Profiling Crisis Management

Most research on crisis management has paid only limited attention to the prevention of crises. It is in the study of accidents where prevention receives ample attention. In this paper, it is argued that both the making and the management of crises can involve similar organizational weaknesses. The General Failure Type (GFT) model, originally developed and tested for profiling accident prevention, is extended to the domain of crisis management. After a short introduction and explanation of the major tenets of the theory and methodology of GFT-profiling, it is demonstrated how this methodology can be applied successfully to crisis management.