Showing papers on "Crisis management published in 2012"

The European Sovereign Debt Crisis

Abstract: The origin and propagation of the European sovereign debt crisis can be attributed to the flawed original design of the euro. In particular, there was an incomplete understanding of the fragility of a monetary union under crisis conditions, especially in the absence of banking union and other European-level buffer mechanisms. Moreover, the inherent messiness involved in proposing and implementing incremental multicountry crisis management responses on the fly has been an important destabilizing factor throughout the crisis. After diagnosing the situation, we consider reforms that might improve the resilience of the euro area to future fiscal shocks.

Emergency situation awareness from twitter for crisis management

Abstract: This paper describes ongoing work with the Australian Government to detect, assess, summarise, and report messages of interest for crisis coordination published by Twitter. The developed platform and client tools, collectively termed the Emergency Situation Awareness - Automated Web Text Mining (ESA-AWTM) system, demonstrate how relevant Twitter messages can be identified and utilised to inform the situation awareness of an emergency incident as it unfolds.A description of the ESA-AWTM platform is presented detailing how it may be used for real life emergency management scenarios. These scenarios are focused on general use cases to provide: evidence of pre-incident activity; near-real-time notification of an incident occurring; first-hand reports of incident impacts; and gauging the community response to an emergency warning. Our tools have recently been deployed in a trial for use by crisis coordinators.

Fukushima in review: A complex disaster, a disastrous response

Abstract: On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The emerging crisis at the plant was complex, and, to make matters worse, it was exacerbated by communication gaps between the government and the nuclear industry. An independent investigation panel, established by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, reviewed how the government, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), and other relevant actors responded. In this article, the panel’s program director writes about their findings and how these players were thoroughly unprepared on almost every level for the cascading nuclear disaster. This lack of preparation was caused, in part, by a public myth of “absolute safety” that nuclear power proponents had nurtured over decades and was aggravated by dysfunction within and between government agencies and Tepco, particularly in regard to political leadership and crisis management. The investigation also found that the tsunami that began the nuclear disaster coul...

Corporate Facebook pages: when “fans” attack

Abstract: Purpose – Facebook continues to play an increasingly necessary role in the corporate portfolio of stakeholder relations. Unlike traditional channels of corporate communication, Facebook allows for uncensored, unpredictable, two‐way conversations. This paper aims to engage thought and enact immediate action in the prevention and rehabilitation of a company's online reputation in the event of a Facebook wall attack.Design/methodology/approach – By conducting online research for an online subject and studying the historical perspectives of public outrage and a “fan's” dissatisfaction, the authors examine different approaches to corporate attacks. The case study of Nestle's improper handling of a crisis on Facebook contrasted with examples of properly handled responses serve as guidelines that any company can utilize. The authors have provided seven steps that any business can incorporate into its crisis prevention plan.Findings – Harm, fear of harm and threatened values are the three basic sources of public ...

Современные кризисные процессы и Актуальные проблемы теории и практики управления

Abstract: The article rendered concrete interrelation between the modern crisis processes and current problems of the theory and practice of management. The conclusion is that the economic crisis in the global and domestic economy is due not only to the globalization, financial and institutional factors, and the objective reasons of administrative character. Among them, a special attention is paid to the tendency to increase the scope and complexity to the structure of modern organizations, which are updated by the problems of effective risk management and makes new demands on the organization of risk management and crisis management. It is shown that for Russia the existence of crisis processes simultaneously exposes available in the management of problems caused by lack of efficiency and an inadequate level of crisis, and information management.

Crisis Management 2.0: Towards a Systematization of Social Software Use in Crisis Situations

