothesizing favourable leader evaluations based on a principle of fit. The proposed relationships are tested in three experimental substudies (Ns = 62, 49, 204). Substudy 1 shows that pragmatic leadership is evaluated more favourably than charismatic leadership in gradual (vs. sudden) crises. Substudy 2 identifies the time horizon of crisis consequences as a further boundary condition and highlights that charismatic leadership can, conversely, be evaluated more favourably than pragmatic leadership if crisis consequences are perceived to manifest in the distant (vs. in the near) future. Substudy 3 replicates and extends the findings of Substudy 1 by providing evidence that the positive effects of pragmatic leadership are mediated by collective crisis efficacy and that this effect is enhanced for individuals high in pragmatism. The results of Study 3 indicate that both pragmatic and charismatic leadership represent a potentially effective approach to crisis leadership; however, their effectiveness depends on the specific crisis circumstances and the expectations that different types of followers have towards the ideal crisis leader. Combined, the findings of the three studies offer novel theoretical conclusions that are integrated in an overarching model of crisis leadership. This model advances four propositions concerning leadership in times of crisis related to (1) the formation of the leader-follower-relationship as a basis for crisis leaders’ social influence attempts, (2) the relevance of context factors found in the organizational environment, the individual follower, and the crisis itself, (3) the specific mechanisms that underlie the crisis leadership process, and (4) the different domains of organizational life that are affected by crisis leadership. The empirical studies contribute to research in unique ways. Study 1, in departure from research on organizations that have already achieved the goal of being “crisis-prepared” (i.e., high-reliability-organizations), extends the analysis to the healthcare sector by linking ideas and insights from the safety sciences with those from organizational behavior research. It tests a dual-process model of LMX that advances the social exchange and social identity literature and provides insights on how supervisory leadership interacts with higher level leadership functions in preventing crisis escalation. Study 2, in contrast to previous research on charismatic crisis leadership which has primarily found positive effects in large-scale crises, detects potentially negative effects at the team level. By applying a novel operationalization of crisis in the form of critical team events and considering the individual difference variable of self-direction, it adds to the event-based crisis literature and answers scholarly calls for a more follower-centric view of leadership. Study 3 takes up a new development in the leadership field by experimentally investigating pragmatic leadership approaches in a crisis context for the first time. It builds on a theoretically established, but as of yet empirically unexplored crisis typology in order to gain novel insights into the fit between crisis type, leadership style, and follower characteristics, and identifies boundary conditions in a moderated-mediation framework that simultaneously recognizes collective crisis efficacy as an important mechanism. Taken as a whole, the dissertation’s primary contribution is that it develops and empirically tests a theoretical framework that uniquely integrates multiple crisis conceptualizations situated at different stages of the crisis lifecycle with important, so far disregarded leadership approaches. In doing so, the current work informs the understanding of crisis leadership also from a practical point of view: The findings highlight the importance of leader adaptability and point out concrete ways of selecting and training leaders for assignment in crisis contexts. By virtue of a solid understanding of the nature of a crisis and its specific leadership requirements, crisis leaders can be better prepared to effectively engage their followers in different crisis situations with the aim of achieving desired outcomes despite difficult circumstances<br>Krisen stellen eine wichtige Kontextvariable in der Beziehung zwischen Führungskraft und Geführten dar. Nie ist es so wichtig wie in Zeiten eines „Schocks“, wenn Geführte intensive Unsicherheit erleben und nach Schutz und Orientierung suchen, dass Führungspersonen eingreifen und angemessene Wege finden müssen, um Ängste zu lindern, ein Gefühl der Normalität wiederherzustellen, und die effektive Bearbeitung von vorhandenen Aufgaben sicherzustellen. Im Laufe der Jahre haben Studien aus den verschiedensten Disziplinen eine umfassende Literatur zum Thema Krisenführung zusammengetragen, die zum heutigen Verständnis des Krisenbegriffs sowie der Rolle der Führung in Zeiten der Krise beitragen. Trotz einer großen empirischen Basis sind allerdings wichtige Aspekte in der Analyse bisher noch nicht berücksichtigt und das Feld leidet an drei erheblichen Schwächen. Erstens ist die Kenntnis zu den genauen Wirkmustern der Krisenführung bisher begrenzt, da die meisten der vorhandenen Untersuchungen ihre Analysen auf voneinander isolierte und grob konzeptualisierte Krisen beschränkt haben. Zweitens haben sich vergangene Untersuchungen auf das aktive Krisen-Management als die einzige Führungsaufgabe konzentriert, ohne die potenziell interessante Analyse der Krisenführung in den verschiedenen Phasen einer Krise im Rahmen ihres Lebenszyklus zu berücksichtigen. Drittens ist im Forschungsfeld ein problematisches Ungleichgewicht zu beobachten, das die Analyse von bestimmten Führungstheorien (insb. die charismatisch-transformationale Führungstheorie) überbetont – zu Ungunsten einer Prüfung der Wirksamkeit anderer Führungsstile als alternative Krisenreaktionen. Insgesamt gab es bisher noch keine systematische und integrative Untersuchung der Führung in Krisenzeiten, welche der Bandbreite dessen, was sowohl der Begriff der Krise als auch der der Krisenführung umfasst, gerecht werden würde. Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit diesen Problemen und hat als Ziel, neue Erkenntnisse zu der Wirksamkeit verschiedener Führungsstile in unterschiedlichen Krisenkontexten zu gewinnen. Die vorliegende Arbeit synthetisiert die umfangreiche und verstreute Literatur zum Thema Krisenführung und zieht Theorien aus den Sicherheitswissenschaften, der Kleingruppenforschung und dem Management-Bereich heran, um den Umfang der bisherigen Analysen zu erweitern. Insbesondere entwickelt die Arbeit ein theoretisches Rahmenmodell, das die aus diesen Bereichen gewonnenen Erkenntnisse integriert und einen dreigliedrigen Ansatz des Lebenszyklus von Krisen nutzt, um die Phasen vor der Krise, während der Krise und nach der Krise als Grundlage für weitere Forschungsbemühungen zu identifizieren. Basierend auf diesen Phasen wird der Begriff der Krise durch die Konzeptualisierung als kritische Ereignisse (Vorläufer einer Krise), Teamkrise (akuter Zustand einer Krise) und Organisationskrise (volle Manifestation einer Krise) ausgeweitet. Das Rahmenmodell erweitert die Forschungsperspektive durch die Erkenntnis, dass Prävention, Intervention, und Resolution der Krise gleichermaßen wichtige Funktionen der Krisenführung sind. Mit diesem Rahmenmodell als Ausgangspunkt für die empirische Untersuchung werden sodann beziehungsbasierte, motivationsbasierte, und funktionsbasierte Ansätze der Führung entlang den Krisenphasen in drei empirischen Studien untersucht. Studie 1 konzentriert sich auf die Phase vor dem Eintreten der Krise und untersucht, wie beziehungsorientierte Formen der Führung die präventive Funktion der Krisenführung durch die Förderung des Meldens von kritischen Ereignissen unterstützen. Basierend auf der sozialen Austausch- und sozialen Identitätstheorie zeigt diese Studie auf, wie Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) auf das Melden von kritischen Ereignissen im Gesundheitswesen über zwei verschiedene Mechanismen wirkt. Unter Nutzung von Fragebogendaten aus 15 Krankenhäusern in Deutschland (N = 436) und mittels Strukturgleichungsanalyse zeigt sich, dass LMX sowohl das den Meldestrukturen entgegengebrachte Vertrauen sowie die organisationale Identifikation der Mitarbeiter erhöht, was sich wiederum positiv auf das Melden von kritischen Ereignissen auswirkt. