Anatomy of Organizational Crises

As the business environment gets more complex, the crises faced by management are more frequent and, potentially, more devastating. Previous research on crises looks at specific cases, typologies and definitions of crises. This paper argues that crises are better understood through the way they develop. Based on the theory of punctuated equilibria in biology, two types of crises are proposed: abrupt versus cumulative. An organizing framework based on a punctuated equilibria view of crisis is presented. In addition, the key concepts and mechanisms of the framework that provide management with a broadened view for coping with the ubiquitous nature of crises are discussed.