Abstract: In this paper, the authors propose a systematization of social software use in crisis situations, examining different types of cooperation and challenges. The authors discuss how the organizational actors involved in crisis management (police, fire-fighters, organizations, etc.) and the affected citizens are communicating and can communicate and collaborate through the use of social software. After defining the term ‘social software,’ the authors outline its use in crisis management. They present two case studies where they have examined the use of social software in 2010: first during the disruption of air travel caused by the eruptions of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland and second during the mass panic at the Love Parade music festival in Germany. Based on both previous work and case studies, the authors discuss potentials and weaknesses and propose a classification matrix for different types of cooperation as a step toward a systematization of social software use in crisis situations. DOI: 10.4018/jiscrm.2012010101 2 International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 4(1), 1-16, January-March 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. information infrastructure. Palen and Liu (2007) point out that organizations of formal response may be shaped to “support the new information pathways that will arise”. People often use mobile phones and the Internet to inform their families and friends. Using social software applications, such as social networks, blogs, micro-blogs, photo and video communities, a lot of information is published by everyone. The aim of this paper is to suggest a systematization of the use of social software in crisis situations, deriving different types of cooperation and develop related requirements. Therefore, we first describe major categories of social software (Section 2) and review the related state-of-the-art (Section 3). Furthermore we enhance it with data from our own case studies in Germany, where we observed the social software use at two major events, particular about the relationship of organization and citizen (Section 4). Based on a discussion on both literature and case studies and the identification of both strengths and weaknesses (Section 5) we suggest a systemization of cooperation in social software use for crisis management (Section 6). 2. POTENTIAL OF SOCIAL SOFTWARE IN CRISIS COMMUNICATION Social Software is a part of Web 2.0. The term ‘Web 2.0’ is not well defined but describes the innovations of the Internet after the crash of the ‘new economy’ in 2000 (Alby, 2007). At a conference held by O’Reilly, the competences of the surviving companies of the new economy were summarized under the term ‘Web 2.0.’ O’Reilly (2005) defined them in seven characteristics which include the usage of the Internet as a platform to provide different services, the participation of users and a collective intelligence, the consideration of the user generated data as capital of an application, the inclusion of the user in the development using new software development models, the usage of services on different terminals and rich user experience. The term ‘social software’ describes web-based applications, which support the user’s interaction and communication process. In addition to this definition, there are various other considerations. Hippner (2006) defined social software as the possibility to exchange information, manage relationships and communicate in a social context. Besides the exchange of information, Ebersbach et al. (2008) have defined that user-generated content is an essential element of social software. Therefore, the existence of a community is an important pre-condition. The following characteristics arise from the different definitions and will be used in this paper: Social software encompasses a range of applications from the Internet, which enable different people to contact and interact with each other. A community providing the data is the basis of these applications and they support different activities: the allocation of information, the generation of information, relationship management, communication and self-expression. Different activities are often combined. Based on the definition of these activities, various classes of social software applications can be distinguished (Ebersbach et al., 2008). Wikis aim at a collaborative accumulation and creation of information and knowledge. They are useful to collect knowledge of a topic based on one’s own research. In a crisis, this activity may be done by people who are not seriously affected by the crisis. Blogs support the publishing of information and self-expression through an individually owned journal. They are not useful as a fast response as they often contain longer personal entries. Micro-blogging is an alternative. These applications use allow entries limited to 140 characters, similar to text messages. The most prominent application is Twitter. Users can publish messages (tweets) on their site and tag words (#hashtag) within a message. With the help of these tags, certain messages can be found. It is possible to address other users with the ‘@user’ notation. It is also possible to publish tweets by sending text messages using a mobile phone. Due to the tweet’s text messageInternational Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 4(1), 1-16, January-March 2012 3 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. like structure, tagging and easily finding tweets about specific topics, its huge dissemination with over a 100 million users worldwide and its mobile usability, Twitter is a significant social software for crises. Social networks were originally used for relationship management, self-expression and communication, but now these applications are more and more incorporating by functionalities related to blogging and the exchange of information. An example for a social networking service that offers good opportunities for crisis communication is Facebook. In addition to networking with people, organizations, companies or celebrities are possible. Each profile includes a wall where people can leave messages or where the owner of the profile can post his/her own status messages. The entries can include text, links, photos, videos and other users can add comments. On the wall a dialogue between individuals and organizations is possible. Facebook provides a client for various mobile devices making it possible to upload profile information from almost everywhere. People with older devices can receive updates through text messages and in turn update their own pages by sending their own messages via SMS. Lastly, the wide acceptance of Facebook, there are about 800 million active users worldwide, makes it the largest online community – one of the most important reasons why we recommend its use in crisis management. Social sharing enables the user to generate and categorize digital content. Photo and video communities are the most interesting for crisis communication. The most popular are Flickr for sharing photos and YouTube to share video clips. Both services allow the indexing of uploaded content using self-selected tags describing the content and making a targeted search possible. Flickr offers several ways to interact with the website; one option is a website optimized for mobile devices, another is uploading photos via e-mail. YouTube offers a mobile version of the page, which supports the recording and uploading of clips by using a mobile phone. Flickr also lets users geo-tag pictures that can then be placed on a map, or be displayed with additional image information using EXIF data. When a crisis impends, quick reaction is necessary. Therefore, information about the incident is needed. For social software this means that the user has to provide his/ her information in real time on the Internet. Not every type of social software is adequate for this. Regarding the potentials of different types of social software, in this paper we will focus on micro-blogs, social networks, social sharing and the provision of content with an eye on classifying social software use in crisis management (Figure 1). 3. LITERATURE REVIEW: USE OF SOCIAL SOFTWARE IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT Social software has been used in crisis management for at least 10 years: Already after the terrorist attacks of September 11th (2001), wikis, created by citizens, were used to collect information on missing people (Palen & Liu, 2007). In a study on the information search behaviour during the forest fires in southern California in 2007, it was noted that people affected by the fires communicated via mobile phones. Furthermore, they used the Internet to search for information and to trigger any kind of communication, to read blogs, news sites and forums. They made use of photo-sharing services like Flickr in order to obtain information (Sutton, Palen, & Shklovski, 2008) Many published research papers focus on crises in the USA, and many of them on the use of Twitter. The use of Twitter was analysed scientifically in the context of various crises such as in the case of technological failures (Sutton, 2010), the flood of the Red River (Starbird, Palen, Hughes, & Vieweg, 2010), an attack on four police officers in Lakewood, Washington (Heverin & Zach, 2010), hurricanes (Hughes & Palen, 2009) and earthquakes (Qu, Huang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2011). The focus of these investigations was on the general examination of all messages that had been twittered dur4 International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 4(1), 1-16, January-March 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. ing the particu

