Business Continuity Strategies - Literature review Example

Name Tutor Crisis Management Course Institution Date Crisis Management Introduction There are numerous literatures and research on crisis management and it has been in the increase over the last decade following varied crises witnessed globally such as the Haiti earthquake, the earthquake tsunami in Japan, the SARS outbreak, the Hurricane Katrina and the bomb attacks on the US on September 11 among others. Primarily, crisis entails a set of external events over which no one has control (Mitroff, 2003). What one has control over and that which they ought to manage are the response to the event. Effective response to crisis therefore lies in having well-developed, synchronized, flexible and reviewed response plans (Smith & Dan, 2002). A crisis can be termed as any situation, which within a short duration of time causes harm in terms of destruction of life and property. Smith & Dan (2002) defines crisis management as the concept of managing and coordinating responses to an event that threatens to harm or has caused damage on people, property, valuables, and reputation and hinders the capacity of people or even organizations to operate. Crisis management encompasses planning and applying the right response as the event unfolds. In addition, it consists of techniques and strategies used to respond to perceived or actual threats, developing metrics to define crisis and thus, triggering appropriate response mechanism and it includes communication, which takes place within the response phase of emergency management situations (Mitroff, 2003). The 2011 Tsunami in Japan will have a significant impact on how a crisis is managed and already several countries around the world are undertaking an in depth analysis of their preparedness to deal with a large scale tsunami. Many programs have been developed in order to improve public safety during tsunami emergencies. This informs the report which seeks to research, analyze, and discuss what recent recommendations have been made. Preparedness to deal with large scale crises such as the earthquake tsunami Typically, there are various types of crises namely technological crises, malevolence, confrontation, organization misconduct, workplace violence, rumors, terror attacks and natural disasters. Tsunamis fall under the natural disasters since they are ecological phenomena that bring harm to people and generate destruction to the environment and property. Tsunamis are usually a sequence of extraordinarily huge waves created by a disturbance of a high-level magnitude to the water body. Tsunamis are majorly caused by earthquakes on the ocean floor which reverberate to the shores, landslides, explosions and often at times by both land and oceanic volcanoes. Crises are often not as massive and as appalling as the 2011 earthquake tsunami in Japan which spiraled further with the fear of leakage in the Fukushima nuclear power plant which necessitated the massive evacuations. Mitroff, (2003) suggests that regardless of the scale of a crisis, it is important to be constantly vigilant and ready which involves having the capacity to manage the crisis, accessing adequate resources and more importantly being resilient to carry on with operations. Japan is among nations globally that is most resilient, ready and adequately prepared for crises such as tsunamis, but nothing could have prepared the country for the 2011, earthquake tsunami and it’s after effects (Nakahara, 2011). Among emergency preparedness plans generated based on the crises and the recommendations generated from observing the tsunami in Japan indicates that the best recovery of both people and property in case of major crises such as the tsunami occur when prompt and decisive actions are taken to respond to the immediate crisis, when involved stakeholders communicate efficiently and openly and when there is practical consideration for the bereaved, the injured and the frightened (Patrick, 2011). Emergency response systems and approaches are more effective when there are ample preparations and planning not necessarily for a large-scale crisis such as the earthquake tsunami but for more ordinary and predicable crises and more significantly where there ample resources such as financial resources to help take up and alleviate the impact of the crisis and return to normal conditions (Mitroff, 2003). Countering large scale crises is easier said than done and they can effectively be responded to by either avoiding the crisis at all costs or if it is impossible to do so, fully preparing for the crises, hence contingency planning. Although there has been an improved general awareness of crises and crisis management with the occurrence of disasters such as the 2011 earthquake tsunami in Japan, the virtual scarcity of major disasters impacting defined populations such as this, results to some level of contentment and underestimation of the impact of such crises, hence, development of emergency management systems and response strategies that are inadequate and limited in countering large-scale disasters when and wherever they occur globally. The consequence of this complacency also results in unwillingness and lack of full commitment to allocating necessary and sufficient resources required for effective and efficiency crisis management and emergency preparedness (Smith & Dan, 2002). Therefore, majority of disaster management agencies opt to proposing amendments to disaster management programs and crisis management policies, including resource allocations such as finances during and immediately after a major crisis occurs. Lack of proper policies on emergency management and disaster preparedness, and lack of commitment, accountability, interoperability and lack of effective inter-communication within and across agencies and relevant stakeholders has generated into situations where the responses to crises and especially major disasters are primarily reactive instead of being proactive (Nakahara, 2011). Less time, efforts and resources is allocated to risk assessment and risk management which plays a major role in determining how prepared agencies, community and the government are in responding to perceived and