Theory of crisis pdf

However, Hearit contended that a public relations-driven strategy, in which the organization apologizes and seeks to be candid, is more effective. In these studies, apologizing was about as effective as other victim-centered strategies, such as expressions of sympathy and compensation. Communications scholar William Benoit originated image restoration theory in his book Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies: A Theory of Image Restoration Strategies , which focuses on the messages a company should communicate during a crisis.

He offers five categories of image repair strategies: denial, evasion of responsibility, reducing perceived offensiveness of the action such as with compensation , corrective action, and mortification confessing and begging forgiveness. Structural functionalism comes from sociology, and looks at society as a structure made up of institutions that function together to keep the whole running, like organs that work together to keep the body functioning.

In crisis management, this theory explains how organizational communication relies on a structure made up of networks for information to flow and a hierarchy of people who manage the process. Chaos theory comes from mathematics, and holds that some systems are so complex that small differences in starting conditions can make them act very differently and unpredictably. This characteristic inspired the concept of the butterfly effect , in which a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can theoretically cause a tornado in Texas.

This potential for small changes to have unpredicted effects can make these systems appear completely random, even when they may not be.

Researchers have applied both chaos theory and the butterfly effect in crisis management. For example, they studied officials who made precise and rosy predictions about disasters without taking unpredictable weather variables into account.

This occurred in Canadian floods in , wherein inaccurate communication meant that many communities were not prepared for the scale of a disaster that occurred. In the corporate world, chaos theory can show the limitations of controlling volatile public perception of a crisis. In , Alpaslan, Mitroff, and Sandy Green published a theory that focused on the role of stakeholders in crisis management.

They argued for including stakeholders in crisis preparations and responses — not because of their power or influence on financial value, but due to factors such as potential for injury.

Crises can reorder the importance of a stakeholder group, and managers who understand stakeholder theory consider and incorporate the needs and values of a range of stakeholders, Alpaslan, Mitroff, and Green said.

Resilience theory , which has its roots in child psychology, holds that having one or more protective factors can help individuals survive adversity with less harm. In business, resilience theory helped give rise to business continuity planning, which seeks to make companies more resistant to failure. A business continuity plan is similar to a crisis management plan in that it anticipates emergencies and disruptions that could occur and defines actions to regain normalcy in the company.

According to researcher Patrice Buzzanell, resilience theory outlines five elements that businesses can cultivate to strengthen their ability to bounce back: crafting normality, affirming identity anchors, making use of communication networks, putting alternative logic to work, and emphasizing positive feelings while downplaying negative ones.

Integrated risk management is another resilience-boosting business practice. In integrated risk management, company culture is attuned to risk, and organizations seek to evaluate the risks in all their activities jointly, rather than in isolation.

Technology-enabled practices support this integration, and the result is better risk-reduction decisions for the whole enterprise. Contingency theory asserts there is no single best method to organize or lead a company, and that decisions should be made contingent on circumstances. Researchers say this applies equally in crisis management, because crises are fluid, complex, and uncertain.

Crisis managers must adapt their response to make it contingent upon the situation. Crisis leaders and communicators should take into account a range of external factors, such as threats, the marketplace environment, social and political support, the characteristics of public stakeholders, and the complexity of the issue. The diffusion of innovation theory describes how new ideas spread and become accepted. According to Evertt Rogers, who pioneered the theory in his book Diffusions of Innovations , a small minority of people initially adopt innovations.

When about 20 percent of the population adopts a new behavior, 70 percent of the remaining people will adopt it, too. This idea has influenced crisis management by shaping efforts to change behavior and attitudes in emergencies. Specifically, the diffusion of innovation theory can identify behaviors that might be most easily changed, the people who might adopt new practices and influence others , and the most effective ways to spread new ideas. An example application of this theory is the effort by public health agencies to get people to wear masks during a pandemic.

In crisis management, inequalities of human capital — such as disadvantages in education and healthcare and unfair income distribution among classes and races — can lead to or exacerbate crises. For example, when reflected in lower wages or job status, these inequalities make companies vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits, damaged morale, and reputation harm.

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Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. Try Smartsheet for free, today. Get a Free Smartsheet Demo. In This Article. What Is a Crisis Management Model? Proactive vs. Reactive Crisis Management Model The different approaches along a crisis management maturity model, from most to least advanced, are as follows: Pre-emptive Crisis Management: This approach seeks to prevent or resolve a crisis at its earliest sign.

