**2. Crisis management and the public sector**

According to [3], a definition of crisis management is the "careful study and anticipation of the risks that a business/organization may pose to reduce uncertainty and take all necessary measures"—actions, processes, and processes before, during, and after the crisis to protect people, the environment, employees and the financial position of the business." A public body is in crisis when its institutional status is challenged as well as basic structures, principles, and values are also threatened. For the public administration, the crisis may concern the whole or a large part of the population. Although crises are unpredictable, they are not unexpected and can affect all areas of society and are caused by many different causes. The authors of [4] believe that "the crisis relates to situations characterized by severe threat, uncertainty and a sense of urgency." Crises also reach a critical point where change, for better or worse, is inevitable and the experience can be proven beneficial to

**87**

ently (see also **Figure 2**).

phase (resolution-normalization) [11].

*Crisis Management and the Public Sector: Key Trends and Perspectives*

manage the organization's communication and image.

people and organizations [5]. Also, in [6], the crisis is defined as: "a big, sudden event, which is likely to have negative effects. The fact and its consequences can seriously damage an organization and its employees, as well as its products and services, its financial status and reputation." This approach reinforces the need to

A crisis is a situation that is approaching a "dangerous" phase, which requires urgent intervention to avoid harmful and potentially harmful effects on the structure of an organization and return to normality. It is a decisive and critical time for the organization, where the wrong decision can, as mentioned above, even cost its viability. According to the Institute for Crisis Management [7], the crisis is a situation of significant business (see also "operations") disintegration, which has resulted in negative reactions from all stakeholders, probably extensive media coverage, and public scrutiny. This situation may have a political, legal, economic,

In the context of the crisis definition, we can conclude that the common elements contained in a crisis are the potential threat, which may be posed to all resources of an organization, the state of absolute surprise resulting in loss of control, and finally the short time remaining for decision-making. From the definitions above, we can easily understand the importance of the public sector crisis management, as unexpected events can affect the public and therefore the citizens of this sector, through the central government. A crisis may consist of four distinct stages, i.e., (a) the pre-crisis phase, (b) the acute phase of the crisis, (c) the time course of

According to [8], every crisis, regardless of its form and the organization in which it is created, has the following characteristics: (a) It escalates in tension, (b) it causes a high sense of insecurity and danger, and (c) those involved are overwhelmed by stress, affecting the usual operability of the organization, while it changes the operational structure, and affecting also the "image" of the organization or of the government itself, arousing the interest of the competent bodies and especially the media to get involved in the situation. The increased demand for information that needs to be monitored by a specific group of the organization's staff may cause moral effects, not only in terms of "image" but also in material terms, which potentially may encompass to the power of the organization in real life, or even to the profile of the body, while causing a malfunction in its operational activity.

Crises are unforeseen events that have the potential to produce undesirable effects

Each crisis, regardless of the category to which it belongs, goes through different phases depending on the time of occurrence, and each phase affects the body differ-

The phases are (a) pre-crisis (condition or precursor), (b) acute phase (manifestation-peak crisis), (c) response (impact) phase, and (d) recovery or resolution

Each crisis is characterized by the factors that cause it. The main categories of critical situations are four depending on the causes of the crisis, which may come from internal or external factors of the organization and may be characterized as "technical-economic" or "human-organizational-social" factors (see also **Table 1**).

[9]. Also, they described crisis as a product of a risk or opportunity arising from internal or external issues that can affect an organization on a massive scale. In [10] they describe crises as a result of human intervention rather than natural disasters in order to separate the scope of crisis management from that of risk and emergency management. The participants are surprised and have very little time to make difficult decisions in an atmosphere full of tension and volatility. A crisis is a large-scale unpredictable event that threatens to hurt an organization and its stakeholders. An

incorrect management decision can be a cause for serious operational risk.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90855*

and governmental impact on its activities.

the crisis, and finally (d) the crisis resolution stage.

#### *Crisis Management and the Public Sector: Key Trends and Perspectives DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90855*

*Public Sector Crisis Management*

**Figure 1.**

*Crisis in the real-world environment.*

in which organizations must face threats and seize opportunities, given their adopted strategies, occasional choices, and actions they decided to take, regarding

And while organizations are taking precautionary measures to deal with exceptional critical events, the degree of achievement of the intended results remains low. But how can we define crisis? According to the Greek language [1], the term crisis refers to the mental process of the human being to reason deeply and to arrive at sensible conclusions and judgments, by choice, but also to disturb the smooth course of a process, malfunctioning or improperly challenging structures, values, and institutions. In Chinese, judgment is pronounced gei-zi and is a compound word that denotes "danger" and "opportunity" at the same time. In the context of organizations, a crisis is a low-probability event with major implications, which threatens the viability of an organization and is characterized by unclear causes and effects and ways of finding a solution as well as the belief that decisions must be made within a short time. According to Robert [2], the crisis is an incident that threatens to be harming the people's safety, the environment, the reputation of an

