Courses NonDegree Display 2021-2022

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 30-8-2021 15-10-2021 X X
Level Intermediate
Coordinator Catarina Marques dos Santos
For more information: c.marquesdossantos@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Language of instruction English
Goals
After successfully completing this course, students should be able to:
• understand the nature and types of organizational crises;
• discuss the possible outcomes of organizational crises;
• recognize how individual, social/organizational/cultural, and technological factors have contributed to the emergence of organizational crises;
• explain which factors help in preventing organizational crises;
• explain which factors help in containing and resolving organizational 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 organization 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 Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. Hence, this is not a course about financial crises.
An enormous amount of articles have been written on how to solve crisis situations. Often these solutions are presented in easy to use -to do- lists. Unfortunately, solving organizational crises is not that simple. The objective of this course is to offer you a clear framework that helps you in understanding how organizational crises arise, and to give you more insight in the complexity of crisis management.
The course consists of two main parts: (1) conditions that affect the vulnerability to an organizational crisis; and (2) crisis management. The first part concentrates on the factors that make an organization crisis prone. We thereby focus on human nature; social-cultural causes; and organizational-technological causes. The second part discusses crisis management. We will discuss what organizations can do to prevent crises, and how to contain and resolve organizational crises. Specific attention will be paid to crisis decision making by individuals and groups; communication, and leadership in times of crises.
Literature
The literature in this course is of an advanced level as it draws from frontline scientific journals that often can be challenging. Furthermore, students 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
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 - Economics Year 3 International Business Economics Elective(s
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics - Emerging Markets Year 3 Elective Course(s)
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics - Economics and Management of Information Year 2+3 Elective Course(s)
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics - International Business Economics Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Inf Mgmt
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics - International Business Economics Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Macro
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics - International Business Economics Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Micro
Bachelor Economics and Business Economics - International Business Economics Year 3 Core Course(s) - Maj Org
Bachelor International Business - Emerging Markets Year 3 Elective Course(s)
Bachelor International Business Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Accounting
Bachelor International Business Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Finance
Bachelor International Business Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Inf Mgmt
Bachelor International Business Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Marketing
Bachelor International Business Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj SCM
Bachelor International Business Year 3 Business Elec(s) - Maj Strategy
Bachelor International Business Year 3 Core Course(s) - Maj Org
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