What is Crisis?

A sudden and unexpected event leading to major unrest amongst the individuals at the workplace is called as organization crisis. In other words, crisis is defined as any emergency situation which disturbs the employees as well as leads to instability in the organization. Crisis affects an individual, group, organization or society on the whole.

What is Crisis Management?

Crisis management is the nature of activities to respond to a major threat to a person, group or organization. Crisis management is a relatively new field of management. Typically, proactive crisis management activities include forecasting potential crises and planning how to deal with them. For example, how to recover if your computer system completely fails. Many people would refer to this instead, as risk management and not crisis management. Hopefully, organizations have time and resources to complete a crisis management plan before they experience a crisis. Crisis management in the face of a current, real crisis includes identifying the real nature of a current crisis, intervening to minimize damage and recovering from the crisis. Crisis management often includes strong focus on public relations to recover any damage to public image and assure stakeholders that recovery is underway.

Definition of Crisis Management:

The identification of threats to an organization and its stakeholders and the methods used by the organization to deal with these threats. Due to the unpredictability of goals events, organizations must be able to cope with the potential for drastic changes to the way they conduct business. Crisis management often requires decisions to be made within a short time frame and often after an event has already taken place. In order to reduce uncertainty in the event of a crisis organizations often create a crisis management plan.

Characteristics of Crisis
Crisis is a sequence of sudden disturbing events harming the organization. Crisis generally arises on a short notice. Crisis triggers a feeling of fear and threat amongst the individuals.

Why Crisis?
Crisis can arise in an organization due to any of the following reasons: Technological failure and Breakdown of machines lead to crisis Problems in internet, corruption in the software, errors in passwords all result in crisis. Crisis arises when employees do not agree to each other and fight amongst themselves Crisis arises as a result of boycott, strikes for indefinite periods, disputes Aggression, thefts and terrorism at the workplace result in organization crisis Neglecting minor issues in the beginning can lead to major crisis and a situation of uncertainty at the work place. The management must have complete control on its employees and should not adopt a casual attitude at work Illegal behaviors such as accepting bribes, frauds, data or information tampering all lead to organization crisis Crisis arises when organization fails to pay its creditors and declares it a bankrupt organization

Need for Crisis Management

Crisis Management prepares the individuals to face unexpected developments and adverse conditions in the organization with courage and determination Employees adjust well to the sudden changes in the organization Employees can understand and analyze the causes of crisis and cope with it in the best possible way Crisis Management helps the managers to devise strategies to come out of uncertain conditions and also decide on the future course of action
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Crisis Management helps the managers to feel the early signs of crisis, warn the employees against the aftermaths and take necessary precautions for the same.

Essential Features of Crisis Management

Crisis Management includes activities and processes which help the managers as well as employees to analyze and understand events which might lead to crisis and uncertainty in the organization. Crisis Management enables the managers and employees to respond effectively to changes in the organization culture. It consists of effective coordination amongst the departments to overcome emergency situations. Employees at the time of crisis must communicate effectively with each other and try their level best to overcome tough times. Points to keep in mind during crisis Dont panic or spread rumors around. Be patient. At the time of crisis the management should be in regular touch with the employees, external clients, stake holders as well as media. Avoid being too rigid. One should adapt well to changes and new situations.

Crisis Management: Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a major unpredictable event that threatens to harm the organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. Three elements are common to most definitions of crisis: (a) A threat to the organization (b) The element of surprise (c) A short decision time It can be said as "crisis is a process of transformation where the old system can no longer be maintained." Crisis management involves dealing with threats after they have occurred. It is a discipline within the broader context of management consisting of skills and techniques required to identify, assess, understand, and cope with a serious situation, especially from the moment it first occurs to the point that recovery procedures start.

