By Emerald Cruz
“Crisis Management is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. The three elements common to a crisis include: (a) a threat to the organization, (b) the element of surprise, and (c) a short decision time” (www.wikipedia.com). This topic is a crucial situation that may not be thoroughly cascaded to organizations. Given the current predictions of a major earthquake and other man-made and natural tragedies that will occur in the near future, I believe that every organization should have a crisis management plan and team.
An unpredictable and challenging situation
As for our company, we regularly have fire and earthquake drills that unfortunately are not taken seriously by most employees. We have a team called Emergency Response Team who assists during such exercise. Aside from that, the employees are not trained handling other crisis situations such as bomb threats or other forms of attacks.
One reason perhaps is the lax thinking that there’s only a minute probability that a crisis will happen in our company. This reason may also be the same for other companies. However, just like a thief, a crisis is an unpredictable and challenging situation that an organization needs to be prepared of. An organization needs to be prepared on the SOPs, processes and skills needed in managing a crisis.
Need to be calm
In the same manner, CEOs and leaders of an organization need to be equipped in handling crisis situations. They need to have a concrete plan in place to prevent further damage and to ensure the welfare of the employees. A well-handled crisis situation will also maintain the brand and image of the company.
One important insight that I learned in class is that in handling crisis situations, the leader of the organization needs to be calm in order to approach the issue in an objective manner. The vision-mission and company corporate values come in next, especially in deciding which next steps to take. It’s also very crucial to properly communicate the situation and updates to the employees and media (if necessary).
Form a crisis management team
Organizations need to be equipped by forming a crisis management team who will regularly be trained in various emergency situations. This lecture gave me an idea to suggest to the Emergency Response Team to have practical drills on other crisis situations such as bomb threats, etc. If given an opportunity, I would be interested to be part of this team as I think I will be able to manage the pressure and learn the skills in handling such situations.
The author just graduated from the MBA program of the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business, De La Salle University. This reflection is part of her blog for the course Trends and Issues in Business and Management: CEO Series. Visit her blog at https://corporatechicemy.wordpress.com/.
The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of De La Salle University, its faculty, and its administrators.