actual threats and crises when they occur and more importantly, determining the response actions and strategies to develop and implement accordingly in order to prevent, avert or manage the crises when they do actually occur (Mitroff, 2003). In relation to the 2011 earthquake tsunami in Japan, it is a real world example of a crisis that was effectively and efficiently prepared for despite the high number of casualties and fatalities and destruction to property (Patrick, 2011). Based on the impact the tsunami had, the situation would have been worse, if Japan had less effective emergency management systems and response strategies, the impact on life, property and the environment would have been unfathomable. The Japanese both young and old, literate and illiterate, rich or poor spend some of their time contemplating, writing and drilling on the actions they should take in case of a disaster, which cannot be said about most of the people globally (Nakahara, 2011). Among the useful lessons learnt from the 2011, earthquake tsunami in Japan, which informs recommendations on effective preparedness to deal with large scale crisis, is that every member of the community is accountable and engaged in preparing for emergency situations and in responding to them. During an emergency situation, each person is responsible in ensuring their personal safety, they are supposed to alert and report to authorities and most important await mobilization if response efforts need language translation (Patrick, 2011). Another lesson learnt from the tsunami is the need for interoperability and co-operation within and across agencies to ensure each stakeholder accomplishes their mandate to ensure safety and more importantly prepare and respond to emergency situations efficiently and effectively. There should be mutual accountability among the public and private sector in relation to enhancing resilience and creating recovery strategies and development of joint actions for emergency preparedness and response (Nakahara, 2011). Crises cannot fully be prepared for and managed without full participation and involvement of both the private, public and non-governmental sectors in assisting in relation to policy making, planning, and expertise and in donations. This sort of partnering and engagement among stakeholders promotes collaborative approach to reducing the risk of disasters and its proper management (Mitroff, 2003). The engineering and information technology sector in Japan has heavily enhanced emergency management and response systems. Following the tsunami in 2011, primarily all the trains survived the disaster without incidents, with no incidents of collisions and derailments even for those moving in the speeds of 150 miles per hour (Patrick, 2011). Although there was initial lost of contact in five of them, all persons in the trains were safely rescued. Particularly in Honshu which had a direct hit by the tsunami, structures remained standing, there was civil order and interestingly, aircrafts still remained in the skies (Patrick, 2011). The engineering systems used were able to function as designed. Smith & Dan, (2002) indicates that following an occurrence of a crisis, the expectations of majority of the population is that public service agencies among other local, state and federal divisions of the government will efficiently mobilize to rescue and assist the injured and the general population affected. Since saving life and health of people affected by a disaster is fundamental in any emergency situation, medical personnel and experts should be incorporated in all the phases of emergency planning and in immediate response to emergencies (Mitroff, 2003). According to the author, there is need to develop clear understanding on a global scale on how knowledge and resources are offered to local communities for domestic implementation and more importantly establishing the existing gaps in emergency preparedness and response strategies to ensure future crises are effectively and efficiently dealt with (Nakahara, 2011). Japan is a case study of exceptional disaster preparedness. The country has set high standards for itself and others in preparing for emergency situations especially large scale ones. As earlier mentioned, almost every person in Japan is made aware and trained in drilling and response strategies they ought to take in case of an emergency (Patrick, 2011). Both the transport and communication infrastructures is designed is such a way that they have minimal damage incase of disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. For example, despite the fact that some of the nuclear reactors did encounter problems during and after the earthquakes, they were managed successfully and therefore, no cases of leakage of radiation was reported. Media coverage and public perception and response to a crisis The media is said to be the watchdog of society and more often than not, about what people know, think and what they believe that occurs in the world save for personal and first hand experience, is influenced and determined by how the media covers, frames and convey it for mass consumption. According to Wilson & Wilson (2001), the reality of events and the responses of people about the said events especially large scale disasters are vicariously experienced using the word picture developed by the news media and the visual and audio realism of televised reports. The media convey simulated reality to its audience, who depend on the media as a source to generate a conceptualized reflection of the real world (Wilson & Wilson, 2001). The media has played an important role in mobilizing for support from the international community in dealing with disasters and more significantly in identifying the shortfalls of existing emergency management systems and response strategies and lobbying for necessary reviews to policies and funding. The media has helped promote resilience among local communities and reducing the community’s reliance on external help. Be it as it may, the media coverage of disasters especially large scale disasters has generated more harm than good especially when news media gives greater emphasis on covering where emergency systems and response