Crisis Management And Organisational Agility: A Theoretical Review

Organisations are confronted with different crisis of varying degrees and levels. It is immaterial whether impact of these crises is low or not, they have a way of adversely affecting the goals and objectives of such organizations. The toll crisis has on organizations; be it big or small could be financial, reputational, and emotional/public safety among others. There is therefore an advantage for organizations to take preventive actions so that crises that will affect the organization are mitigated or have limited impact. The question is no longer whether an organization will face a crisis or not, but when they face one, what will be their responses and approaches towards handling and reducing their effects. Very often, some managers assume that the probability of a crisis happening are so thin that the extra effort to plan for them is not necessary. However, the management of crisis has always been a critical exercise in organizations, one that is more often than not overlooked. In a world that is highly characterized by complexity, organizations will continue to face a good number of threats and crises emanating from both internal and external sources. Due to technologically, politically, economically and socio-cultural growth of our environment, the degree at which crisis will confront organization will become more frequent. Therefore, the ability of organizations to cope and be responsive while being flexible in their strategies is of utmost importance. Crisis management is therefore an interesting research topic that has through the years captured robust importance within organizations. According to Fredrik and Karl-Rikard (2015), the Crimean crisis of 2014 and the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 are some crises that have happen in the world during the last years, and within a globalized and fast-growing world, which have had adverse effect on organization and individuals and across international borders. Also, economic recession experienced in some part of the world including Nigeria between 2016 and 2017 is another crisis that our economy is yet to recover from. The COVID 19 is another pandemic which is already having a huge adverse effect on the world. For instance, the impact of this pandemic or crisis will be felt both politically, economically, socio-culturally, technologically, ecologically, legally and demographically across the globe, especially in Nigeria. Shutdown of some business activities is already the order of the day, how an organization is able to survive and still maintain her going Abstract: Crises are a natural and inevitable part of doing business. For an organization to continue to exist, the management of crisis must be effective. This study adopted a theoretical review of crisis management and organisational agility from extant literature. The various strategies adopted in effective crisis management were analyzed as well as the measures of organisational agility. The study concluded that organizations should develop effective crisis management strategies such as proactive, responsive and reactive in order to curtail and prevent crisis when it occurs. It recommends continuous training of staff and management on crisis situation and that organization’s responses to crisis situation should be quick and flexible.