Reflective essay individual

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QUESTION:

Reflective Essay - individual

This item of assessment is Compulsory.

This assignment is related to Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 4.

Write an essay reflecting on your personal learning experiences in this paper, drawing on the

theoretical material and examples in the assigned readings (using APA referencing) and your

own understanding of events that have occurred in the past. You are also encouraged to provide examples from your own experiences or the experiences of others in organisations.

This is a reflective essay in which you will consider how your learning in this paper has

developed your own understanding of issues and crisis management in an organisation. It is

important that you discuss the need for issues management and how environmental scanning can contribute to an organisation's ability to foresee and plan for crisis; identify how

organisational culture contributes to the way organisations might deal with issues and crisis management; and how you think you would act/behave in a managerial capacity in terms of

issues and crisis management.

Readings:

1.Coombs, W. T., 7 Holladay, S.J. (2010). PR strategy and application: Managing influence. (pp. 217-235). Chichester, UK: Wiley Blackwell.

2. Coombs, W. T., (1999) Ongoing Crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding (pp. 17-37). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

LENGTH: 1,750 words maximum

Reflective Essay Marking Rubric

Criterion C B A Mark

Organisational

Culture (15) Minimal or no

discussion on how organisation

culture impacts on issues and crises

Some discussion on

how organisation culture impacts on

issues and crises

Comprehensive

discussion on how organisation culture

impacts on issues and crises

Identifying risk & issues (15)

Some minimal discussion on the

concept of

environmental scanning and its

Discusses the concept of environmental

scanning and how

issues can be identified and contained; minimal

Discusses the concept of

environmental

scanning with development on its


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importance; no reference to the

literature

or no discussion on implementation; some

reference to literature

uses for identification of risk

and issues; uses references to the

literature to explain

Preparing for crisis (15)

Limited discussion and no clear

understanding of requirements for

preparing for a

crisis

Discusses crisis preparation with

reflection on its importance in an

organisation; some

reference to the literature and other

examples from newspapers and

reading

Draws together the main concepts of

preparing for a crisis in terms of the

literature and

reflects on problems that may arise

Crisis communication

(15)

Some minimal discussion on how

communication works during a

crisis

Identifies important aspects of crisis

communication but no examples provided

Reflects on the important aspects of

crisis communication with

examples from readings, news and

personal

experiences

Reflective writing

(15) Does not discuss

personal understanding of

the course; no learnings identified

Provides some personal

reflective discussion on the reading, the

experience of learning about crises in

organisations and some

examples

Discusses personal

reflections on the learnings in the

course, provides examples and

discusses personal

preparation for implementing

issues/crisis management ideas

in future work.

Writing & referencing (15)

Writing needs improvement

Writing is good but contains too many

errors

Writing is very good with few errors

Holistic judgement (10)


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UNIVERSITY | WORD LIMIT : 1756

DATE: 13TH JULY 2012

TOPIC: REFLECTIVE ESSAY

STUDENT NAME

PROFESSOR’S NAME

COURSE TITLE


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Candidate Statement

I hereby declare that this assignment is my own work and any use of materials from other

sources has been referenced accordingly.

Candidate Signature: Date:

Tutor Statement

I hereby confirm that this assignment, to the best of my knowledge, is the candidates own

work and they have not collaborated in the production of this assignment with any other

person. I also confirm that I have a record of this candidate’s progress tutorial/s.

Tutor Signature: Date:


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Learning of issues and crisis management in an organization…………………………4

2. Need for issues management…………………………………………………………...5

3. Environmental scanning contribution to an organization’s ability to foresee and plan

for crisis…………………………………………………………………………………...6

4. Contribution of organizational culture in dealing with issues and crisis

management……………………………………………………………………………….8

5. Behavior in terms of issues and crisis management……………………………………9

References………………………………………………………………………………..11


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1. Learning of issues and crisis management in an organization

Crisis management is the crucial topic of attention in the organization. Through

crisis, the organizations refers to pandemics, terrorist bombings, and large-

scale blackouts, natural disasters such as, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.

Through my learning, I have learned that Crisis and issues often occur in

the organization when organizational board and management concern about the

production deadlines, short/long term performance, and operational

issues instead planning for crisis management programs (Adler, 1996).