Proactive Crisis Management: In this approach, organizations take initiative early in the crisis and seek to shape how events unfold. Responsive Crisis Management: This occurs when there is little warning of a crisis. However, thoughtful and quick analysis can lead to effective action that accounts for long and short-term results.

Reactive Crisis Management: This is often a panic-driven or knee-jerk reaction. Emotions like fear play a leading role, and objective thinking is largely absent from the crisis response.

The company faces crises defensively and, following the crisis, the business may experience problems, high turnover of senior leaders, or even business failure. A similar model by Can Alpaslan and colleagues focuses on stakeholder involvement and views the crisis management maturity continuum as follows: Proactive Crisis Management: All stakeholders that could potentially be harmed should participate in crisis preparation. In the response phase, the organization anticipates knock-on effects and voluntarily discloses the most negative information before the media discovers it.

Accommodative Crisis Management: The organization accepts that a crisis is possible and involves a broad set of stakeholders in preparation. In a crisis, the company accepts responsibility, voluntarily meets the needs of the victims, and tells the truth. Defensive Crisis Management: The business prepares only for crises with high expected costs and involves stakeholders only if required by law. During a crisis, the organization resists admitting full responsibility, but does admit some. The company only does what is mandated by law.

Reactive Crisis Management: The organization denies the possibility of a crisis and any negative consequences. In a crisis, the company denies all responsibility, closes off communications, and hides the truth.

Its stance is uncooperative. See how Smartsheet can help you be more effective. Scenario-Based vs Capacity-Based Model Until the midth century, organizations primarily faced crises that they had seen before though of course they were still challenging.

Burnett Model of Crisis Management In , John Burnett proposed a crisis management model with three broad stages — identification, confrontation, and reconfiguration — which each consist of two steps.

Relational Model of Crisis Management In , Tony Jacques took issue with the idea that crisis management is a linear process of sequential phases in which you manage issues one at a time. Incident Command System Model The incident command system model is unique in that it originated in the real world and was then formalized as a model other models began as conceptual frameworks. Crisis Management Model Example Incident command systems managed the complex web of activities that took place during the Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico in , which resulted in 11 deaths and massive contamination.

Most Influential Crisis Management Theories Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, a crisis management theory is distinct from a crisis management model, as models seek to represent the structure or application of crisis management, while theories are more abstract concepts. Attribution Theory and Situational Crisis Communication Theory Attribution theory holds that companies suffer reputation and business harm when the public blames them for a crisis.

Coombs compiled the following 10 crisis communications best practices based on attribution theory, including apologizing in certain circumstances: Provide all victims or potential victims with instructions, such as recall information.

Express sympathy to all victims, along with information about corrective actions and trauma counseling. For crises in which the organization faces minimal blame and there are no so-called intensifying factors history of crisis and negative past reputation , the above two steps will suffice. The same response applies to a crisis in which blame is low and there is no crisis history or poor past reputation.

If there is low attribution of responsibility and an intensifying factor, add compensation or an apology to the first two steps. If the public strongly attributes responsibility to the organization, offer the first two steps as well as compensation or an apology.

Use compensation any time a victim experiences serious harm. Supplement any response with the remind and ingratiate strategies. Save denial and attacking the accuser for crises that involve rumors and challenges in which a stakeholder contends the organization is acting wrongly. Theory of Apology Researchers recognize the powerful role that apologies play in crisis management.

Structural Functional Theory in Crisis Management Structural functionalism comes from sociology, and looks at society as a structure made up of institutions that function together to keep the whole running, like organs that work together to keep the body functioning. Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect in Crisis Management Chaos theory comes from mathematics, and holds that some systems are so complex that small differences in starting conditions can make them act very differently and unpredictably.

Stakeholder Theory of Crisis Management In , Alpaslan, Mitroff, and Sandy Green published a theory that focused on the role of stakeholders in crisis management. Resilience Theory and Business Continuity Planning Resilience theory , which has its roots in child psychology, holds that having one or more protective factors can help individuals survive adversity with less harm. Regret tends to be a major exacerbation of this crisis and are most evident among those with lower rates of resiliency as they have been raised to believe one way, and life events force them to face options or choices different than that which they know or are capable of accepting at that time.

