Crisis Management in the Organization

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Table of Contents

Crisis management
Theory – crisis management & planning
Goals of crisis management
Conclusion
Works Cited

Crisis management

Crisis definition

This is the process by which a company handles an unexpected situation or event that threatens its existence. Crisis management consists of ways of response to the crisis in both reality and perception.

Crisis is an unexpected catastrophe happening in or to a company and it threatens the operations of the company. Such situations are fires, floods, cutthroat competitions, inflation or deflation, misconduct of company or its management and even external confrontation. Wormald an Australian company is mostly involved with fires and equipment involved (Gottschalk, p.256).

What is a company crisis?

This is an unstable situation in a company and it affects its daily activities. These situations are unpredictable. Wormalds deals with fire fighting and prevention. It was established 120 years ago and is found in 80 countries. It has sophisticated equipment for this and also very highly trained staff (www.tycon.com)

‘Characteristics of a crisis’

Crisis has four major principles. The first being that crisis is unexpected and out of routine. It creates uncertainty and is seen as a threat to company’s’ achievements is the third. “The fourth is that a crisis creates a need for transformation: change of old system to a new one” (Williams, p. 400)

Theory – crisis management & planning

There is not a single company that will look forward to having a crisis since it causes disaster for it. Wormalds has its machinery always ready and its staff, to attend emergencies. The company has a program that trains emergency response, warden and fire extinguisher training, evacuation procedures, breathing apparatus and confined space training. They also have emergency numbers for emergencies services (Lee, p.106).

Guidelines and Preparation

A company should prepare contingency plans in prior. The team involved should rehearse the plan creating a drill a service that Wolmad offers to companies. Wormalds considers having portable equipment as the first line of defense and enables response (www.wormalds.com)

Goals of crisis management

Crisis management enables a company to prevent further destruction by responding quickly.It also aimed at preventing extensive media coverage that may damage the company’s reputation. It prevents too much government involvement which can even lead to a close down or receivership. “Management of crisis provides the best response to the situation” (Coombs, p.125)

Stakeholder Strategy

“Stakeholders are the parties that are impacted by a company’s actions or operations.” They have direct or indirect stake in a company. Wormalds stakeholders are;

Table 1 (Title) communication

Employees	Through memos and meetings
Shareholders	Sending them, letters emails or fax messages.
Government	By calling the relevant department
Suppliers and customers	By calling them, sending them letters and emails.
Community (public and local)	Communication to them through the media

Wormald’s ensures that they are all informed on the situations arising and they have the right information too (Marra, p. 475)

Crisis management strategies

The following are some of the crisis management strategies used by Wormalds.

Table 2 (Title)

Strategy	Description
Communication	A spokesman is chosen or the public relations department if it exists is given the responsibility.
Recognize the crisis	Identify the potential effect of the crisis on the company and take action.
Response team	Create a crisis management team, appoint its leader, the team should be able to meet information needs of every stakeholder.
Identify the audience involved Respond effectively to press	These are mostly the stake holders discussed above. Have all the information ready. This is to avoid misleading information and gives the media a chance to fill in.
Maintain a good reputation Plan for rebuilding	A good reputation should be protected because it takes time to build it if it gets destroyed. There should be a program to restore the company back to routine activities.

All strategies should be directed to handling the situation (Coombs, p. 279)

Crisis Management Team

In times of crisis, Wormald’s selects a team to take care of issues as they occur. The team comprises of a group of competent decision makers who can assess the situation and determine the extent of the crisis (Pious, 96).

Table 3 (Title)

Crisis Management team	Responsibility
Facility management	Manage the company during the crisis and prevent further damage.
Risk management	Handle the crisis its self.
Legal team	Handle the legal maters involved.
Financial team	Take care of financial issues involved including costs of managing the crisis.
Public relations department	Handle the media and other communication to the stakeholders
Technical team	Takes care of technical issues like machines and equipment.
Human resource team	Handles the employees any casualties or new employees needed for the situation.

