BUSN 11100: Crisis Response and Organizational Capability

This report delves into the development of organizational capabilities for crisis response, exploring how to enhance resilience through strategic planning and proactive measures. The report emphasizes the importance of scenario development, team formation, exercise design, and effective implementation within a crisis management framework. It uses Uber as a case study to illustrate these concepts, analyzing the company's responses to server issues and outlining pre-crisis planning, crisis management teams, weakness assessments, and crisis communication strategies. The report also discusses the significance of brand monitoring, crisis resolution, and the creation of contingency plans to mitigate the impact of potential crises. The analysis highlights the need for robust crisis communication plans, alternative solutions, and ongoing evaluation to improve organizational preparedness. The conclusion underscores the critical nature of risk management and the development of resilience within organizations to ensure business continuity and protect stakeholder interests.

Risk Crisis and
Resilience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
How can we develop an organisational capability for crisis response, explain with reference to
the development of scenarios, teams, exercise design and implementation?..............................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business entity can only perform its activity if they are able to manage every single work in
a systematic manner. While condition the business, there are different situation may occur which
is related with Risk, Crisis and in circumstances company must be able to find the way that how
resilience process can be started. Talking about Risk, it can be defined as the process where
management of the company finds about the percentage of risk involved within the business
decision. It is necessary for the company to determine about the risk factor because simple form
of mistake can create huge problem for the organisation. On the other side, Crisis is defined as
the process in which serious form of event occurs upon the company which create huge
disturbance in accomplishing the goals. When it comes to Resilience, it is that particular process
where company find out the way to deal with the problem or issues which is being faced by the
organisation. In context of the file, there will be the discussion about one of the crisis problem
being faced by the company and way to deal with the issue in current scenario.
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to “Jonas Sickler, 2018”, Crisis is one of those problem within the organisation
that can create huge problem and issues can also be seen at the time of accomplishing the goals.
It is said that in every 2 years most of the company faces the problem related to crisis. But, it is
necessary for the entity to find out the way to overcome the problem and if in any of the situation
they fail to do so then in that respective condition, sustaining within the market becomes one of
the major problem. There are number of problem which can be seen at the time of crisis as
business operation cannot be performed smoothly, the reputation of the company is placed at risk
and even it negatively impacts finances of an organisation (What is crisis management, 2018).
Here, it is necessary for the firm to do effective planning for dealing with the situation which
starts even before the date of occurrence of crisis. But, if in case planning is not well executed
then in that respective situation serious problem may occur in the field of operational, legal as
well as in maintaining the public relation for future dealing. In order to deal with the problem of
crisis it is necessary to identify about the weakness of the organisation and even the team who
can find out the main factor included in crisis. It will certainly help to overcomes the challenges
which are being faced by the company due to crisis.

According to “Bruce Condit, 2019”, it is explained that whenever any of the company
suffers from the crisis, the owner of the company must be able to think about the damages which
can be seen just because of crisis. It must be said that owner or management must overview the
disaster in context of employees, suppliers, general public, customers as well as shareholders of
the company. To tackle the situation, it is essential that advance form of planning must be done
so that company can overcome the problem in short period of time (7 critical steps to crisis
management, 2019). There are certain circumstances where company start to do planning for
crisis management but in that particular situation they are delay due to which problem are to be
faced. So, it is necessary to understand that problem of crisis can be only solved if there is the
formation of proper plans and policies.
MAIN BODY
How can we develop an organisational capability for crisis response, explain with reference to
the development of scenarios, teams, exercise design and implementation?
Development of Case Scenario: Uber is one of the multinational organisation which has
been dealing in the field of providing online cab services to its customers. It is one of those
company which is completing dealing through the online sources. If in any of the circumstances,
there is the default in online system software then huge problem may occur for the organisation.
It is essential for the company to deal with the problem which can be seen in the field of online
server as all of the person stakeholders are directly or indirectly connected with its application.
Some of the stakeholders who are connected with organisation are Driver, customers, Support
team and many more. Once of the crisis which company like Uber faced is related with the
server issues which do not allowed them to provide the services which they are willing to
provide to their customer for earning the profit (Curtis, 2014).
Organisation capabilities to Response the Crisis
Firstly, it is necessary to understand that day to day working ability get affected
whenever any of the company faces the situation of crisis. It is also among one of those situation
where percentage of profit or even performing the business activity get affect. It directly or
indirectly do not allow to accomplish the goals which company wants to attain within the
specific time period. In context of the Uber, they have been also facing the problem related to
crisis where their server has affected and it has been not allowing the company to accomplish its