Because of the major paradigm shift seen with these crises, freezing and avoidance are often the response. Individual will deny the change and attempt to carry on as if they had achieved equilibrium and the event never occurred Walsh, Each type of the aforementioned will have interventions that are pivotal, and use the strengths and resiliency of the individual to achieve stasis after a traumatic event.

Interventions To allow the individual to move through the trauma, and regain appropriate social function after the event, interventions are typically indicated.

It is important to quickly note that coping and adaptive skills are paramount to the process where crisis is concerned. According to Walsh , there are two primary types of coping: biological and psychological pp. This can look like emotional or gastrointestinal distress and sometimes even heart and blood pressure issues.

Psychological coping, on the other hand, addresses the problem-solving approaches necessary to manage difficult situations and can be both positive and negative. A positive strategy may look like using natural and social supports to reinvest with feelings of attachment and safety to allow an individual to move forward into the growth stage. A negative strategy may be avoidance or even substance abuse in order to anaesthetize themselves against pervasive thoughts of the event.

In order to determine the most appropriate strengths-based intervention, a thorough and timely assessment must take place. This allows the clinicians to best determine the strategy they will employ. As mentioned earlier, crisis theory is not unique to itself, it is comprised of other theories that may best suit the needs of the individual situation. Interventions within the framework of ego psychology focus on motivating the client to resolve their own crises by guiding them to self-reflection that allows them to be solution focused.

Everly asserts that peers can also be effective for positive sustainment because of the empathy demonstrated within these groups, such as emergency responders, law enforcement, and military groups pp.

Sometimes individuals can get in their own way to the point that the behaviors exhibited are the cause of the crisis. These individuals typically struggle with both positive and negative reinforcement and how to identify them and in times of crisis benefit from the use of behavior theory. Reinforcement of appropriate behaviors is critical to this theory. According to Walsh , life skills, relaxation, coping skills, assertion, or desensitization training are necessary interventions for a clinician using behavior theory with a client in crisis because they are all highly structured, allowing the client to feel more in control.

In times of crisis an individual can feel lost, or as we saw earlier, existentially stuck in a moment such as a breakup or paradigm shift. These situations often happen violently or abruptly and elicit emotional reactions that the individual may not be able to fully control or understand in the moment.

These reactions become assumptions, that often times lead to cognitive distortions that are emotional and not logic based. Though these interventions are evidence-based, clinicians using crisis theory must be adept at testing for effectiveness.

Theory Effectiveness Theories evolve and change over time as new research is done to better aid the clinician in best practices, and this theory is no different. Though largely unchanged, different thoughts on how to best implement crisis intervention has, as with any other theory, been subject to trends in the mental health field. The debate between group and individual interventions has been a long standing debate whose cycles are dependent on the most relevant data at the time Roberts, Because of the multi-theoretical approach instead of one practice model for crisis, Walsh states that there is little direct research regarding crisis intervention and its effectiveness.

This is not to say that it is ineffective, simply that the longitudinal data is difficult to come by despite the apparent success of crisis intervention through programs such as Critical Incident Stress Management CISM , which are widely used as in intermediary between the crisis and individual intervention.

According to Walsh , success related to suicide prevention was found in 14 studies with an ending result of established best practices for protocols in suicide prevention centers. In another 10 studies about psychiatric hospital outcomes, it was found that there was a decrease in hospitalizations over time, and increase in positively associated mental health through various psychological emergency services.

Despite the success there are critics of crisis theory, primarily about the fact that it pulls from many other theories. Most crises center around the individual, according to the tenets of this theory which can negatively impact the effectiveness of this theory. The client populations most likely to respond best to work using this theory and precautions against using this theory with certain client populations. No longer than two pages.

Using crisis intervention seems to be most adequate for military populations, though there is evidence that sexual assault victims and those who are suicidal also benefit from this theory. Mostly clients who experience stressors beyond their capacity for coping. These are individuals who struggle with cognitive distortions due to critical levels of stress resulting from traumatic events.

Because of the multi-theoretical approach, there are minimal precautions against this theory. When any approach can be used to manage an individual in crisis, any population can effectively benefit from crisis theory.

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