From my personal learning, I can say that crisis management has shifted from an

underdeveloped and set of policy issues into the high position of officials, mass-media,

politicians, and academia. Through this shift crisis managers are working

towards extensive investments in pre-crisis planning, high-tech intelligence,

and crisis agency government structure. I explore that despite time consuming, costly,

and resource intensive efforts, organizational real life experiences of crisis, and resource

intensive efforts, officials, politicians, and organizations fail to meet the demands

of public when crisis strikes.

I have personally experienced the crisis while working in an Exxon Valdez. In the

year, 1989 employees of Exxon were stigmatized and experience the shame for working

with such a huge company that does not care for the environment. I experienced the 11

millions gallons oil spilled into the Alaska’s Prince Willam Sound. This was one of the

biggest disasters in the history of United States. After this disaster I have to move to the


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Alaska where I worked for more weekly hours than the previous norms (Hore &

Carrington, 2007).

From my personal experience I have learned the best way to manage a crisis is to

prevent it by recognizing the warning signs. These signs show that a situation has the

capacity to develop into a crisis. Through reading and personal experience I can say that

virtually every business firm, especially crisis can be expected to occur on the

horizon, presently that expect in full force or that has passed through the combination

thereof. Through the constant existence of crisis in the business world, I have learned that

crisis can occur with no or little warning, anytime, and anywhere. Crisis can occur in

every industry that is operating its business in national or international market. It is

the reality that crisis looms in every organization; therefore, its vital that crisis managers

should accept that and make a correct frame of mind accept

the contention and formulate the advanced contingency plan, preparation,

and relevant recognition so that there could be positive opportunity side to crisis.

2. Need for issues management

Issue Management is not included in the rationale and strategies for responding

proactively to learn during the monitoring process. Issue management is the gap between

the organizational policies and expectations of stakeholders. Issues management,

stakeholder’s relations and risk assessment contribute into the crisis scanning. According

to me, crisis managers should integrate the three functions of the organization in

the effective crisis scanning mechanism (Robert, 1997). In order to mitigate the issues,


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managers should have the understanding of sources to scan, how to gather information,

and how to evaluate the information for potential of crisis.

Issues occur in every organization, but the main point is to resolve these issues for

that environmental scanning is the better tool that is used for managing the issues. From

my experience I learned that every organization must implement the issues management

so that they could manage the potential image-damaging situations. Through

issue management managers can easily track the issues and can resolve the problem. In

my learning I came across the case of Nike recall 38,000 pairs of athletic shoes and then

them to apologize to Muslims. As Nike has flame logo on basketball shoe that resemble

the Arabic script for “Allah”. Therefore, one compliant can create the criticism for

the organization and impact its goodwill in the market.

I think, managers should analyze the internal and external environment prevailing

across the organizations, so that prevailing issues could be resolved. It is crucial from the

side of manager that while collecting information about issues they should analyze

whether the information contains prodromes (Blaikie, 1994). Managers should use two

criteria for evaluating the issues: impact and likelihood. Through likelihood mangers

would know about the probability of an issue, and through impact they

could know how strong is issue can whether it could affect the operations and profits of

the company.

3. Environmental scanning contribution to an organization’s ability to foresee and

plan for crisis


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Through the different papers I have gained the understanding about the

importance of environmental scanning, which is a crucial element in identifying the risk

areas. Corporate identifies the risk areas all across the organization that includes various

issues and events that influence over the management priorities, performance,

and achievement of organizational objectives. I learned that environmental scanning

includes scanning of both internal and external factors and risks through which trends and

changes could be analyzed that are appropriate in giving the early warning of potential

risks that affect the output (Chiles, 2001). I have the systematic approach for scanning the

periphery, whenever I travel, I randomly select the book at the airport and read it from

cover to cover; therefore, at every trip I learned something new and that helped me in

viewing the world in a different manner.

Whatever I learned or regain the new ideas I try to implement in my organization,

in order to get the best outcome. I believe that through widening the knowledge and

thoughts we can mitigate many issues and prevent the crisis, this can be done through

scanning the internal and external environment of the organizations. Internet is the best

place for analyzing the environment, as internet comprises of a large pool of information

that helps in coming at the results (Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),

2000).

I learned that environment could be scan through brainstorming, surveys, and

scenario planning, or it can also be analyzed through the performance reports,

management information systems, and audit reports. Most of the organizations organized


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the surveys through the help of diverse groups of experts in order to identify the thoughts

of potential future changes occurring in the environment and weave the diverse insights

on demographic and technological shifts. Through surveys specific markets and firms can

be easily analyzed. From different papers I have learned that environment scanning focus

on the detecting the increasing issues, potential issues,

and circumstances that determine the future of the organization.

