Crisis Management is the overall coordination of an organization's response to a crisis, in an effective, timely manner, with the goal of avoiding or minimizing damage to the organization's profitability, reputation, or ability to operate.
The Crisis Management Plan (CMP) defines how the strategic issues of a crisis affecting the organization would be addressed and managed by the Crisis Management Team or Executive Leadership.
Crisis management addresses crises such as a hostile take-over or media exposure and those where the impact is over a wider area than that allowed for in the Business Continuity Management Strategy - such as a national emergency.
The communications element of this discipline focuses on the strategies, key messages and communications with the varied audiences that are stakeholders for the organization. This includes the interaction both internally and externally to address the issues that arise as a result of a problem, error, behaviors, events or situations that have a potential adverse impact on the organization and its mission and viability.
It also includes the programmatic capabilities required before, during and after and event and the measures necessary to proactively address the results, ramifications and residual effects.
The discipline of Crisis Management and Communications addresses the following elements:
1. Assessing the organization’s structure / culture: Workforce demographics, management
style, length of employment of key leadership, reporting relationships of management,
public or privately held, and executive succession planning.
2. Characteristics of a Crisis: Phases of a crisis and root cause analysis
3. Elements of a Crisis Management Program: Crisis mitigation, roles and responsibilities,
and workplace safety
4. Designing the Crisis Management Team: Selecting, training, and exercising the team
and responsive leadership in a crisis
5. Elements of Crisis Communication: Communication assessment, communicating before,
during, and after a crisis, Media management, Internal and external communications,
and managing your stakeholders during a crisis
6. Crisis Scenarios: Managing damage to brand and reputation as well as legal and liability
issues in the workplace that can cause a crisis such as:
i. Workplace violence
ii. Sexual harassment
iii. Ethics violations
iv. Fraudulent business practices
v. Inappropriate personal and professional behavior
vi. Outsider generated crime
vii. Insider trading
7. Exercising the Crisis Management Plan: Essential elements of exercising and training
the Crisis Management Team before the crisis occurs. |
Gerald Lewis, Ph.D. 