According to [3], a definition of crisis management is the "careful study and anticipation of the risks that a business/organization may pose to reduce uncertainty and take all necessary measures"—actions, processes, and processes before, during, and after the crisis to protect people, the environment, employees and the financial position of the business." A public body is in crisis when its institutional status is challenged as well as basic structures, principles, and values are also threatened. For the public administration, the crisis may concern the whole or a large part of the population. Although crises are unpredictable, they are not unexpected and can affect all areas of society and are caused by many different causes. The authors of [4] believe that "the crisis relates to situations characterized by severe threat, uncertainty and a sense of urgency." Crises also reach a critical point where change, for better or worse, is inevitable and the experience can be proven beneficial to

the limited resources available (see also **Figure 1**).

organization, and its stakeholders involved.

**2. Crisis management and the public sector**

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people and organizations [5]. Also, in [6], the crisis is defined as: "a big, sudden event, which is likely to have negative effects. The fact and its consequences can seriously damage an organization and its employees, as well as its products and services, its financial status and reputation." This approach reinforces the need to manage the organization's communication and image.

A crisis is a situation that is approaching a "dangerous" phase, which requires urgent intervention to avoid harmful and potentially harmful effects on the structure of an organization and return to normality. It is a decisive and critical time for the organization, where the wrong decision can, as mentioned above, even cost its viability. According to the Institute for Crisis Management [7], the crisis is a situation of significant business (see also "operations") disintegration, which has resulted in negative reactions from all stakeholders, probably extensive media coverage, and public scrutiny. This situation may have a political, legal, economic, and governmental impact on its activities.

In the context of the crisis definition, we can conclude that the common elements contained in a crisis are the potential threat, which may be posed to all resources of an organization, the state of absolute surprise resulting in loss of control, and finally the short time remaining for decision-making. From the definitions above, we can easily understand the importance of the public sector crisis management, as unexpected events can affect the public and therefore the citizens of this sector, through the central government. A crisis may consist of four distinct stages, i.e., (a) the pre-crisis phase, (b) the acute phase of the crisis, (c) the time course of the crisis, and finally (d) the crisis resolution stage.

According to [8], every crisis, regardless of its form and the organization in which it is created, has the following characteristics: (a) It escalates in tension, (b) it causes a high sense of insecurity and danger, and (c) those involved are overwhelmed by stress, affecting the usual operability of the organization, while it changes the operational structure, and affecting also the "image" of the organization or of the government itself, arousing the interest of the competent bodies and especially the media to get involved in the situation. The increased demand for information that needs to be monitored by a specific group of the organization's staff may cause moral effects, not only in terms of "image" but also in material terms, which potentially may encompass to the power of the organization in real life, or even to the profile of the body, while causing a malfunction in its operational activity.

Crises are unforeseen events that have the potential to produce undesirable effects [9]. Also, they described crisis as a product of a risk or opportunity arising from internal or external issues that can affect an organization on a massive scale. In [10] they describe crises as a result of human intervention rather than natural disasters in order to separate the scope of crisis management from that of risk and emergency management. The participants are surprised and have very little time to make difficult decisions in an atmosphere full of tension and volatility. A crisis is a large-scale unpredictable event that threatens to hurt an organization and its stakeholders. An incorrect management decision can be a cause for serious operational risk.

Each crisis, regardless of the category to which it belongs, goes through different phases depending on the time of occurrence, and each phase affects the body differently (see also **Figure 2**).

The phases are (a) pre-crisis (condition or precursor), (b) acute phase (manifestation-peak crisis), (c) response (impact) phase, and (d) recovery or resolution phase (resolution-normalization) [11].

Each crisis is characterized by the factors that cause it. The main categories of critical situations are four depending on the causes of the crisis, which may come from internal or external factors of the organization and may be characterized as "technical-economic" or "human-organizational-social" factors (see also **Table 1**).

**Figure 2.** *Key phases of a crisis event.*


**Table 1.** *Separation of crises.*

The "technical-economic factors" mainly consist of natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, fires, hurricanes, H1N1 virus, mad cow disease, etc., while the "human-organizational-social" factors may include, among others, political and/or economic crises or even political instability in countries.

They may also include characteristic cases regarding information leakage and loss of human lives.

In the case of the "technical-financial factors," issues are raised from defective products that drive companies to withdraw them from the market, defective machinery that can be hazardous to human use or may result in injuries to personnel or other stakeholders (i.e., customers, partners), or in extreme cases even in an accident.