In my organization information is providing the manger and that information is

used for directing the management in preparing the future plans. This information is

used for evaluating the strength and weakness of the organization in terms of the threats

and opportunities. Through environment scanning information that is collected can be

used for making decisions. I believe that as in present time fast changes are occurring in

the market and in the emerging business practices it is possible for organizations to fall in

the regulations, technology, and rising trends; therefore, environment scanning helps in

reducing the possibility of blindsided. I learned that environmental scanning helps the

various companies in gaining the knowledge about the possible influences from the

external environment (Harvard Business Review, 2000).

4. Contribution of organizational culture in dealing with issues and crisis

management

Through reading the various papers and from personal experience I have

understood that in today’s business environment robust, enterprise wide plan is

needed for dealing with the unexpected crisis. In the crisis management reputation of the


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company, and brand along with the loyalty and trust of the stakeholders is

the critical factors (Laye, 2002). Managers have the significant role in organizational

sustainability for contributing in the tangible deliverables by including the safety,

leadership development, security initiatives, and solid communication plans for

supporting the crisis management.

Organization culture regularly monitors the nature and changes taking place in the

external forces and how these focus impact the organization. According to my

experience, there are many organizations that focus on mitigating and try to reduce

the disaster in order to broaden the operational planning (Kotter & Heskett, 1992). Most

of the organizations appoint the emergency managers that look for the external forces

such as, new technologies, laws and regulations, and business requirements. Managers

use recovery programs, approaches, and planning tools for mitigating the issues.

I analyze that organizations deal with the ambiguities and uncertainties by

adapting the organization through the new and changing requirements. There are many

organizations that deal with the day to day issues and even with the severe crisis.

According to my experience many organizations use the different tools such as, warning

signals, signs, and forecasting in order to deal with the crisis (Mileti, 1999).

Organizations also provide training to the employees so that they could manage the

situation at the time of crisis. It is the responsibility of the manager to analyze the every

possible situation and conduct the analysis for mitigating the various issues and occurring

crisis within the organization. Through the organizational learning I have learned that


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there are many other tools for reducing the crisis situations such as, early warning signals,

damage containment, business recovery, prevention, and organizational learning. It

is important that every employee should be aware about these tools, and in creating

awareness about the tool, it is the manager who is responsible (Boin, 2008).

5. Behavior in terms of issues and crisis management

I believe that organizations should look after the all the possible situations

whether it is positive or negative in order to reduce the problematic situations. With the

changing time, functions and responsibilities of the organization has increased that

can create the changes of crisis to most likely occur. It is extremely crucial that

organizations should mitigate the challenging situations so that each task of the company

could be conducted in best possible manner. Through the articles and papers I have

learned that organizations should adopt the crisis management and issue management

programs. Under these programs responsibilities should be diverted to the managers in

order to conduct each task in the better manner. I have also learned about the

environmental scanning which is the crucial tool used by the managers now a day in

order to analyze the internal and external environment. I have also mentioned in the essay

about some of my experiences and crisis in the organization, and though I have learned

that organizations should analyze the environment across the company, and

even broaden their thoughts so that they could be ready to face the challenges and move

on with their activities in the challenging environment.


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References

Adler, N. (1996). International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. Cincinnati:

Southwestern.

Blaikie, P et al. (1994). At Risk. London: Routledge.

Chiles, J.R. (2001). Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the edge of technology. Harper

Business.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (2000). "Planning for a Sustainable

Future: The Link Between Hazard Mitigation and Livability". Retreived July 15,

2012, from http://www.fema.gov/mit/planning_toc.htm

Harvard Business Review. (2000). Harvard Business Review on Crisis Management.

Harvard Business School Press.

Laye, J. (2002). Avoiding Disaster: How to keep your business going when catastrophe

strikes. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Kotter, J. & Heskett, J. (1992). Corporate Culture and Performance. New York: The

Free Press.

Mileti, D. (1999). Disasters by Design: A Reassessment of Natural Hazards in the

United States. Joseph Henry Press.

Boin, A. (2008). Crisis Management. Los Angeles. SAGE.

Hore, J. & Carrington, W. J. (2007). Labor Market effects of the Exxon Valdez Oil. The

B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy 11(1), 1-16.

http://www.fema.gov/mit/planning_toc.htm


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Robert, L. H. (1997). Strategic issues management: Organizations and public policy

challenges. UK: SAGE.

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Reflective essay individual