A Focus on Crisis
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2012-06
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Abstract
Everyday both the public and the private sector face crises. They can be wide ranging in type such as industrial incidents, natural and environmental disasters, safety breaches, cyber issues, and beyond. Crises will continue to occur in our world, and it is necessary to be prepared and understand the consequences that occur from responsive action. This report argues that crisis management has an effect on public policy creation. A model of best practice for crisis management is defined, and then applied to the case study of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Application of the model to the case study, shows that crisis management best practices do have an impact on the creation of short-term public policy. A failure of best practice during a crisis can lead to the development of new issues beyond the original crisis, in particular the expansion of disaster zones, adverse affects on involved actors, and public outrage. Such crisis mismanagement in certain instances can lead to reactionary short-term public policy to mitigate the situation. Reactionary public policy, due to being rushed, ill researched, and in many cases designed to appease the public at large based on a short-term view of public opinion, can fail to have a proper scope. In addition, it may not succeed in its desired outcome, sometimes even producing unintended secondary effects. ·Crisis management has an effect on public policy. If executed well, it can reduce the
need for reactionary short-term public policy. This can lead to an avoidance or reduction in public financial costs regarding the crisis. There is a link between the private and public sector. They work and interact daily. There will be good times and bad times. During times of crisis, the government will play a role and may be driven by short-term considerations in its creation of public policy. However, it remains better for the government to intervene in a crisis with a long-term policy direction in mind. If crisis management best practices are used, private industry or key actors can reduce reactionary government policy. Economists discuss the idea of market failures being a reason for government intervention. In a way, crises can evolve into a market failure if the private actors involved cannot properly utilize crisis management. This leads to the reaction of government through public policy. Crises are going to happen, they are going to be diverse, and in many cases, there will
be issues and concerns for the public at large. It is critical that preparations are made by all actors to have crisis management strategies ready. This recommendation is based on this report, which shows the influence of crisis management practices on the actions of other actors (in this case the government) over the period of the crisis, and into the future.
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Rodych, Andrew. (2012). A Focus on Crisis ( Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.