Crisis Management - Preparedness and Response

Introduction

This is a summer course for summer 2021. The course description is tentative.

Maximum 60 students

Organizations inevitably face adversity and unanticipated events that threaten lives, human well-being, functioning and performance. Crisis management is an interdisciplinary research field that seeks to understand and guide how organizations can prepare for and respond to such events. This field draws from numerous disciplines including strategy, organizational behavior and leadership, business continuity and supply chain research, and is sometimes referred to as disaster and/or risk management. The field is more important than ever. The outbreak of COVID-19 - declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/events-as-they-happen), demonstrates global vulnerability and lack of preparedness. In general, political instability and climate change are among the drivers that increase the number of manmade and natural disasters, including global epidemics, affecting an increasing number of people by creating human suffering, political instability as well as economic damage. The overall aim of this course is to provide students with tools, knowledge and understanding that enable them to work with developing and implementing sustainable disaster preparedness and response in various contexts. In particular, the course relates to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals number 3, 9, 16 and 17. The course is cross-disciplinary and covers both national and international contexts.

Course content

• Overview of Crisis Management: Preparedness and response
• Positive Organizational Leadership in crises
• Crisis Communication: Before and during
• Operations and Supply Chain Management: Logistics Preparedness and Response

COVID-19 response and preparedness in Norway and elsewhere will be a core in the course.