Business
Organizational leaders often see crisis as a uniformly negative event that should be avoided at all costs.
They often focus crisis management efforts on trying to predict every negative situation that could
possibly occur and developing a plan to avoid them. Such an approach is impractical according to
researchers Antonacopoulou and Sheafer (2011) because unexpected crises are an inevitable part of
business. Moreover, they propose �a dynamic view of learning and crisis as central to manage�ment
and organization practices� (p. 4). Crises, they say, not only happen during large-scale disasters but
also occur on a smaller scale each time someone is pressured to make a decision for which prior
solutions are inadequate. These situations force people to �make new connections� among existing
knowledge to arrive at novel solutions. Research such as this suggests that crises can be learning
opportunities.
To prepare, identify a crisis the organization that you chose for your SSP (Brookside Dairy Company )
has faced in the past, a crisis that it is currently facing (Brookside Dairy Company ), or a crisis that a
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competitor in that industry has faced that your selected organization may face in the future (Brookside
Dairy Company ).
By Day 3 of Week 7, post a two page explanation of the crisis that you selected and a crisis management
response recommendation.(Brookside Dairy Company ) Include an analysis of the ethical implications of
that recommendation. Reference at least one scholarly peer-reviewed resource in your recommendation.
Business
Crises are inevitable in organizations, even though many managers see them as uniformly
negative events. Focus should not be on management of these crises, but should be used to
develop a suitable plan to avoid them. The author uses Brookside Dairy Company as a case study
in deliberating on aspects concerning crisis, recommends a crisis management response, and
includes an analysis of ethical implications of the recommendation.
Brookside Dairy Company is one of the major dairy producing companies in East Africa
with operations in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. It deals in fresh milk as well as dairy products;
some exported to other countries such as Rwanda, Egypt, Middle East, Burundi and Indian
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Ocean islands (Brookside Dairy Limited, 2014). The company’s competitors have faced a
number of crises that Brookside Dairy Company should develop plans to avoid experiencing the
same in future. One of the crises is employee go-slows because of low salaries that jeopardizes
the operations of the company.
Employees have a right to better working environment and to engage in go-slows and
strikes if their rights are beached. The management, on the other hand, has the responsibility of
ensuring that their employees work in a conducive environment as this enhances job satisfaction
translating into higher productivity. Therefore, many entities in Milk production have faced such
crisis that has had negative impacts on their operations and profitability. Advance planning on
how to manage such crises helps to avoid the consequences that negatively impacts on an entity.
A lot of time is normally wasted during such periods that could have otherwise put into valuable
use.
Understanding appropriate crisis management strategies contributes to successful
management of a crisis. The appropriate crisis management recommendation to handle such a
crisis is to engage in effective communication (Gupta, 2011). A communication plan is required
to allow the management of the company and the leadership of employees to come to a
consensus. Through communication, the two parties will create an understanding and will forge
an appropriate way of solving their issues. The company is required to appreciate the
contribution of their workers and ensure that it honors its promises on salary increments and on
working conditions of workers. Similarly, the leadership of employees should also allow
negotiation and provide appropriate direction to their fellow workers. These steps will help to
avoid go-slows and, therefore, the operations of the company with continue normally without
having to jeopardize the company profitability.
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A crisis management option should also consider its ethical implications to the various
stakeholders. The recommend response has ethical implications as it promotes or exemplifies
care. By engaging all the stakeholders in the communication process to secure, a tangible
solution is an indication of fairness and justice to all the parties (Tase, 2012). Employees have a
right to ask for better pay and working terms. Likewise, the organization’s leadership has a right
to be listened to and respected by employers. Therefore, through this relationship and open
communications, both parties will be satisfied and will remain committed to the achievement of
the entities goals and objectives (Veil, 2011). Workers through this agreement will not consider
going on a go-slow hence, the company will not have to incur huge losses. The workers plights
and complaints will also be considered in a better way helping reach an amicable solution.
Therefore, it is apparent that crisis is inevitable. This crisis may develop over duration of
time or may arise instantly affecting the operations of an entity. Managers should, therefore,
learn from crises that face their counterparts to be in a potion to develop appropriate strategies to
counter such crisis when they happen in their entities. Crisis therefore, should be an opportunity
to learn and to gain more experience on better preventive measures. Any decisions taken should
consider ethical consequences to ensure that conflicts of interest do not happen.
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References
Brookside Dairy Limited. (2014). About the company.
