Crisis Management Program Management

Stage

Crisis Preparedness Level

Description of CM Preparedness Level

This organization:

1

Prone to crisis

Has virtually no early warning system in place for detecting major crises.

Believe that crises rarely occur.

Rarely plan for damage containment before the crisis hits, and recovery systems are not established.

Do not learn from their past mistakes because they do not conduct formal review sessions.

2

Susceptible to crisis

Represents a decisive advance beyond stage one.

Although better prepared, are still very vulnerable to a variety of crises.

Have a comprehensive program for natural and human-directed disasters of all kinds, but are not likely to plan or prepare for other crisis families.

Plan for neither external economic attacks nor external information attacks.

3

Adjusted to Crisis

Have in-depth plans and procedures for a limited number of breakdowns, such as computer malfunction, serious operator errors or major security breaches.

Justify their actions with rationalizations such as “our size will protect us from a major crisis”, “excellent, well-managed companies do not have crises” and “crisis management is a luxury which we cannot afford”.

Do not appreciate the complex relationships that will contribute to a crisis.

4

Braced for Crisis

Do not represent a definite improvement from the "Adjusted to Crisis" category concerning the types of crisis identified and the preventive actions. The refinements are found in the management of the phases of the crises.

Has CM effort that may be formalized for the earlier as well as the later phases of the crisis. Thus in addition to planning for crisis containment, some planning may take place for crisis prevention and detection. As such, the effort is directed towards the proactive mode of CM.

Has created a CM team, which will bear responsibility for facilitating and formalizing CM efforts.

5

Prepared for Crisis

The organization:

Has developed plans and procedures that explicitly take into account all the critical systems that prevent major crises.

Does not see the causes of crises as purely technical.

Is sensitive to human, organizational and staff feedback as well. As a result, they are much more likely to have explicit programs that simultaneously address human factor issues.

Has a greater awareness of the underlying organizational culture and how it contributes, positively as well as negatively, to CM.