Abstract. Over the last ten years, a risk-based approach to manage natural hazards -termed the risk concept -has been introduced to the management of natural hazards in Switzerland. Large natural hazard events, new political initiatives and limited financial resources have led to the development and introduction of new planning instruments and software tools that should support natural hazard engineers and planners to effectively and efficiently deal with natural hazards. Our experience with these new instruments suggests an improved integration of the risk concept into the community of natural hazard engineers and planners. Important factors for the acceptance of these new instruments are the integration of end-users during the development process, the knowledge exchange between science, developers and end-users as well as training and education courses for users. Further improvements require the maintenance of this knowledge exchange and a mindful adaptation of the instruments to case-specific circumstances.

Purpose -This article argues for the reflective use of visual techniques in qualitative interviewing and suggests using visuals not only as projective techniques to elicit answers, but also as facilitation techniques throughout the interview process.Design/methodology/approach -By reflecting on their own research projects in organization and management studies, the authors develop a practical approach to visual interviewing -making use of both projective and facilitation techniques. The article concludes by discussing the limitations of visualization techniques, and suggesting directions for future research on visually-enhanced interviewing. Findings -The integration of projective and facilitation techniques enables the interviewer tobuild rapport with the respondent(s), and to elicit deeper answers by providing cognitive stimulation. In the course of the interview, such an integrative approach brings along further advantages, most notably focusing attention, maintaining interaction, and fostering the coconstruction of knowledge between the interviewer and the interviewee(s).Originality/value -This article is reflective of what is currently occurring in the field of qualitative interviewing, and presents a practical approach for the integration of visual projection and facilitation in qualitative interviews.

Holacracy, a self‐managing design for organizations, uses the radical decentralization of authority and a lack of a manager‐subordinate relationship. It differs significantly from traditional organizational forms, and in particular, the transformation of the organization from a traditional to a holacratic system brings with it various challenges, especially for employees and teams that need to be resolved, so organizations can realize their potential. This study uses an explorative case study design with 43 qualitative interviews in Swiss holacratic organizations to gain deeper insights into the organizational system itself and especially the path into the holacratic system. We conclude by presenting an overarching model and identifying four different ways to handle the change into the self‐managing organizational design.

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The article proposes a multi-level approach for evaluating communication skills training (CST) as an important element of crew resource management (CRM) training. Within this methodological framework, the present work examined the effectiveness of CST in matching or mismatching team compositions with regard to hierarchical status and competence. There is little experimental research that evaluated the effectiveness of CRM training at multiple levels (i.e. reaction, learning, behaviour) and in teams composed of members of different status and competence. An experiment with a two (CST: with vs. without) by two (competence/hierarchical status: congruent vs. incongruent) design was carried out. A total of 64 participants were trained for 2.5 h on a simulated process control environment, with the experimental group being given 45 min of training on receptiveness and influencing skills. Prior to the 1-h experimental session, participants were assigned to two-person teams. The results showed overall support for the use of such a multi-level approach of training evaluation. Stronger positive effects of CST were found for subjective measures than for objective performance measures. Statement of Relevance:This work provides some guidance for the use of a multi-level evaluation of CRM training. It also emphasises the need to collect objective performance data for training evaluation in addition to subjective measures with a view to gain a more accurate picture of the benefits of such training approaches.