goals. Even problem is being faced to overcomes from the situation just to provide services.
Some of the stakeholders who has to suffer in this respective situation are Employees or cab
driver, customers, investors of the company and many more. Here, company must find the way
of resilience so that business can be brought back to the track. Below, each and every steps have
been discussed in detail where it has been discussed how Uber can overcome the problem of
crisis.
 Pre-crisis (Crisis Prevention): It is the most vital stage at the time crisis, it is because it
directly or indirectly allows the company to find out the planning to overcome from the
problem related to crisis (Paas and Schoemaker, 2018). In context of Uber, it become
essential for the management team to identify about the problem and train the
stakeholder, assess vulnerabilities and finally they must be able to draft the plan. Here,
company must hire the crisis manager who can be beneficial for them to overcome from
the problem which many occur in future upon the organisation.
 Assemble a professional crisis management team: It is that particular stage where
proper formation of team should be done by the head of department. In context of Uber, it
will be important for the company to understand that if they are willing to attain the goals
of a company and reduce the chances of crisis, proper formation of team should be done.
In this, team must be led by the CEO of the company who is able to assess the things in
desire manner (What is crisis management, 2018). Different departmental heads from
different regions should be included so that certain topics can be discussed.
 Assess your weaknesses: Whenever any of the company tries to draft the response, they
must be able to determine about the weaker side which they have within the organization.
In the same manner, it is crucial for the Uber, that their management must identify about
the weaker area because it will help them to reflect about the weakness which they have.
It is crucial to identify the weakness because it will allow the company to identify
whether weaknesses can be one of the point which will create problem at the time of
crises. Departmental heads can play the crucial role in identifying it.
 Draft a crisis management plan: At the time of preparing the Management plan, it is
essential to understand that crisis management must be the core component because it
will allow to reduce the percentage of risk (Williams and et. al., 2017). While talking

about Uber, they must be able to develop the business plan according to audit which they
have conducted for weakness of a company. Company must be able to set the clear goals
in it so that problem can be handled. Some of the important area which must be addressed
are related with Internal and external stakeholders, Primary spokespeople for each
communication channel, Communication infrastructure and redundancies, Decision-
making chain of command, Access to emergency funds, Holding statements and
Contingency plans
 Create a crisis communications plan: Here, it becomes the responsibility of Uber, that
appropriate candidate should be selected by them who can deal with the situation in best
possible manner (Van Der Vegt and et. al., 2015). If CEO of the company can able to
lead from the front and tries to tackle this respective process, then chances of recover can
be effective and damages can also be reduced. Even, communication should be done
according to the plans and strategies which has been prepared.
 Start brand monitoring: Whenever any of the crisis occurs within the company, the first
problem which is to be faced by company is related with brand value. In order to tackle
with this particular problem, it will be essential for the management of Uber to build the
team for brand monitoring. Here, response will be given to ever single problem which is
being questioned by customers. It can be done easily with the help of social media where
it includes personal website and google.
 During the crisis: In this respective stage, company like Uber will have to divide the
team into two parts where one will have to find out the way to overcome from the
problem and the other one has to discuss about the possible actions which can be taken.
 Crisis resolution: It will be important to prepare the alternate plan which can allow to
tackle the situation. As Uber has faced the problem related to server issues which is not
allowing to connect driver and customers with each other through online sources. In this
particular stage, company must go to plan B where they will provide the help to the
customers to connect with the ride through offline mode (Moloney, 2014). Different
helpline numbers can be started through which customers can demand for the cab. For
identifying the nearest cab to the address, company can take the help of GPS tracker
which can be placed to every single cab which is connected with Uber. It can be

expensive as well as lengthy process but it can be even beneficial too for resolving the
problem of crisis.
 Crisis communication: Although, company has developed the plan B to tackle the
situation but information must be provided to customers so that they will not have to face
any of the problem. It is also necessary to prepare the summary report and detail
information report where customers can read it as per their willingness (Fiksel, 2015).
Even proper training must be provided to the support team where they can tackle the
customers who have been facing the problem and providing them the best alternates to
overcome from the problem.
Above discussed steps are essential for the Company like Uber to overcomes the future crises
because they are among one of the organization which is completely dependent upon online
services. But, it is necessary for them to build alternative plans so that any of the problem will
not create any of the problem for them in accomplishing the goals.

CONCLUSION
After having the detail analysis on the topic, it can be explained that risk and crisis are one
of the major problem which is being faced by number of organization while performing the
business activity. It is essential to find the way of resilience to deal with the situation so that
company can get the opportunity to recover from the problem which has been faced by them. In
order to bring the recovery mode, it is essential that proper planning should be done with the help
of involvement of different department.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Curtis, D. R., 2014. Coping with crisis: the resilience and vulnerability of pre-industrial
settlements. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
Williams, T. A. and et. al., 2017. Organizational response to adversity: Fusing crisis management
and resilience research streams. Academy of Management Annals, 11(2), pp.733-769.
Van Der Vegt, G. S. and et. al., 2015. Managing risk and resilience.
Moloney, N., 2014. European Banking Union: assessing its risks and resilience. Common
Market L. Rev. 51. p.1609.
Fiksel, J., 2015. From risk to resilience. In Resilient by design (pp. 19-34). Island Press,
Washington, DC.
Paas, S. and Schoemaker, M., 2018. Crisis and resilience among church planters in Europe.
Mission Studies. 35(3). pp.366-388.
Online
What is crisis management. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
https://www.reputationmanagement.com/blog/crisis-management/
7 critical steps to crisis management. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
https://www.inc.com/bruce-condit/7-critical-steps-to-crisis-management.html