The covid-19 crisis is global and affects all companies. So how do companies approach the management of this totally unprecedented crisis?
Anticipation and Complexity of the crisis
In the management crisis, anticipation is important, and in this situation, anticipation takes on its full meaning.
Many companies are preparing for crisis management. But of all the crisis plans developed, which ones have anticipated this type of crisis?
So, the lack, or even lack, of human, material and organizational preparation highlights our inability to manage this situation.
Nevertheless, anticipation is essential to make decisions and actions in their organizations.
To the complexity of the situation, time stress adds constraints to act, while at the same time we do not have enough knowledge about the situation itself.
This crisis of Covid-19, it is thus the complexity to manage, to find the right mix of actions, words, anticipations...
The challenges of crisis management ...
The Covid-19 crisis constitutes an anxious phenomenon for companies and individuals due to the multiple uncertainties: uncertainty on the evolution of the health situation, uncertainty about the direct and indirect impacts, to the health of employees and individuals more generally and finally, uncertainty on the actions to be carried out.
And confronted with the unpredicted, the individual becomes irrational.
Companies are therefore faced with major challenges: to appear legitimate in the conduct of crisis management, to be seen as a major player that employees can trust, and to be perceived as credible in managing the crisis.
Decision-making ...
In these emergency and crisis situations, decision-makers feel caught between performance requirements and regulations.
They must then make a clever mix between complying with regulations, their own personal values and taking action.
Being able to think "out of the box" is essential to make a decision in a crisis situation.
But whatever decisions are made, not acting is damaging to the company in a crisis situation.
Conclusion
We can only note the difficulty of finding fair and appropriate answers to these questions, both in terms of the decisions taken and the actions to be implemented.
But among the actions to be implemented, communication must enable companies to meet these challenges.
It must inform on the situation and its evolution, in order to preserve its legitimacy and credibility in the management of this crisis.