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Befunde, dass Unterstützung vonseiten des Top-Managements die Beziehung zwischen LMX und Vertrauen moderiert, was auf eine kompensatorische Wirkung von LMX für Geführte hinweist, die eine geringe Management-Unterstützung wahrnehmen. Außerdem wird aufgedeckt, dass die Verschriftlichung von Sicherheitsrichtlinien die Beziehung zwischen organisationaler Identifikation und dem Melden von kritischen Ereignissen moderiert, was vermuten lässt, das die Institutionalisierung von Sicherheitsnormen im Sinne einer hohen Implementierungstiefe organisationaler Maßnahmen das Meldeverhalten für hoch identifizierte Mitarbeiter verbessert. Die Ergebnisse von Studie 1 zeigen, dass Krisenführung sowohl auf der Vorgesetzten- als auch der Top-Management-Ebene stattfinden kann und veranschaulicht, dass die daraus resultierende Anregung der Krisenpräventionsbemühungen der Geführten aus verschiedenen Quellen motiviert sein kann. Studie 2 konzentriert sich auf die akute Krisenphase und untersucht, wie motivationale Führungsansätze die Interventionsfunktion der Krisenführung durch Beeinflussung der Geführtenleistung in Teamkrisen fördert. Diese Studie erweitert die Literatur zur charismatischen Führung und identifiziert Randbedingungen, unter denen charismatische Führung in Teams die Leistung von Geführten nicht verbessert, sondern sogar verschlechtern kann. Obwohl charismatische Führung in der Regel zu einer höheren Leistung in teambasierten Kontexten führt, nimmt die Studie an, dass das Auftreten einer Teamkrise die Leistung senkt. Darüber hinaus wird erwartet, dass ein Persönlichkeitsmerkmal der Geführten, die Selbstbestimmung, mit charismatischer Führung und der Teamkrise so interagiert, dass charismatische Führung sich negativ auf die Leistung während einer Teamkrise auswirkt wenn die Geführten eine hohe statt einer geringen Selbstbestimmung aufweisen. Die theoretischen Annahmen werden in einer Laborstudie getestet, die als Coverstory einen Brainstorming-Wettbewerb (N = 88) nutzt, bei dem der Verkauf von umstrittenen Verbraucherprodukten gefördert werden soll, und manipuliert experimentell die Teamkrise in Form eines wertebasierten kritischen Team-Ereignisses sowie Führung in der Form einer Rhetorik-basierten charismatischen Krisenintervention. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die theoretischen Annahmen einer Dreifach-Interaktion. In der Summe erbringt Studie 2 den ersten experimentellen Nachweis dazu, dass charismatische Führung negative Leistungsauswirkungen in bestimmten Arten von Teamkrisen haben kann, wenn die Führung auf hoch selbstbestimmte Geführte trifft. Studie 3 konzentriert sich auf die Phase nach dem Eintreten der Krise und untersucht, wie funktionale Führungsansätze die Krisenresolution in unterschiedlichen organisationalen Krisen unterstützen. Diese Studie nimmt an, dass unterschiedliche Krisensituationen alternative Führungsstile erfordern, was zusätzlich von den Eigenschaften der Geführten abhängt. Zu diesem Zweck untersucht sie das Zusammenspiel von (a) Krisentypen (plötzlich vs. graduell) mit (b) Führungsstilen (pragmatisch vs. charismatisch) und (c) Geführteneigenschaften (Pragmatismus vs. Idealismus) und stellt die Hypothese auf, dass Führungskräfte bei Passung dieser Faktoren vorteilhaft bewertet werden. Die theoretischen Annahmen werden in drei experimentellen Teilstudien getestet (Ns = 62, 49, 204). Teilstudie 1 zeigt, dass pragmatische Führung im Vergleich zu charismatischer Führung als effektiver in graduellen (vs. plötzlichen) Krisen evaluiert wird. Teilstudie 2 identifiziert den Zeithorizont von Krisenfolgen als weitere Randbedingung und hebt hervor, dass charismatische Führung umgekehrt besser als pragmatische Führung bewertet werden kann, wenn die Krisenfolgen als weit entfernt in der Zukunft (vs. nah in der Zukunft) wahrgenommen werden. Teilstudie 3 repliziert und erweitert die Befunde von Teilstudie 1 und erbringt den Nachweis, dass die positiven Effekte pragmatischer Führung durch kollektive, krisenbezogene Selbstwirksamkeit vermittelt wird und dass dieser Effekt für Personen mit hoher pragmatischer Grundausrichtung stärker ausfällt. Die Ergebnisse von Studie 3 zeigen, dass sowohl pragmatische als auch charismatische Führung einen potenziell wirksamen Ansatz der Krisenführung darstellen; allerdings hängt deren Wirksamkeit von den spezifischen Krisenbedingungen sowie den Erwartungen ab, die unterschiedliche Geführte von dem idealen Krisenführer haben. In der Gesamtheit lassen sich durch die Ergebnisse der drei Studien neue theoretische Schlussfolgerungen ziehen, die in einem übergreifenden Modell der Krisenführung integriert werden. Dieses Modell trifft vier Aussagen über das Führen in Krisenzeiten in Bezug auf (1) den Aufbau der Beziehung zwischen Führungskraft und Geführten als Grundlage für soziale Einflussversuche seitens des Krisenführers, (2) die Relevanz von Kontextfaktoren im organisationalen Umfeld, in der Person des Geführten, und der Krise selbst, (3) die spezifischen Mechanismen, die dem Prozess der Krisenführung zugrunde liegen, und (4) die verschiedenen Bereiche der organisationalen Lebenswelt, die von Krisenführung berührt werden. Die empirischen Studien liefern jeweils einen eigenen theoretischen Beitrag zur Forschung. Studie 1, in Ergänzung zu wissenschaftlichen Befunden zu Organisationen, die bereits das Ziel der „Krisenbereitschaft“ erreicht haben (i.e., High Reliability Organisationen), weitet die Analyse durch Verknüpfung von Erkenntnissen der Sicherheitswissenschaften mit denen der Organisationspsychologie auf den Gesundheitssektor aus. Die Studie testet ein duales Prozessmodell von LMX, das die Literatur der sozialen Austausch- und sozialen Identitäts-Theorie erweitert und Erkenntnisse dazu gewinnt, wie Führung des direkten Vorgesetzen mit übergeordneten Führungsfunktionen bei der Verhinderung einer Kriseneskalation interagiert. Studie 2 entdeckt entgegen bisheriger Forschung, die in erster Linie positive Effekte charismatischer Führung bei Großkrisen gefunden hat, potenziell negative Auswirkungen dieses Führungsstils auf Teamebene. Durch die Anwendung einer neuartigen Operationalisierung von Krisen in Form von kritischen Team-Ereignissen und unter Berücksichtigung der individuellen Variable der Selbstbestimmung, dockt sie an die ereignisbasierte Krisenliteratur an und erfüllt wissenschaftliche Forderungen nach einer stärkeren Betrachtung der Zusammenhänge aus der Geführtenperspektive. Studie 3 nimmt eine noch sehr junge Entwicklung in der Führungsforschung auf und untersucht mit einem experimentellen Ansatz erstmalig pragmatische Führungsansätze im Krisenkontext. Basierend auf einer theoretisch etablierten, aber empirisch bisher noch nicht untersuchten Krisentypologie, eröffnet die Studie neue Einblicke in die Passung zwischen Krisentyp, Führungsstil und Geführteneigenschaften, und identifiziert Randbedingungen in einem moderierten-Mediations-Modell, das darüber hinaus die kollektive, krisenbezogene Selbstwirksamkeit als wichtigen Mechanismus identifiziert. Als Ganzes genommen ist der wesentliche Forschungsbeitrag der Dissertation die Entwicklung und Testung eines theoretischen Rahmenmodells, das verschiedene Krisenkonzeptualisierungen in unterschiedlichen Phasen des Krisenlebenszyklus mit wichtigen, bisher vernachlässigten Führungsansätzen vereint. Dabei vertieft die vorliegende Arbeit das Verständnis der Krisenführung auch aus praktischer Sicht: Die Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Bedeutung der Anpassungsfähigkeit von Führungskräften in Zeiten der Krise und zeigen konkrete Möglichkeiten der Auswahl und Entwicklung von Führungskräften für deren Einsatz in Krisenkontexten auf. Durch das genaue Verständnis der Eigenschaften einer Krise und ihrer spezifischen Führungsanforderungen können Krisenführer besser darauf vorbereitet werden, auf effektive Art und Weise ihre Geführten in verschiedenen Krisensituationen zu motivieren, um gewünschte Ergebnisse trotz schwieriger Umstände zu erreichen

