'And what did you do about my emotions during Covid-19?' Making sense of negative emotions at work through institutional logics and Critical Systems Heuristics

The literature on Covid-19 has demonstrated that frontline workers use different coping strategies and engage in sense-making to address negative emotions. However, we know little about the underlying process of sense-making. Thus, this paper uses institutional logics to investigate how sense-making of negative emotions is enabled and constrained. This analysis draws on a diary written by a nurse at an Italian hospital, which represents an account of the emotions experienced by medical staff. The analysis identifies a set of enablers and disablers of sense-making, as well as, the patterns that alleviate and intensify frontline workers' emotions. Based on these findings and evidence of the Covid-task force at Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital in Bergamo, Italy, this paper illustrates Critical Systems Heuristics as a means to address the disablers of sense-making through participatory conversations that consider different institutional logics.

"When the baby sleeps, I work” – neoliberal motherhood in Latin America during the Covid-19 lockdown

Purpose: This paper explores working mothers' coping strategies concerning paid and unpaid work in Chile and Argentina during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper aimed to understand the influence of cultural norms on motherhood and neoliberal workplace practices on mothers' sensemaking processes and coping strategies. This study focuses on mothers living in Chile and Argentina where governments established mandatory lockdowns between March and September 2020. Drawing on the notion of neoliberal motherhood, women's demands were analyzed when paid work and mothering duties collide in time and space. Design/methodology/approach: Open-ended interviews were conducted with 17 women in Chile and Argentina. All interviewees had at least 1 child below the age of 6 and were working from home during the lockdown. Findings: Neoliberal workplace demands, and disadvantageous government policies greatly heightened the dual burdens of working mothers. Women were expected to fulfill the discourses of the neoliberal worker and the good mother, while also adopting additional strategies in the wake of the lockdown. The data highlights mothers' strategies to cope with care and work duties by adjusting to new routines involving their partners, relatives and the wider community. Research limitations/implications: The generalizability of the results is limited by the small sample of 17 interviewees, all from middle to middle-upper class. The changing scenario due to Covid-19 makes the collected data not sufficient to grasp the impact of the pandemic, as during the interviews (December 2020 and January 2021) the process was still ongoing. Practical implications: Organizations should assess their role in the management of paid and unpaid work for both genders, as the neoliberal discourse views the worker as masculine, full-time, always available and productive, ignoring women's additional care duties outside of the workplace. Originality/value: The Covid-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to reflect on care work and gender, collective versus individual responses to care and work demands and the idea of organizing. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Coordination in a not-for-profit organisation during the COVID-19 pandemic: organisational sensemaking during planning meetings

PurposeThe authors examine how a not-for-profit organisation (NPO) coordinates NPO's actions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic to remain focussed on strategic and operational goals.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a live case study of an NPO as the crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. Drawing on a sensemaking perspective that incorporates sensegiving, the authors develop a framework of five types of organisational sensemaking. The authors analyse weekly planning meetings during which managers discussed past performance, forecast performance and the forecast duration of current cash reserves.FindingsThe authors show how three of the five types of organisational sensemaking helped to coordinate actions. The authors highlight how accounting information triggers organisational sensemaking processes;but depending on the type of organisational sensemaking, accounting information has little further role. The authors also show that the stability of decisions depends on the types of organisational sensemaking.Practical implicationsThe authors show how coordination as a management control practice is enabled by organisational sensemaking within an NPO during a crisis. Organisational sensemaking enabled the agreement of actions, which enabled coordination. Accounting practices provided trigger mechanisms to facilitate organisational sensemaking.Originality/valueSince this study is the first to examine sensemaking processes and accounting practices in coordination in an NPO in a pandemic, the authors contribute to the limited research on NPOs during crises and on the management control practice of coordination. The authors extend the accounting literature on sensemaking by showing that, whilst accounting triggers organisational sensemaking, accounting is only implicated in one type of organisational sensemaking and by revealing the different outcomes of the different types of organisational sensemaking.

