At Mercure Sydney, a terrorist attack may happen in the form of an explosion or inhalation of harmful chemicals. An explosion at the hotel could be a result of bombing and will result in fire. On the other hand, inhaling dangerous gas or chemical may cause an outbreak of illness among guests and/or staff. Post-Crisis Recovery Stage in either case, the following short- and long-term strategies are useful.

Short-term Strategies

1. Control the Incident

Mercure Sydney management will inform the local government about the incident, and the authorities will notify relevant agencies at local and national levels. In case of fire outbreak or emission/inhalation of harmful chemicals, the fire brigade, emergency organisation, and the police will be the most appropriate authorities (Petersen et al., 2020). They will enter the scene to put out fire, pick the injured staff or guests, and the police will begin investigating the course of the incident. A terrorist attack Post-Crisis Recovery Stage lives behind a disaster and crime scene. This means that safety and health concerns are priorities and lives should be protected. This is achieved through strict control of the point of attack and its perimeter.

2. Communicating with Stakeholders

Establishing secure and effective communication with stakeholders is a vital step (Mair et al., 2016). This prompt communication should be developed and coordinated among the initial responders, hospitals, emergency organisations, clinicians, and providers at mass care centres. If the terrorist attack caused overloading of telephone lines and cellular networks, Internet can provide a more Post-Crisis Recovery Stage reliable medium for information sharing. However, due to computer vulnerability, anti-virus software should be used. Effective communication is also important in drilling, training, and other exercises. When planning, backup communications networks are necessary for responders. With backup, Post-Crisis Recovery Stage consequences of terrorist attacks such as transmission capabilities loss and interference with telephone lines or cellular connections will be avoided.

3. Offer Emergency Information to the Public and Media

Every incident of terrorist attack is intended to destroy people’s lives as well as property. As a result, people experience confusion, chaos, stress, and panic. Dissemination of correct and timely details to both media and public should be done as soon as a terrorist attack happens (Mair et al., 2016). Such communication is useful as it minimises the possibility of further attacks, and in some cases prevents the terrorists from achieving their objectives. 

News media is usually the main information source for the public (Ali et al., 2018). Providing accurate and consistent information to media is important in the course of emergency caused by terrorism. The hotel will have to maintain strong effective connection with media. The company should also collaborate with the government so they have representatives to offer information throughout the emergency. 

When considering the relationship with media and government authorities, the company should set up strong mechanisms for coordinating and providing information, prepare materials for producing information, select methods for disseminating information, and monitor/analyse coverage by news media (and solve identified issues).

4. Evacuation

Staff and guests may be evacuated from the attacked scene to minimise the number of casualties. In such circumstances, in-place sheltering may have to be temporarily established if the hazardous gas was emitted over a shorter duration or investigators find that the perimeter is safe for occupation. To protect individuals from biological threats, the company may consider isolating persons capable of spreading the infection, and the most affected areas may be quarantined. The health authorities and government agencies may also prohibit public gathering and minimise movement to other locations.

5. Decontamination

This will depend on the nature of the involved hazard agent. The process should come before deciding on sheltering alternatives, or addressing further needs of victims. It involves determining the location or set-up and deciding on the equipment to be used for decontamination. The hotel may collaborate with local community leaders in this process to ensure that the local people will cooperate with professional in charge of decontaminating the affected areas within the community.

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Long-term Strategies

1. Prevention of Further Terrorist Attacks

Collaborate with the local authorities to establish an Incident Post-Crisis Recovery Stage Command Post at a distance proper for the suspected or confirm terrorist incident. This step will ensure that the organization has adequate support throughout the crisis and even afterwards. Therefore, the Incident Command System will be applied by all the responding agencies (local police, emergency management companies, and fire department). Other than physical security, Paraskevas (2013) suggested incorporation of intelligence-based approaches. This is vital in the analysis of behaviour of terrorists.

