Organizational crisis management: Overview and opportunities.

The field of modern organizational crisis management emerged largely in response to the 1982 cyanide tampering of Tylenol capsules (Mitroff, 2001). Since that time, a substantial body of scholarly research and practical wisdom has developed. Despite the use of psychological research by crisis management scholars, organizational crisis management has received substantially less attention within psychology itself. This article provides an overview of the field and highlights current frameworks for understanding the stages of organizational crisis/response. It extends previous theory by applying the "levels of prevention" framework often used in community and health psychology and by offering a new assessment tool based on the "4 factor" (4 P) framework used in clinical assessment. Areas for psychological consultation and research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)