Crisis Management in a Complex World

Abstract

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? This book addresses this question head-on. This book operates from a strong theoretical orientation. 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. The book proposes a complexity-based approach to organizational learning that can allow organizations to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

Advancing tendencies? PR leadership, general leadership, and leadership pedagogy

“…Gilpin and Murphy (2010) note how this aligns with other PR scholars' calls (Bentale, 2007;Ihlen & van Ruler, 2007) for "more careful reflection on the linkages between public relations research and larger bodies of theory to expand the scope of the discipline and situate it more effectively within an interdisciplinary, pluralistic framework" (p. 71). Gilpin andMurphy (2008, 2010) practice what they preach by mobilizing a broad range of readings with wide linkages across different disciplines. This breadth enables them to avoid insularity and to attract a range of readers beyond PR practitioners and leaders while still being of importance to those audiences.…”

Organizational Learning: An Assessment of its Impact on Crisis Management in the United Arab Emirates

“…The concept of learning can be applied before, during, and after an extreme situation, whether the organization applies the lesson learned toward next crises, or learns from the external uncertainties created by crisis situations (Simmons, 2009), or even treats the learning as emergent phenomenon whose history is an essential component of understanding (Gilpin & Murphy, 2008). Using this approach enables airlines to generate new knowledge in areas significant for their organizational goals.…”

On-line Strategic Crisis Communication: In Search of a Descriptive Model Approach

“…Briefly put, the logic of issues management and infodemiology is based on cybernetics, with searches on the Internet helping the organization to adapt to, and avoid, the explosive development of risks and crisis issues. Gilpin & Murphy (2008) argue that the work that distinguishes such methods is systematized and the main goal is to reduce uncertainty and inconsistency and to enhance predictability and control.…”

“…public relations model (see, e.g. Deatherage & Hazleton, 1998;Grunig 1989); conditions derived from general systems theory, cybernetics, and scientific management (Gilpin & Murphy, 2008).…”