A chaos theory perspective on destination crisis management: evidence from Mexico.

Abstract: It is recognised that tourism destinations are vulnerable to some form of crisis or disaster. Consequently, attention has long been paid to the nature and consequences of tourism crises and disasters, whilst, more recently, a number of tourism crisis management models have been proposed in the literature. Such models may, however, be criticised for their structured, linear and prescriptive approach to the management of crises, which tend to be unpredictable in their occurrence and evolution. Therefore, identifying the limitations of contemporary crisis management models, this paper proposes an alternative, chaos theory-based approach to crisis management. This is then considered within the context of the AH1N1 influenza crisis in Mexico. The research revealing not only that the unfolding of the crisis followed many of the tenets of chaos theory, but also that chaos theory provides a viable framework for the management of tourism crises.

Crisis response information networks

Abstract: In the past two decades, organizational scholars have focused significant attention on how organizations manage crises While most of these studies concentrate on crisis prevention, there is a growing emphasis on crisis response Because information that is critical to crisis response may become outdated as crisis conditions change, crisis response research recognizes that the management of information flows and networks is critical to crisis response Yet despite its importance, little is known about the various types of crisis information networks and the role of IT in enabling these information networks Employing concepts from information flow and social network theories, this paper contributes to crisis management research by developing four crisis response information network prototypes These networks are based on two main dimensions: (1) information flow intensity and (2) network density We describe how considerations of these two dimensions with supporting case evidence yield four prototypical crisis information response networks: Information Star, Information Pyramid, Information Forest, and Information Black-out In addition, we examine the role of IT within each information network structure We conclude with guidelines for managers to deploy appropriate information networks during crisis response and with suggestions for future research related to IT and crisis management

Supporting improvisation work in inter-organizational crisis management

Abstract: Improvisation is necessary when planned decision-making as the main managerial activity does not fit the conditions the practice provides. In these cases, information technology should not just automate planned and structured decisions, but support improvisational practice. In this contribution we present an empirical study about the improvisation work in scenarios of medium to large power outages in Germany. Our focus is on inter-organizational cooperation practices, thus we examined the cooperation of fire departments, police, public administration, electricity infrastructure operators and citizens. Our empirical material allows to describe reasons and conditions for improvisation. Our resulting recommendations address the support of aggregation and visualization of information, a necessary individualization of information compositions, options for collaborative situation assessment, requirements for informal and formal communication, and accessibility of information resources.