The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh extended a single, focal crisis organisation to ignite a catalyst for change across the fast fashion industry to create a crisis spillover. Through the lens of this global crisis, Coombs' (2007, 2015) Situational Crisis Communication Theory was employed to explore short- and long-term organisational response strategies through corporate social responsibility. The study found that crisis responsibility was not shared equally among implicated organisations and influenced variations in stakeholders' blame attributions. Through evidence-based guidelines, this study provides theoretical and practical implications for reputation management in light of a crisis spillover.

<p> How an organization responds to victims is central to crisis communication management and protecting organizational reputation. While there is significant literature about best practices for crisis response, one area which has not been explored is the relationship of empathic communication and corporate reputation during times of conflict. This study examined this relationship through a study of the British Petroleum Gulf Oil crisis of 2010. The qualitative study used focus groups with working professionals and personal interviews with communication experts. The research is grounded in Coombs' (1998) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), and Benoit's (1977) image restoration theory, which is used to describe how organizations respond to accusations to maintain a favorable reputation. The study found that empathy during a crisis has a positive influence on corporate reputation. This study supplements the existing literature on best practices for crisis response strategies. The application of this research is valuable to organizations because it will help them handle crises, protect its stakeholders, improve the conditions of its victims, and preserve their reputation. Further research is necessary to determine if the use of empathy during non-crisis situations also has an impact on organizational reputation, and to explore the relationship between the role of empathy and corporate financial performance.</p>

The purpose of the study is to explore in what ways leadership qualities such as delegation in the Fintech sector is different to that of traditional financial sector in times of crisis. The study is conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The findings of this study may theoretically add to the discussion topic for further research on leadership and delegation in times of crisis. From a practical perspective the findings can give leaders insight on what a select group of entrepreneurs in the Fintech sector perceive as important leadership qualities and delegation in times of crisis. A qualitative study was conducted featuring semi-structured interviews with nine leaders in the Fintech sector. An abductive research method has been used, moving back and forth between theory and research and from the empirical evidence identify the common themes of the most important in leadership qualities. The analyses of the empirical evidence showed that there are a few points that support both theory and practice in this specific crisis being, leaders in crisis need to be authentic, trusting, and transparent and have the ability to communicate it to the stakeholders. Although the leadership qualities in crisis varied, there were a few common themes; the importance of trust and qualities such as the ability to take decisions, give clear direction and communication are all in line with theory. What specifically stands out in the Fintech sector, making it different from that of more traditional industries, is that the leadership includes an increased willingness and ability to delegate. Delegation in times of crisis is important as it empowers the team which could further add to a positive resolve of the situation. One of the prerequisites to be able to delegate is the team being experts in their specific area, the other was their mindset and attitude. Fintech leaders also have the notion that leadership in crisis should be the same as is in times of non-crisis and it is imperative to continue to be delegating. The difference compared to more traditional industries can be contributed to entrepreneurial mindset of leaders in the Fintech sector being used to uncertainty and day to adversity of business survival, always ready to adapt their business model. An area for further research could be to do a wider scope and how the crisis affects other sectors.

The thesis seeks to examine how The Times functioned within mid-nineteenth-century British society and to suggest how the newspaper can be used to read the history of the period from the perspective of the dominant elements within it. It begins by analysing the uses made of the newspaper by historians and questions the assumptions which lie behind them. Chapters 2 and 3 assess the dominant role of The Times within the newspaper press and explore the relationship between the newspaper and its readers and their mutual perceptions. Chapter 4 analyses the structure of contemporary society and the common values which lay within, while the following chapter indicates the extent to which The Times in its treatment of the French revolution of 1848 constructed its version of reality within those values and thereby defined and defended them. Chapter 6 completes the location of the newspaper by considering the extent to which it was independent of Government, yet dependent on individual politicians. The locating of The Times within contemporary society enables its treatment of the crisis of 1848 to be critically examined in chapters 7 and 8. This reveals the extent to which events in London and Ireland were associated together and perceived as parts of a revolutionary movement which encapsulated the basic fears of the possessing classes and threatened their vital interests. In defending those interests The Times was at its most potent and 1848 demonstrated the ability of the paper to orchestrate and direct opinion on specific issues. The role of The Times and its importance are evaluated by means of the perceptions contemporaries had of events, the way they reacted to them, and the judgements subsequently made by historians. The thesis emphasizes the importance of The Times both as an agent within society and a source for the study of it.

La sottrazione in architettura, come deliberato atto progettuale, sembra porsi come un paradosso in quanto approccio apparentemente antinomico alla stessa natura del progetto e della costruzione, entità concepite, per convenzione, come esclusivamente additive e proliferative. In termini più generali, la sottrazione in architettura è l’esito di una rimozione parziale o totale dell’oggetto costruito, derivante da eventi esogeni incontrollati (disastri naturali) o deliberati (guerre, terrorismo), da azioni endogene mirate (demolizioni selettive, modifiche parziali o consistenti dell’esistente) o come conseguenza di processi di obsolescenza e abbandono (rovina). L’utilizzo dunque di un dispositivo progettuale/estetico come la sottrazione – sia questo come effettivo atto concreto de-costruttivo, sia come elaborazione estetico-formale di sottrazione simulata – si situa dunque entro un determinato milieu culturale di registro trasversale – dal più popolare all’accademico – che individua nelle forme del disastro, della rovina o dell’abbandono una sorta di narrazione efficace di un certo spirito millenarista contemporaneo. Nel campo progettuale questo approccio si manifesta tanto nella manipolazione “in negativo” elaborata sull’esistente, quanto nella produzione ex-novo di edifici in cui la sottrazione si presenta come elemento, apparentemente casuale, di discontinuità del rigore monolitico neomodernista. Entrambi gli approcci sembrano trarre dalle variabili indipendenti, anche le più estreme, che modificano ogni opera architettonica nel suo ciclo vitale (l’inesorabile degrado e tutto ciò che esula dal controllo del progetto o, in sostanza, gli “eventi” tschumiani) degli strumenti proattivi in grado di fornire nuovi o rinnovati paradigmi progettuali, mentre a scala urbana, la sottrazione si pone oggi come ‘cura’ necessaria soprattutto dove l’eccesso di materiale costruito in decomposizione, abbandonato o sottoutilizzato si presta a essere progettato ‘in negativo’, ovvero a ritornare a essere risorsa materiale nel circuito del riciclo e offrire i campi di proliferazione di ambiti di naturalità sempre più necessari in un’era di crisi ambientale.<br>Subtraction in architecture, as a deliberate design act, seems to be a paradox as a seemingly antinomian approach to the very nature of design and construction, entities conceived, by convention, as exclusively additive and proliferative. In more general terms, subtraction in architecture is the outcome of partial or total removal of the built object, resulting from uncontrolled exogenous (natural disasters) or deliberate (wars, terrorism) events, from targeted endogenous actions (selective demolitions, partial or substantial modifications of the existing) or as a consequence of processes of obsolescence and abandonment (ruin). Thus, the use of a design/aesthetic device such as subtraction - whether this is as an actual concrete de-constructive act or as an aesthetic-formal elaboration of simulated subtraction - is thus situated within a certain cultural milieu of transversal register - from the most popular to the academic - that identifies in the forms of disaster, ruin or abandonment a kind of effective narrative of a certain contemporary millenarian spirit. In the design field, this approach manifests itself as much in the "negative" manipulation elaborated on the existing as in the ex-novo production of buildings in which subtraction is presented as a seemingly random element of discontinuity from the monolithic neo-modernist rigor. Both approaches seem to draw from the independent variables - even the most extreme ones, that modify any architectural work in its life cycle (the inexorable degradation and all that is beyond the control of the project or, in essence, Tschumian "events") - some proactive tools that can provide new or renewed design paradigms, while at the urban scale, subtraction now emerges as a necessary 'cure' especially where the excess of decaying, abandoned or underutilized built material lends itself to be designed 'by reverse,' that is, to become a material resource again in the recycling circuit and to offer the fields for the proliferation of natural areas, increasingly needed in an era of environmental crisis.

As the problem of civil war is almost exclusively a problem of repeat civil war, this study seizes on the role peace agreement mandated dispute resolution mechanisms play in promoting agreement resilience to crisis. Despite the growing focus on prevention and sustaining peace, dispute resolution mechanisms in peace agreements remain understudied. This thesis contributes to this research gap asking, under what conditions do dispute resolution mechanisms promote post-agreement crisis resilience? This study argues that dispute resolution mechanism characteristics of structural adaptability and peace infrastructure integration promote post-agreement crisis resilience. Utilizing a structured focused comparison, this study examines all partial or comprehensive peace agreement mandated dispute resolution mechanism cases in the UCDP Peace Agreement Dataset 1975-2011 which experience post-agreement crisis and contain peacekeeping. Results show partial support for the hypotheses that dispute resolution mechanism structural adaptability and peace infrastructure integration promote post-agreement crisis resilience. Findings as well carry several limitations and also point towards the significance of other explanatory factors most notably peace agreement type.

The aim of the thesis is, at an initial phase, to go through the most relevant and existing bibliography regarding the leadership theories and styles. In a later stage, crisis situations and leadership will be analysed, taking into consideration leadership reactions and contributions to past crisis. Different crisis leadership theories will be reported and compared, trying to figure out whether the existence of a leadership behaviour and techniques, already discussed by the available literature, can best contribute to crisis resolution. Consequently, basing on the increasing trend of crisis occurrence during the 21st Century, a qualitative interview will be proposed to some selected leaders operating in national and international contexts with the aim to understand commonalities and differences among adopted behaviours during the ongoing pandemic crisis, that might decree the success, or failure of an organization. In the light of the results obtained, a final reflection will be made on how leaders can best deal with times of change and turbulence within their organisations.

