Crisis Management: Why Businesses Should Have an Active Crisis Plan

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Crisis Management

Crisis communication is one of the most important and neglected components of organizational communication in today's business world. It is vital that every corporation have contingency plans for emergency situations, both natural and man-made. Studies show that eighty percent of organizations confronted with a major disaster runs out of business within two years.(Hickman & Crandall 1997) Nevertheless, we also know that almost forty percent of all Fortune 1000 companies have an operational crisis management plan in place. (Hickman & Crandall 1997) This paper will examine and evaluate three journals that discuss different aspects and needs for an active crisis plan.

The first journal evaluated comes from an article in Business Horizons named "A Multi-faceted Approach to Crisis Management" that discusses the need for developing many parallel plans before disaster strikes. First and foremost, the article says that a crisis management team must be created for the mere anticipation of possible crisis events in order that recovery and rebuild of the organization may be conducted in an efficient manner. The team should be named and move into action. The first order of business for the new team should be developing worst case scenarios. In order for this next step to happen, the team must establish what business functions are mission critical and necessary for the survival of the organization. They must also understand and plan for the proper technology needed to back up these functions to be in place. After all of this is completed, the team needs to develop and distribute to all those involved a crisis management plan. It falls on management to ensure all parties stay current and trained on t...

... middle of paper ...

...ial for failure at the catastrophic level.

References

Cheney, G., Christensen, L., Zorn, T., & Ganesh, S. (2004). Organizational Communication in

an Age of Globalization: Issues, Reflections, Practices. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, .

Inc.

Goldstein, G. "A Strategic Response to Media Metamorphoses." Public Relations Quarterly,

Summer2004, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p19, 4p

Epstein, M."Communicating with Stakeholders in a Crisis" Financial Executive, Oct2003, Vol.

19 Issue 7, p23, 3p

Hickman, J., Crandall, W. "Before disaster hits: A multifaceted approach" Business Horizons,

Mar/Apr97, Vol. 40 Issue 2, p75, 5p

Ulmer, R,. Sellnow, T. (1997) "Startegic Ambiguity and the Ethic of Significant Choice in the

Tobacco Industry's Crisis Communication," Communication Studies 48 (1997)

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