An Information-Processing Model of Crisis Management

Abstract

This article develops a contingency model for managing a variety of corporate crises. It views crisis management as an information-processing situation and organizations that must cope with crises as information-processing systems. Depending on whether a crisis originates in the more immediate or relevant environment of a firm or in its more remote environment and whether it involves technical failure or sociopolitical failure, the information-processing requirements confronting a firm will vary. The model attempts to fit appropriate information-processing mechanisms to different categories of crises. To facilitate future research and empirical testing of the model, specific propositions are deduced from the conceptual framework.