Energy is the fundamental fuel for economic growth, yet it is also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and a crucial driver of climate change. The promotion of clean and renewable energy sources hence stands at the core of contemporary sustainability transitions. However, such transitions depend on a supportive regulatory framework and require significant electricity grid expansions. They are consequently considered costly, burdening both governments and consumers. Nevertheless, the Europe 2020 Strategy that was introduced in 2010 as an answer to the global financial and economic crisis provided comprehensive targets for the expansion of renewables and the reduction of emission levels. However, as the EU was hit by the European Debt Crisis, member-states faced potentially contradictory policy objectives of reducing government debt levels under a policy of austerity, while rekindling economic growth and driving the expansion of renewable energy. This thesis, seeks to determine the role of the economic crisis and austerity for European renewable energy transitions. It does so through a nested-n approach that entails a comparative analysis, followed by in-depth case studies. As climate action is highly time sensitive, the thesis provides an important, topical contribution to our understanding of the under-researched relationship between the economic crisis and austerity with renewable energy and climate policy. Through its multi-level analytical approach, it identifies the complex interplay of economic, political and societal factors surrounding renewable energy transitions. The thesis highlights the overall importance of the 2020 targets in preventing a greater negative effect of the economic and financial hardship on renewables in Europe. At the same time, the analysis stresses the shortcomings of the current structure of the European energy market, and the economic and societal dangers stemming from the significant costs of the current regulatory approach.

Situating the 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Memphis's long history shows how concern over Memphis's national reputation influenced how city leaders dealt with crisis. Throughout its history, Memphis government officials and business leaders promoted Memphis as a good city to do business, free from disease and racial strife. Despite their best efforts, they could not deny explosive incidents of racially-based violence or disease outbreaks. Instead, they tried to mitigate negative repercussions on the local economy during times of crisis. When the 1878 yellow fever epidemic struck, the Citizen's Relief Committee, the impromptu government formed by business leaders after outbreak, promoted Memphis as a functioning white city that was operating the best it could under terrible circumstances so the city could resume normal economic activity once the fever passed. This became the dominant narrative, repeated by newspapers across the country in 1878 and historians today. This narrative is problematic because it ignores black Memphians, who composed of 80% of the city's population after outbreak. Instead of recognizing black Memphians participation in relief activities, they promoted stories in the media about lazy or riotous African Americans to justify denying sufficient aid to the black community. Catholics had better luck earning the gratitude of Memphis's leaders. They worked with the white government and charities as nurses and fundraisers, and earned a glowing reputation in national newspapers. The inclusion of African Americans and Catholics in this thesis tells a more complete story and challenges white Memphians' carefully cultivated narrative.<br>Master of Arts

In American society, the collective memory of the American past has historically been characterized by consensus, intended to support social stability. However, from 1939 to 1945, this pattern breaks off as the past is politicized –becoming the beacon of democracy against the totalitarian regimes characterized by the Axis powers during World War II. Newspaper articles for the New Year, cultural events such as children’s literature, plays, and memorials, as well as academic work all reexamine the American past, and the American Revolution in particular, drawing distinct connections between the two eras. This use of the past supported democracy in the face of oppressive regimes, and signaled a desire to encourage democratic traditions throughout the world. The imagery and characters of the Revolution colored the cultural dialogue of the World War II era in the United States, changing the way Americans considered their own past and inherited legacies.

Toward the end of 2015, 65.3 million people were seeking refuge or were otherwise forcibly displaced globally. This is the largest number since the recordings began around World War II. In Europe more than 1 million people arrived by sea in 2015 – more than four times as many as the previous year.1 The crisis situation stirred public debate as well as church-based initiatives trying to deal with the situation. In order to understand the interaction between public discourse and local preaching a group of homileticians from seven European countries collaborated on an empirical study of how the refugee crisis impacted preaching. In what follows we present the initial results from the Scandinavian countries.

During times of crisis, such as when the world is going through a pandemic. Many companies get affected and need to change their way of working. Our purpose is to study how the abrupt transition to remote work effects different aspects of work and to see whether, and in what ways, the involuntary nature of the current remote work situation changes how remote work is perceived by employees and managers. We choose to do a qualitative study, in order to get a deeper understanding from both employees’ perspective and managers perspective. The managers and employees participating in our interview are from banking, insurance, and staffing agencies. These interviews will be supplemented with secondary sources from news and statistical surveys. By comparing the results from our study with earlier research and recommendations from industry experts, we concluded that organizational members are handling the transition to remote work well despite the ongoing situation. Similar pros and cons of remote work that are present in previous research are also present in our interviews. However, there are some distinct differences as well. Our thesis is intended to help other organizations learn and gain knowledge about how different organizations are managing remote work in a crisis and the challenges that it brings.

Cette thèse étudie les conditions d’accès des banques européennes au financement interbancaire non sécurisé entre 2006 et 2012. Elle contient trois essais empiriques explorant des micro-données relatives aux transactions interbancaires. La première étude empirique adopte une approche en termes de paires banque prêteuse/banque emprunteuse et montre que, une fois le risque de contrepartie et les imperfections de marché contrôlées, les banques ayant un risque de liquidité plus élevé paient une prime de taux d’intérêt. Nous montrons également que cette prime est augmentée par les banques disposant d’excès de liquidités, sans doute motivées par la thésaurisation ou des stratégies de “short-squeezing” des banques en besoin de liquidité. Cette étude souligne finalement l’imperfection du marché interbancaire et l’importance des diverses interventions de la BCE qui ont cherché à réduire le risque de liquidité des banques au cours de la crise. La seconde étude, par le biais d’un model 2P-FRM, explore empiriquement l’impact des relations de clientèle entre banques sur la structure de maturité de la dette interbancaire. Les résultats dévoilent que l’accès aux prêts interbancaires longs et non sécurisés est facilité par les relations durables avant et durant les périodes de stress. Cependant, lors des moments aigus de la crise suivant la chute de la banque Lehman, ces effets positifs des variables bilatérales de relations fortes, calculées comme la concentration des actifs sur une banque emprunteuse, ne sont pas là. La deuxième partie de notre modèle montre que la part en volume des crédits à terme est plus faible pour les couples de banques partenaires. Finalement, notre variable unilatérale de relation interbancaire, qui mesure la concentration du réseau d’emprunt de la banque prêteuse, s’avère impacter négativement les prêts à terme post-Lehman. Cela confirme l’hypothèse que le propre risque de refinancement court du prêteur peut être l’origine du gel post-Lehman des prêts interbancaires à terme. Finalement, le troisième essai explore le lien entre la segmentation du marché interbancaire et le noeud de corrélation des risques souverains/bancaires. En utilisant les changements des primes des CDS souverains et bancaires, nous proposons une mesure originale de corrélation partielle des spillovers souverains-banques, qui permet d’attribuer une direction pays-banques à la contagion. Les résultats montrent que ces spillovers accentuent la segmentation du marché monétaire Italien lors de la phase critique de la crise des dettes souveraines. De plus, l’étude montre que, même si l’impact pays d’origine/banques est important, la contagion venant d’autres souverains en crise est loin d’être négligeable<br>This thesis studies European banks’ terms to access to unsecured interbank funding during the period 2006 to 2012. It contains three empirical essays exploring micro-data on interbank transactions. The first empirical study adopts a bank pair panel approach evidencing that, once counterparty risk and other market imperfections are controlled for, banks with higher funding liquidity risk (liquidity-short banks) pay an interest rate premium. The bank pair level analysis also permits to show that this premium is charged by liquidity-long banks, probably motivated by strategic short-squeezing or prudential hoarding purposes during the crisis. This study emphasizes the imperfection of interbank markets and the importance of theECB’s emergency interventions dedicated to dampening banks’ funding risk concerns. The second essay explores empirically the impact of relationship lending on the interbank debt maturity structure of banks by mean of a two-part fractional response model. The findings show that durable bilateral liquidity partnerships can positively impact the probability of contracting term loans before and during periods of acute stress. The positive effects of the bilateral relationship lending variable measured as asset-side concentration, is however, not straightforward, especially after the Lehman default. The second part of our model shows that the post-Lehman maturity shift is pronounced for partner banks. Finally, we find that our unilateral (lender level) relationship variable impacts negatively long term lending confirming the rollover risk viewpoint of the term interbank market freeze. Finally, the third essay investigates the link between interbank market segmentation and bank–sovereign risk nexus. Using bank and country CDS spread changes it suggests an original partial correlation based measurement of sovereign/bank spillovers providing us with a direction of contagion. Empirical findings from this part of the thesis evidence that bank-sovereign risk correlation is a significant source of fragmentation during the most acute phase of the sovereign debt crisis. Moreover, the study shows that, even if home country/bank ties impact seriously interbank market integration, the risk from other distressed countries is far from negligible

The goal of this paper is to figure out if the gold price has predictive power in times preceding financial crisis. For the analysis, The Great Depression, the 1980s, the technology bubble of the late 1990s, and the Global Finanical Crisis were used. The change in the gold price was regressed upon lags of the S&P 500 and lags of the gold price; and the S&P 500 change was regressed upon lags of the gold price and itself. Ultimately, the gold price was found to have very slight predictive power if any but is far less effective than the yield curve.

