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.
