BTEC Level 3 Certificate: Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of risk, crisis, and disaster management, offering a comprehensive overview of the differences between these concepts and their stages. It explores the causes of crises and disasters, their potential impacts on businesses, and various management measures. The report highlights the importance of risk assessment, including hazard, vulnerability, capacity, and perception assessments, and emphasizes the role of leadership in navigating uncertain situations. It also discusses the significance of disaster documentation and policies, including flexibility in plans and the need for effective communication and emergency systems. The report emphasizes the importance of preparedness, response, and recovery measures, including the role of humanitarian agencies, to reduce the impact of disasters and crises.

Running Head Risk management 0
Risk, Crises and Disaster Management

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Contents
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................2
The difference between risk, crisis, and disaster......................................................................................2
Stages of crises........................................................................................................................................2
Risk Assessment......................................................................................................................................3
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................................4
The causes of crises and disasters...........................................................................................................4
The potential impacts of crises and disasters on business......................................................................5
Task 3..........................................................................................................................................................5
Measures to manage disaster and crisis...................................................................................................5
Role of leadership....................................................................................................................................6
Disaster documentation and policies.......................................................................................................6
Reference....................................................................................................................................................8

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Task 1
The difference between risk, crisis, and disaster
Risks are the unavoidable part which is required to be taken by the organization for achieving the
goals and objectives. In order to gain profits and achieving success, the management is required
to consider the risk and it includes the potential for losses because of uncertainties. The top-level
management is required to consider the risks which include the strategic, reputational, legal and
operational (Veil, et al., 2011).
Crises do happen without warning, so it is vital that you have appropriate plans in place to be
able to perform such actions quickly (response) to remedy the situation or reduce the impact of
the crisis to return to normal. Risk is required to be considered as a continuous process
Crisis in the organization includes the disrupting and unexpected events which threats or harms
the stakeholders of the organization. In crisis management, the organization is required to deal
with unexpected and disruptive events that threaten for harming the organization. There are
elements that cause crisis are the threats, the surprise elements and decisions are required to be
taken in a short time. The crisis is also considered as the process for transforming the system
from old to new (Nakamura, et al., 2013). A crisis can be a natural disaster, confrontation,
rumors, and violence in the workplace. Crisis management is a process that is assigned to
manage incidents that threaten organizations, operations, and individuals or groups of people.
Stages of crises
In crises, the six stages are included which are warning, risk assessment, response, management,
resolution, and recovery.
The first part of the crisis begins with the warning phase. This phase can vary depending on the
type of situation or different conditions that triggered the crisis.
At this stage, the task of the crisis management team is to assess risks, review potential
consequences and examine the losses caused by the crisis. This allows them to decide what to do
next based on the level of damage. It also helps them determine what they should do to avoid or
reduce the negative effects of a disaster.

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At this stage, the focus seems to be on organizations and individuals who appear to be involved
in the crisis, whether they like it or not. The audience's attention will shift from the event itself to
the characters who appear to be at the center of the storm.
In this stage, the responsibility is required to be accepted and accountable. It should contain the
basic information required by the entire crisis management team, including the legal team,
executives, management team, PR team, IT staff, board members and other members who must
understand the crisis.
A crisis is an event that occurs at a specific point in time. Often this is unpredictable, public in
nature, and has the potential to cause great harm to the organization in terms of finances,
revenue, reputation, market positioning and service provision (Boin and Bynander, 2015). Risk
assessment is the process that helps in reducing the crises and disasters as it is the process of
determining the nature and extent for the various risks with the help of analyzing the hazards and
evaluating the conditions of vulnerabilities as it could harm people, properties, services, and
environment. Disaster is considered as a risk which is required to be managed with resources and
responsibilities in order to deal with the emergencies and which can be avoided with the help of
preparedness, responses, and recovery. In case of a crisis, the management is required with the
help of responses, managing and recovering with the unforeseen events. The management of risk
includes identifying, assessing and mitigating the activities as which could harm the business. It
is analyzed that the risk is the strategic and operational (Pipel, et al., 2014).
A comprehensive risk assessment not only assesses the extent and likelihood of potential losses
in the event of a disaster but also provides a comprehensive understanding of the causes and
effects of these losses. DRA is an integral part of the decision-making process (Margesson,
2013).
Risk Assessment
The steps of risk assessment for minimizing the crises and disasters include the hazard
assessment, vulnerability assessment, capacity assessment and perception of people for risk. It is
necessary to minimize the crises and disasters with the help of risk assessment as it leads to
making an effective process (Elliott, 2010). To reduce two risk components, potential risk drivers
must be identified and reduced, particularly related to poor economic and urban development