For more than 10 years, from the launch of the Single Currency to the global financial crisis, the process of deepening European integration stagnated, while emphasis was on widening the borders of the Union. In the wake of the Eurocrisis, however, two phenomena have captured the attention of political economists interested in European integration: the outstanding amount of new institutions, policies, and legislation which have been set in place to counter the crisis, and the rising popular rejection of the very concept of European unity. The old functionalist adage that “integration advances through crises†appears to be, prima facie, corroborated; nevertheless, the dynamics of (political) fragmentation seems to follow a similar pattern, as Postfunctionalists would expect. Two interrelated questions emerge: is the Eurocrisis a true functional crisis? Did the Eurocrisis trigger a new, “transformative†cycle of integration, embodied in its Postfunctional dynamics? In the attempt to address this research puzzle, this doctoral dissertation attempts to operationalize the research problem through six standalone papers clustered in two parts. In addition, Chapter 1 reconstructs the key elements of systemic functionalism, guiding the reader through the theoretical pillars of this work presenting its overall logic – questions, methodologies, and chapter connections. Part One of the dissertation (Chapters 1-4) deals with the fundamental question concerning the Neofunctional nature of the Eurocrisis, attempting to clarify to what extent the Eurocrisis can be really qualified as a “functional crisis†. Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive historical account of functional crises through the first 60 years of European Integration; Chapter 3 provides an econometric test of the endogenous nature of the Eurocrisis; Chapter 4 provides a qualitative assessment of the functional nature of the institutions introduced during the crisis. Part Two of the dissertation (Chapters 5-7) dives into the possible Postfunctional implications of the Eurocrisis, analyzing to what extent the crisis is contributing to create a mobilized European public sphere. In particular, Chapter 5 provides a theoretical analysis of how the crisis is changing the legitimacy of the EU; Chapter 6 provides an econometric assessment of the crisis’ impact on citizens’ preferences for further economic integration; finally, Chapter 7 provides an analysis of the crisis’ impact on the performance of extreme Eurosceptic parties.

For more than 10 years, from the launch of the Single Currency to the global financial crisis, the process of deepening European integration stagnated, while emphasis was on widening the borders of the Union. In the wake of the Eurocrisis, however, two phenomena have captured the attention of political economists interested in European integration: the outstanding amount of new institutions, policies, and legislation which have been set in place to counter the crisis, and the rising popular rejection of the very concept of European unity. The old functionalist adage that “integration advances through crises” appears to be, prima facie, corroborated; nevertheless, the dynamics of (political) fragmentation seems to follow a similar pattern, as Postfunctionalists would expect. Two interrelated questions emerge: is the Eurocrisis a true functional crisis? Did the Eurocrisis trigger a new, “transformative” cycle of integration, embodied in its Postfunctional dynamics? In the attempt to address this research puzzle, this doctoral dissertation attempts to operationalize the research problem through six standalone papers clustered in two parts. In addition, Chapter 1 reconstructs the key elements of systemic functionalism, guiding the reader through the theoretical pillars of this work presenting its overall logic – questions, methodologies, and chapter connections. Part One of the dissertation (Chapters 1-4) deals with the fundamental question concerning the Neofunctional nature of the Eurocrisis, attempting to clarify to what extent the Eurocrisis can be really qualified as a “functional crisis”. Chapter 2 provides a comprehensive historical account of functional crises through the first 60 years of European Integration; Chapter 3 provides an econometric test of the endogenous nature of the Eurocrisis; Chapter 4 provides a qualitative assessment of the functional nature of the institutions introduced during the crisis. Part Two of the dissertation (Chapters 5-7) dives into the possible Postfunctional implications of the Eurocrisis, analyzing to what extent the crisis is contributing to create a mobilized European public sphere. In particular, Chapter 5 provides a theoretical analysis of how the crisis is changing the legitimacy of the EU; Chapter 6 provides an econometric assessment of the crisis’ impact on citizens’ preferences for further economic integration; finally, Chapter 7 provides an analysis of the crisis’ impact on the performance of extreme Eurosceptic parties.

This thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay, we analyze bank insiders' trading in the securities of their own bank in the run-up to the 2007-08 financial crisis. We show that on average ex-ante bank insiders' net sell of shares implies worse performance in the crisis. Our result points out that the bankers, at least to some extent, were aware of the risks they were taking. In the second essay, I analyze the bank insiders' trading in their own portfolio during the crisis and find that insiders trade in a contrarian manner. In the third essay, we analyze the cycle in lending conditions and standards using a unique dataset on mortgage loans in Spain and find that lending standards are softer in the boom than in the bust. Also, we analyze the mechanism by which banks could increase the supply of mortgage loans despite of regulatory restrictions. Our evidence is consistent with banks encouraging appraisers to introduce an upward bias in appraisal prices, to meet LTV regulatory thresholds.<br>La tesis tiene contiene tres ensayos: En el primer ensayo, analizo el uso de información privilegiada a la hora de comerciar con los valores de su propio banco en el período previo a la crisis financiera de 2007-08. Se muestra que, en promedio, la venta neta de acciones ex ante por parte de los 'insiders' de los bancos implica un peor rendimiento durante la crisis. El resultado indica que los banqueros, por lo menos en cierta medida, eran conscientes de los riesgos que estaban tomando en el boom. En el segundo ensayo, analizo las operaciones bancarias de los 'insiders' en su cartera de activos durante la reciente crisis y se encuentra que los 'insiders' comercian de una manera contraria, lo que sugiere que en las acciones bancarias bajaron por debajo de sus fundamentales. En el tercer ensayo, analizo el ciclo en las condiciones y estándares de préstamos usando una base de datos única de los préstamos hipotecarios en España y encuentro que las condiciones de crédito son más relajadas en el auge que en la recesión. Asimismo, analizo el mecanismo por el cual los bancos podían aumentar la oferta de créditos hipotecarios a pesar de las restricciones regulatorias. La evidencia es consistente con la hipótesis de que los bancos alentaron a los tasadores a introducir un sesgo al alza en los precios de tasación, para cumplir con los umbrales reglamentarios de 'LTV', y así poder dar más préstamos.

As the COVID-19 pandemic enforced governments around the world to suspend social gatherings including on-site teaching at educational intuitions, universities had to rely on digital technologies to compensate face-to-face activities and maintain teaching and learning operations. This paper aims to explore problems and challenges that faced lecturers during the rapid changeover to digital teaching in response to the limitations caused by the crisis. The case study focuses on the Technische Universität Dresden as an example for the transition to digital teaching in the context of an unforeseen crisis. A set of practical recommendations to support academic teaching staff in adopting effective digital teaching is developed based on needs and requirements identified in the literature and extensive qualitative interviews with experts in digital teaching and higher education fields.

This dissertation examines how political institutions, as dynamically affected by voters and legislatures, mediate financial market reactions to severe fiscal shocks. This work uses as its case studies the experience of the U.S. states following the 2008 credit market seizure, and that of the German states following the financial crisis. It is found that following credit market seizures and severe fiscal shocks, political institutions become more important to market participants in assessing the risk characteristics of state bonds. Specifically, while unexpected deficits are correlated with higher state bond yields across all states, this effect is larger for states with left-leaning political systems than for states with right-leaning political systems. These results suggest that during economic crises – when credit markets might expect that political systems can no longer delay stabilizations – the identity of the political institutions and actors “behind the markets” become increasingly important.<br>Government

The goal of this research is to provide a mid-range rationalist explanation of the dynamics of institutional change occurred in the European Union during the sovereign debt crisis. My starting hypothesis is that the crisis may represent a driving force for the emergence of major institutional changes. Moreover, I claim that the policy outcomes adopted are not a pure reflection of actors’ bargaining powers, but they are decidedly mediated by the existent institutional rules, and the decision making process behind their adoption, i.e. intergovernmental or supranational, can be determinant for their successfulness. Taking stock of the institutional changes occurred between 2010 and 2014, the research aims at understanding whether the Eurozone crisis triggered a deepening of the European integration, reflected by any eventual upload of authority from the national to the supranational level. In order to assess these issues, I analyze three different economic policies, namely the progressive strengthening of the rules of fiscal discipline, the creation of the financial instruments to support member States in need and the progressive setup of a banking union in the EU. For each issue area, I search empirical validation of my starting hypotheses and I apply an original index to measure the “rate of supranationalism” of different aspects of the policy. By comparing the institutional setup before and after the crisis, I am able to provide an assessment of the eventual supranationalization of each single policy, then of the EU as a whole. My findings offer a substantive empirical validation of the leading hypotheses. Namely, I demonstrate that the timing of adoption of major policy outcomes is strongly related to the most acute phases of the crisis in terms of financial markets’ pressure. Moreover, I show that intergovernmental policy making tends to create only incremental outcomes and even institutional deadlocks, while supranational decision making produces more effective outcomes. Finally, the application of the original index suggests that over the last years the European integration undertook a deepening process, resulting in a widening of the scope of supranational policies, an intensification of EU institutions’ powers as well as different forms of authority delegation to supranational bodies. These patterns of supranationalization were mainly driven by the pressure of financial markets and by the necessity of overcoming the institutional deadlocks engendered by intergovernmental negotiations, demonstrating that the Eurozone crisis has represented a political momentum for transformative institutional changes in the EU.

