What is a Crisis?

What Do We Mean by “Crisis Management” - and What Is a Crisis?

While crisis management frameworks exist, interpretations of what constitutes a “crisis” - and when escalation is warranted - vary significantly between organisations depending on context, culture, and discipline. 

Broadly speaking, a crisis is typically an event or situation that:

• Threatens strategic objectives, reputation, or stability
  
  

• Exceeds normal operational capacity
  
  

• Introduces uncertainty with potential to escalate
  
  

Because these elements are subjective, what one organisation considers a crisis might be a routine operational issue for another.

Context matters

For example:

• A small IT outage might be minor for a large tech company but a crisis for a financial services firm that relies on real-time trading.

• A reputational issue may trigger a full crisis response in the public sector, while being manageable within standard communications processes for a private organisation with low media exposure.
  
  

Where the definition of a “crisis” is subjective, effective crisis management frameworks reduce ambiguity by clearly defining escalation thresholds, responsibilities, and context-specific triggers.

Escalation

In most organisations, incidents are managed according to the principle of subsidiarity: issues are handled at the lowest appropriate level, escalating only when necessary.

How Escalation Works in practice

An issue may begin as a technical incident managed by IT Incident Management. If the disruption affects critical services, Business Continuity arrangements may be invoked. If impacts escalate further - for example, customers are unable to access essential services, regulatory concerns emerge, or media attention increases - a Crisis Management response may be activated.

Importantly, escalation does not imply replacement.

The gaps between layers in the model are intentional. Each layer can be activated independently and operate autonomously. Once activated, these functions often work side by side, rather than one handing over completely to another.

Clear communication and shared situational awareness across disciplines are essential to ensure a coordinated and effective response.

Bringing it Together

Effective crisis management frameworks are characterised by:

• clear escalation pathways

• defined thresholds, roles, and responsibilities

• coordination across operational, tactical, and strategic layers
  
  

Together, these principles support a structured yet flexible approach to managing crises - protecting people, reputation, and organisational resilience while enabling informed decision-making under pressure.