Lessons from Co-Occurring Disasters: Covid-19 and Eight Hurricanes

Changing climate dynamics have resulted in a confluence of disaster events to which Louisiana government leaders and emergency managers have never before had to respond simultaneously: a global pandemic and an "epidemic" of landfalling hurricanes during the 2020 season (eight cones over Louisiana) with challenging, unusual characteristics: (1) two hurricanes passing over the same location within 36 hours, a fujiwhara - Hurricanes Marco and Laura, (2) 150 mile-per-hour winds inadequately forecasted and of an almost unprecedented speed, (3) a difficult to forecast surge magnitude that led to incorrect immediate response, (4) delayed long-term recovery efforts from responders outside of the area because of initial reporting errors regarding surge heights and wind speed, and (5) a storm, Zeta, that passed directly over a densely populated area that would have been hard hit by rain if the storm had slowed. In addition, the number and closeness in dates of storm occurrences led to lengthy coastal highwater levels. To these co-occurring threats forecasters, state and local officials and residents responded with expertise and commitment, adhering to close collaboration, modifying evacuations and undertaking protective measures, all contributing to a low death rate from storms and a modest death rate from COVID. More just outcomes were supported by the general capacity of the responders, commitment to keep the residents informed about both risks and appropriate responses to them and the provision of special services, calculated for the new situation of the pandemic and the storm epidemic, for those without the means to respond adequately to both.

COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of cross-cultural differences on crisis management: A conceptual model of transcultural crisis management

In this paper, leadership tasks and stakeholder response during transboundary crisis management are analyzed based on findings from Hofstede's study, GLOBE Project, and theoretical concepts in cross-cultural management. Accordingly, a conceptual model of transcultural crisis management is proposed. Seven propositions (P) and sixteen sub-propositions (SP) are developed and then tested using the case method. The case of the COVID-19 pandemic is studied to note the effects of cross-cultural differences and intercultural communication in the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis stages. Cross-cultural differences are found to affect sense-making, decision-making, sense-giving and meaning-making during pre-crisis and crisis management stages. Implications of these findings and further research agenda are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Unpacking COVID-19 and conspiracy theories in the UK black community.

OBJECTIVES: Conspiracy theories are associated with significant COVID-19 health consequences including lower engagement with protective behaviours. This study uses sensemaking theory, a process of constructing meanings through interpersonal exchanges that enable people to interpret their world to explain the theoretical process underlying the development of conspiratorial beliefs around COVID-19 within Black African and Caribbean communities in the UK. DESIGN: Qualitative, in-depth interviews were used. METHODS: Twenty-eight members of the communities were recruited: semi-structured interviews were analysed using grounded theory. RESULTS: Our findings provide an explanation of how an environment of crisis combined with current and historical mistrust, perceived injustice and inequality provided a context in which alternative conspiracy narratives could thrive. The nature of these conspiratorial beliefs made more sense to many of our respondent's than institutional sources (such as the UK Government). Critically, these alternative beliefs helped respondents shape their decision-making, leading to non-engagement with COVID protective behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the uncertainty of the pandemic, combined with historical and contemporary perceived injustice and mistrust, and a lack of specific identity-aligned messaging, created a perfect environment for conspiratorial sense-making to thrive. This alternative sensemaking was inconsistent with the health-protection messaging espoused by the Government. To ensure all groups in society are protected, and for health promotion messages to take purchase, the experiences of different target audiences must be taken into account, with sensemaking anchored in lived experience.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic: Psycho-social perception of the crisis and sense-making processes

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a widespread state of uncertainty and disorientation regarding daily practices and beliefs, creating multiple sense-making processes. The purpose of the study, which is part of a larger international research endeavour, is to explore the psycho-social perception of the risk associated with the spread of Covid-19 during the lockdown in Italy (March 9th to May 4th, 2020). 2125 online questionnaire were collected in Italy and analysed with a Cluster Analysis procedure by a hierarchical classification method. We explored differences and peculiarities of the perception and appreciation of the pandemic crisis, perceived risks and resources in terms of individual attitudes, communitarian bonds, politics, beliefs and trust. Four profiles have been identified that refer to different models for assessing the situation and perception of risk;these models operate as affective-cognitive systems of sense-making and interpretation of the events occurring during the lockdown. Main psycho-social implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Examining the roles of secondary school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic: Vital elements in serving Hispanic/Latinx students