Crisis management methods of a business or an organization are called Crisis Management Plan. Crisis management is occasionally referred to as incident management although several industry specialists such as Peter Power argue that the term crisis management is more accurate. The credibility and reputation of organizations is heavily influenced by the perception of their responses during crisis situations. The organization and communication involved in responding to a crisis in a timely fashion makes for a challenge in businesses. There must be open and consistent communication throughout the hierarchy to contribute to a successful crisis communication process. During the crisis management process, it is important to identify types of crises in that different crisis necessitate the use of different crisis management strategies. Potential crises are huge, but crises can be group. Natural crisis, typically natural disasters considered as acts of God are such environmental phenomena as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes and hurricanes, floods, landslides, tidal waves, storms, and droughts that threaten life, property, and the environment itself. Sudden crises are circumstances that occur without warning and beyond an institutions control. Consequently, sudden crises are most often situations for which the institution and its leadership are not blamed. The Bhopal disaster in which poor communication before, during, and after the crisis cost thousands of lives, illustrates the importance of incorporating cross-cultural communication in crisis management plans. According to American Universitys Trade Environmental Database Case Studies (1997), local residents were not sure how to react to warnings of potential threats from the Union Carbide plant. When crisis hits, organizations must be able to carry on with their business in the midst of the crisis while simultaneously planning for how they will recover from the damage the crisis caused. Crisis handlers not only must engage in continuity planning (determining the people, financial, and technology resources needed to keep the organization running), but will also actively pursue organizational flexibility. In the wake of a crisis, organizational decision makers adopt a learning orientation and use prior experience to develop new routines and behavior that ultimately change the way the organization operates. The best leaders recognize this and are purposeful and skill full in finding the learning opportunities inherent in every crisis situation.

Preparing contingency plans in advance, as part of a crisis management plan is the first step to ensuring an organization is appropriately prepared for a crisis. The contingency plan should contain information and guidance that will help decision makers to consider not only the short-term consequences, but the long-term effects of every decision. Crisis management has become a defining feature of contemporary governance. In times of crisis, communities and members of organizations expect their public leaders to minimize the impact of the crisis at hand, while critics and bureaucratic competitors try to seize the moment to blame incumbent rulers and their policies. In this extreme environment, policy makers must somehow establish a sense of normality, and foster collective learning from the crisis experience. In the face of crisis, leaders must deal with the strategic challenges they face, the political risks and opportunities they encounter, the errors they make, the pitfalls they need to avoid and the paths away from crisis they may pursue. The necessity for management is even more significant with the advent of 24 hour news cycle and an increasingly internet savvy audience with ever changing technology at its fingertips. Public leaders have a special responsibility to help safeguard society from the adverse consequences of crisis. Experts in crisis management note that leaders who take this responsibility seriously would have to concern themselves with all crisis phases: the incubation stage, the onset, and the aftermath. Crisis leadership then involves five critical tasks: sense making, decision making, and meaning making, terminating, and learning. Crisis management has developed as a response to natural disasters (e.g., floods, fire, famine, earth quakes) Approaches to, and the structures associated with, crisis management have evolved from militarist responses to warfare and natural disasters. Contemporary conceptualizations of crisis management deal with broader issues of prevention and mitigation, as well as the need to deal with issues related to response and recovery.

Many Western organizations concerned with crisis management have invariably adopted a four-stage model, such as the MPRR (mitigation,

preparation, response, recovery), or the PPRR (prevention, preparation, response, recovery). Both the MPRR and PPRR are iterative models intended to provide ongoing opportunities for learning. Education about crisis management relates closely to the preparation aspect of both the MPRR and the PPRR models. The prevention, preparation, response, recovery aspects of the model depicts a flow of events. Effective crisis management is vital for the survival and prosperity of organizations. Preparedness is important for organizations concerned about preventing sudden arising events. The PPRR aspects of the Crisis Management Model can be applied to local facilities and organizations, national infrastructure such as electrical power distributors, and national government organizations such as the military and police services. The role of learning in crisis management is crucial as it is provides the means through which organizational processes and outcomes can be achieved. In order to achieve a more professional approach to crisis management, organizations need to effectively prepare, plan, and implement especially for security and natural disaster threats, by assessing the risk to the organization and evaluating the consequence of upcoming crisis.

Types of Crisis:
Following are the types of crisis:

1. Natural Crisis

Disturbances in the environment and nature lead to natural crisis. Such events are generally beyond the control of human beings. Tornadoes, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Landslides, Tsunamis, Flood, Drought all result in natural disaster.

2. Technological Crisis

Technological crisis arises as a result of failure in technology. Problems in the overall systems lead to technological crisis.

Breakdown of machine, corrupted software and so on give rise to technological crisis.

