Abstract
Apparently the multiple dimensions of environmental management concerns for countries with multi-tiered systems of governance were far less understood approximately twenty five years ago. It was thereby important for the government to impose regulations that have the ability to assess and bypass thornier intergovernmental issues with respect to its ability to protect sensitive environments and introduce strategies for growth and expansion.
In this context the term “disaster resistant community” holds good as opposed to “Disaster Resilient Community” and there are very specific issues why Webstar defines ‘Resilience’ as the ability to recover from or adjust easily from a calamity or misfortune or sudden change in the current circumstance! But on the other hand ‘Resistance’ is defined as the “ability to resist change”
So the question, to be pondered upon is if we want our community at large to be susceptible or prone to vulnerabilities or be adept enough to develop proactive, measures to effectively deal with contingencies and gain on strength to face and recover from calamities ? Can we build up the resistance and ability to insinuate measures that will enable us to build up better emergency preparedness and response measures to withstand disastrous consequences ?
‘Resilience’ therefore is a perfect term that overcomes the inherent limitations of the term ‘Resistance’ . While the battle begins in re-inforcing one concept as opposed to the other , another concept emerged and that is ‘Sustainable Development’ or in other words ‘Sustainable Hazard Mitigation’!. Due to past ignorance this concept may have been undermined but this notion succeeded in gathering prominence as the need to promote and protect the environment gained significance. (World Commission on Environment & Development , 1987)
Literature Review :
A potential for technological improvements:
We are currently facing a lot of issues such as global warming, scarcity of natural resources and global depletion of water resources and these issues are directly affecting municipal health & industry, in a lot of regions around the world. In fact the lack of fresh clean drinking water is a hazard that poses a threat to the sustainable future of our generations, to come as it can be see as a limiting factor that affects growth & development of their economic sectors which is clearly visible from indicators such as the GDP.
Sea water desalination technologies have a lot of prospect and growth in the current day generation and it has evolved into a tangible sector of great prominence in the current day world scenario and so water desalination plants and R O (Reverse Osmosis) Technology is being widely used by Water Desalination Projects. This is being utilized by both governmental and non-governmental agencies and industries that are keenly interested in monitoring the impact of sustainable solutions to the lack of usable water. So, although we can clearly see the relevance of the socio-economic & scientific benefits of desalination projects there are areas of huge concern being raised over the potential consequences or adverse impacts thereof on the environment. Key areas include the high power and energy consumption demands to drive the process of emission of green house gases and impacts associated or pertaining to constructional activities and financial resources required to fund the infrastructural needs of such desalination projects.
The cause and effects of concentrate discharges are also apparently visible among the other important issues that needs to be addressed in raising public awareness. The desalination industry is also focusing on measures to incorporate sustainability drives and mitigation measures that would include the design and implementation of operational desalination projects and facilities and this proves to be a boon in recognizing environmental hazards and also brings about mitigation measures and disaster management plans to be able to effectively deal with calamities.
Environmental Mitigation Measures:
Policies and mitigation measures have also been adopted by the IDA (International Desalination Association to safeguard the interests of those concerned with building desalination projects and it also involves methodologies and procedural implications aimed at avoiding and minimizing the worst case scenarios and the potentially adverse impacts on the environment in carrying out mega-size projects.
A classic example, includes Carlsbad Project which is supposed to be one of the largest desalination projects in the Western Hemisphere and this is a complete Game Changer for Desalination in the US. It is also an award winning desalination project linked with the {SDCWA} San Diego County Water Authority , with the capacity to provide clean drinking water for over three hundred thousand people and generate over 50 Million USD$ to the regional economy. But the potentially adverse impacts was noticed to include installation of Offshore & Onshore Pipelines through a constructional phase that involves pipe jacking and limited precisely controlled dredging at sea level.
Goals & Objectives
Crisis and Disaster Management including sources of organizational crisis:
Visualization is a technique that involves the conceptualization of a number of images and it would be appropriate to consider the following:
Two employees working for Domino’s Pizza was said to have put some cheese up his nose and then placed it gracefully on a sandwich and this video was removed from You tube after it was heartily received by nearly 1 Million people on social media platforms. It may have been a shocking incident to many and had the ability to jeopardize the firm’s reputation and thereby credibility & profitability stakes because of the sensitivity of the issue even with regard to hygiene over and above professionalism.