strategies have failed (Nakahara, 2011). The media has the power and the capacity to influence the opinions of the populations on emergency preparedness and response and when they depict emergency response systems as failing, they in effect make the populations lose faith in the said systems (Mitroff, 2003). The news media can be blamed for misreporting, over-reporting and giving too much coverage on destruction and less on success stories in the quest of selling papers since no good news is news. What the news media should do instead is to be part of the solution and help in highlighting possible risks and collaborate in developing sound emergency management and response systems and programs hence saving more life. Smith & Dan, (2002) suggests that there is need for the media to exercise resilience, objectivity, fairness and more importantly become part of the solution in educating the public on the need for effective preparedness and lobbying the government and other stakeholders to allocate sufficient resources, accountability and commitment to emergency preparedness and response strategies. Post crisis recovery and business continuity strategies in crisis management According to Devlin (2007), a crisis occurs in three stages namely pre-crisis, the acute crisis and the post crisis. The pre-crisis occurs when a critical event is discovered and it is reported to the authority or to a supervisor. Often, the critical event is only known to the internal environment of an organization and is unknown to the external environment (Devlin, 2007). The pre-crisis stage is an opportunity stage where the supervisor or the authority analyzes the situation, manage or prevent it from escalating to the acute-crisis. This stage is characterized by understanding the event for what it presently is and what it can potentially become. Devlin (2007) notes that the challenge in recovering from this stage is recognizing the severity of the crisis. On the other hand, there is the acute crisis which follows if the pre-crisis is not effectively managed, where the external environment becomes aware of the critical event and the supervisors have to address the problem (Devlin, 2007). Often, preventive strategies are ineffective in this stage and therefore, crisis management systems are applied to help manage the problem. Finally, there is the post crisis stage which follows the acute crisis when the problem has already been managed. In organizations, the post crisis is characterized by recouping losses and the organization apply strategies to show the stakeholders such as the public, shareholders and the customers that it does care abut the difficulties generated by the crisis (Devlin, 2007). The main objective during this stage is to recover losses, assess the performance of the organization during the crisis and making adjustments to crisis management systems, policies and strategies based on their effectiveness during the crisis. In modern business environments which are bombarded by risks and organizations do not have full control over their environments; developing business continuity management systems and crisis management capacities is crucial in preventing and responding to crisis and disasters when they do occur. Developing robust, efficient and fit-for-purpose emergency preparedness is vital in countering risks and crises that are inevitable in modern business environment as evidenced in the occurrence of the 2011 earthquake tsunami in Japan. Smith, (2003) defines business continuity management as a comprehensive management approach which establishes possible threats which threatens an organization and generates a system for developing resilience and the capacity for efficient and successful response strategies that protects the interests of principal stakeholders and the reputation, value and brand of the organization. According to Smith (2003), the life cycle of business continuity includes understanding the business, business continuity strategies, developing and implementing a business continuity response, building and embedding a business continuity culture, exercising, maintenance and audit of business continuity and business continuity program management. In regards to business continuity strategies, they include corporate business continuity management strategies, process level business continuity management strategies and resource recovery business continuity management strategies (Smith, 2003). The main aims of an effective business continuity management strategy is to ensure the safety of people, to enhance the defense mechanism of the business’ repute and brand image, to reduce the impact of crises on stakeholders, to limit the crises within the organization, to safeguard the assets of the business, to comply with regulatory and legal prerequisites and to exhibit competent and efficient governance to the media, the public and to the relevant stakeholders (Smith, 2003). Bibliography Devlin, E. (2007). Crisis management planning and execution. Accessed on 21st March 2012 from http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/18/90/396 Mitroff, I. I. (2003). Crisis Leadership: Planning for the Unthinkable. New York: John Wiley. Nakahara, S. (2011). Lessons learnt from the recent tsunami in Japan: necessity of epidemiological evidence to strengthen community-based preparation and emergency response plans. Injury Prevention, doi: 10.1136/injuryprev-2011-040163. Accessible from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2011/11/03/injuryprev-2011-040163.full Patrick. (2011). Some perspective on the Japan earthquake. Kalzumeus. Accessible from http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/some-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake Smith, D. (2003). Business continuity and crisis management. Management Quarterly, pp 27-33. Accessible from http://opscentre.com/resources/pdfs/Research/Business%20Continuity%20and%20Crisis%20Management.pdf Smith, L & Dan M. (2002). Before Crisis Hits: Building a Strategic Crisis Plan. Washington, DC: AACC Community College Press. Wilson, J. & Wilson, S. (2001). Mass media, mass culture: An introduction (5th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. Read More