Skip to main content
IOSH Magazine: Safety, Health and Wellbeing in the world of work - return to the homepage IOSH Magaazine logo
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit @ioshmagazine on Twitter
  • Visit IOSH Magazine on LinkedIn
Gender equality
Practice meets perfect
May/June 2023 issue

Main navigation

  • Home
    • Browse previous issues
    • Member accolades
    • Member tributes
  • Health
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Sickness absence
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Rehabilitation
      • Personal injury
      • Return to work
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Achieving Fellowship
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Professional skills
      • Qualifications
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Jobs
  • Covid-19
  • Knowledge Bank
    • Back to basics
    • Book club
    • Infographics
    • Podcast
    • Reports
    • Webinars
    • Videos
  • Products & Services
  • Management
    • Human factors
      • Sickness absence
      • Accident reduction
      • Behavioural safety
      • Control of contractors
      • Migrant workers
      • Older workers
      • Reporting
      • Safe systems of work
      • Young workers
    • Leadership and management
      • Employee involvement
      • Leadership
      • Management systems
    • Management standards
      • ISO 45001
      • ISO 45003
    • Planning
      • Assurance
      • Compliance
      • Emergency planning
      • Insurance
    • Strategy
      • Corporate governance
      • Performance/results
      • Regulation/enforcement
      • Reputation
    • Sustainability
      • Human capital and Vision Zero
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • Mental health and wellbeing
      • Bullying
      • Drugs and alcohol
      • Mental health
      • Stress
      • Wellbeing
    • Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)
      • Ergonomics
      • Manual handling
      • Vibration
    • Occupational cancer
      • Asbestos
      • Hazardous substances
      • Radiation
  • Safety
    • Incident management
      • Chemicals
      • Electricity
      • Fire
      • First aid
      • Slips and trips
    • Non-health related fatalities
      • Road safety
      • Work at height
    • Risk management
      • Confined spaces
      • Disability
      • Legionella
      • Lifting operations
      • Lone workers
      • Noise
      • Personal protective equipment
      • Violence at work
      • Work equipment
      • Workplace transport
  • Skills
    • Communication
    • Personal performance
      • Career development
      • Competencies
      • Personal development
      • Qualifications
      • Professional skills
      • Achieving Fellowship
    • Stakeholder management
    • Working with others
      • Leadership
      • Future Leaders
  • Transport and logistics
  • Third sector
  • Retail
  • Mining and quarrying
  • Rail
  • Rehabilitation
    • Personal injury
    • Return to work
  • Utilities
  • Manufacturing and engineering
  • Construction
  • Sector: IOSH Branch
    • Sector: Northern Ireland
    • Sector: Midland
    • Sector: Merseyside
    • Sector: Manchester and North West Districts
    • Sector: Ireland East
    • Sector: Ireland
    • Sector: Edinburgh
    • Sector: Desmond-South Munster
    • Sector: Qatar
    • Sector: Oman
    • Singapore
    • Sector: South Coast
    • Sector: South Wales
    • Sector: Thames Valley
    • Sector: Tyne and Wear
    • Sector: UAE
    • Sector: West of Scotland
    • Sector: Yorkshire
  • Healthcare
  • Sector: Fire
  • Sector: Financial/general services
  • Sector: Energy
  • Education
  • Sector: Communications and media
  • Chemicals
  • Sector: Central government
  • Catering and leisure
  • Agriculture and forestry
  • Sector: Local government
  • Sector: IOSH Group
    • Sector: Financial Services
    • Sector: Sports Grounds and Events
    • Rural industries
    • Sector: railway
    • Public Services
    • Sector: Offshore
    • Sector: Hazardous Industries
    • Sector: Food and Drink
    • Sector: Fire Risk Management
    • Education
    • Construction
    • Sector: Aviation and Aerospace
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Categories
  • Topics
  • Skills
  • Personal performance
  • Competencies
Leadership
Personal development
Safe systems of work
Review

The Crisis Management Cycle

Open-access content Friday 16th February 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

crisis_review

Rating:

Pursiainen is professor of societal safety and environment at the Arctic University of Norway and teaches a course in crisis management. His post in the snows of Tromsø has given him time to reflect on the lack of literature on crisis management as a discipline. Previous books, he says, have concentrated on disaster planning and control in specific contexts, such as civil emergencies or threats to corporate reputation.

Crisis is a much abused term, he says, arguing that for a situation to justify the label, it must satisfy the criteria of involving a threat to an organisation's goals or values, limited time for decision making due to an approaching deadline or rising costs of inactivity and numerous unpredictable events or uncertainties that make it hard to predict the outcome of actions taken.