Another kind of crisis that needs to be mentioned here is the violent outbreak of weather, particularly tornadoes that have in the past caused irreparable damage having hit the Mid-West and Southern portions of the United States in recent years. These unpredictable weather patterns were catastrophic in nature in terms of the amount of damage and harm inflicted in tornado hit areas.
On a broader level and in alignment with a wider approach it is good to incorporate areas of organizational crisis management as well and this is the reason why many huge corporate entities are well aware of the need to include organizational compliance standards and emergency and crisis management plans. So if a manager tries to deal with the hazardous consequences of fire that has destroyed parts of their production and manufacturing facilities or warehouse facilities it will be good wisdom to rely on the protocols offered within the holistic stream of crisis and disaster management plans and protocols.
“So the term crisis or disaster management involves a number of images and a one time response to an unfortunate event is much broader and it can be viewed as a strategic process that must occur ahead of the actual crisis. It is a holistic process a conceptual framework that must be developed to understand how this process should be organized . A framework functions as a map that helps us to see the different parts of a process and as to how they are inter-related.” (Crandall , Parnell & Spillan, 2014).
Examples of Case Studies:
In January 2012, Coca Cola encountered a problem with its orange juice products like , Simply Orange and Minute Maid. Some of the products sold in the United States contained small amounts of carbendazim and an unapproved fungicide used with oranges from Brazil. Although fungicide is approved in that country , it is not in United States, prompting Coca – Cola to move into crisis management mode ( Kiernan & Mckay,2012).
As these examples illustrate not every organizational crisis is dramatic but each one has a far reaching impact , if it is not managed properly. The word ‘Crisis’, can be used interchangeably with a number of other terms including disaster , business interruption , catastrophe, emergency or contingency ( Herbane,2010 ).
Pearson and Clair (1998) have offered he most widely used definition of an organizational crisis “ An organizational crisis is a low probability , high impact event that threatens the viability of the organization and is characterized by ambiguity of cause and effect and means of resolution as well as by a belief that decisions must be made swiftly.
“The US Coast Guard was active in the search and rescue efforts immediately after the rig explosion . The US Coast Guard also investigates and issues its reports whenever there are accidents involving fatalities at sea. Their findings , put the blame largely on Transocean , citing the company’s poor maintenance of electrical equipments and lack of training on how the crew should shut down engines and disconnect the drilling rig from the well in the event of a gas build up” (Rickman,2011).
In addition their report expressed concern over why gas alarms and automatic shut down systems were not operating correctly. Such systems would have been instrumental in powering down equipment that could generate ignition sources.
Research proposal and objectives.
The broader objectives is in terms of examining the details of crisis management strategies and its exponential implications with regard to organizational performance. However it would imply that it is important to cater to the specific objectives of being able to identify crisis management strategies and deeply analyze the management challenges of hazard or crisis management.
The intended outcome of the ‘Research’ and questions:
What are the crisis management strategies available to an organization?
What are the causes for crisis in an organization ?
What is the relationship between organizational performance and crisis management ?
Research Hypotheses :
These are non judgemental in nature and are ‘Statements’ that would test and determine the variables so that the acquired hypotheses could be stated in null form.
Ethical Considerations
Since crisis is also as any kind of contingency arising out of unpredictable events it would be rightly defined “ as a specific , unexpected and non-routine events or a series of event that create high levels of uncertainity and threaten or are perceived to threaten an organizations high priority goals (Boins & Sundelins, 2005)” .
Apparently it is evident that the necessity of organizations to switch gears and have a proactive approach is of immense importance. Organizations need to be therefore equipped for hazard management planning and an organizations inherent ability to preplan, a rapid response, in case of an emergency. An organizations survival therefore depends or is dependent on variables like organizational leadership , information managements systems and communication.