The thesis explores the interaction of the economic phenomenon of 'economic crisis' with the legal phenomenon of Collective Labour Law (CLL). This interaction is the thesis' main problematique. Rather than undertaking an all-encompassing investigation, it seeks to modestly contribute some new theoretical and comparative perspectives on the problematique. These perspectives are of potential value both to the highly underdeveloped area of the theorisation on economic crises and CLL and to the comparative labour law literature. On the theoretical side, the thesis puts forward a novel Marxist-critical theoretical framework for understanding the crisis' operation of CLL. Building successively on the Marxist-critical insights of a fundamental contradiction between the (capitalism) reproductive and (worker) protective function of CLL, the crisis theories' common assertion of economic rationalisation as the primary crisis response and a joint reading of Gramscian counterhegemony and Habermas' theory of legitimation crisis, a theoretical framework is constructed around a proposed concept: crisis (dis)equilibrium. These (dis)equilibria, which arguably determine the course of CLL's crisis developments are composed of two fundamental opposing forces: the force of economic rationalisation, pushing for reforms dictated by the need for intense capitalist restructuring and the opposing counter-legitimation force, which reflects the level of socio-political threat of withdrawal of support to the prevailing economic system or at least to the reforms dictated by economic rationalisation. The comparative side that serves also as a testing empirical ground for the theoretical framework, consists of an extensive interrogation of the recent crisis CLL trajectories in Greece and the UK. For Greece, the analysis observes and accounts for a dramatic collapse of the pre-crisis protective CLL edifice as a result of multiple and abrupt far-reaching CLL reforms bringing about the neo-liberal crisis movement. Subsequently, the thesis offers a response to why the protective constitutionalisation of CLL rights in Greece failed to prevent the de-construction by designating a de-constitutionalisation triangle of normative spheres. The triangle maps and explains how the neoliberal-oriented EU-IMF bailout conditionality prevailed over domestic-constitutional and transnational labour rights normative spheres through identifying a series of 'strong' and 'weak' legal and non-legal interactions. For the UK, the analysis dismisses a suggestion of a complete stasis during the crisis. Instead, it ascertains and accounts for a further -more gradual- neo-liberal consolidating crisis movement of UK's pre-crisis neo-liberal CLL paradigm. Hence the British crisis movement is described as neo-liberal continuity by consolidation. Very importantly, the thesis observes a significant crisis de-constitutionalisation process of CLL in the UK, which takes the shape of a constitutional attack on the political voice of unions by regulatory reforms. Eventually, the thesis finds a comparative crisis pattern of a 'Great Neo-liberal Convergence' between the two previously diametrically opposite CLL systems, since they moved closer and toward the neo-liberal end during the crisis. The 'neo-liberal convergence' finding is situated as a supportive case for the convergence theorists within the convergence/non-convergence debate over whether the European CLL systems are to converge. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates the explanatory value of the Crisis Equilibrium theoretical framework for understanding the crisis trajectories in both countries and suggests that crisis developments confirm the heteronomy of CLL to the theoreticallyidentified dialectic between the capitalist force of economic rationalisation and the social force of counter-legitimation.

<p> In the course of doing business in the modern world organizations often find themselves involved in negative situations which can only be categorized as crises. These crises have a wide variety of causes and often result in negative outcomes for the organizations involved. While crises have been studied from an organizational view, this research investigates the consumer's experience when exposed to a crisis. To do this, the current literature on marketing crises is expanded upon to create a definition of marketing crisis, and the theoretical lens of attribution theory is applied to identify why individual consumers may respond quite differently to the same marketing crisis. The three specific research questions investigated are: 1) How do consumers make causal attributions about marketing crises? 2) What factors influence how consumers make those attributions about marketing crises?, and 3) What are the consequences of causal attributions about marketing crises? These questions are tested with an experimental design manipulating exposure to a marketing crisis and measuring antecedents, causal attribution, and consequences associated with an attribution theory model of crisis perception. A major finding of this research is that the cause of the crisis matters to consumers, and that the perception of cause can vary greatly among consumers. Specifically, and counter-intuitively, this research suggests that consumers who are actually customers of organizations affected by the crisis may have a less dramatic response to a negative development than consumers who are less involved and more psychologically distant.</p>

This thesis asks whether the internet can at all re-configure political participation into a more inclusive experience for disabled users, enhancing their stakes in citizenship. This issue assumes particular relevance at a time in which, amidst the worst economic crisis in decades, the rights of those traditionally excluded from civic life are at risk of being compromised even further. In an effort to transcend the restrictive access/accessibility framework applied so far in disability and new media research, this project focused on the “digitalisation” of disability activism in the wake of the radical welfare reform introduced by the UK government between 2010 and 2012. A combination of emerging digital methods and established social science techniques were employed to map and analyse the groups involved in opposing proposed changes to disability welfare online. These included: hyperlink network analysis; an “inventory” of online media; content analysis of Facebook conversations; and semi-structured interviews with key figures from a variety of campaigning groups. Overall, this work exposed an evolution in the ecology of British disability activism involving both changes in the way in which existing organisations operate as well as the emergence of new, online-based players. In particular, three main group types were identified. These included: formal disability organisations (both “professionalised” charities and member-led groups); experienced disabled activists who experimented with e-campaigning for the first time; and a network of young disabled bloggers-turned-activists who operated exclusively online and rapidly gained visibility on both the internet and traditional mass media (i.e. print and broadcast). Each of these phenomena was explored in detail through the analysis of three emblematic case studies (The Hardest Hit; Disabled People Against Cuts; The Broken of Britain). Several findings emerged that invited reflections on both the changing nature of disability activism in the digital age and the significance of the internet as a civic resource for disadvantaged groups more broadly. To assess the influence of contextual factors on these trends, the online experience of British formal disability organisations was compared to that of their American counterparts, which in the same period were opposing proposals for drastic cuts to federal Medicaid funding. In Britain, established players were found to be blending traditional repertoires with participatory online tools in a bid to “survive” the pressure of changing user-expectations and the fast pace of contemporary politics. Meanwhile, a new generation of self-appointed disabled “leaders” used online media to construct a radically different form of disability activism. This was focused more on issues than ideology, aspiring to redesigning protest in a less contentious and arguably more effective fashion. Nevertheless, the high centralisation and rigid leadership style adopted by these very same campaigners also cast doubts on their ability to promote a more inclusive campaigning experience for online supporters, whose involvement ultimately constituted a form of “peer-mediated” citizenship rather than direct empowerment. At the same time, the comparative part of this study captured a counter-intuitive picture for which British formal disability organisations were ahead of their American counterparts in terms of online innovation. This generated some important reflections on the very nature of “context” in online politics with particular reference to the relationship between systemic and circumstantial factors, as well as the importance of acute crisis moments as triggers of progress in e-activism.

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics<br>The current crisis has brought to the forefront the importance of managing components of working capital efficiently. This study addresses the impact of the crisis in two of its components, trade credit offered and demanded, and the subsequent effect on profitability. For a sample comprising listed firms in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, for the period of 2004 – 2011, it is found that an economic downturn affects the days a firm takes to collect its receivables and to pay its suppliers and that there is a significant relation between those variables and the firm´s profitability.

