want to relocate? Who will be my supervisor? Will I have to travel more?
Equivocal answers to these questions introduce uncertainty about the future. The concept of uncertainty is central to the definition of the term high concern. For employees, organizational change threatens and risks many of the things they value, including the five key domains identified in the neuroscience‐based SCARF model: 23
Status – perceptions regarding their importance to others
Certainty – perceptions regarding their ability to predict the future
Autonomy – perceptions regarding their ability to control events
Relatedness – perceptions regarding how they relate to others and how safe they feel in these relationships
Fairness – perceptions regarding their being treated fairly and equitably
Neuroscience research underlying the SCARF model shows that negative perceptions regarding any of the SCARF domains can activate the same threat and reward responses in the brain as does a physical threat. Negative perceptions of the SCARF domains can also produce a strong emotional reaction and the body’s release of cortisol, adrenaline, and epinephrine – chemicals associated with the flight‐freeze‐fight response. These chemical releases can severely affect the ability of a person to focus, solve problems, communicate, cooperate, and think rationally and logically – functions performed largely by the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
From a psychological and neurological perspective, whether and to what degree a person, group, or organization experiences high arousal, the fight‐freeze‐flight response, or stress from a situation is determined in part by what an individual, group, or organization defines as high concern. Based on cultural factors, people, groups, and organizations have different tendencies toward fight‐freeze‐flight. People, groups, and organizations use different lenses to determine what is of high concern. The level of concern felt and assigned to a situation depends on personalities, worldview, beliefs, and culture. What is defined as high concern matters to a specific individual, group, organization, culture, or society.
High concern, as in stress, is often seen as a negative. However, high concern and stress can have positive and helpful effects, such as when it motivates people to accomplish more. It is when high concern and stress become excessive and overload the capacity of a person or group to cope that it becomes mentally and physically dangerous. What makes high concern and stress excessive is often fear. It is therefore not enough to give the facts about a risk or threat. Fear is real and can keep individuals and communities from making informed decisions. However, through effective communication, fear can be channeled into productive behaviors. For example, if not excessive, fear can lead to information‐seeking. People are often more accepting of fear when it is acknowledged.
2.6 Defining the Concept and Term Crisis
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a crisis is “a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger.” A crisis typically represents a decisive turning point and an unstable situation where difficult and crucial decisions must be made. The origin of the word crisis is revealing. The word has origins in the Latin word crisis (decisive moment), which comes from the Greek word krisis (decision, judgment) and from the Greek word krinein (decide, judge). It also has origins in the Old French word crise and the Middle English medical word crisis, denoting “the turning point in a disease; a sudden change for better or worse.” Based on the origin of the word, a crisis is an event or turning point that brings, or has the potential to bring, great reputational, financial, psychological, and/or physical harm to an individual, group, population, organization, or institution. Examples of a crisis include a major industrial accident, a major spill of toxic materials, a major storm, or a pandemic. Crises can human‐made or natural. The cause will influence how others view the situation and the response.
Coombs and Holloday offer a more complex definition of crisis. 24 They offer four defining attributes of a crisis: (1) unpredictability, (2) threat to stakeholder expectations, (3) impact on organizational performance, and (4) potential for negative outcomes. A similar definition comes from Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seeger, who also define crisis with four attributes: (1) the unexpected nature of the event, (2) the nonroutine demands on the organization, (3) the production of uncertainty, and (4) the threat to achieving organizational goals.25
By combining aspects from these various definitions, for purposes of this book, I offer a shorter and a longer definition of the word crisis. The shorter definition is: a crisis is a significant risk manifested. This definition is consistent with the definition offered by Heath and O’Hare: a crisis is a threat with significant potential adverse impacts that has materialized.26
A longer definition is: a crisis is a risk manifested that characteristically (1) is abrupt and unexpected, (2) exceeds the expectations of those affected, (3) disrupts normal processes, (4) places nonroutine and unique demands on the responding organizations, (5) produces high amounts of uncertainty, (6) challenges organizational performance, and (7) poses a significant chance of harm or loss to individuals and organizations.
Crises typically cause disruptions in our normal lives, high levels of stress and high concerns about adverse consequences, confusion, fear, and an active search for leadership and support. Four characteristics can cause leaders to label a situation a crisis: (1) there are imminent dangers and significant consequences, (2) resolution requires quick action, (3) they feel unprepared, and (4) there is knowledge of the event or situation by the outside world, particularly the media. Therefore, when a leader is trained and feels better able to handle a situation, it is less likely to be perceived as a crisis.
Researchers have debated the difference among a crisis, a disaster, and an emergency. They are often used interchangeably, although crisis is a broader term. For example, in his definition of the term disaster, Oliver‐Smith noted:27
Disaster is a term that is used fairly liberally in popular parlance. Many events or processes are colloquially referred to as disasters—everything from a failed social event to a regional hurricane.
One of the most widely accepted definitions of the term disaster in research literature is offered by the United Nations (UN). According to the UN, a disaster “is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.”28 This definition has elements of the definitions of the term crisis offered earlier in this chapter. It also aligns with what many might call an emergency.
Despite the interchangeability of the terms in many studies, there are arguably important differences. For example, disaster and emergency can be distinguished by their familiarity and severity. Disasters are typically characterized by large‐scale direct and indirect adverse effects. These adverse effects include loss of life, loss of property, damage to infrastructure, and loss of revenue and unemployment. As pointed out by Lindell, Prater, and Perry,29 the term emergency is typically used to describe:
…an