The majority of the content is grouped under the six chapter headings that reflect the stages of the crisis management cycle: risk assessment, prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and learning. The first three of these are self-evidently not about managing crises in progress but about forecasting them, heading them off where possible and shoring organisations against their effects where not.

It is in these pre-crisis stages that the skills of risk analysis and control OSH practitioners use every day are valuable.

In some areas of crisis planning and response the book is clear there is no single correct path. On leadership, for example, Pursiainen is clear that those who run a hierarchical management structure are not necessarily less likely to handle a crisis well than leaders who prefer a collegiate structure.

In other areas, he is more dogmatic. Of crisis communications, he says, "the rule of thumb is: tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth. Experience has shown that this maxim, namely that one should never try to lie, deny, hide or ignore the situation is the winning strategy."

The practical advice on issues such as dealing with the press, mixed with more theoretical content on cognitive biases or SWIFT techniques, both of which will be familiar to readers of this magazine, builds up to a comprehensive overview.

The book offers illustrations of good and bad crisis management but most are taken from large-scale disasters, such as the Chernobyl or Three Mile Island nuclear incidents. Some smaller examples of organisational crises, even hypothetical ones, would have been welcome.

That aside, this is a well written, extensively researched and fundamentally useful guide for any safety and health professional who wants to widen their understanding of broader crisis management.

Routledge (www.routledge.com)

You may also be interested in...

 Learning preferences: Style guide

Monday 5th February 2018
We all learn differently. Some people can read something, understand it and put it into practice without any difficulty. Others respond immediately to verbal instructions. Some need to go out and put the lessons into practice before they fully understand it.
Open-access content

 Tideway: On the tools

Thursday 25th January 2018
The infrastructure provider behind the Thames Tideway scheme in London is racking up a first in occupational health (OH) provision. Tideway, the company appointed by Thames Water to build, maintain and operate the 25 km tunnel below the River Thames to relieve the capital of its sewage and rainwater, has mandated an OH service for the entire seven-year project – an arrangement unknown until now in large-scale infrastructure projects.
Open-access content
human error

 Risk-based Thinking – managing the uncertainty of human error in operations

Thursday 15th March 2018
  Rating: The net effect? Safety practitioners at best are ridiculed, at worst question their career choice. More often than not, they wonder what the hell to focus on.
Open-access content

 Humber Bridge: open all hours

Thursday 8th February 2018
In January, the Humber Bridge Board (HBB) brought its first private prosecution against an “urban explorer”, Ryan Taylor, who had scaled the 155.5 m tall Barton Tower on the structure’s south bank without permission. The climber was part of a group that had clambered over a barrier and used the bridge’s suspension wires as handrails to walk up the cables to the tower summit.The group took videos and selfies from the top, posting them on YouTube. They had no harnesses or any other safety equipment.
Open-access content

 Mobile learning: On the small screen

Monday 5th February 2018
Over the past decade, a growing number of organisations have turned to online courses or e-learning to deliver OSH training.As the technology has advanced, the e-learning trend has evolved, providing workers with new ways to learn and continue to develop professionally. With the aid of handheld technologies, the mobile worker in the field or at a remote site can access important safety data at the click of a button. Businesses can use this mobile or m-learning to build on previous training, providing handy “refreshers” periodically to remind workers of essential safety messages.
Open-access content

 Challenging the Safety Quo

Friday 2nd February 2018
  Rating:
Open-access content
Topics
Competencies
Leadership
Personal development
Safe systems of work
Review
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Health and Safety Improvement Manager

Leeds
£35000 - £50000 per annum
Reference
5452992

SHEQ Systems Advisor

Up to £40000.00 per annum + Car Allowance
Reference
5452988

Senior Health and Safety Manager

Reading
Up to £65000.00 per annum + Great Car Allowance & Benefits
Reference
5452983
See all jobs »

Sign up for regular e-alerts

Receive the latest news and features, free to your inbox

Sign up

Subscribe to IOSH magazine

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
IOSH Covers
​
FOLLOW US
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
CONTACT US
Contact us
Tel +44 (0)20 7880 6200
​

IOSH

About IOSH
Become a member
IOSH Events
MyIOSH

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to IOSH magazine
Write for IOSH magazine

IOSH Magazine

Health
Safety
Management
Skills
IOSH Jobs

© 2023 IOSH • IOSH is not responsible for the content of external sites

ioshmagazine.com and IOSH Magazine are published by Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