The literature on crisis leadership is saturated with a multitude of theoretical frameworks, definitions, domains, typologies, models, philosophies, schools of thought, and approaches regarding the nature of leadership and how leaders manage crises in different contexts (Bhaduri, 2019;Khan & Nawaz, 2016;McNulty et al., 2018;Mumford et al., 2007;Wooten & James, 2008;Zaccaro, 2007). Although there is a rigorous body of knowledge about crisis leadership, there is limited research about crisis leadership within secondary schools in marginalized spaces. The few existing studies are limited in significant ways. First, most of the studies in crisis leadership in schools focus on events of a localized nature within school boundaries, such as fires, school violence (including school shootings), and natural disasters. Second, the majority of studies, while discussing theoretical frameworks effectively, neglect to comprehensively examine the significant roles school leaders assume during these crises. Third, these studies are presented from a traditional majoritarian point of view without considering the cultural capital and community wealth minorities bring to the context of crisis leadership. Finally, there is a lack of research that explicitly examines how school leaders respond to crisis in secondary schools serving traditionally under-resourced Hispanic/Latinx students who attend schools in marginalized communities. This study aimed at closing this gap by exploring and examining the roles campus and school district leaders assumed during COVID-19 within a crisis leadership context and why this work matters. As an exploratory qualitative case study of two district's responses to COVID-19, the data illuminated that this resulted in a variety of new roles and responsibilities that specifically met identified needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

What can managers learn from professional poker players about decision-making?

This paper aims to investigate how past decision-making experiences can improve future decisionmaking. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with profitable professional Poker players. The results point out that it is the knowledge background of the decision-maker that makes him make sense of the situations he experiences. The research findings allowed the identification of three mechanisms that facilitate and make future decisions faster and more appropriate based on past experiences: (1) memory, (2) reflection, and (3) tools and analytical approach. The research contributes by showing evidence that, when supported by analytical tools, decision-makers can improve the quality and speed of the decision-making process. For organizations and supply chains, the paper highlights the importance of recognizing patterns based on the past to make sense of the future. For operations management, in events like COVID-19, companies can take advantage of memory to enact over unprecedented scenarios, prevent disruptions, and recover. © 2023 IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Social Environment and Attitudes toward COVID-19 Anti-Contagious Measures: An Explorative Study from Italy.

Social and cultural aspects (i.e., political decision making, discourses in the public sphere, and people's mindsets) played a crucial role in the ways people responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed with the Semiotic-Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT), the present work aims to explore how individual ways of making sense of their social environment affected individuals' perception of government measures aimed at managing the pandemic and the adherence to such measures. An online survey was administered from January to April 2021 to the Italian population. Retrieved questionnaires (N = 378) were analyzed through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to detect the factorial dimensions underpinning (dis)similarities in the respondents' ways of interpreting their social environment. Extracted factors were interpreted as markers of Latent Dimensions of Sense (LDSs) organizing respondents' worldviews. Finally, three regression models tested the role of LDSs in supporting the individual satisfaction with the measures adopted to contain the social contagion defined at national level, individual adherence to the containment measures and the perception of the population's adherence to them. Results highlight that all the three measures are associated with a negative view of the social environment characterized by a lack of confidence in public institutions (health system, government), public roles and other people. Findings are discussed on the one hand to shed light on the role of deep-rooted cultural views in defining personal evaluations of government measures and adherence capacity. On the other hand, we suggest that taking into account people's meaning-making can guide public health officials and policy makers to comprehend what favors or hinders adaptive responses to emergencies or social crises.

Mutual Incorporation, Intercorporeality, and the Problem of Mediating Systems

In this paper, I explore the ways that phenomenological concepts like intercorporeality and mutual incorporation offer new tools in trying to make sense of human experiences via mediating systems. In particular, I think about how the COVID-19 pandemic hastened a large population into mediated interactions, and what is lost, perhaps contingently or perhaps intrinsically, when human experiences are mediated in this way. I look to research in presence, skillful interaction, and enactive social cognition to argue that there remains something ineffable or at least extremely hard to pin down about intercorporeality, and embodied togetherness has not yet been replicated in the mediating systems we currently embrace.

Emotion as a Condition and Target of Learning Design During Emergency Remote Teaching

In this study we seek to understand the recursive relationships between feeling, sense-making, and rapid online course design at the onset of COVID-19. To elucidate how emotion was implicated in learning design decisions, we offer a qualitative analysis of nine instructor interviews from diverse academic disciplines. Originally developed for an open online course, these interviews exemplify how instructors at a large midwestern university moved their residential courses online at the onset of the pandemic. © ISLS.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic: Psycho-social perception of the crisis and sense-making processes