Els reptes d’adaptació de professionals amb una mentalitat quantitativa tancada: Persones certes en temps incerts Aquesta tesi se centra en una mentalitat especial que trobem en professions quantitatives i tècniques. Es tracta de persones amb una mentalitat matemàtica (Toulmin, 2001) molt tancada, que algunes vegades s’esforcen en tractar la realitat més ambigua i incerta de les organitzacions actuals. Aquestes persones, a les que aquesta anàlisi es refereix amb el nom de Quants, generalment s’obsessionen per a l’objectivitat i la predictibilitat (Porter, 1985) i formen part d’una cultura molt forta (Kundra, 2002), normalment associada a disciplines quantitatives, però es poden trobar en qualsevol professió. L’estudi enfoca aquest tema des del punt de vista de la identitat professional i empra narratives com una forma d’anàlisi. El seu objecte és l’estudi de narratives de persones a través de mètodes etnogràfics i entrevistes obertes, per entendre com els professionals de vegades s’esforcen en “mantenir el desenvolupament de les seves narratives” (Giddens, 1991) i empren tècniques d’identitat en el treball (Ibarra, 1999; Pratt, 2006) per resoldre tensions. Els quatre casos de Quants del present estudi mostren quatre prototips de transformació d’identitat professional i com cada persona reacciona de manera diferent en cada cas, així com els diferents efectes subseqüents en les mentalitats individuals. Una gran part de l’estudi es va desenvolupar durant la crisi econòmica del 2008 i, en un cas, els efectes de la crisi en la identitat individual són dramàtics. Mentre que l’estudi no s’ha concentrat en la crisi econòmica del 2008, si que es centra en la mentalitat que era prevalent durant la crisi i que, en certa manera, va influir en ella; aquesta mentalitat d’individus que tracten de predir els esdeveniments socials, de reduir la incertesa a càlculs de risc, d’argumentar que els mercats es corregeixen a si mateixos i de creure que més informació produeix més certesa (Blyth 2010; Taleb 2007; Fox, 2009).<br>Los desafíos de la adaptación de profesionales con una mentalidad cuantitativa cerrada: Individuos ciertos en tiempos inciertos Esta tesis se centra en una mentalidad especial que encontramos en profesiones cuantitativas y técnicas. Se trata de individuos con una mentalidad matemática (Toulmin, 2001) muy cerrada, que algunas veces se esfuerzan en tratar la realidad más ambigua e incierta de las organizaciones actuales. Estos individuos, a los cuales este análisis se refiere con el nombre de Quants, generalmente se obsesionan por la objetividad y la predictibilidad (Porter, 1985) y forman parte de una cultura muy fuerte (Kundra, 2002), normalmente asociada a disciplinas cuantitativas, pero se pueden encontrar en cualquier profesión. El estudio enfoca este tema desde el punto de vista de la identidad profesional, y usa narrativas como una forma de análisis. Su objeto es el estudio de narrativas de individuos, a través de métodos etnográficos y de entrevistas abiertas, para comprender como los profesionales a veces se esfuerzan en “mantener el desarrollo de sus narrativas” (Giddens, 1991) y usan técnicas de identidad en el trabajo (Ibarra, 1999; Pratt, 2006) para resolver tensiones. Los cuatro casos de Quants de este estudio muestran cuatro prototipos de transformación de identidad profesional y como cada individuo reacciona de modo diferente en cada caso, así como los distintos efectos subsiguientes en las mentalidades individuales. Una gran parte del estudio se desarrolló durante la crisis económica del 2008 y, en un caso, los efectos de la crisis en la identidad del individuo son dramáticos. Mientras que el estudio no se ha concentrado en la crisis económica del 2008, si que se centra en la mentalidad que era prevalente durante la crisis y que, en cierto modo, influyó en ella; esta mentalidad de individuos que tratan de predecir sucesos sociales, de reducir la incerteza a cálculos de riesgo, de argumentar que los mercados se corrigen a sí mismos y de creer que más información produce más certeza (Blyth 2010; Taleb 2007; Fox, 2009).<br>The Adaptation Challenges of Quantitatively Minded Professionals: Certain Individuals in Uncertain Times This dissertation focuses on a particular mentality found often in the quantitative and technical, professions. It is one of mathematically minded individuals (Toulmin 2001), with a fairly closed mentality, who sometimes struggle in dealing with the more ambiguous and uncertain reality of today’s organizations. These individuals, referred to as Quants in this analysis, are usually obsessed with objectivity and prediction (Porter 1985) and form part of a particular strong culture (Kunda 2002) usually within Quantitative disciplines, but can also be found in all types of professions. The study takes a professional identity development approach to looking at this subject using narratives as the form of analysis. The objective is to study the narratives of the individuals in each case using ethnographic and open-interview methods so as to understand how the professionals sometimes struggle to “keep their narratives going” (Giddens, 1991) and use identity work techniques (Ibarra 1999, Pratt 2006) to resolve tensions. The Four cases of Quants in the study show four prototypes of professional identity transformation and how each individual reacts differently in each case with the subsequent different effects on the individual mentalities. Much of the study takes part during the Economic crisis of 2008 and in one case the affects of this Crisis on the individual’s identity transformation is quite dramatic. While this study has not focused on the Economic Crisis of 2008, it does focus on a mentality which was very prevalent during the Crisis, and influenced it to some extent, that of individuals who seek to predict social outcomes, reduce uncertainty to risk calculations, argue that markets are self correcting and believe that the more information the more certainty (Blyth 2010, Taleb 2007, Fox 2009).

The thesis seeks to develop understandings of dynamics in federal political systems in crisis, the nature of the relationship between crisis and process, and the range of tools available for conflict reduction that extend beyond those available in the constitutional frameworks of each system. The dissertation explores these through a comparative study of a small n of cases that meet the criterion of a period of crisis as the independent variable: the Staten Island secession crisis in New York City, the existential crisis of Quebec's relationship with the rest of Canada, and the crisis of the UK and European integration at the time of Maastricht. The data collection process for each is framed on a temporal basis, within the duration of crisis as defined, and spatially, within the territorial extent of the system. The thesis uses data gathered from primary and secondary written sources based on the relevance to the research questions and conceptual framework. The analysis, located in the comparative section, identifies a number of important findings that contribute to theoretical understandings of federalism. The evidence gives support to, and extends the understanding of, federalism by demonstrating that the crisis potential in each case becomes evident because of challenges to some communities' values that arise from the process-based nature of federalism, through identifiable demands and counter-demands made by actors. Moreover, it highlights how the constraining nature of constitutional frameworks makes the use of extra-constitutional arrangements essential, in particular with the use of instrumentalities. The thesis also develops an understanding of how federal power sharing evolves post-crisis with flexible understandings of the division of competences, and the potential for a return to crisis in systems in the absence of a deeper understanding and application of federal principles by political elites.

The project explores the spatial strategies employed by the state during the ongoing financial crisis in regards to the treatment of perceived as deviant groups in Cluj- Napoca, Budapest and Athens. In the current context, groups such as the Roma, the homeless and seropositive women face extreme discrimination and are pushed in the margins of the society. An interpretative approach is adopted in order to steer the thesis towards a critical assessment of the everyday practices of the state and its apparatuses, as well as towards an analysis of the discourses that legitimate these practices. In the process of securitizing and excluding deviant groups, certain spaces become the targets of preferential investments in built environment and infrastructure, while others become stigmatized and criminalized. The three cases outlined show three stages of this differentiation, in which deviant groups play the key role. The case of Cluj illustrates a strict dichotomy between the city and the periphery, where Roma people are exiled.In Budapest, the entire territory of the city can be seen as a patchwork of centres and marginal areas, where homeless people are banned in certain spaces, but tacitly allowed in others. Finally, in the case of the seropositive women, it is argued thatin Athens there are no spaces relegated to deviance,just as there are no spaces that are completely purified of it. Instead, deviance is ubiquitous, through the creation of an overarching discursive climate.

The Eurozone crisis and the migration crisis generated a set of decisions at the EU level that aims to jointly mitigate the adverse consequences of economic and political turmoil. However, electoral successes by Eurosceptics at both EU and national levels and shrinking public support for the EU, as evidenced by Eurobarometer surveys, have shown that Euroscepticism has been surging in parallel with tighter cooperation of member states in crisis-ridden policy areas. Consequently, EU institutions have embraced the connecting potential of social media by implementing a series of online communication strategies aimed at selflegitimation and strengthening of public support for European integration. This study addresses the nature of Euroscepticism as reflected in online discussions via conducting a qualitative content analysis of Facebook debates unfolding on the pages of the European Parliament and the European Commission during the peak moments of the Eurozone crisis and the migration crisis. Moreover, the study identifies the public interpretations of different aspects of the two crises framed as existential for the process of European integration. The rhetorical analysis of the Facebook posts reveals how EU institutions utilize social media in order to respond to and normalise public discontent, whereas elite interviews triangulate the findings. The analysis of EU-focused transnational discussions complements the existing studies drawing on public opinion polls regarding public attitudes towards European integration, and re-conceptualises the common explanations for public Euroscepticism, mainly based on utilitarian or cultural hypotheses. The findings stemming from the rhetorical analysis and interviews demonstrate that EU crisis communication perpetuates the ingrained neo-functionalist and elitist modes of interaction despite the novel online communication setting.

The Eurozone crisis and the migration crisis generated a set of decisions at the EU level that aims to jointly mitigate the adverse consequences of economic and political turmoil. However, electoral successes by Eurosceptics at both EU and national levels and shrinking public support for the EU, as evidenced by Eurobarometer surveys, have shown that Euroscepticism has been surging in parallel with tighter cooperation of member states in crisis-ridden policy areas. Consequently, EU institutions have embraced the connecting potential of social media by implementing a series of online communication strategies aimed at selflegitimation and strengthening of public support for European integration. This study addresses the nature of Euroscepticism as reflected in online discussions via conducting a qualitative content analysis of Facebook debates unfolding on the pages of the European Parliament and the European Commission during the peak moments of the Eurozone crisis and the migration crisis. Moreover, the study identifies the public interpretations of different aspects of the two crises framed as existential for the process of European integration. The rhetorical analysis of the Facebook posts reveals how EU institutions utilize social media in order to respond to and normalise public discontent, whereas elite interviews triangulate the findings. The analysis of EU-focused transnational discussions complements the existing studies drawing on public opinion polls regarding public attitudes towards European integration, and re-conceptualises the common explanations for public Euroscepticism, mainly based on utilitarian or cultural hypotheses. The findings stemming from the rhetorical analysis and interviews demonstrate that EU crisis communication perpetuates the ingrained neo-functionalist and elitist modes of interaction despite the novel online communication setting.

