INTERNATIONAL BURCH UNIVERSITY
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
SPRING 2017/2018
MIDTERM EXAM
Duration: 90 minutes
Name and Surname........................................
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SECTION A (5 POINTS)
1) It is possible for an organization to be viewed more favorably after a crisis TRUE FALSE
2) Influencers can severely damage an organization, including stopping it from functioning TRUE FALSE
3) An organization cannot be found legally liable if it did not take precautions to prevent potential crises and was not
prepared to respond. TRUE FALSE
4) It is difficult but usually possible to replace the contributions provided to an organization by primary stakeholders.
TRUE FALSE
5) Lectures of Crisis Management course in the spring semester 2017/2018 starts each Wednesday at
09:00 in the morning TRUE FALSE
SECTION B (35 POINTS)
1. Please define Crisis and Crisis Management. (5 points)
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2. What are the elements of Crisis Management Plan (5 points)
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3. How an organization should go about establishing a Crisis Management Team? (8 points)
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4. What are the common mistakes of Crisis Management? (7 points)
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5. In a form of essay please answer the question how the corporate level strategy and its two
dimensions relate with the crisis? (10 points)
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SECTION C (60 POINTS)
1. Managing the Zika Virus
We just put the world crisis of Ebola to bed and here we are, already faced with yet another looming
epidemic. The Zika virus already has multiple countries on hyper-alert, and thousands of people feeling
hesitant to attend this year’s summer Olympics in Rio. As we saw with Ebola, the trouble with managing
an epidemic crisis – in addition to the urgency of preventing contamination and saving lives – is the
deep-routed emotional impact that can quickly escalate the crisis to a point of spreading irrational fear.
As emotion cannot be trumped with logic, when a crisis gets to a point of spreading irrational fear, it
becomes extremely difficult to manage. This is something we must always be mindful of when it comes
to crisis management and crisis preparedness.
1. As the Zika virus continues to spread, what are the major crisis management risks that healthcare
organizations and government agencies should be thinking about? (10 points)
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2. Can the Zika virus crisis potentially escalate to a point of irrational fear? What kind of consequences
it can bring to the society? (10 points)
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3. Please name at least three crisis management solutions to this kind of crisis, bearing in mind that
your hypothetical organization could be hit with this epidemic crisis. (10 points)
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2. California School District Prevents Crises by Monitoring Students’ Social Media Posts
When it comes to cyberbullying, threats against or towards minors, possible violence and other major
issues involving youths these days, what responsibility lies on the school systems? Not many
schools, teachers, principals or parents truly know the answer to this important question. However, a
school district in Glendale, California has voluntarily taken on the task of monitoring their students’
public social media posts, mentions and chatter for any signs of violence, bullying, drug use and
more. A total of 14,000 middle and high school students’ (13 years of age and older) posts on
Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts will be monitored by a third-party firm, paid for
by the school district, over the next year.
1. Do you consider this kind of act as good or bad, and what are your arguments for? (10 points)
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2. When speaking about the crisis prevention, what are the other steps schools can do besides what
is mentioned in the case above? (10 points)
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3. What are the important risks to be aware of while deciding on the crisis prevention act mentioned
in the case? (10 points)
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THE EXAM ENDS HERE 😊
„In crisis management, be quick with the facts, slow with the blame.“
Leonard Saffir