3. Confrontation Crisis

Confrontation crises arise when employees fight amongst themselves. Individuals do not agree to each other and eventually depend on non productive acts like boycotts, strikes for indefinite periods and so on.

Employees disobey superiors give them ultimatums and force them to accept their demands.

Internal disputes, ineffective communication and lack of coordination give rise to confrontation crisis.

4. Crisis of Malevolence

Organizations face crisis of malevolence (wickedness) when some notorious (informal) employees take the help of criminal activities and extreme steps to fulfill their demands.

Acts like kidnapping companys officials, false rumors all lead to crisis of malevolence.

5. Crisis of Organizational Misdeeds

Crises of organizational misdeeds arise when management takes certain decisions knowing the harmful consequences of the same towards the stakeholders and external parties.

In such cases, superiors ignore the after effects of strategies and implement the same for quick results. Crisis of organizational misdeeds can be further classified into following three types:

1. Crisis of Skewed Management Values Crisis of Skewed Management Values arises when management supports short term growth and ignores broader issues. 2. Crisis of Deception i. Organizations face crisis of deception when management tampers data and information. ii. Management makes fake promises and wrong commitments to the customers. Communicating wrong information about the organization and products lead to crisis of deception. 3. Crisis of Management Misconduct i. Organizations face crisis of management misconduct when management indulges in deliberate acts of illegality like accepting bribes, passing on confidential information and so on. purposely

6. Crisis due to Workplace Violence

Such a type of crisis arises when employees are indulged in violent acts such as beating employees, superiors in the office premises itself.

7. Crisis Due to Rumors

Spreading false rumors about the organization and brand lead to crisis. Employees must not spread anything which would tarnish the image of their organization.

8. Bankruptcy

A crisis also arises when organizations fail to pay its creditors and other parties. Lack of fund leads to crisis.

9. Crisis Due to Natural Factors

Disturbances in environment and nature such as hurricanes, volcanoes, storms, flood; droughts, earthquakes etc result in crisis.

10. Sudden Crisis

As the name suggests, such situations arise all of a sudden and on an extremely short notice.

Managers do not get warning signals and such a situation is in most cases beyond any ones control.

11. Smoldering Crisis

Neglecting minor issues in the beginning lead to smoldering crisis later. Managers often can foresee crisis but they should not ignore the same and wait for someone else to take action.

Warn the employees immediately to avoid such a situation.

Crisis Management Model:

Gonzalez Herrero and Pratt proposed a crisis management model which identified three different stages of crisis management.

1. Diagnosis crisis:
The first stage involves detecting the early indicators of crisis. It is for the leaders and managers sense the warning signals of a crisis and prepare the employees to face the same with courage and determination. Superiors must review the performance of their subordinates from time to time known what they are up to. The role of a manager is not just to sit in closed cabins and shout on his subordinates. He must know what is happening around him. Monitoring the performance of the employee regularly helps the managers to foresee crisis and warn the employees against the negative consequences of the same. One should not ignore the alarming signals of crisis but take necessary actions to prevent it. Take initiative on your own. Dont wait for others.

2. Planning crisis:
Once a crisis is being detected, crisis management team must immediately jump into action. Ask the employees not to panic. Devise relevant strategies to avoid an emergency situation. Sit and discuss with the related members to come out with a solution which would work best at the times of crisis. It is essential to take quick decisions. One needs to be alert and
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most importantly patient. Make sure your facts and figures are correct. Dont rely on mere guess works and assumptions. It will cost you later.

3. Adjusting to Changes
Employees must adjust well to new situations and changes for effective functioning of organization in near future. It is important to analyze the causes which led to a crisis at the workplace. Mistakes should not be repeated and new plans and processes must be incorporated in the system.

Ways to overcome organization crisis:

Crisis leads to major disturbances at the workplace and creates unrest amongst the employees. Employees must not lose hope during crisis. It is important for them to face inevitable threats with courage, determination and smile.

Various ways to overcome crisis

1. Adopt a focused approach: Take initiative and find out where things went wrong. Identify the problem areas and devise appropriate strategies to overcome the same. 2. Gather correct and relevant information: One should not depend on mere guess works and assumptions during emergency situation. Double check your information before submitting report. 3. Employees should change their perspective: One should always look at the brighter side of things. Remember life has its own ups and downs. Unnecessary cribbing and complaining does not help at the workplace. Avoid making issue over petty things. Dont adopts a negative attitude, instead understand the situation and act accordingly.