Detailed Reviews :
Types of Crisis Management –
Lerbinger (1997) has identified different types of category of crisis which is as follows and :
Natural Disasters
Technological Crisis
Confrontation Crisis
Malevolence & Organizational Misdeeds.
Although contingency planning is of paramount importance, crisis management is the first step that would ensure effectiveness in case of preparing for crisis. Very often it is considered as good practice to make and conduct a rehearsal of a crisis or emergency response plan by developing a simulated scenario for mock drills.
A few of the most common types of Crisis is being expounded one by one :
Natural Crisis – Tsunami is a good example of natural calamaties and there are a host of other typically natural kind of disasters such as earthquakes , volcanic eruptions, tornadoes and hurricanes that threaten life and property upto a considerable extent.
Technological Crisis – Technological crisis occurs when there is a technological breakdown and the whole system suffers as a result of the complexity of technological advancement.
Confrontation Crisis – Organizational crisis due to red-tapism or bureaucratic intervention occurs when confrontation becomes inevitable and there is an ultimatum being given to those in authority through blockades and boycotts.
Crisis of Malevolence & Organizational Misdeeds – This is a typical kind of crisis that organizations face when an organization faces malevolence due to opponents who use devious and criminal mean for the purpose of expressing hostility with the aim of destabilizing the company, country or economic systems.
Methodologies for Crisis Management :
James ( 2007 ) defines organizational crisis as “ any emotionally charged situation that once it becomes s public, invites negative stake holders reaction and thereby has the potential threaten the financial well-being , reputation or survival of a firm.
Sudden or Smouldering Crisis – In case of a ‘sudden crisis’ the circumstances are obviously beyond human control and can be said to be totally unpredictable but in the case of a ‘smouldering crisis’ it is evident that the minor internal issues tend to replicate manifold times due to sheer negligence and assume disastrous consequences and lethal repercussions.
Theoretical Framework of the Research Proposal :
The rhetoric of theoretical framework as defined by Venette (2003) argues that “crisis is a process of transformation were the old system can no longer be maintained”
Seegor,Sellnow & Umer (2003) identified the three core elements common to most forms of crisis and they are as follows:
Threat to the Organization
Element of Surprize
Short decision making time & therefore the fourth defining attribute is apparently the ‘Need for Change’!
The structural and functional systems according to Rancer & Womack (1997) “posited that the structural functional theory identifies information flow in organizations as “networks” made up of members and links”.
Data Exhibition & Descriptive Statistics :
According to the data collected through questionnaires and entered in the Statiscal Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) , it is evident that the numerical accuracy points out to aggregates of facts, affected to a marked extent by the demographics such as sex distribution of the respondents. Over 65 % of the male respondents correlate with controllable variables . These controllable variables have a direct relationship with responding to the crisis management strategies effectively as it has an adverse impact on organizational performance, while controlling the effects of the challenges of crisis management & hazard planning strategies.
Conclusion & Recommendations.
Crisis management therefore has an exquisitely defining feature for sustained corporate governance. Crisis leadership apparently also needs to embody five predominant factors or features such as :
Decision making
Sense making
Meaning making
Termination &
Learning & Improvements
This is due to the fact that survival and sustainable growth , depends largely on its people and so is upto a considerable extent is dependent on the structure and culture of the organization that allows for strategic human resource development.
Thus the credibility of the organization particularly in Western Countries like USA is heavily dependent and influenced by the perceptions of their responses to crisis situations. Therefore a timely and well –anticipated response dusting crisis situations with an open channel of communication with designated personnel enables to alleviate the seriousness of consequences and this addresses one of the major challenges in effective crisis or hazard management planning even in terms of curtailing the environmental impacts .
For example “Is it possible to remove CO2 from the air, a technology that could help capture dispersed emissions i.e emissions from cars, trucks, ships, planes or farm equipments in order to reduce the global impact that it produces on the earth’s atmosphere ? None the less the famous old adage “A Stitch in Time Saves Nine”, holds good in this corporate scenario wherein lies a corporate social responsibility to make good use of the emerging concept of ‘Sustainable Hazard Management Planning’!!!.
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