Evaluating Strategic Decisions During Organizational Crisis Management

This essay critically analyzes how strategic-level managers and boards of directors make critical decisions during organizational crises. It emphasizes the importance of communication, succession planning, and expert advice. The essay discusses principles for managing crises, including decisive leadership, continuous framing, active communication, and the ability to handle unexpected situations under pressure. It also compares classical and behavioral decision-making models, advocating for the behavioral model's suitability due to its pragmatic nature and consideration of human limitations. The essay concludes that the behavioral model is superior because it accounts for the complexities and constraints faced by managers during crisis situations.

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Critically analyses and discuss how strategic level managers or board of directors made
critical decisions in times of organizational crisis
An organization crisis brings to the test the decision-making skills of a firm's management and
workers. If the strategic manager is not quick and careful to make an informed decision it can
lead to long-term consequences. A manager is for instance required to communicate often to the
suppliers and clients in order to be quite honest and open (Bratton & Gold, 2017,p.111). This is
because they should not learn about the crisis from the media as it would result to their loss of
trust in the organization. A critical and a significant component of crisis management in a
specific firm is the through establishment of quick succession plan. This is done in case the
manager is abruptly unable to perform the responsibilities diligently. This entire plan involves
selling of the firm and transference of shares and ownership. The managers should seek critical
advice from experts on the field of emergency management
Strategic level managers do the following in order to control the vats information and existing
communication channel environment within the firm (Booth, 2015, p.78). The manager should
utilize the following Principles on how to deal with an organization crisis
 Leading in an ultimate decisive manner. He should gain the existing situational
awareness by collecting all the necessary information, evidence and investigate facts of
the prevailing incident. This is done to minimize the levels of dilemma and uncertainty.
 Continuously frame the crisis. He should have a plan that incorporate clear objectives.
 Maintain active communication. The manager should keep the stakeholders of the firm
such as customers, clients, agents, creditors and suppliers well informed of the crisis
event (Van Dooren, Bouckaert & Halligan, 2015, p.99).

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 Be ready to uphold the unexpected situation under high pressure. He should understand
the reaction of various employee roles. He should also bring external parties in order to
acquire professional help on how to deal with and address the issue
 Drive to towards manageable and actionable intelligence. The manager should be able to
navigate the existence of confusing information or data set in order to finally manage the
crisis lifecycle.
Compare the differences between "classical and behavior decision-making models" and
discuss which of this model is most suitable for strategic decision making.
Classical decision theory is based on the assumption that the strategic level manager encounters
clearly defined challenges. It assumes that the manager has the knowledge on all the existing
possible course of action and their prevailing consequences (Beach, & Lipshitz, 2017, p.836).
Consequently, the top level manager then makes a decision by choosing the best alternative
which maximizes on acquiring the probable solution to the challenges at hand. Classical decision
making is important in cases of organization crisis since the manager chooses the best alternative
that is seen to offer a satisfactory solution to the crisis event.
Behavior decision-making model.
According to Thompson (2017, p.77) various management experts have critically researched and led
to the emergence this particular model. This particular model is highly pragmatic in nature and
indicates that a strategic level manager is also a human being and may not be completely rational
since he is faced with various limitations, challenges, and inadequate circumstances.

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The best decision-making model is the use of behavior theory. This explains the behavioral
source of the problem and has descriptive power. It does not treat all the decisions the same since
some may be limited. This improves the diversification of the decision-making process and
information (Beach, & Lipshitz, 2017, p.836).
The classical model is an inappropriate standard and evaluation model since it has various
constraints. A manager may not acquire all the necessary information required to make the
decision. It does not provide a precise description of how the decision process in the future will
be accomplished.

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References
Beach, L. R., & Lipshitz, R. (2017). Why classical decision theory is an inappropriate standard
for evaluating and aiding most human decision making. Decision making in aviation, 85, 835-
847.
Booth, S. A. (2015). Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern enterprises.
Routledge.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Thompson, J.D., 2017. Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative theory. Routledge.
Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G. and Halligan, J., 2015. Performance management in the public sector.
Routledge.