Methodology Review Form - Research Paper Example

This is a defining trait of a crisis for other authors (Hoff, 2001; Boi, 2005; Laws, Prideaux & Chon, 2007), but apparently not for Fink, whose definition focuses on the impacts rather than the causes of the crisis situation. In many instances, crises are so characterised not because they are unforeseen, but that they are foreseen (or at least foreseeable) and are historically and statistically deemed so unlikely to happen that precautionary and preventive measures against them are overlooked (Loveridge, 2009; Daft & Marcic, 2011).

In defining the research problem, it became apparent that the threat of impending crises (i.e., crises that are unlikely but may eventually happen) face all organisations, whatever their objectives or scope of operations, in varied ways as to threaten their continue existence. Consequently, some form of crisis management is needed by all organisations in order to contain the effects of crisis incidents. In defining a manageable research problem, therefore, it become necessary to delimit the particular crises and the organisations whose crisis management responses are to be assessed, in order for this research to arrive at meaningful, properly contextualised, findings.

In the course of the literature review, the necessity for the enhancement of crisis planning, prevention, assessment, and mitigation for the oil and gas industry