Organization & Environment

The author argues in this article that in order to conceive of the notion of crisis and to go beyond the notions of disruption, struggle or disequilibrium, one must conceive of a society or an organization as systems that can experience crises. This implies that one must posits three levels of existence for these systems: the systemic level, the cybernetic level, and the negentropic level. After this discussion, several components of the concept of crisis are described and the need for a grounded theory in 'crisiology' is affirmed.

We are living in a world rife with many types of crises. The most prominent and urgent crises involve the earth's ecology. Environmental crises involving Ozone depletion, global warming, toxic and radioactive wastes, air pollution, industrial accidents etc. are affecting communities around the world.

In this paper, I examine changes in crisis management theory and practice. In the past two decades, much progress has been made in our understanding of industrial and environmental crises. However, our understanding remains highly fragmented and selective. We need to integrate diverse findings and cumulatively build on past knowledge. To do this the concept of "sustainable development" provides a unifying motif. Some research questions that deserve urgent attention are identified.

We describe in this article the content of the research conducted by 24 of the most active researchers in the field of crisis management over a five-year period. Our study indicates that researchers are presently focusing most of their efforts on theory building, as well as addressing three macro areas, specifically: 1) the technological issues related to crisis management; 2) the subjective and cultural issues; and 3) social criticism. These researchers also address four micro areas: i.e. the structural, communicational and strategical issues and the management of diverse stakeholders. We conclude this article by proposing some likely avenues for future research and by discussing several of the strengths and weaknesses evident in the field at present.