CICrisis Management versus Incident Response

CIS 359 Week 10 Discussion 1

Crisis Management versus Incident Response”  Please respond to the following:

Compare and contrast crisis management and incident response. Explain in your own words how these processes and strategies differ and how they are alike.

Discuss whether or not you believe most companies adequately prepare for crisis management and consider whether the amount of preparation conducted is on the same level as other contingency planning efforts.

 

Compare and contrast crisis management and incident response. Explain in your own words how these processes and strategies differ and how they are alike.

Crisis management and incident response have some similarities and both are critical to maintaining business functions. They do have to work hand and hand at times to restore business functions depending on the incident. However their differences are far more vast than their similarities. First, incident response is the plan of action for employees to take in the event of a disruption (incident) of day-to-day operations with the sole objective to be returning the organization to its original operating state as quickly as possible.

The plan of action will have the response team determining what type of incident occurred, the impacts of the disruption and to develop or follow the strategy for responding to said incident and then managing the recovery of the impacted systems or processes and to coordinate the recovery team to implement the plan already in place. In most cases incidents do not result in a crisis and not every crisis will be an incident that escalates into a crisis.

In Crisis management the disruption does not have to effect the day-to-day operations with the same regards as a power outage or a major storm, flooding or hurricane. However it will be significant that could attract media attention, public scrutiny and affect the organizations normal operations. However, the disruption could be an emergency situation in which case you would need to act quickly and have a specialized team that is trained.

You have sudden crisis when a disruption occurs without warning, there is also smoldering crisis which is a situation that is not generally known but may have been brewing for some time. It could be customer complaints that have made it to the media, or workplace violence or even labor dispute.

You need to have a solid team that can act quickly in an emergency situation to minimize injury or loss of life, you need members who can remain calm and communicate with all parties involved. You will need someone who is knowledgeable about medical services and such. It is imperative that this management team have a solid plan of action and rehearse scenarios before a crisis could occur. They must inform all personnel of who will be able to represent the organization during an event. This is critical information since usually during these incidents most employees may not be able to remain calm, so a rehearsed plan will allow for things to go more smoothly and could possibly save lives.

Discuss whether or not you believe most companies adequately prepare for crisis management and consider whether the amount of preparation conducted is on the same level as other contingency planning efforts.

I do not believe that most companies are adequately prepared for a crisis. I feel that most organizations follow that “it won’t happen to me mentality,” even though we have seen on the news countless times where someone goes into a place of previous employment and shoot someone. Just look at what happened to those TV reporters in VA, the shooter was a previous co-worker of theirs and it had been a couple years prior that he worked for that organization. You just never know what “could” or “might” happen but being prepared for most crisis scenarios would allow you to have a fighting chance. I understand that there is an additional cost to implement crisis management but the benefits of having a successful outcome is far less costly than the possibility of losing someone’s life.

The company I work for does not have a crisis management plan at all. It took me 3 years to get a panic button installed for the reception desk. Our receptionist sits up front with 3 conference rooms around her and the rest of the staff and common areas at about 30 feet way behind another set of doors. We had no camera to see if she was ok and there was no buzzer system to know when someone entered the office suite. The only sliver of crisis management we adopted was a team leader to be the “fire warden” this employee was to make sure all other employees left the building during a fire drill or in the event of an actual fire. They were to maintain a head count and report to our property management company. They even organized where outside the building we were to meet.

In the event that we were to have an actual emergency such as a fire, we are located on the 5th floor of an older builder and stairs have uneven treads and very slippery floors. We have a list of who to contact should something happen outside of the office but should a disaster strike while at work, no plan has ever been finalized.

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