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a widespread state of uncertainty and disorientation regarding daily practices and beliefs, creating multiple sense-making processes. The purpose of the study, which is part of a larger international research endeavour, is to explore the psycho-social perception of the risk associated with the spread of Covid-19 during the lockdown in Italy (March 9th to May 4th, 2020). 2125 online questionnaire were collected in Italy and analysed with a Cluster Analysis procedure by a hierarchical classification method. We explored differences and peculiarities of the perception and appreciation of the pandemic crisis, perceived risks and resources in terms of individual attitudes, communitarian bonds, politics, beliefs and trust. Four profiles have been identified that refer to different models for assessing the situation and perception of risk;these models operate as affective-cognitive systems of sense-making and interpretation of the events occurring during the lockdown. Main psycho-social implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Examining the roles of secondary school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic: Vital elements in serving Hispanic/Latinx students

The literature on crisis leadership is saturated with a multitude of theoretical frameworks, definitions, domains, typologies, models, philosophies, schools of thought, and approaches regarding the nature of leadership and how leaders manage crises in different contexts (Bhaduri, 2019;Khan & Nawaz, 2016;McNulty et al., 2018;Mumford et al., 2007;Wooten & James, 2008;Zaccaro, 2007). Although there is a rigorous body of knowledge about crisis leadership, there is limited research about crisis leadership within secondary schools in marginalized spaces. The few existing studies are limited in significant ways. First, most of the studies in crisis leadership in schools focus on events of a localized nature within school boundaries, such as fires, school violence (including school shootings), and natural disasters. Second, the majority of studies, while discussing theoretical frameworks effectively, neglect to comprehensively examine the significant roles school leaders assume during these crises. Third, these studies are presented from a traditional majoritarian point of view without considering the cultural capital and community wealth minorities bring to the context of crisis leadership. Finally, there is a lack of research that explicitly examines how school leaders respond to crisis in secondary schools serving traditionally under-resourced Hispanic/Latinx students who attend schools in marginalized communities. This study aimed at closing this gap by exploring and examining the roles campus and school district leaders assumed during COVID-19 within a crisis leadership context and why this work matters. As an exploratory qualitative case study of two district's responses to COVID-19, the data illuminated that this resulted in a variety of new roles and responsibilities that specifically met identified needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The Relationship between Healthcare Providers and Preventive Practices: Narratives on Access to Cancer Screening.

Cancer screening programs are public health interventions beneficial to early diagnoses and timely treatments. Despite the investment of health policies in this area, many people in the recommended age groups do not participate. While the literature is mainly focused on obstacles and factors enabling access to health services, a gap from the point of view of the target population concerns healthcare providers. Within the "Miriade" research-action project, this study aims to explore the dimensions that mediate the relationship between healthcare providers and preventive practices through the narrations of 52 referents and healthcare providers involved in breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening. We conducted ad hoc narrative interviews and used theory-driven analysis based on Penchansky and Thomas' conceptualization and Saurman's integration of six dimensions of healthcare access: affordability, availability, accessibility, accommodation, acceptability and awareness. The results show that 21 thematic categories were representative of the access dimensions, and 5 thematic categories were not; thus, we have classified the latter as the dimension of affection. The results suggest trajectories through which psychological clinical intervention might be constructed concerning health, shared health decisions and access to cancer screening.

Critical realist multilevel research in business marketing: a laminated conceptualization of resilience

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to ease the methodological application of critical realist multilevel research in business marketing. Although there has been plenty of theoretical contributions in this field, it is not always clear how critical realism can be best applied in business marketing settings. Accordingly, this paper addresses this gap in literature. Also, this paper addresses the calls for a multilevel conceptualization for resilience, based on the critical realist laminated systems. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper, which uses pre-existing literature to develop a critical realist methodological approach for the purposes of multilevel business marketing research. The contribution is based on literature by combining pre-existing ideas in a new way in the context of business marketing. Findings This paper makes a methodological contribution by introducing the critical realist "laminated systems" to business marketing as a multilevel research approach. Furthermore, the authors conceptualize a specific laminated model, the Laminated Interactional Model (LIM), that is designed for the purpose of business marketing research. The LIM is a methodological tool that conceptualizes business marketing based on six levels of analysis, easing the methodological application of critical realism in business marketing settings. In addition, to provide an example, the authors apply the LIM to the literature on resilience, providing a multilevel conceptualization. This is a timely contribution, as resilience has emerged as a central concept addressing interorganizational survival during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value This paper makes three main contributions to business marketing. First, this paper provides a methodological contribution by introducing the critical realist notion of "laminated systems" to business marketing. Second, this paper conceptualizes a specific laminated model for business marketing, namely, the LIM. Third, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper will apply critical realism and the LIM to the notion of resilience, addressing the calls for multilevel conceptualizations.