Representatives of entrepreneurship always appear as one of the most vulnerable economic agents during a global crisis, especially if this crisis is of an unpredictable external nature. The purpose of this degree project is to determine the impact of an economic crisis on the development of forced and opportunity-based entrepreneurship, as well as how the context of an economic downturn affects creativity, which is a key compound of the entrepreneurial process. In order to accomplish this task, the researchers apply iterative induction strategy, resorting mainly to quantitative analysis method and ensuring that the study is credible, reliable and follows the core principles of business ethics. Within the course of the following degree project, the researchers conduct interviews with business representatives from various fields and countries, as well as analyze secondary statistics available for external crises of 20th and 21st centuries. The outcome of the research suggests that in times of a recession entrepreneurial activity based on intrinsic motivation and the use of market opportunities is suppressed due to such obstacles as unfavorable credit and uncertain economic environment, while generally compelled entrepreneurship usually develops, since it becomes one of the most effective methods to combat rising unemployment. The study also proves that government support is an important impetus for the recovery of SMEs during the post-crisis period. Last, but not least, is that the results of the interviewing and statistical data confirm that the state of an economic downturn has a positive effect on the development of creativity.

This thesis examines the migration policy changes that were adopted by the European Union during the so called ‘refugee crisis’ 2014-2016 and problematises the discourses that were deployed by EU policy makers. It builds the method and theoretical framework around Vivien Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism, and complements it with constructivist conceptual theories around discourses that are identified through the researched empirical material. The primary material is to a large extent based upon official documents from the EU such as regulations and communications, but also includes speeches from officials such as Jean Claude Juncker (President of the Commission), Donald Tusk (President of the Council) and Martin Schulz (President of the European Parliament). The findings are comprised of discourses that can all be connected to the EU imaginary. The thesis also concludes that there has been a continuation of the securitisation of migration during the ‘refugee crisis’ as well as a normalisation of this discourse. In regards to the communicative and coordinative skills of the EU actors, it becomes clear that the former still is problematic, whilst the coordinative discourses have increased the cooperation within the EU institutions during the time period studied.

Title: Organizational identity in the public sector during times of crises Date of submission: 2021-06-01 Authors: Lowe Björklund and Jakob Boyer Advisor: Josef Pallas Course: Master’s thesis 30 credits Purpose: Organizational identity (OI) has gained attention due to its feasibility in several organizational respects. Swedish healthcare is a well-debated area, and there is an ongoing discussion on how it should be managed. Crises can spark discussions about OI, opening up the possibility to gain insights related to the concept. Therefore, OI may work as a tool for making progress in understanding management within Swedish healthcare. The research might show if a prominent crisis can produce alternative views of how OI is affected during times of crises. Design/Methodology: To investigate OI, a qualitative method was chosen together with semi-structured interviews as a data collection method. The motivation for the particular research design and methodology stems from prior research investigating OI, where qualitative semi-structured interviews were used. Findings: The findings showed that the OI of the Swedish hospital had been highlighted and reinforced after Covid-19's introduction. The hospital had developed a more congruent idea of their OI, while the temporary nature of the connection between hospital staff indicated that the connection had not become stronger. The findings also indicated a relationship between the motivation of hospital staff and management’s actions. Many of the effects forced upon the hospital by the crisis had produced many positive changes (e.g., less territorial thinking and increased digital measures). However, part of these changes was thought to stay only temporarily; thus, the hospital’s OI was considered fixed and fluid. In addition, the research indicated that the hospital’s OI was shaped in an ongoing process of interactions between organizational members internally rather than external factors. The findings also suggest that organizational members had viewed the crisis both as a threat and an opportunity, while perceiving gaps between the present and the future along with costs not to change. Research limitations: The findings may have a questionable level of generalizability due to the case study approach.

Jump diffusion models are being used more and more often in financial applications. Consisting of a Brownian motion (with drift) and a jump component, such models have a number of parameters that have to be set at some level. Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) turns out to be suitable for this task, however it is computationally demanding. For a complicated likelihood function it is seldom possible to find derivatives. The global maximum of a likelihood function defined for a jump diffusion model can however, be obtained by numerical methods. I chose to use the Bound Optimization BY Quadratic Approximation (BOBYQA) method which happened to be effective in this case. However, results of Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) proved to be hard to interpret.

This research was undertaken in the United States within two different regional airlines and examines the attitudes and behaviours of managers to operations performance measurement and review (PMR) systems during separate periods of crisis and growth. The aim and objectives were to examine whether managers would consciously adopt the necessary attitudes and behaviours that are required to positively interact with a PMR system and to further examine what these behaviours should be. A secondary aim was to understand whether the prevailing business state of crisis or growth affected the attitudes and behaviours of managers as they used the PMR system. The research spanned seven years and was conducted over four iterative cycles within an Action Research paradigm and used semi-structured interviews and repertory grids to examine individual personal construct systems. The research is essentially qualitative but draws on quantitative techniques where appropriate. The research has shown that people do not automatically adopt the behaviours necessary to achieve performance goals. Unless there is structure, support and an inherent commitment to training managers on how to, correctly, interpret operations performance data then there is likely to be an uncommitted and uninformed response to the PMR system. The research has confirmed that both business states of crisis and growth can have a positive impact on some people and encourage them to adopt performance-driven behaviour.

There is little doubt that crises have a major impact on both companies and humanity. However, the picture is less clear when it comes to what challenges small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to overcome when facing the crisis. Regulations and recommendations of the government are influencing the challenges to conduct business for SMEs. Social media marketing and the associated communication seems to form a great opportunity to overcome the challenges of the crisis. Additionally, the formation of groups in social media and the associated communication among users can be another beneficial factor during a pandemic crisis. The purpose of this paper is to examine how companies may use social media marketing as a strategy to acquire new customers during a pandemic crisis and comply with challenges arising due to the crisis. Interview data has been gathered from eight owner-managers of SMEs in Sweden; the focus was on Restaurants in Sundsvall. They have been interviewed on aspects of their approach to the COVID-19 crisis, their usage of social media marketing as well as customer acquisition during these times. A thematic analysis was used in order to connect the findings with the theory as well as detecting themes. Themes are: Challenges of a crisis for SMEs, social media marketing, and customer acquisition. The overall picture did show that all the informants suffered from the challenges due to the crisis at some point. Nevertheless, social media is a very useful tool for SMEs like restaurants to market their activities and offers, especially during times of crisis when budgets and income are lower.

This research aims to explore how Turkish business leaders tackle and navigate challenges in times of crisis. Recent Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, Turkey triggered a multilayered crisis. These protests lasted more than two months, having long-term effects on Turkey’s social, cultural and economic life. Therefore, this thesis considers these Gezi Park protests as a crisis for food sector business leaders in the neighbourhood. This research examines leaders’ processes of dealing with the protests, by drawing on interviews with 40 leaders in the food sector. First, it investigates how these leaders addressed the protests, as leaders’ responses affected their businesses. Secondly, it discusses challenges experience by leaders during the protests. Finally, it investigates leaders ‘coping mechanisms’ in the face of challenges. The thematic analysis of data suggests that those leaders who helped the protestors by opening their doors prioritised humanity before any ideology. These leaders put humane values first, such as acting with conscience, feeling empathy and feeling compassion despite having opposing political views. This behaviour is considered successful leadership behaviour. Conversely, those leaders who put their self-interests first by closing their doors to the protestors are considered unsuccessful leaders. It emerged that leaders faced emotional, physical, interpersonal and financial challenges during the protests. Leaders coped with challenges by remaining hopeful about the future, by being patient, by being supported by family and friends, by becoming accustomed to the challenges, and by adopting an exit strategy.

During the last decade, the European Union has had to overcome several types of crises, for example, the economic crisis, the Eurozone crisis, the migration crisis, and Brexit. Currently, the EU is facing the Covid-19 pandemic. It is well known that there is a strong relationship between the multifaceted crises and the EU’s responses to them and increased Euroscepticism in the EU countries as a result. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the reasons why such crises result in increasing Euroscepticism. More specifically, the study explores the mechanisms that can be identified as causes for Euroscepticism. To test the hypothesis that the crises’ responses made by the EU created an opportunity for Eurosceptic actors to thrive, a process-analysis of the responses was conducted. Three legislative acts as main responses to the economic crisis and the migration crisis were chosen, to analyze a mechanism between the crises and increased Euroscepticism in the EU member states. The responses were then combined with data on the EU citizens’ trust for the EU to identify if the EU’s responses to these crises have been a major cause for increased Eurosceptic tendencies. The results show that even though some of the EU’s responses to the crises resulted in increased Euroscepticism, EU citizens do not seem to lose their trust in the EU or their institutions in the long run.