Crisis-as-practice: Conceptualizing the role of everyday work practices in crisis management

Abstract

Although research on organizational crisis management is vast, it is sometimes insubstantial, particularly in understanding how an organization's routine practices are utilized in crisis management. This article presents a conceptual framework of crisis-as-practice to complement the ‘traditional’ crisis-as-event and crisis-as-process perspectives of crisis management research. By turning to practice theory, it is possible to emphasize the importance of apprehending crisis management as an accomplishment shaped by socially shared practices routinely performed in organizations. This article outlines a framework based on two theoretical constructs: (1) the three-element model of practice, and (2) the distinction between integrative and dispersed practices revealing crisis management capabilities generally invisible in other research. The article concludes with a discussion of how the practice-based framework can widen the understanding of what crisis management is, who is viewed as a crisis manager, what crisis managers do, and what can be grasped through an analysis of crisis managers and their practices.