Crisis Management Tips for

Public Service Managers

Taofeeq Oladiran Ajetunmobi,

Director, Public Affairs

www.pssdc.com.ng
www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE
 Session Outcomes

• At the end of the session, participants should be able to:

a. define the term crisis and crisis management;

b. discuss the two major types of crisis;

c. describe the three processes involved crises management;

and

d. explain the implications of crises management in Public

Service delivery.

2 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Introduction

• Crises are endemic in all human activities. They are often

sudden happenings with capacity or potential to alter the
lives of individuals; organisations, institutions and nations.

• As they have been present in the affairs of man from time

immemorial, so are they are still a pervasive aspect of human
life and living, domestic and corporate.

• The high V-U-C-A capacity of the 21st Century, driven by

Information and Communication Technologies, further
heightens the tendency for crises through creative disruption
as the new normal.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Introduction (cont’d)

• Governments and the Public Services have for long been

thought to be operating in relatively “stillwaters”
environments.
• This thought has been that because of the governmental
bureaucratic and non-competitive affiliation, the Public
Service is less crisis-prone, apart from national or regional
crises.
• However, Public Services, like other institutions, are prone to
crises because activities the governments they serve have
impacts on a variety of stakeholders. This can be sources for
crisis depending on affected interests.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Introduction (cont’d)

• This proneness has been further exacerbated by the creative

disruption of the 21st Century, powered by a variety of web
technologies and new media of public communication.
• As purveyors of public policies and implementers of government
plans and programmes, Public Service Managers at all levels must
always anticipate crises in service delivery.
• They must also continually hone their knowledge and skills
about crises and their management with a view to responding
nimbly at all times.
• This presentation therefore provides some basics about crises,
their management as well as their implications for Public Service
Management.
5 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE
 What is a Crisis?

• A significant threat to operations that can have negative

consequences if not handled properly
(www.instituteforpr.org)

• Any event that has capacity or potential to lead to an unstable

and/or dangerous situation affecting an individual, group,
community, or whole society (Wikipedia)

• Low probability, high impact event that threatens the viability

of the organisation and is characterised by the ambiguity of
cause, effect and means of resolution as well as by a belief
that decisions must be made swiftly (Pearson and Clair, 1998)
www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE
危机
危机
Crises – Dysfunctional or Functional?

• Crises are often deemed to be negative changes in the

system because they tend to occur abruptly, with little or no
warning, a narrow decision-making window and high
impacts.
• Like emergencies that they are, crises could constitute
threats to business continuity, survival, human lives, health,
property, or environment.
• To a large extent therefore, crisis are often seen as
dysfunctional and disruptive.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Crises – Dysfunctional or Functional? (cont’d)

• But as rightly observed by J. F Kennedy:

“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ (危机,

Wéijī ) is composed of two characters. '危' meaning
danger and '机' meaning chance and opportunity.”

8 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Two Types of Crisis

Sudden
Smoldering
A disruption in an
A condition that is potentially
organisation’s routine. Occurs
damaging and of which
with little or no warning often
someone in the organisation
generating extensive news
has or should have
coverage and public scrutiny.
knowledge, but does nothing.
An organisation may foresee
Smoldering crises start out
a sudden crisis occurring but
small and often, but not
it doesn’t know when it will
always, internally.
happen.

9 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Smoldering or Sudden?

• There has been the

tendency to always think
that crises result from
sudden disruptions that
are often outside the
control of organisations.

• However there is evidence

that majority of crises have
been internal and
smoldering. A trend study
by the Institute of Crisis
Management shows this

10 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Smoldering or Sudden? (cont’d)

• The same source also

shows that although
sudden/external crises
often attract greater
attention because of
wider impact, majority of
crises originate from
within and have been
smoldering problems
before snowballing.

11 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Some Triggers of Crises
TECHNICAL/ECONOMIC
• Product/Service Defects • Environmental Destruction
• Plant Defects/Industrial • Large Scale System Failure
Accidents • Natural Disasters
• Computer Breakdowns • Hostile Takeovers
• Defective/Undisclosed • Government Crisis
Information • International Crisis
• Bankruptcy

EXTERNAL
INTERNAL

• Organisational Breakdown • Sabotage

• Miscommunication • Terrorism
• Counterfeiting • Kidnapping
• Illegal Activities • False Rumours
• Occupational Health Diseases • Labour Strikes
• Boycott

PEOPLE/SOCIAL/ORGANISATIONS

2 Types of crisis (Adapted from Mitroff et.al. 1987)

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 3 Potential Crisis Threats
When organisational crises break, three potential areas,
as follows, are often threatened.

Public Safety - industrial accidents and

product harm leading to injuries and
even loss of lives.

Financial Loss - disruption of operations

leading to a loss of market share,
purchase intentions and similar
deleterious outcomes.
Reputation Loss - All crises reflect
poorly on the organisation and will
damage reputation to some degree.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Crisis Management Defined

• The process by which an organisation deals with a disruptive

and unexpected event that threatens to harm the
organisation or its stakeholders – Wikipedia

• A series of functions or processes that help to identify, study

and forecast crisis issues, and to derive specific means that
would enable organisations to prevent or cope with a crisis. It
involves the systematic attempt to prevent organisational
crises and/or to manage any that occur (Pearson and Clair,
1998).

