Crisis

Management
Objectives

Define what are Crisis

Identify what causes Crisis.
Define what Crisis Management is.
Discuss the need for Crisis Management.
Determine Essential Features of Crisis Management.
List types of Crisis.
Define what Crisis Leadership is.
List Key Pillars of Crisis Response.
Objectives

Define what Crisis Communication is.

Identify who Crisis Management Team is.
Define what Crisis Management Planning is. And why do
we need to plan.
Discuss how to handle dealing with media while Crisis.
List ways to overcome Organizational Crisis.
List Role of Employees/Leaders in Crisis Management.
Discuss Lessons Learned in Crisis Management.
What is Crisis?

A sudden and unexpected event leading to major

unrest amongst the individuals at the workplace is
called as organization crisis
Characteristics of
Crisis?

A crisis is a change
Crisis is a sequence of sudden disturbing events harming
the organization.

Crisis generally arises on a short notice.

Crisis triggers a feeling of fear and threat amongst the
individuals.
 What causes Crisis?
Crisis can arise in an organization due to any of the
following reasons:
Technological failure and Breakdown of machines lead to crisis

Employees do not agree to each other and fight amongst

themselvesA
Violence, thefts and terrorism at the workplace

Neglecting minor issues in the beginning

Illegal behaviors such as accepting bribes

Organization fails to pay its creditors

Why should we prepare for a crisis?

To be ready for action

To Transfer Risk

To incorporate safely and risk awareness

To give program participant as sense of comfort

To spend less time worrying and more time empowering youth

 What is Crisis Management?

Is the process by which an organization deals with a major event

that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the
general public.
Is a business plan of action that is implemented quickly when a
negative situation occurs. Business crisis as a problem is that
1) Disturbs the way the organization conduct business, and
2) Attracts significant new media coverage and/or public
scrutiny
Crisis Management

Crisis Management consists of:

Methods used to respond to both the reality and
perception of crises

Establishing metrics to define what scenarios

constitute a crisis

Communication that occurs within the response phase

Need for Crisis Management

Prepares the individuals to face unexpected developments.

Employees adjust well to the sudden changes in the organization.

Employees can understand and analyze the causes of crisis and

cope with it.

Helps the managers to devise strategies to come out of uncertain

conditions.

Helps the managers to feel the early signs of crisis.

 Type of Crisis

1) Natural Disaster (‫)الأزمة الطبيعية‬

Typically natural disasters considered as
“acts of GOD”, are such environmental
phenomena as Earthquakes,Volcanoes,
Tornadoes and hurricanes, Floods
 Type of Crisis

2) Technological Crisis (‫)الأزمة التكنولوجية‬

Caused by human application of science and technology.
Technological accidents occur when technology becomes
complex and coupled and something goes wrong in the
system as a whole (Technological breakdowns).
 Type of Crisis

3) Confrontation Crisis (‫)أزمــة المواجهـــة‬

Occurs when discontented
individuals and/or groups fight
businesses, government, and
various interest groups to win
acceptance of their demands and
expectations.
 Type of Crisis

4) Crisis of Malevolence (‫)أزمــة الضغينـــة‬

Opponents or miscreant individuals use
criminal means or other extreme tactics for
the purpose of expressing hostility or anger
toward, or seeking gain from their company,
country, or economic system, perhaps with
the aim of destabilizing or destroying it.
 Type of Crisis

5) Crisis of Organizational Misdeeds (‫)أزمة الأخطاء التنظيمية‬

Occurs when management takes actions it knows will harm
or place stakeholders at risk for harm without adequate
precautions.
Lerbinger[1] specified three different types of crises of
organizational misdeeds:
1) Crisis of Skewed Management Values ‫))أزمة انحراف القيم الإدار ية‬

Are caused when managers favor short-term economic gain and

neglect broader social values & stakeholders other than
investors.
 Type of Crisis
Lerbinger[1] specified three different types of crises of
organizational misdeeds:
2) Crisis of deception (‫)أزمة التضليل‬
Crisis of deception occur when management conceals or
misrepresents information about itself and its products in its
dealing with consumers and others.

3) Crisis of management misconduct ( ‫)أزمة سوء الإدارة‬

Some crisis are caused not only by skewed values and deception
but deliberate amorality and illegality.
 Type of Crisis

6) Workplace Violence ( (‫أزمة استخدام العنف في مكان العمل‬

Crisis occurs when an employee or former employee
commits violence against other employees on organizational
grounds.
 Type of Crisis
7) Rumors‫)الإشاعات‬ )
False information about an organization or
its products creates crisis hurting the
organization’s reputation.