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Effective communication is essential to overcome crisis in the organization. Information must flow across all departments in its desired form. Employees must be aware of what is happening around them. Individuals should have an easy access to their superiors cabin to discuss critical issues and seek their suggestions. Superiors must address employees on an open forum during critical situations.

Roles and responsibilities must be delegated as per the employees specialization. Make sure the right person is doing the right job. Employees must be motivated to deliver their level best and focus on the organizations goals to overcome tough times in the best possible way. It is essential to take quick decisions during critical situations. Learn how to take risks. The moment an employee detects the early signs of crisis, it is important for him to act immediately. Escalate issues to your superiors and do inform your co workers as well. Dont wait for others to take action.

Be calm and patient. Dont panic and spread baseless rumours around. Taking unnecessary stress makes situation all the more worse. Remember a calm individual can handle things better. Relax and then decide on the future course of action to overcome crisis. Dont lash out at others under pressure.

Discussions are essential during crisis. Sit with fellow workers and discuss issues amongst yourselves to reach to mutually acceptable solutions which would work best at the times of crisis.

Be loyal to your organization even at the times of crisis. Stick to it during bad times. Dont just treat your organization as a mere source of earning money. It is important to respect your workplace.

Review your performance regularly. Be your own critic. Strive hard to achieve your targets within the desired time frame. Dont work only when your boss is around. Void unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings at the workplace. Treat your fellow workers as members of your extended family. Help each other when needed. Employees should not ask for unjustified things. Think from the managements perspective as well. Avoid criticizing your colleagues.

Dont hide at the times of crisis. Come out; interact with external clients as well as media. Do not hesitate to ask for help. Ignoring outsiders worsens the situations.
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Role of Employees in Crisis Management

The art of managing an emergency situation at the workplace through effective planning and quick action refers to crisis management. An unstable conduction which leads to major disturbances at the workplace must be controlled immediately for effective functioning of the organization. Crisis Management helps the employees as well as organization to cope with difficult times in the best possible way. Employees play an essential role in crisis management 1. Employees must be serious about their own work : Review your performance regularly. Dont always wait for your boss to ask for reports. Be your own critic. Strive hard to achieve your targets within the desired time frame. Never adopt a casual attitude at work. An individual must be able to sense the early signs of crisis and warn his fellow workers against the same. Take initiative on your own. Escalate issue immediately to your seniors. Dont wait for others to take action. 2. One should not take things lightly. Once a crisis is being detected, employees must immediately jump into action. Encourage effective communication during emergency situations. Dont keep things to yourself. Discuss ideas amongst your fellow workers to reach to a plan which would work best at the times of crisis. Dont spread baseless rumors about your product and organization. Avoid spreading fake information. 3. It is essential for the employees to respect their organization. One should maintain the good manners of the organization. Dont unnecessarily fight fault in your coworkers and fight with them. Remember conflicts lead to no solution. It is always better to discuss things face to face and come to a mutually beneficial solution.

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4. Dont ask for unjustified things Think from the managements perspective as well. Remember your organization pays you for your hard work and not for spreading negativity around. Employees should never indulge in unproductive activities like boycotts or strikes to get their demands fulfilled. Violence at the workplace is a crime. Neither the management nor the employee benefits out of it. Such activities in turn tarnish the brand name. 5. Dont panic Maintain your calm and decide on the ways to overcome crisis rather than complaining and cribbing. Employees should never get hyper as stress and anxiety lead to more mistakes one might not otherwise commit. Relax and give your best.

6. Think out of the box Try to come out with innovative ideas and strategies to overcome tough times as soon as possible. Employees must identify the causes of crisis and devise relevant strategies and ways to avoid it. 7. Individuals must work as a single unit during emergency situations. Ensure free flow of information across departments. Avoid playing blame games or criticizing others. It only makes situation worse. 8. Dont hide, instead come out, interact with stake holders and external parties, and ask for help. One must not avoid media. 9. Discrimination on the grounds of caste, status, income, sex and so on is unethical and leads to crisis. Everyone must be treated as one for a peaceful environment at the workplace.

