Prof.Dr.Aung Tun Thet

CRISISCRISIS MANAGEMENTMANAGEMENT

• “Whatever you do will be insignificant,

• but it is very important that you do it.”

Overview

1. Personal Crisis

2. Organizational Crisis

3. National Crisis: Emergency Management

Food and Fuel CrisisFood and Fuel Crisis Global Warming CrisisGlobal Warming Crisis

Asian Financial CrisisAsian Financial Crisis

Population CrisisPopulation Crisis

Human Security CrisisHuman Security Crisis

AIDS CrisisAIDS Crisis

Drug CrisisDrug Crisis

Crisis (Crises)

Mid-Life CrisisMid-Life Crisis

Succession CrisisSuccession Crisis

Crisis (Crises)

Individual

Family

Community

Organizational

Global

National

Personal Crisis

A crisis (plural: crises)

• ‘A testing time' or

• ‘Emergency event'

Crises

• Unpredictable, but

• Not unexpected

• Major, unpredictable event that threatens society

Crisis

DANGER

If you avoid it

OPPORTUNITY

If you face it

Crisis

• Affect all segments of society

• Caused by a wide range of reasons

• Three common elements

a) a threat to society,

b) the element of surprise, and

c) a short decision time

Humans• Experience crisis

• Caused by societal tragedies, for e.g. Nargis cyclone - large magnitude act of nature beyond our control

• Personal experiences - illness, death, or another difficult experience

Focus

IMPORTANT

YES NO

URGENT

YES

NO

Reduce

Ignore

CrisisManagement

Concentrate

Reactions

• Different to the same crisis

• Emotional experiences unique

• Changing nature of crisis response

• Fear - insecurity • Stress - Good stress and bad stress• Guilt, Shock, and Disbelief• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder • Anger

Phases • Shock - disbelief

• Denial - "This can't be happening to me." “This cannot be correct. Let's get another opinion."

• Overwhelming thoughts or emotions - day dreams, fantasies, depression, shame, or anxiety

• Acceptance

• Conclusion

Tips

• Communication most important -listening, comforting and supportive dialogue

• You are not alone• Share Feelings • Take steps - positive action to relieve

panic or pain• Pray Use your faith to get through

Proactive Model

STIMULUS RESPONSEFREEDOM

TOCHHOSE

Self-Awareness

ImaginationConscience

IndependentWill

Organizational Crisis

U.K.

• During the next five years,

• 83% of companies will face a crisis

• that negatively impacts the profitability of a company 20 to 30%

Crisis management

• A new field of management

• Forecasting potential crises and planning to deal with them, e.g., how to recover if your computer system completely fails

• Completing a crisis management plan before they experience a crisis

Crisis management

• Identifying the real nature of a current crisis,

• intervening to minimize damage and• recovering from the crisis

• Strong focus on public relations to recover damage to public image and assure stakeholders

Crisis management• A discipline within the broader context of management

• Skills and techniques • to assess, • understand, and • cope with any serious situation, • from the moment it first occurs to the recovery point

• Methods used to respond to both the reality and perception of crises

Crisis management

• Systematic attempt to avoid crises or to manage those crises events that occur

• Incident Management

Organizational crises

• Extortion• Bribery• Hostile Takeover• Terrorist Attack• Copyright infringement• Vehicular fatality• Information sabotage• Workplace bombing• Natural disasters • Computer tampering• Sexual harassment

• Executive kidnapping• Product/service boycott• Work-related homicide• Malicious rumour• Hazardous material leak• Plant explosion• Personnel assault• Assault of customers• Product recall• Counterfeiting

4 types of organizational crises

I. Sudden - fires, explosions, natural disasters, workplace violence, etc;

II. Smouldering - problems or issues start small and could be fixed or averted if someone pay attention or recognize the potential for trouble

III. Bizarre - a one-of-a-kind crisis

IV. Perceptual - long-running problem

Organizational Crisis Management

• The process by which the organization manages a wider impact,

• such as media relations, and

• enables recovery

Crisis Management Framework

• Based on existing management structures and responsibilities

• Reflect (or improve upon) existing lines of communication, both within the company, and with other organizations affected

Lessons Learned• Bhopal

• Poor communication before, during, and after the crisis cost thousands of lives

• Importance of cross-cultural communication

• Union Carbide’s management placed under house arrest

• Symbolic intervention counter productive

• Difficulty in consistently applying management standards to multi-national operations and the blame shifting

Ford and Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (2000)

• 100 deaths• Recalled 6.5 million tires• Committed three major blunders1. Blamed consumers for not inflating their tires

properly2. Blamed each other for faulty tires and faulty

vehicle design3. Said very little about what they were doing to

solve a problem that had caused more than 100 deaths

Exxon (1989)