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choices and practices, environmental degradation, poverty and inequality, and climate change,
which cause and exacerbate Hazard status, exposure, and vulnerability.
Disaster reduction is part of sustainable development, so it must involve every sector of society,
government, non-governmental organizations, and the professional and private sectors. As such,
it requires a people-centric, cross-sectoral approach, strengthening resilience to the hazards of
multiple, cascading, and interactions, and building a culture of prevention and contingency
(Alexander, 2014). Disaster and crises are required to be reduced with the help of activities of
preventing, transferring, mitigating and preparedness. Measures and activities are required to
adopt for avoiding the existing and new risks. The knowledge and capabilities of governments,
professional emergency and recovery organizations, communities, and individuals can
effectively predict, respond to, or recover from the impact of possible, imminent or current
hazardous events or conditions (Drennan, et al., 2014).
Task 2
The causes of crises and disasters
Crises and disasters occur in every business and in any form. It includes an unexpected
unplanned situation or it can be a threat that happens instantly. It threatens the stability of the
business and is required to be managed. A crisis means that time is short and effective decisions
must be made immediately. The crisis made the entire enterprise lack a sense of control and
worsened the situation. Therefore, crisis management must be fast and effective and have the
flexibility needed to plan for further shocks. It needs to be able to get the company out of the
disadvantages of motivating and motivating employees. The crises are of various types which
include financial, technological, malevolence and natural crises (Herbane, 2010).
These are the different types of crises that businesses may encounter under normal
circumstances. All of these crises have different ways to control and respond to them, so such
measures must be taken immediately to ensure the continued existence and survival of the
business. Crisis management is a skill that requires effective personal quality management
(Coombs, 2014).

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The potential impacts of crises and disasters on business
Crises and disasters directly impact on the business. Natural disasters cause the business by the
destruction of property, financial losses, losses resources, and securities. Crises impact the
business which can be fire, damaging to stocks, failure of the system and it affects the day-to-day
activities. The crises which can impact the organization include natural disasters, theft, fire,
power cut, Failure of IT system and which can affect the suppliers, customers, and reputation of
the business (Boin and Lodge, 2016). Crises and disasters lead to increasing the costs as during
the crises companies are likely to incur one-time and unexpected costs. Shareholder trust can be
lost due to crises and disasters in the case of a negative impact on business. In order to minimize
the potential impact of crises, the steps are required to be followed for protecting the business. In
the premises, the management is required to implement effective systems and good electrical as
well as safety. IT and communication are required to be effective which includes to install the
anti-viruses software, backing up of data, ensuring to provide the right maintenance and placing
the right system. Majorly change in financial standards impacts on the business brand image
(Booker, 2014).
Task 3
Measures to manage disaster and crisis
The disasters are seen across the world; people become vulnerable to disasters and are forced to
cope with crises and disasters without any support of governments. Organizations should take
measures in order to cope up or manage uncertainty or disaster such as climate change, floods,
earthquakes, etc. Some of the measures that are used by organizations are optimized situational
awareness through real-time communication with employees and forecasting crisis or disaster
through advance technology. Further, the companies ensure web-based services across all the
devices and organizations should take measures to protect their systems.
The organizations set a systematic plan to deal with the crisis that includes a crisis management
team, proper communication channel, and training to some employees so that they can handle the
situation at the time of crisis or disaster. Organizations build codes and zones in order to
minimize the effect of disaster. Further, preparedness measures that are taken by organizations
are emergency exercises, warning systems, evacuations training and plans, emergency contact