Developing a Health System Approach to Disaster Management: A Qualitative Analysis of the Core Literature to Complement the WHO Toolkit for Assessing Health-System Capacity for Crisis Management

Abstract: UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND The World Health Organisation's (WHO) sixty-fourth World Health Assembly in May 2011 adopted a resolution on 'strengthening national health emergency and disaster management capacities and resilience of health systems'. Disaster management is a topical issue globally and countries are being encouraged to improve their disaster preparedness, along with growing international commitment to strengthening health systems. Lessons identified from disasters have not been effectively collated; essential experience is forgotten. METHODS This paper describes the analysis of the worldwide experience of disasters through a health systems approach. A systematic search of the core literature from January 2000 to November 2011 was conducted. Components drawn from the WHO's Global assessment of national health sector emergency preparedness and response baseline survey were combined with WHO's six health system building blocks (or levers) to act as the initial analysis anchors, with a further grounded theory qualitative analysis of the literature allowing the identification of emerging themes and insights. The priority areas identified by this literature review were then compared with the topics covered by the new expert-consensus-derived Toolkit for assessing health-system capacity for crisis management developed by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. FINDINGS 143 publications identified from a literature search were analysed and appraised. Themes and examples from the literature demonstrate how health system strengthening should contribute to disaster management. Priority areas under-represented in the WHO Toolkit and identified by the qualitative analysis are discussed. INTERPRETATION Collation and analysis of the disaster management literature identifies how health system strengthening can promote resilience and efficient recovery in the face of disasters. These findings support and complement the WHO Toolkit. Countries can use the literature evidence with the WHO Toolkit to assess their disaster management capacities and identify priorities for strengthening their health system. CITATION: Bayntun C, Rockenschaub G, Murray V. Developing a health system approach to disaster management: A qualitative analysis of the core literature to complement the WHO Toolkit for assessing health-system capacity for crisis management. PLOS Currents Disasters. 2012 Aug 22. doi: 10.1371/5028b6037259a.

Auditing and crisis management: The 2010 Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the way in which auditing was mobilised during the 2010 Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal, through a textual analysis of media coverage associated with the crisis. Using ‘t Hart’s power-symbolic analytical framework, we document the initial public framing of the auditing-based response as well as rhetorical strategies to mask, and counter, public criticisms of audits commissioned by the National Rugby League (NRL) and News Limited in the immediate aftermath of the salary cap breach announcement. We illustrate that these audits formed a key element of the crisis management response of both organisations. We also provide evidence of the way that the NRL sought to use the audit exercise to re-legitimate its ongoing monitoring and enforcement of the salary cap. In spite of various challenges to the scope, due process, timeliness, transparency, independence and resourcing of the audits, the audit programs and their associated narratives endured. The paper contributes to understanding the role of auditing in crisis management and how this role can be implicated in shaping the social construction and contestation of organisational crises.

Crisis management for SMEs: insights from a multiple-case study

Abstract: Research in crisis management involves a variety of perspectives, including crisis impacts, strategic vision and leadership, contingency planning and technical capabilities. However, crisis management mechanisms of small and medium enterprise (SMEs) were rarely investigated for sound theory building and practical guidance for management. The aim of this paper is to explore mechanisms by which SMEs use to manage crisis. This paper presents a general crisis management model that represents crisis management processes in terms of detection, occurrence, recovery and resolution. To validate and refine this model, a multiple-case study is designed to investigate five SMEs’ actual crisis management practices. The case study results show that SMEs, in spite of their resources constraints and relatively weak market positions, display resilient market responsiveness. This paper further suggests that effective crisis management of SMEs involve proactive business mindsets for sustainable growth and continuous expansions.

German foreign policy and the Libya crisis

Abstract: German foreign policy has come under scrutiny due to its decision to abstain in the vote on UN Security Council Resolution 1973 in March 2011 on the Libyan no fly zone. Germany's decision not to support France, the UK and the USA ensured that no common EU position emerged and NATO's response to the crisis proved difficult. German foreign policy was caught between enlarging its influence and role in crisis management and reserving the right to reject involvement in operations that do not fit with its national interest. Drawing on the work of Robert Gilpin, the article argues that Germany's decision to abstain on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 can be explained by understanding the cost/benefit calculations of the German government, pressured by the protracted Eurozone crisis.

Lessons learned from the use of social media in combating a crisis: a case study of 2011 thailand flooding disaster

Abstract: Social media have played integral roles in many crises around the world. Thailand faced severe floods between July 2011 and January 2012, when more than 13.6 million people were affected. This 7-month disaster provides a great opportunity to understand the use of social media for managing a crisis project before, during, and after its occurrence. However, current literature lacks a theoretical framework on investigating the relationship between social media and crisis management from the project management perspective. The paper adopts a social media-based crisis management framework and the structuration theory in investigating and analyzing social media. The results suggest that social media should be utilized to meet different information needs in order to achieve the success of managing a future crisis project.

