Organizational Crisis Management and Human Resource Development: A Review of the Literature and Implications to HRD Research and Practice

Abstract

The problem and the solution. From the post-9/11 effect on financial and transportation industries to the corporate fraud scandals involving Enron and Tyco, organizational crises are a pervasive threat to organizational performance and sustainability.The authors' review of the literature suggests that although the impact of crises on organization effectiveness has been increasingly recognized, it has not attracted much attention from human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners. As a result, HRD has not considered how learning, change, and performance interventions might be used to support crisis management processes. The purpose of this article is to explore the role of HRD in organizational crisis management. Specifically, the authors review the theoretical underpinnings of organizational crisis management research, identify opportunities for HRD to be involved in crisis management processes, and explore how HRD research and practice may contribute to supporting organizations' crisis management efforts.