Dealing with the complete crisis—the crisis management shell structure

Abstract Crisis management involves prevention, mitigation, actual response, recovery ( Heck, 1991 ; Rosenthal and Pijnenberg, 1991) recovery of control over events ( Green, 1992 ); optimal use of time and resources ( Regester, 1989 ); and fact finding, analysis, damage control and communication ( Mitroff and Pearson, 1993 ). Practitioner approaches include the Incident Command System and use of ad hoc groups ( Barton, 1993 ). This paper introduces an integrated management approach in the Crisis Management Shell Structure in terms of what the components units do, why they do these activities, and who is involved. By using a central management hub with outbranches to advisory personnel, public communications personnel, internal communications and information managers, a coordination and control office, image management and links to superiors and/or normal operations outside the crisis situation, this approach facilitates effective crisis management.