Quality Indicators for Crisis Communication to Support Emergency Management by Public Authorities

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for performance indicators to measure and improve crisis communication preparedness of public authorities. Such an instrument supporting organizational learning has not yet been developed for crisis communication. Literature is used to create a basis and the framework is derived from a process model with various phases integrating communication activities with crisis management. In the paper, the development of the instrument is explained and justified. Furthermore, an example of its use is provided in which the instrument is used for an auditor evaluation of a water contamination case. A next step for future research could be to analyze and compare a number of measurements.

The Euro Area Crises, Shifting Power Relations and Institutional Change in the European Union1

Abstract: This article studies recent governance dynamics in the euro area under the pressure of the sovereign debt crisis from 2009 to the end of 2011 from an institutionalist perspective. It investigates five cases of implicit or explicit institutional change which reveal the pace and the scope of explicit and implicit institutional change in the monetary union under crisis conditions. It argues that key steps of crisis management have actually created path dependencies for further institutional change. It also argues that incoherent responses from multiple actors in the face of immediate crisis management needs, new policy challenges and coordination difficulties in the crisis have strengthened the case for more substantial institutional change. An institutional set-up that continues to adapt only incrementally to the inner and outer challenges by not impacting more strongly on national sovereignty and by not strengthening supranational policy-making based on its own sources of legitimacy will not be able to solve the collective action problems inherent in the European Monetary Union (EMU)’s architecture with a centralized monetary policy and insufficient integration in the fields of economic, budgetary and financial policy coordination. Policy Implications • The adaptability of the institutional framework of the euro area should not be underestimated. • Substantial adjustment to its governance have occured and will happen below the level of Treaty change. • In the medium-term, a more fundamental reform may be required in order to account for problems of governance efficiency and, increasingly, problems of legitimacy. • An institutional set-up that continues to adapt only incrementally to the inner and outer challenges by not impacting more strongly on national sovereignty and by not strengthening supranational policy-making based on its own sources of legitimacy will not be able to solve the collective action problems inherent in the Euro area’s asymmetry; namely, a centralized monetary policy and insufficient integration in the fields of economic, budgetary and financial policy coordination.

Estimating Citizen Alertness in Crises Using Social Media Monitoring and Analysis

Abstract: The use of social media for communication and interaction is becoming more and more frequent, which is also the case during crises. To monitor social media may therefore be a useful capability from a crisis management perspective, both for detecting new or emergent crises, as well as for getting a better situation awareness of how people react to a particular crisis. The work presented in this paper is part of the EU research project Alert4All, having the overall goal of improving the effectiveness of alert and communication toward the population in crises.

Collaborative Serious Games for Crisis Management: An Overview

Abstract: Training in the field of crisis management is complex and costly, requiring a combination of approaches and techniques to acquire not only technical skills, but also to develop the capability to cooperate and coordinate individual activities towards a collective effort (soft skills). In this paper we focus on serious games for increasing participants' skills in a playful manner. In the paper we identify general issues characterizing crises management and we analyze the state of the art of serious games for crisis management in order to understand strengths and weaknesses of these environments.

Crisis leadership: a view from the executive suite

Abstract: Crisis leadership has become a strong element of crisis management scholarship, yet much of the published research is primarily observational, based on the performance of leaders in crisis situations or prescriptions for preferred behaviour. By contrast, this paper builds on in-depth interviews with CEOs and top executives who provide a rare and remarkably frank view from the executive suite about the current state of crisis management and in particular about the role of corporate leaders in crisis prevention and preparedness. The heavily regulated chemical industry is seen as something of a bellwether for crisis management, and the paper details the perspective from leaders themselves, namely top executives in the chemical and petrochemical industry in Australia, representing some of the world's largest multinational corporations. The paper explores the reasons perceived at the executive level for why top executives often fail to provide the necessary openness, leadership and prioritization to prevent and prepare for organizational crises. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Anticipatory Governance Practical Upgrades: Equipping the Executive Branch to Cope with Increasing Speed and Complexity of Major Challenges

