Crisis Management

Running head: CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Crisis Management
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1CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Executive Summary
The importance of a proper crisis management program should not be undermined. The
efficiency of a proper crisis management plan determines the nature and success of the plan.
It was found that information defiency, lack of it, improper communication and
unpredictability can determine the efficiency of the plan. Communication that takes place
within the crisis situation, determines the ability to solve and mitigate the problem. The terror
attack in the Taj hotel, Mumbai was unanticipated and thus resulted in unsuccessful crisis
management. However communication was established in the later stages. Along with
establishment of communication, the media played a crucial role in spreading awareness
regarding the crisis which collaborated the efforts of the government and the people thus
contributing to the mitigation of the crisis.

2CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
Components of crisis management............................................................................................3
Challenges of managing crises...................................................................................................5
SIGNIFICANCE OF A CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN.......................................................7
Crisis Communication................................................................................................................8
Pre crisis.............................................................................................................................8
Crisis..................................................................................................................................9
Post Crisis...........................................................................................................................9
Liaison with Media..................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................12
Appendix..................................................................................................................................15

3CRISIS MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Crisis management can be termed as the process that involves strategic planning to
cope with outbreak of a crisis situation. A crisis can be defined as a situation that is
characterised by intense difficulty or danger. Crises have been defined by various authors on
various occasions. Crises have been compared to snakes by various authors on several
occasions (Seymour and Moore 2000) have compared crises with a cobra because just as a
cobra a crisis can strike at any time. The same has also been compared to a python as crises
are said to grow as time passes (Wang and Ritchie 2010). The main goal of a crisis
management program is to remove any sort of risk or uncertainty that can lead to loss of
property or human capital (Booth 2015). This paper will help in mitigating the gap that exists
between theoretical and practical implications of crisis management. There could be an array
of problems that could hinder the proper functioning of the tourism industry. Crisis in the
tourism industry can range from natural disasters such as hurricanes, to economic crisis such
as famines, political outbreaks such as terrorist attacks and crisis can be related to technical
failure such as shipwreck or plane crash (Paraskevas et al. 2013). Such situations have taken
place on various occasions in the past and thus the need for an effective crisis management
plan is evident. The crisis outbreaks can be short lived or can even last for months and the
unpredictable ones are the reasons for which one should invest in a crisis management plan
(Laws and Prideaux 2013). The following paper will critically evaluate the components of an
effective crisis management plan, the challenges that are faced while managing a crisis, the
significance and the stages of a crisis management plan along with the role of media during
the event of a crisis. The paper will critically evaluate the crisis that was faced during the
terror attacks on the Taj Hotel, India in 2008.