Making Decisions In Crisis
In the “What’s your Intuition?” article, fire fighter “Lieutenant M” faced a situation in which he had to make a snap decision: either checking the injured man according to emergency-medical procedures or moving him before checking. In an instant he decided to go with the latter and it turned out that was a right decision. Interestingly, this situation has lots of similarities with the scenario of organizational crises. In this paper, I would like to highlight the challenges and decisions that the management has to make when their organization experiences a crisis. I also enclose two examples of companies that were successful in dealing with their own crisis thanks to good decision making. .
By definition, an organizational crisis is "a low-probability, high-impact event that threatens the viability of the organization and is characterized by ambiguity of cause, effect, and means of resolution, as well as by a belief that decisions must be made swiftly." (Pearson and Clair, 1998: 60)
There are numerous reasons that could lead to organizational crises. It can be terrorist attacks, unexpected breakdown of communication systems, natural disasters, or litigations due to product defects to name just a few. Similar to the situation in which the firefighter working to contain a fire, when a crisis happens to an organization, the biggest challenge for the management is to make snap but right decisions. If not, the product brand and company image will be irreversibly harmed. At the same time, decisions have to be made within the constraints of time pressure, uncertainty of crisis cause, lack of relevant information, and intensive stress.
Given the challenges, the management needs to make the following decisions when a crisis emerges:
- Act quickly: In the event of urgency, quick response to the problem is extremely important. Although by the time crisis happens, some losses and damages have incurred and most of the...
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