• Tanker ran aground in Alaska• Spilled millions of gallons of crude oil• Killed thousands of fish, fowl, and sea otters• Hundreds of miles of coastline polluted and

salmon spawning runs disrupted• Numerous fishermen, lost their livelihoods

Exxon (1989)

• Did not react quickly in dealing with the media and the public

• CEO not an active part of the public relations effort and actually shunned public involvement

• No communication plan or a communication team in place

• Media center too small and too remote to handle the media attention

• Acted defensively, even laying blaming others

Organizations

• Take crisis as a given

• Learn to thrive on it

• To deal proactively with it

Empowering PeopleInvolve Everyone in Everything

Use Self Managing Teams

Listen/Celebrate/Recognize

Spend more time on recruiting

Train and Retrain

Provide incentives

Guarantee employment

Simplify/Reduce Structure

Recognize Middle Manager’s role

Eliminate bureaucratic rules

Organization Chart

BOD

CUSTOMERS

SALES PEOPLE

MANAGERS

Leadership at all levelsMaster Paradox

Develop an inspiring vision

Manage by example

Practice visible management

Pay attention (more listening)

Defer to front line

Delegate

Horizontal Management

Evaluate everyone on love of change

Create a sense of urgency

National Crisis

Emergency Management

• “To acquire knowledge, one must study;

• but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Natural disaster

• Consequence of a natural hazard

• Human vulnerability - leads to financial, structural, and human losses

• Depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, their resilience

Disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability

• A natural hazard will never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability

• Strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas

Emergency Management

• The discipline and profession of applying science, technology, planning, and management to deal with extreme events

• Effort to respond to emergencies and disasters

Emergency Management

• Prompt but short lived "first aid" and

• Longer term recovery and restoration phases (e.g. moving operations to another site)

• Increased understanding generate a more resilient society

Comprehensive Emergency Management (CEM)

• A holistic approach to disasters that takes into account all types, hazards, phases and actors related to emergency management

• Involves four interlinking phases

Four phases of CEM: unique relationships

Response Mitigation

PreparednessRecovery

activities to prevent a disaster

or minimize adverse impact

planning, training,

exercises and community education

provision of disaster assistance, debris removal, rebuilding

and relocation

search and rescue, evacuation, emergency medical services, and firefighting

Multiple Actors

Private Sector

Government

InternationalOrganizations

NGOs

volunteers

victims

Actors

Significant responses resulting from

Emergencies and Disasters

1. Uncertainty

2. Urgency

3. Consensus

4. Expansion of Citizenship Role

Two theoretical approaches for disaster response

1. Traditional and

2. Professional models

Traditional model

• Historically employed in disasters

• The civil defense, command and control, bureaucratic or emergency services perspective

Strengths

• Recognized central authority a vital participant

• Standard operating procedures useful

Weaknesses

• Overlooked contributions of others

• Standard operating procedures do not work in every disaster

• Dealing with unpredictable or dynamic environments

• Rigid, cumbersome and even ineffective or inefficient

Professional model

• Advocated by many scholars

• Networking, Problem Solving or Emergent Norms or Public Administration viewpoint

Professional model

• Suggests:

• People resilient

• Individuals, groups and agencies inevitably involved in disasters

• Necessitate flexibility and departures from routine methods

The professional approach

• More inclusive and flexible

• Alternative to the traditional response model

Strengths

• Recognizes involvement of many actors

• Underscores the need to integrate activities

• Allows for flexibility in response

• Advocates resolving the situation even if it means departing from the emergency operations plan

Weaknesses• Reduces the importance of the central

authority

• Fails to recognize the need for hierarchical leadership

• Overlooks importance strategies developed in the past and tested over time

• Involvement of many actors create challenges (e.g. coordination of volunteers)

Compare and contrast

• Similarities and differences • Comparison involves examination of:• respective goals• levels of analysis• assumptions• and recommendations

Compare and contrast

• Each recognize the adverse effects of emergencies and disasters

• Attempt to resolve them in the quickest and most effective way possible

Significant differences

Traditional Model Professional Model

Level of analysis

Most applicable to emergencies and responses by practitioners in the field

More concerned about disasters and activities regarding the entire response system

Significant differences

Traditional Model Professional Model

Assumptions Chaos in society

Society possibly break down

Continuity of society

People and organizations deal with adverse situations in a logical and expected manner

Significant differences

Traditional Model Professional Model

Recommendations

Command and Control

Leadership needed to make correct decisions

Coordination and Cooperation

Individuals and agencies resolve problems by communicating and assisting one another

• “You must not lose faith in humanity.

• Humanity is an ocean; • if a few drops of the ocean

are dirty, • the ocean does not become

dirty.” • Gandhi