Abstract: : If we are to remain a well-functioning Republic and a prosperous nation, the U.S. Government cannot rely indefinitely on crisis management, no matter how adroit. We must get ahead of events or we risk being overtaken by them. That will only be possible by upgrading our legacy systems of management to meet today s unique brand of accelerating and complex challenges. Anticipatory Governance responds to this need by introducing three critical elements to existing Executive Branch functions: foresight fused to policy analysis; networked governance for mission-based management and budgeting; and feedback to monitor and adjust policy relative to initial expectations. This report suggests practical upgrades to Executive Branch systems that are light on resources, compatible with the existing structures and processes of government, and fully executable under customary Presidential authorities (requiring no congressional action). The Problem. A well-functioning Republic needs time for deliberation, and the U.S. Constitution was designed to make sure that this time would be protected. On the other hand, challenges presenting themselves today are increasingly fast-moving complex: they involve concurrent interactions among events across multiple dimensions of governance; they have no regard for our customary jurisdictional and bureaucratic boundaries; they cannot be broken apart and solved piece by piece; and rather than stabilizing into permanent solutions, they morph into new problems that have to be continually managed. This pattern profoundly challenges the adaptive capacity of our legacy systems of government, which are essentially modeled on the early industrial period: vertical, hierarchical, segmented, mechanical, and sluggish. Our 19th-century government is simply not built for the nature of 21st-century challenges.

The crisis with no name: Defining the interplay of culture, ethnicity, and race on organizational issues and media outcomes

Abstract: This study is the first to provide best practices exclusively for communication about crises that involve issues of culture, ethnicity, and/or race from expert crisis managers' perspectives. Using complexity theory as a framework, this study provides an in-depth, theoretically grounded understanding of managing issues and crises involving culture, ethnicity and/or race through the experiences of 34 senior crisis communicators. Complex insider perspectives suggest that responsibility for crisis management must move beyond any managerial bias to become more organic, normative, inclusive, and community spirited. First, issues and crises involving culture, ethnicity, and/or race are defined, laying a foundation for future theory development on ways these issues can become or exacerbate crises. Second, research participants’ stories coalesce to produce best practices and a useful decision-making framework for practical application in organizations.

Macrofinancial Stress Testing - Principles and Practices

Abstract: The recent financial crisis drew unprecedented attention to the stress testing of financial institutions. On one hand, stress tests were criticized for having missed many of the vulnerabilities that led to the crisis. On the other, after the onset of the crisis, they were given a new role as crisis management tools to guide bank recapitalization and help restore confidence. This spurred an intense debate on the models, underlying assumptions, and uses of stress tests. Current stress testing practices, however, are not based on a systematic and comprehensive set of principles but have emerged from trial-and-error and often reflect constraints in human, technical, and data capabilities.

The UK and European defence: leading or leaving?

Abstract: The UK, with France, initiated the European, today Common, Security and Defence Policy (ESDP/CSDP) in 19989. A strong consensus on the need to address capability shortfalls, which the UK accepted to attempt under the EU flag, however masked the lack of consensus about the extent to which the EU would also make policy and launch operations (which would require permanent planning and conduct structures). This debate about the degree of EU autonomy vis-a-vis NATO and the US is one of the reasons why Europeans collectively have no strategic vision on the regions and scenarios for which they should assume responsibility, as the Libyan crisis demonstrated. But also on the capability side, the UK in the end never fully committed, withholding the necessary budget to allow the European Defence Agency to operate as intended and resisting moves towards military integration, such as Permanent Structured Cooperation, in favour of bilateral arrangements such as the 2010 agreement with France. Meanwhile, however, the US came to demand that Europe take charge, autonomously, of crisis management in its own neighbourhood. British policy now seems to have struck a dead end. London has managed to slow down the CSDP. NATO has seen even fewer results in capability development, but when it comes to operations, in the absence of US leadership NATO is equally blocked by the lack of a collective European strategic vision. London, with Paris, remains the only European actor able and willing to engage in crisis management and war, but cannot mobilize many other capitals to join in. Unlike the US, the UK does not have the means to go in alone if necessary. A fundamental revision of policy is needed if the UK wants to maintain its level of influence in security and defence.

Measuring a Company Reputation in a Crisis Situation: An Ethnography Approach on the Situational Crisis Communication Theory

Abstract: By conducting an ethnography method, this research applied the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to explain the public perception about the company’s action during a crisis. The public has a particular attribution about the crisis that determines the company’s reputation. The attribution involves three factors of the reputation, an initial crisis responsibility, a crisis history, and a prior relational reputation. The SCCT has often been overlooked; however, most research has focused on an organization-centered approach rather than a public approach. Hence, this current research focuses on the public’s perspective of the mudflow crisis in Indonesia. There also appears to be little ethnography research available that centered on the public approach. It gives contribution to the public relations issues and crisis management field. This research reinforces the Situational Crisis Communication Theory. It should be emphasized that the company should deal more properly with the impact of the crisis on the victims.