Many people, if not most, are willing to put forth extraordinary effort in emergencies (or situations believed to be emergencies), where an emergency is any situation that if immediate action is not undertaken, catastrophic loss may occur.  (It can be anything from giving CPR to a heart attack victim, to bailing out your brother who missed the bus and might be late for a job interview as a result).

Because of this, some people--consciously or unconsciously--create emergencies as a motivational tactic.  

(Conversely, some people ''only'' respond during emergencies--during business as usual they are unproductive).

In some cases, this is unintentional--some people are poor planners, and things that ''should'' go smoothly often escalate into emergencies.  In other cases, this is intentional and used as a motivational tactic--some managers will intentionally manufacture a crisis in order to browbeat people into putting forth extra effort, and/or to get noticed in the organization.