Issue management as a post‐crisis discipline: identifying and responding to issue impacts beyond the crisis

While there is a prolific literature on processes for organizational crisis management, and extensive scholarship on response methodologies such as apologia, image restoration and immediate post‐crisis discourse, little has been written about the longer term post‐crisis challenge beyond recovery, business resumption and organizational learning. Crises can lead to persistent and damaging issues, but there has been limited substantive research to illuminate the optimal processes to navigate the transition from crisis to issue. Moreover, if organizations remain in conventional post‐crisis mode there is a real risk of failure to put in place proper processes for longer term management of post‐crisis issues. After considering linear and non‐linear process models, and the development of a more holistic, integrated approach to issue and crisis management, this article proposes issue management as the most effective practical discipline to identify and respond to longer term post‐crisis impacts.