Pelican Stairs

Pelican Stairs is a multimedia art project started during the depths of Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. The project's reflections on how one's umwelt (one's unique experience of living in one's environment) changes in response to an all-encompassing crisis can serve as a guide, or a provocation, about how future cities need to be reimagined to encompass flexible life-pattern options for their denizens not only to survive but to thrive through the challenges before us. I took photos of my local neighbourhood, Wapping in London, on my daily walks between March and September. I often visited the Thames shore area by climbing a set of steps known as Pelican Stairs. Using those photos as a training set, I generated new images with a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), which I paired with excerpts from my diary during the same period. The unsettling, almost-real images contrasted with the mundane reality of the diary entries allow the viewer to viscerally (re)experience the inherent tension between an increasingly uncertain external reality and internal attempts at control or sense-making through normal, everyday habits. The project is hosted at https://pelicanstairs.art, and the project includes an interactive element through a Twitter bot which responds to a specific prompt by sharing a random image of generated art from the project. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Perceived overqualification, felt organizational obligation, and extra‐role behavior during the COVID‐19 crisis: The moderating role of self‐sacrificial leadership: International Review of Applied Psychology

Past research has found that employees who view themselves as overqualified for their jobs tend to hold negative job attitudes and be unwilling to go beyond the call of duty. In challenging situations such as during the COVID‐19 crisis, when having “all hands‐on deck” may be important to an organization's survival, mitigating the negative tendencies of these employees becomes important. Adopting a sensemaking perspective on crisis management, we examine whether supervisors' self‐sacrificial leadership can mitigate these negative tendencies. First, we propose that employee perceived overqualification is associated with lower levels of felt obligation to the organization and thereby lower levels of extra‐role behaviors (i.e., helping and proactivity). We next propose that supervisors' self‐sacrificial leadership during the COVID‐19 crisis can evoke, especially when COVID‐19 more strongly impacts the organization, a sense of collectivism toward the organization, which mitigates the negative association of perceived overqualification with felt obligation and thus extra‐role behaviors. We tested our theorizing in samples from the UK (n = 121, pilot study) and US (n = 382, main study) in studies with a multi‐wave, time‐lagged design. Findings from both studies provide support for our theorizing. We discuss implications for research and practice concerning perceived overqualification during a crisis.

Disparities in COVID-19 Information Sources and Knowledge in South Korea.

Applying Dervin's sense-making theory, this study aims to examine the factors associated with the numbers and types of COVID-19 information sources, and the association between information sources and knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea. An online survey was conducted among adults (19-69 years old) in December 2020. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regression were conducted to examine (1) the associated factors with the numbers and types of COVID-19 information sources, and (2) whether the number and types of COVID-19 information sources predict the correct COVID-19 knowledge. On average, the participants utilized five different sources to find COVID-19 information. The information need was related to the number and type of information sources, while the information barrier was only related to the number of sources. Participants who utilized more sources and who utilized online sources were more likely to possess the correct knowledge regarding COVID-19 while utilizing the government website; however, doctors, as a source, were negatively related to COVID-19 knowledge. There should be more support for individuals with lower socioeconomic status, as they tend to look for fewer sources, while finding more sources is positively related to better COVID-19 knowledge.

Zooming in on embodied social sensemaking: Mapping the design space in the context of videoconferencing

Embodied sensemaking theory is thoroughly social: we make sense of the world in interaction with others. Various designs have been proposed to scaffold gembodied social sensemaking'. Yet the details of such scaffolding need elaboration. For example, what happens in remote settings, when bodies cannot engage directly? This paper investigates, through design, how interactive artifacts scaffold embodied social sensemaking. The aim is to establish clearer links between theory and design. Twenty-four embodied interaction prototypes were created to support remote videoconferencing by design students who were also, necessarily, active videoconferencing users during a COVID-19 lockdown. A reflective ordering process revealed a design space made up of six phenomenal aspects and three basic types of scaffolding. The analysis adds further details to existing design frameworks for embodied sensemaking. The paper provides guidance to designers who aim to create meaningful and theoretically grounded embodied augmentations of remote social interaction technologies. © 2022 Owner/Author.