Crisis Management in Small Organizations during COVID-19
Ghulam, Neil Diamond (2021)
Ghulam, Neil Diamond
2021
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021053112720
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021053112720
Tiivistelmä
Crisis management is the process of analyzing threats to an organization and making plans that assist in navigating crises and protecting an organization. This thesis aims to study crisis management in small organizations, using the global crisis COVID-19 as a case study. It aims to answer the questions of how small organizations view crises, how they plan for crises, and if having a crisis management plan helps in managing the crisis. The study is limited to focusing on small organizations managing the COVID-19 crisis. The study was done by interviewing managers. The results were studied side by side and compared with prior literature in order to gain an insight into how organizations view and manage crises. Prior research done by Paraskevas (2006) and Bundy et al. (2017) argue that crisis management is an important aspect of management. Research done by Chong (2004), Pollard and Hotho (2006) argue that in today’s world, organizations are always in a crisis, and if they are not in crisis, they are in precrisis mode, a state just before the actual crisis occurs. The results from the thesis showed that the older organizations with more experienced leaders had crisis management plans, however none of those plans anticipated anything close to the COVID-19 crisis. Smaller organizations with less experienced managers did not have any crisis management plans. The organizations managed the crisis quite well, even without a crisis management plan, larger organizations focused on surviving and getting through, while smaller organizations found ways to thrive. The study had its limitations as some organizations received financial support, as well as having to follow government regulation and guidance. The conclusions showed that in crisis management planning, organizations do not take a large enough scope in analyzing possible risk scenarios that could be a threat. Larger organizations understood the importance of crisis management plans and included them in their operations. Smaller organizations felt that their organizations were too small to warrant investing in crisis management planning. Smaller organizations were able to adapt and modify their business rapidly in order to be innovative and find solutions in a crisis, while larger organizations appeared satisfied with getting through the crisis and just surviving.