Every member of the team should be committed to finding a solution and implementing it (Kauffman, p. 425).

Media Management Strategies

The media will always be involved in any kind of crisis despite the company laws, or magnitude of the situation. There should be strategy to handle that, Wormalds is secretive with its client information both in crisis and in normal operations. (www.wormalds.com)

Table 4 (Title) Media principles

Hope for no publicity.
If it happens meet their needs because if you don’t they will.

Use jargons to confuse audience hence no many comments to damage your reputation.

Address only issues not feelings.

Crisis Preparation

This is ensuring that a company is prepared for any unexpected event that may affect its operations. The following are the procedures are provided by Wormalds.

Table 5 (Title)

Crisis Preparation	Description
Maintenance and servicing	Make sure the equipment is ready to use and can be used incase of emergencies. This is to enable fast response
Specialist fire solutions	Use an expert company in major systems integration and specialized services.
Fire safety	Empower the staff with skills and confidence to make right decisions in crisis.
Fire monitoring	Install fire and smoke detectors, Wormalds has the Vesda system

Wormalds encourages contingency planning which is planning in advance through drills and preparing a crisis plan.

Crisis Communication

This is designed to protect and defend a company facing a crisis. It can be investigation by authorities, allegations, a lawsuit or the media.

Table 6 (Title)

Crisis Communication	Description
It is part of crisis management.	It involves maintaining information flows in an organization under crisis and enables effective and efficient handling of the media and also stakeholder’s interests.
Crisis communication plan	It enables effective management of communications, through a well defined system hence creating transparency on vital issues involving the crisis.
Crisis communication team	These are the personnel appointed to deal with communications during crisis. Wormalds appoints a team that will handle both external and internal communications. The team is appointed from the public relations department to enable competence and efficiency.

According to Wormalds, good crisis communication can transform the unexpected into the anticipated and save the company’s credibility and reputation.(Burnett, p. 75)

Crisis Evaluation

Crisis is part of its management and it involves imposing laws to ensure that there is a great concentration on the public’s welfare. Wormalds is always determined to protect the community.

Table 1 (Title)

Crisis evaluation	Description
It ensures the public is protected from the crisis.	It removes threats to the community and ensures it is safe.
Review and analysis of the crisis	Wormald analyzes the crisis process, to determine what caused the fire and what could have been done to prevent the fire.
Recommendations	After the analysis Wormald presents the recommendations to the executive for them to decide what action to take.

Crisis evaluation enables the management to implement recommendations presented so as to prevent a similar occurrence in future hence protecting the community around the company.

Conclusion

Wormald is a company that values its staff and is, committed to enhancing its capability through accrediting its staff, regular internal audits, equipment monitoring and servicing. The company strives to provide an integrated service to its client, and most of all peace if mind.

Works Cited

Burnett, Jeffrey. Strategic Approach to managing Crises. Wiley: New York. 1998. Print.

Coombs, White. Communications and Attributions in a Crisis. Springer: MA,1996. Print.

Coombs, White. “Information and comparison in crisis response.” Journal of Public Crisis forecasting, 3.75 (2005): 52-56. Print.

Gottschalk, Jack. Crisis Management. John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, 2002. Print.

Kauffman, John. “Crisis Communications Regarding Apollo.” A Public Relations Review, 25.4 (1998): 421-432. Print.

Lee, Jares. “Crisis management.” Journal of Public Relations Research. 11.3 (2001): 243-271. Print.

Marra, Faith. Crisis communication plans. Learn: MA,1998. Print.

Pious, R, M. The Cuban missile crisis and the limits of crisis management. Learn: MA, 2001.Print

Regester, Michael & Larkin, Judy. Risk issues and crisis management. Kogan Page Publishers: New York, 2002. Print.

Williams, Olaniran. Expanding Crisis Planning function. University of Cambridge: New York. 1998. Print.

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