CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Marie Mikusova

Crisis Team and Crisis Manager

Sara Trullenque Espallargas

saratrullenque_13@hotmail.com
30.11.2013

Contents

 Introduction

Crisis Management Team

o Definition
o Members
o Role

Crisis Manager
o Definition
o Role
o Effective crisis managers

Conclusion

References

Introduction

Crisis management involves dealing with threats before, during, and after
they have occurred. It is a discipline within the broader context of management consisting
of skills and techniques required to identify, assess, understand, and cope with a serious
situation, especially from the moment it first occurs to the point that recovery procedures
start.
In addition, crisis management is about developing an organizations
capability to react flexibly and thus be able to make the prompt and necessary decisions
when a crisis happens. If an organization prepares for the worst-case scenario, then it can
handle other situations as well.
Being able to effectively respond to a crisis is relevant to an organization's
survival. Whether or not an organization is prepared for a potential crisis depends upon
senior officials, and other personnel operating within the company. Corporations with
established crisis management teams are able to communicate and effectively respond in
the event of a crisis.

Crisis Management Team

-Definition
A crisis management team is set up to respond immediately to warning
signals of crisis in an organization and protect it against the adverse effects, as well as
execute relevant plans to overcome emergency situations.
Their purpose is also deciding on future course of action and devising
strategies to help organization come out of difficult times as soon as possible.
According to Coombs (1999), a crisis management team is a crossfunctional group of people within the organization who have been designated to handle any
crisis.
-Members

A crisis

management

team

consists

of

individuals

from

senior

administration, technical operations, public affairs, public relations, consumer affairs,

investor relations, and advertising. In other words, the crisis management team should
involve personnel from all departments in the organization.
Employees who are members of a crisis management team must possess
effective communication and management skills. These skills allow team members the
opportunity to facilitate and exchange ideas among the organizations diverse departments,
monitor key assumptions that may influence the belief system of the crisis plan, obtain
employee opinions on potential crisis and crisis management, and encourage novel
experiments that could benefit the organization in preparing for a crisis (Pauchant and
Mitroff, 1992).

-Role
Acceptance that a crisis has occurred and making an appropriate response to
it is fundamental to crisis management. The crisis team is appointed to take charge of the
situation immediately, success in beating the crisis depends on crisis team ability. It is also
very important to have a unified version and strategy of who presents it.
They focus on detecting the early signs of crisis, identifying the problem
areas, discussing the identified areas of concern face to face with employees and finally
preparing crisis management plan for emergency situations and next crisis. The crisis
management team would also prepare a brief for the board of directors and for the rest of
the business. This is often done with the help of affairs department (or equivalent), as the
brief also forms the basis of a common message, communicated to appropriate external
organizations (including the media).
Once an organization is viewed in a negative viewpoint, the reputation and
the overall survival of the company may be at risk. Senior officials within the corporation
will often attempt to communicate with the media, the general public, and key stakeholders
in order to appear as having controlled or contained the crisis. Communication presents
various challenges in the containment phase of a crisis. For example, not only are key

stakeholders informed, progress reports must be the provided, and any actions taken by the
crisis team must be reported (Coombs, 1999)
Roles of managers within the crisis management team should be based on
their everyday roles. The leader maintains the cohesiveness of the team and establishes
basic principles of crisis management for the team.

Crisis Manager
-Definition
Barton (2001) suggests todays organizational leaders must be able to
recognize, anticipate, manage, and formally prepare for a crisis.
A leader must institutionalize the process of crisis management to anticipate,
prepare and mitigate an imminent crisis. To ensure an effective crisis management
mechanism leadership support and involvement is absolutely essential.
Anticipating crisis is a matter of strategic planning and risk management, but
each crisis that manifests itself, must be dealt with adeptly by leaders, who also must
consolidate the lessons learnt and communicate the same to the people as organizational
learning and thus drive sense for initiating change in the organization.

-Role
Leaders and managers play an extremely important role during crisis. One
should lead from the front, show confidence and steadiness and take complete charge of the
situation, should have full control of his employees and be alert at the workplace. A leader
should be able to feel the early signs of crisis and warn the employees against the negative

consequences of the same. It is his duty to take precautionary measures to avoid an

emergency situation. A leader should be able to foresee crisis. Leaders should strive hard to
come out of tough times as soon as possible. Learn to take risks. Clarify the roles and
responsibilities of the individuals during this time. Once the organization is out of crisis, it
is the leaders duty to communicate the lessons learnt so that employees do not commit
same mistakes again.
Dont avoid stakeholders, external parties and most importantly media. It is
necessary to meet them and explain the whole situation. Ignoring people makes things
worse.

Develop

strong

partnerships

with

external

parties

and

ask

for

help.http://www.managementstudyguide.com/role-of-leaders-in-crisis-management.htm

-Effective crisis managers

According to Harvard Business School professor Daniel Goleman, leaders
with emotional intelligence competencies (such as empathy, self-awareness, persuasion,
teamwork skills and the ability to manage relationships) are effective leaders. Such skills
would be important in crisis management.
Gibson (2000) noted under conditions of a crisis, charismatic leadership is
likely to emerge. In this situation, a leader is given the power to do what is necessary to
solve the crisis. Such tactics might include empowering followers, contacting outside
agencies, or directly eliminating the crisis.
Based upon this information, crisis management teams whose leader
demonstrates a charismatic style of leadership may be more effective in controlling and
eliminating an organizational crisis.

Conclusion
Crisis leadership research concludes that leadership action in crisis reflects
the competency of an organization, because the test of crisis demonstrates how well the
institutions leadership structure serves the organizations goals and withstands crisis.

Developing effective human resources is vital when building organizational capabilities

through crisis management executive leadership.
Crises or disasters can strike at any time. They are most devastating when
sudden, but slower events can be cumulative and just as damaging. When crises happen,
there needs to be a practiced plan that ensures a positive, focused and effective response.
During a crisis there tends to be confusion, uncertainty and even fear. A crisis management
plan generates order out of chaos. It needs strong leadership by well-trained and rehearsed
individuals. Everyone within an organization should know what his or her role is in a crisis.

References
http://www.managementstudyguide.com
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/sectors/infosec/infosecadvice/incidentmanagement/cris
ismanagement/page33391.html
Barton, L.: 2001, Crisis in Organizations II (South- Western College
Publishing Thomson Learning, Cincinnati, OH).
Coombs, W. T.: 1999, Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing,
and Responding (Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks).
Crisis Management & Team Effectiveness: A Closer Examination King,
Granville. Journal of Business Ethics, 2002
Gibson, 2000, Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Processes (Irwin
McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA).
LERBINGER, Otto. The Crisis Manager. Facing disasters, conflicts, and
failures. 2nd ed. Routledge.

Pauchant, T. C. and I. I. Mitroff: 1992, Transforming the Crisis-Prone

Organization: Preventing Individual, Organizational, and Environmental Tragedies (JosseyBass Publishers, San Francisco, CA).