8) Bankruptcy ( (‫الإفلاس‬
 A crisis also arises when organizations
fail to pay its creditors and other parties.
 Lack of fund leads to crisis.
Crisis Leadership
Crisis Leadership

Leadership action in crisis reflects the competency of an

organization, because the test of crisis demonstrates how
well the institution’s leadership structure serves the
organization’s goals and withstands crisis.
 Crisis Leadership

Erika Hayes James defines organizational

crisis as “any emotionally charged
situation that, once it becomes public,
invites negative stakeholder reaction and
thereby has the potential to threaten the
financial well-being, reputation, or
survival of the firm or some portion
thereof.”
 Crisis Leadership

According to Erika, blaming leaders for having crisis depends

on how this crisis happened. As below there are two types of
Organizational Crisis:

Sudden Crisis Smoldering Crisis

Are circumstances that occur Differ from sudden crisis in that they
without warning and beyond an begin as minor internal issues that,
institution’s control. Leadership due to manager’s negligence, develop
are not blamed for the crisis. to crisis status. Leaders are blamed
for the crisis.
Crisis Leadership

Crisis Phases:
James categorizes five phases of crisis that require specific crisis
leadership competencies.

1) Signal detection

Monitoring the performance of the employee regularly helps

the managers to foresee crisis and warn the employees against
the negative consequences of the same.
 Crisis Leadership

Crisis Phases:
2) Preparation and prevention
The crisis handlers begin preparing for or averting the crisis
that had been foreshadowed in the signal detection stage.
An important element of planning is preparing for different
crisis scenarios.
 Crisis Leadership

Crisis Phases:
3) Containment and Damage Control
The goal of crisis containment and damage control is to limit
the reputational, financial, safety, and other threats to firm
survival.
 Crisis Leadership

Crisis Phases:
4) Business Recovery
Organizations must be able to carry on with their business in
the midst of the crisis while simultaneously planning for how
they will recover from the damage the crisis caused.
 Crisis Leadership

Crisis Phases:
5) Learning
In the wake of a crisis, organizational decision makers adopt a
learning orientation and use prior experience to develop new
routines and behaviors that ultimately change the way the
organization operates.
Key Pillars of Crisis
Response

Communications and Reporting

Crisis Management Team (CMT)

Post-Incident Follow-Up
 Crisis
Communication
 Crisis Communication

Refers to a special wing which deals with the reputation of the

individuals as well as the organization.
Need for Crisis
Communication

Crisis Communication experts are employed to save an

organization’s reputation against various threats and unwanted
challenges.

Brand identity is one of the most valuable assets of an

organization. The main purpose of Crisis Communication team
is to protect the brand identity and maintain the
organization’s firm standing within the industry.
Crisis Management Team Organization
(CMT)

A Crisis Management Team is formed to protect an organization

against the adverse effects of crisis. Crisis Management team
prepares an organization for inevitable threats.

Crisis Management Team is formed to respond immediately to

warning signals of crisis and execute relevant plans to overcome
emergency situations.
 Crisis Management Team
(CMT)
Role of Crisis Management Team
CMT members report to the Head of a CMT rather than their
regular line managers.
The composition and functioning of a CMT should be defined
by the following key characteristics:
 Including as many areas of expertise as is necessary.
 Diverse expertise, HR, and Communications/Media.
Ability to implement decisions
All members are able to fulfill their respective roles & responsibilities
Crisis Management Team
(CMT)

Key responsibilities of CMTs include:

Operational decision-making

Defining and implementing a crisis response strateg

Authority to ensure implementation of defined

strategy
Defining and implementing a media strategy

Managing family support and liaison

Crisis Management Team
(CMT)

Key responsibilities of CMTs include:

Managing the internal information policy

Consulting with all relevant internal and external

stakeholders
Managing crisis information (collation, analysis,
distribution, storage)
Defining the moment that the crisis ends
 Role of CMT

Crisis Management team primarily focuses on:

Detecting the early signs of crisis.
Identifying the problem areas
Sit with employees face to face and discuss on the identified
areas of concern
Prepare crisis management plan.
Encourage the employees to face problems with courage.
Help the organization come out of tough times and also prepare
it for the future.
Role of CMT

Crisis Management Team includes

Head of departments
Chief executive officer and people closely associated with him
Board of directors
Media Advisors
Human Resource Representatives
Role of CMT

How does Crisis Management Team function?