2. Staffing

Leaders will do most of the work during a crisis and some of them may become casualties of subsequent attacks. To prepare for this, adequate staffing will be done at the crucial leadership positions. There may also be need to enhance the hotel’s securing by hiring additional security personnel (Ali et al., 2018). Based on the extent of the attack, police may be posted at the area to improve the place’s security.

3. Training

 All the personnel responding to the crisis should have relevant training in the use of Incident Command System. This will eliminate security issues and encourage coordination during multi-organisation response. Relevant legal agencies should participate in the process to ensure that incident command transitions into unified command to increase ease of crisis management and activities that follow later. The newly hired leadership staff and other internal employees that get promoted to such positions amidst the crisis also require training to be able to handle the assigned responsibilities effectively.

4. Offer Public Education

The company should partner with relevant stakeholders to establish ongoing educational programmes to the public. The programs will focus on enlightening the public on how to respond to terrorist attacks. Outreach and awareness initiatives are crucial for learning various emergency types, enhancing organisational credibility, and ensuring public/responders benefit.

5. Medical Care

The necessary medical approaches include promoting the safety of responders and victims, decontamination, quarantine, and in-place sheltering. Planners should consider strategies for caring for a huge number of individuals. Therefore, the plan should describe the capabilities of the medical facilities to provide trauma care.

6. Reconstruction or Renovation

If a bombing happens, part or the entire property could be destroyed. To resume business, therefore, the company has to rebuild. On the other hand, if the fire was not serious or only chemical emission was used, the company might consider repainting the business premise.

Reflection

I found that crisis management plan (CMP) is more difficult to create, compared to post-crisis recovery plan. Similar to recovery plan, CMP covers all areas of business operation relating to reputation of the company and human lives (which could be saved or lost). Even then, creating CMP is more challenging because it involves planning for something (an event) that is unknown (Mikusova & Horvathova, 2019). In crisis recovery also, high-level management gets exposed to more information than they can handle. While information quantity is the main challenge, it is difficult to prove the quality of the availed details. 

The making of relevant plans, thus, requires the communications officials to plan (in advance) the best information source. There are also incidents where the availed information is too little. This mostly happens if the company has only one channel of sharing information with media and the public (Paraskevas, 2013). The information that a company shares during a crisis contains high stake hence it should use all the possible platforms to distribute information. All the appropriate contacts should be listed as even with crucial details and multiple channels to pass the information across, an organisation will still be unable to share what it knows if it lacks relevant contacts. 

I understood that staying in contact with media, in particular, is very important because the public relies on them for latest updates in the course of a crisis. To ensure that news media spread the most appropriate information, they should be receive constant flow of accurate updates from the company and representatives.

Although both crisis prevention and recovery procedures are costly, the outcome of crisis management is less satisfactory as it cannot prevent the breakout of a crisis (Mikusova and Horvathova, 2019). Even if a company invests substantially in ensuring that all the major components of crisis management plan are incorporated and that every crucial activity is performed, the firm cannot prevent a crisis from happening. The attackers are likely to use a vulnerability that the company did not think about. In fact, Mikusova and Horvathova (2019) found that crisis management lacks relevance at times because crisis take a route different from what was expected. In such cases, the company loses all the finances it invested in developing and maintaining an effective crisis management plan.

For professionalism, I discovered that crisis managers must have several skills and experience because they deal with reality changes and must convince the public to agree with them so their interests and vision are preserved (Petersen et al., 2020). Effective communication systems and connecting with local community members are crucial in the crisis management and recovery phases (Paraskevas, 2013). I realised that when an organisation has goa od relationship with the local people and informs them of the components of their crisis management plan, it is easier for the company to avoid risks which could lead to a terrorist attack. The community members should be made aware of the expected crisis, and the possible signs to check for. The local area resident may, thus, alert the company in case they see strange actions that show signs similar to what the company spoke about. In the recovery phase, the close connection with the local people enables the firm to implement its mitigation strategies effectively because succthe ess of the initiatives is promoted by the involvement of the public.

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