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Role of the crisis manager

Crisis assessment Event tracking Managing human considerations Damage assessment Assessment or resources and options Development of contingencies Managing communications Co-ordination with external bodies Controlling information Controlling expectations Managing legal requirements

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About Air India

Air India is India's national flag carrier. Although air transport was born in India on February 18, 1911 It was on this day that J.R.D. Tata, the father of Civil Aviation in India and founder of Air India He landed with his precious load of mail on a grass strip at Juhu. At Mumbai, Neville Vintcent, a former RAF pilot who had come to India from Britain three years earlier on a barn-storming tour, during which he had surveyed a number of possible air routes, took over from J.R.D.Tata and flew the Puss Moth to Chennai (then Madras) via Bellary.

SWOT analysis of AIR INDIA

Strengths Air India has been the largest air carrier in India in terms of traffic volume and company assets. It owns the most updated fleet and competent repairs and maintenance expertise. Its information systems are advanced and compatible with its operation and service. It has a good reputation in both international and domestic markets, quality service and the ageold Goodwill that has still kept it alive in the interests of the rescue operators. Has financial backing of the Government Weaknesses

Air India is operating across broad international and domestic markets competing with world leading giant airlines as well as local small operators. This lack of clarity on the strategic direction largely dilutes its capabilities and confuses its brand within markets. Low profitability and utilization of capacity. Growing Competitor base and entry of Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) The airlines high-cost structure and the compulsions of being a public sector unit are the reasons and it had been making a loss and shall continue to make losses for some more quarters.

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Opportunities

India airline industry is growing faster and will continue to grow as the GDP increases, and the trend is predicted to continue once the slowdown recedes. Worldwide deregulations make the skies more accessible; the route agreement is easier to be achieved. The number of foreign visitors and investors to India is increasing rapidly. Complementary industry like tourism will increase demand for airline service. The Civil Aviation Ministrys strong regulation and protection provides opportunities for consolidation and optimization. Customers are getting wealthier, tend to be less price-conscious and prefer to choose quality service over cost. Best time for introducing LCCs Threats

Air India faces imminent aggressive competition from world leading airlines and price wars triggered by domestic players. The Indian Railway Ministry has dramatically improved speed and services in their medium/long distant routes, attracting passengers away from air service, with prices almost at par with the low cost carriers

About Case
Since 2009, the employees of loss-making Air India have organized six strikes three by pilots and the rest by disgruntled ground staff demanding salary payment The government should immediately start an aggressive plan to offer voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to reduce the workforce and contain the unrest by offering an attractive package Also reduced manpower shortage (no. of employees 16000 from 27000) Over 600 employees left their job since 2009

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Worried over their uncertain future and poor financial condition of Air India, over 600 employees of the national carrier have either resigned or taken voluntary retirement since 2009. Twenty-four pilots and management pilots and 163 cabin team and executive cabin team have either resigned or taken VR since 2009, citing various reasons, a senior Air India official said. Six engineers, including executive engineers, 171 executives and general category officers, 59 technicians and 201 general category employees have left the company, he said, adding that a total of 624 employees have either resigned or taken VR. Currently, the employee strength of Air India is around 26,481, of which 1,439 are pilots and executive pilots, 1,419 are engineers and executive engineers, 5,064 executives and general category officers, 3,064 cabin crew and executive cabin crew, 3,351 technicians or service engineers and 12,146 general category employees. 223 employees resigned or took VR in 2011, 178 in 2010 and 128 in 2009. This year till May, 95 employees have left the company. Of these, 48 employees resigned, while 47 took VR, the official said.

Problems
As Air India merged with Indian Airlines in 2005, the pilots of the two airlines stuck to flying the aircraft attached to their respective airlines Equal number of Indian Airlines pilots and Air India ones to fly the twenty-seven planes that Air India would take delivery of in the next few years.

Suggestion
AI needs more autonomy to take commercial steps that the government is unwilling to allow. AI hired Ireland-based consultancy Accenture Ltd to advice on the integration process. AI appointed US-based aviation consultant Simat Helliesen and Eichner Inc. (SH&E), Flugwerkzeuge Aviation Software GmbH of Austria and Texas-based technology company Sabre Holding Corp.

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