A Team Leader is appointed to take charge of the situation
immediately and encourage the employees to work as a single
unit.
The first step is to understand the main areas of
concern during emergency situations.
The team members must understand where things went wrong
and how current processes can be improved and made better
for smooth functioning of the organization.
Staying in touch with external clients as well as media.
Crisis Management
Planning

What is Crisis Management Planning?

Individuals need to adopt a step by step approach during
critical situations. Planning is essential.
Refers to a detailed plan which describes the various actions
which need to be taken during critical situations or crisis.
Any plan prepared by superiors, members of crisis
management team and related employees to help organization
overcome crisis in the best possible way is called crisis
management plan.
Crisis Management
Planning

Why Crisis Management Planning?

Helps the employees to adopt a focused approach during

emergency situations.

It gives a detailed overview of the roles and responsibilities

of employees during crisis.

Reducing the after effects of crisis at the workplace.

Crisis Management
Planning

Why Crisis Management Planning?

Taking quick and relevant actions as per the situation.

Protects an organization from inevitable threats.

Reducing instability and uncertainty amongst the employees.

Crisis Management
Planning

Characteristics of Crisis Management Plan

Crisis Management Plan should be made in the presence of all
executives.

Crisis Management Plan should take into account all identified

problem areas and suggest a possible solution for all of them.

Make sure the plans are realistic and solve the purpose of
saving organization’s reputation and name.
Crisis Management
Planning

How to make a crisis management plan?

1) Identify the problem areas and various factors which led

to crisis at the workplace.

2) Discuss issues and areas of concern amongst yourselves

on an open forum for everyone to share their opinion.
Crisis Management
Planning

How to make a crisis management plan?

3) Make sure you have accurate information. Don’t depend on
guess works and assumptions.

4) Crisis Management Plan should not only focus on ways to

overcome crisis but also on making the processes foolproof
to avoid emergency situations in future.
Crisis Management
Planning

Contingency planning

Preparing contingency plans in advance, as part of a crisis

management plan, is the first step to ensuring an organization is
appropriately prepared for a crisis.

The plan should clearly stipulate that the only people to speak
publicly about the crisis are the designated persons
Crisis Management
Planning
Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity plan can help minimize the disruption.

First, one must identify the critical functions and processes that
are necessary to keep the organization running.

Then each critical function and or/process must have its own
contingency plan in the event that one of the functions/processes
ceases or fails.
Social Media & Crisis Management
 Social Media & Crisis
Management

Social Networks can break news faster than traditional media

A media reaction plan should include a company media

representative as part of the Crisis Management Team (CMT)

All CMT members understand how to deal with the media and
be prepared to do so, should they be thrust into such a situation.
Social Media & Crisis Management
 Post-Crisis Follow-Up

• Victims, • Should • Document • A review • Making

Information Management

Operational Implications
family be well- s and of the provision
Debrief & Evaluation

members, documen electronic risk s for the

colleague ted, data analysis extension
s who are &lessons related to may be of

Follow-Up
Aftercare

witnesses learnt the necessary gratitude

to a should incident to all
critical feed into must be relevant
incident a review filed actors for
of crisis systematic their
response ally and efforts in
planning stored in a helping
central to resolve
location incidents
Ways to Overcome
Organizational Crisis

Adopt a focused approach

Gather correct and relevant information

Employees should change their perspective

Effective communication is essential to overcome crisis in the

organization
Roles and responsibilities must be delegated as per the
employee’s specialization
It is essential to take quick decisions during critical situations
Ways to Overcome
Organizational Crisis

Be calm and patient

Discussions are essential during crisis

Be loyal to your organization even at the times of crisis

Review your performance regularly

Avoid unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings at the

workplace
Role of Employees in
Crisis Management

Employees must be serious about their own work

One should not take things lightly

Encourage effective communication during emergency situations

Don’t spread baseless rumors about your product and organization

It is essential for the employees to respect their organization

Don’t ask for unjustified things

Role of Employees in
Crisis Management

One should not take things lightly

Don’t panic

Employees must rely on accurate information

Think out of the box

Don’t hide