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lists and the emergency system for communication. In the management of disaster and crisis,
humanitarian action also plays an important role. Humanitarian agencies are called during a
disaster in order to manage with immediate response and recovery. These agencies hire
experienced staff, experienced leaders and proper transportation and logistic support. In a
nutshell, the organizations take measures such as situational awareness channels, emergency
communication systems, system protection to protect important data, training, and exercise to
employees and emergency contact lists. Further organizations keep back up and contact human
agencies for help and management during a disaster. All these measures help the companies to
reduce the impact of a disaster or any crisis on resources and people in the organization (Paton
and Johnston,2017),
Role of leadership
Disasters and crisis are uncertain and arise on a short notice which resultant in major
disturbances and instability at the workplace. At this time, managers and leaders play a
significant role, as these ones have to take responsibility for the situation with steadiness and
confidence.
Managers' or leaders' role is important because they have full control over employees and this
helps them to manage the behavior and actions of employees at the time of crisis and disaster.
Leader work as a supporter and guider during uncertainty and crises as a leader get an early
signal about any crisis and can warn others so that early precautions can be taken by employees.
Further, leaders have the ability to communicate with employees effectively and at the time of
crisis effective communication is the key that helps in managing crises. With that leaders
encourage their team members to give nest alternatives to deal with the crisis and policies that
can be formulated to deal with the disaster that benefits the whole organization. The abilities that
leaders have plays an important role during the management of crisis as planning,
communication, proactive approach, and guidance is required in order to manage a disaster.
Leaders with these abilities help to reduce the impact of disasters and to manage the situation
during the crisis (Kirschenbaum, 2019).
Disaster documentation and policies
Disaster management plans require flexibility as leaders adapt plans according to the situations.
Any rigid plan cannot prove to be effective to manage disasters. Because crises and disasters are

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uncertain and the intensity of these disasters cannot be forecast so flexibility in disaster
management plans and policies helps to adopt it anytime with some innovation and
improvisation. Flexibility does not mean that there are no policies or plans. Even flexibility in
planning, documentation, and policies improve disaster management.
Flexibility is required in all the activities related to disaster management such as control,
direction, communication, emergency systems, warnings, evacuation, medical and health, and
emergency public information. In order to control situations leaders sometimes have to make
decisions that are instant and in order to do so, flexibility in plans and policies are necessary.
Disaster management and crisis management require proper planning that helps to reduce the
impact of disaster and ti protect people, resources and system. Flexibility in this planning leads
to better result and leaders can handle the situation according to their ways. Hence, disaster
documentation and policies need to be flexible, not rigid in order to manage the situation at the
time of crisis or uncertainty as rigid plans and policies work only in certain circumstances and
disaster is uncertain situations this requires flexibility (Stoyanov,2017).

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Reference
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Boin, A. and Lodge, M., 2016. Designing resilient institutions for transboundary crisis
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Elliott, D., Swartz, E. and Herbane, B., 2010. Business continuity management: A crisis
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Kirschenbaum, A., 2019. Chaos organization and disaster management. Routledge.
Margesson, R., 2013, August. International crises and disasters: US humanitarian assistance
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Nakamura, E., Steinsson, J., Barro, R. and Ursúa, J., 2013. Crises and recoveries in an empirical
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Pipek, V., Liu, S.B. and Kerne, A., 2014. Crisis informatics and collaboration: a brief
introduction. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 23(4-6), pp.339-345.
Stoyanov, S., 2017. Crisis and Disaster Management Terminology. In Implications of Climate
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