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Importance of Crisis Management

• Crisis Management knowledge is an enlightened self-interest

matter. Among others, its knowledge and planning is identified
with the following:

– Helps organisations to face emergencies, disruptions and

adverse conditions proactively.
– Provides a compass for direction and focused responses when
crises hit
– Strengthen stakeholder well-being in crisis times.
– Acts as rudder for internal stakeholders in times
organisational culture change.

15 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 A Three Part View of Crisis Management

16 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

Pre-Crisis – Prevention and Preparation

Identify risk factors capable of triggering crises and put in

measures to ameliorate them

Develop a reference tool Crisis Management Plan that is

updated at least annually

Appoint a designated crisis management team and

well-trained spokespersons

Simulate crisis situations and conduct exercises to test

the plans and teams at least annually, and

Pre-draft some crisis messages.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

Crisis-Response

• A crisis has hit. This part of the process is what an

organisation says and does in the event of a crisis. The key
indicators here are:

The Initial Response -

Reputation Repair and
Quickness, Accuracy and
Behavioural Intentions
Consistency

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

Some Initial Response Best Practice

Provide quick and accurate initial responses

within the first hour of crisis.

Ensure consistency by providing regular

briefing at specific time intervals.

Keep crisis spokespersons fully informed of

crisis events and key message points.

Deploy all available communication

channels in the traditional and new media.

Be ready to provide stress and trauma

counselling to direct and indirect victims.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

Reputation Repair and Behavioural Intentions

• Every crisis comes with a potential loss of reputation.

• This could be in the form of increased damage to an

organisation’s reputation, reduced purchase intentions and
increased likelihood of engaging in negative word-of-mouth
(Coombs, 2007b; Coombs & Holladay, 2006).

• While it should be noted that it is not all crises that have

reputation repair issues, research has shown that
organisations have a variety of ways of trying to repair
reputation.
• Presented in the next slide are various modes of response.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Reputation Repair and Behavioural Intentions

• Attack the accuser: crisis manager confronts the person or

group claiming something is wrong.
• Denial: crisis manager asserts that there is no crisis.

• Scapegoat: crisis manager blames some person or group

outside of the organisation for the crisis.
• Excuse: crisis manager minimises organizational responsibility
by denying intent to do harm and/or claiming inability to control
the events that triggered the crisis.
• Justification: crisis manager minimizes the perceived damage
caused by the crisis.
www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE
Reputation Repair and Behavioural Intentions

• Reminder: crisis managers tell stakeholders about the past

good works of the organisation.

• Ingratiation: crisis manager praises stakeholders for their

actions.

• Compensation: crisis manager offers money or other gifts to

victims.

• Apology: organisation takes full responsibility for the crisis

and asks stakeholders for forgiveness.
(Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seeger, 2006).
www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE
 Post-Crisis –Return to Normalcy

• Organisation has waded through the crisis and is returning to its

usual business.

• At this stage, the crisis is no longer the focal point of attention but
follow up information is still required.

• All promises made during the crisis response period must be followed
through and fulfilled.

• Regular updates on the recovery, corrective action, and/or

investigations of the crisis.

• All crisis management issues must be treated as learning points and

learnings at every turn must continually be fed into the
organisation’s Crisis Management Plan.

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Implications and Conclusion

• It is true one cannot possibly plan for every conceivable crisis.

But, it will be the height of business thoughtlessness to
discountenance or jettison crisis management planning.
• Businesses and Governments must plan for crisis, make risk
and crisis management a culture and create a system for
deploying human and material resources as quickly as
possible when crisis hits.
• As players in governance deliverables, Public Service
Managers must deploy knowledge, skills and experience to
manage issues and serve as bearers of early warning signals
drawing attention to risk factors that could affect the fortunes
of the organisation.
www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE
 Some Key Takeaways

• Crises are an endemic part of human living and they must happen
at one time or the other.

• Sometimes, crises happen suddenly and without notice but at other

times, they occur due to failure to identify and manage risks that
take place within the organisation.

• Although, the Public Service is not in the kind of operating

environment of Private Sector organisations, there are openings for
crises to occur
• As managers, Public Servants must always be aware of the risk
factors in their work, and manage them to reduce incidents

• Open and clear communication with stakeholders is key to

managing crises when they arise.
25 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE
 Self-Assessment Questions

• Explain any 3 major losses likely to occur as a result of crises.

• Can there be opportunities in crises? Explain.

• From your understanding of crises management, how would

you rate the response of the State Government to the
COVID-19 Pandemic? Show proof for your position.

26 02 May 2020 www.pssdc.com.ng insert filename here EXCELLENCE in SERVICE

 Appreciation and Next Steps

▪ Thank you for taking time to go through these slides. We are

sure you have unlearnt, learnt and relearnt some things.

▪ Please be on the lookout for other critical Public Service

Management topics on this site even as we continue to
improve by including audio and video aspects to the
presentations.

▪ For additional information on this and other presentations,

send email enquiries to
info@pssdc.com.ng or lspssdcmagodo@gmail.com

www.pssdc.com.ng EXCELLENCE in SERVICE