Crisis Management in a Complex World

ISBN-13: 9780195328721 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 224 str.

Gilpin

Opis

Managers, business owners, public relations practitioners, and others grapple daily with issues that have the potential to radically redefine the reputation of a person, company, or industry. They confront a fundamental question about contemporary crisis management: to what extent is it possible to control events and stakeholder responses to them, in order to contain escalating crises or safeguard an organization's reputation? In Crisis Management in a Complex World, authors Dawn Gilpin and Priscilla Murphy address this question head-on. Operating from a strong theoretical orientation, this book marks a sharp departure from other crisis management texts, which focus on nuts-and-bolts procedures and information distribution in an effort to simplify the turbulent reality of a crisis situation. Instead, this book pairs real-world examples from across the globe with theory-based analysis to show why simplification often fails to alleviate crises, and can even intensify them. Gilpin and Murphy propose a new, complexity-based approach to organizational learning that can allow organizations to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

This volume addresses both scholars and high-level practitioners of public relations, organizational communication, and strategic management. Strongly cross-disciplinary, the book draws on theories from communication, the physical sciences, and business. It invites controversy and ultimately aims to change the way people conceptualize and prepare for crises.

Recenzje

Since the early 1980s, academics and scholars have devoted endless hours and pages to discussing crises These voices split roughly into two camps. One believes that careful planning, vigilance, and message strategy development can prevent and mitigate crisis damage. That logic is a consultant's delight because it is the rationale for billable hours. In Crisis Management in a Complex World, Gilpin and Murphy argue wisely for insights into a second approach, one that discusses crisis prevention and response by more accurately featuring the difficulties of complexity, uncertainty, and control. these authors demonstrate how confusion, unforeseen events, and missing information constitute the reality of crisis, and therefore demands focused flexibility in planning and responding. This insight advances both the academic insights into crisis and adds caution for practitioners.

O autorze

Dawn R. Gilpin has spent more than 15 years working in Italy in various areas of organizational communication and public relations, including crisis management. She has a master's degree in journalism and public relations from the University of Memphis, and a Ph.D. in mass media and communication from Temple University. She is currently an assistant professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. Priscilla J. Murphy is a professor of communication at Temple University. She publishes in the areas of strategic media relations, activist groups, and reputation. She has presented nationally concerning issues management strategies of the tobacco industry, CEO leadership during crises, and executive reputations in the media.