Courses Bachelor Display 2015-2016

Course Description To PDF
Course title Crisis Management in Organisations
Course code EBC2100
ECTS credits 6,5
Assessment Whole/Half Grades
Period
Period Start End Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
1 31-8-2015 23-10-2015 X X
Level Intermediate
Coordinator Bert Schreurs
For more information: b.schreurs@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Language of instruction English
Goals
After successfully completing this course, students should be able to:
Understand the nature and types of Organisational crises;
Discuss the possible outcomes of Organisational crises;
Recognize how individual, social/Organisational/cultural, and technological factors have contributed to the emergence of Organisational crises;
Explain which factors help in preventing, containing, and resolving Organisational crises;
Appreciate the role of individual/group decision-making, communication, and leadership in the crisis management process.
Description
The aim of this course is to provide you with an understanding of the phenomenon crisis, its attributes, and to discuss ideas on what can help us to avoid and handle a crisis intelligently. A crisis is a low probability, high-impact event that threatens the viability of the Organisation and is characterized by ambiguity of cause, effect and means of resolution, as well as by a belief that decisions must be made swiftly. Well-known examples are the BP oil spill and the Chernobyl disaster (hence, this is not a course about financial crises!). An enormous amount of articles have been written on how to solve crises situations. Often these solutions are presented in easy to use -to do- lists. Unfortunately, solving Organisational crises is not that simple. This course presents a clear framework that may help you to understand how Organisational crises arise, and aims to give you more insight in the complexity of crisis management. The course consists of three main parts. In the first part, we discuss the psychological, social-cultural and technological-structural causes of an Organisational crisis. In the second part, we examine to what extent Organisations can prevent or plan for crises. In the last part, we study how Organisations can cope with a crisis once it has hit, thereby focusing on crisis communication, leadership and Organisational learning.
Literature
The literature in this course is of an advanced level as it draws from frontline scientific journals that often can be challenging. Furthermore, you are required to apply the literature to real life crisis situations.
Prerequisites
An advanced level of English
Teaching methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) PBL / Presentation / Lecture / Assignment / Papers / Groupwork
Assessment methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) Final Paper / Attendance / Participation
Evaluation in previous academic year For the complete evaluation of this course please click "here"
This course belongs to the following programmes / specialisations
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics Specialisation Economics IBE Electives
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics Specialisation Economics and Management of Information Free Electives
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics Specialisation International Business Economics Business Elective
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics Specialisation International Business Economics Major Organisation
Bachelor International Business Specialisation Emerging Markets Major Organisation
Bachelor International Business Business Electives (Major Accounting)
Bachelor International Business Business Electives (Major Finance)
Bachelor International Business Business Electives (Major Information Management)
Bachelor International Business Business Electives (Major Marketing)
Bachelor International Business Business Electives (Major Strategy)
Bachelor International Business Business Electives (Major Supply Chain Management)
Bachelor International Business Major Organisation
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