Mastering Systems Strategic Crises to Prevent Business Crises

Igor Vrečko; Matjaž Mulej

Igor Vrečko
Matjaž Mulej

Keywords: Strategic crises, systems strategic crises, business crises, crises management, project management

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of identifying and resolving strategic crises in business systems. Identifying strategic crises, based on the existing definitions of these crises, is often a matter of subjective interpretation, making it difficult to design and implement the necessary measures to resolve them. In this paper we define a new intellectual basis for the definition of strategic crisis and introduce the concept of a systemic strategic crisis. These are explained and defined as the cause of business strategic crises and the resulting operational crises. By defining the systemic strategic crises, we create the basis for introducing a holistic approach to solving strategic crises with the integration of strategic and project management acting on the concepts of systems thinking and creativity, which is briefly outlined in the proposed two-dimensional model of managing systems strategic crisis.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Igor Vrečko

Faculty of Economics and Business, Maribor, Slovenia
E-mail: igor.vrecko@uni-mb.si

Igor Vrečko, Ph.D., is a lecturer of project management and organisation and management at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Maribor. His research focuses primarily on project management and its integration with strategic and crisis management. He has extensive practical experiences gained through consultancy projects in many domestic and foreign companies. He is the director of the international project management certification process for Slovenia, the vice president of the Slovenian Project Management Association, official assessor of the national profession qualification for project manager, and assessor of research and developing projects under the Public Agency of Republic of Slovenia for entrepreneurship and foreign investments.

Matjaž Mulej

E-mail: matjaz.mulej@um.si

Faculty of Economics and Business, Maribor, Slovenia
E-mail: matjaz.mulej@um.si

Matjaž Mulej, Ph.D., PhD, is professor emeritus of systems and innovation theo- ries at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Maribor. He authored Dialectical Systems Theory and Theory of Innovative Business. He is active in the IRDO Institute for Development of Social Responsibility, Maribor, Slovenia (head of experts bo- ard); the IASCYS International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences, Vienna (vice president); the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg (mem- ber); and the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Paris (member). He has published 1600+ contributions in 40+ countries and worked in 6 countries, including 15 semesters as a visiting professor.

References

Barker, V. L. III., in I. M. Duhaime (1997). Strategic Change in the Turnaround Process: Theory and Empirical Evidence. Strategic Management Journal, 18 (1), 13–38.

Blatz, M., in S. Haghani (2000). Gestärkt aus der Krise: Unternehmensfinanzierung in und nach der Restrukturierung. Berlin: Springer Verlag.

Bowonder, B., in H. Linstone (1987). Notes on the Bhopal accident: Risk analysis and multiple perspectives. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 32, 183–202.

Bruillette, J., in F. V. Quarantelli (1971). Types of patterned variation in bureaucratic adaptations to organizational stress. Sociological inquiry, 41, 39–45.

Dutton, J. E. (1986). The processing of crisis and non- crisis strategic issues. Journal of management studies, 23 (5), 501–517.

Gilpin, D. R., in P. J. Murphy (2008). Crisis management in a complex world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Grant, J. H., in W. R. King (1979). Strategy formulation: Analytical and normative models. V: Strategic management: A new view of planning and policy, ur. D.C. Schendel in C. W. Hofer. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Haghani, S. (2004). Strategische Krisen von Unter- nehmen und praxisorientierte Möglichkeiten ihrer Frü- herkennung. V: Die Unternehmenskrise als Chance: Innovative Ansätze zur Sanierung und Restrukturierung, ur. N. Bickhoff, M. Blatz, G. Eilenberger, S. Haghani, K. J. Kraus. Berlin: Springer.

Hauc, A. (2002). Projektni management. Ljubljana: GV Založba. Cybernetics and systems 2006: proceedings of the Eighteenth European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research, ur. R. Trappl. Vienna: Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, str. 405–409.

Hauc, A., I. Vrečko in Z. Barilović (2011). A holistic project-knowledge society as a condition for solving global strategic crises. Društvena istraživanja, 20 (4), 1039–1060.

Hauschildt, J. (2006). Entwicklungen in der Krisenfor- schung. V: Krisenmanagement: Grundlagen, Strategien, Instrumente, ur. T. Hutzschenreuter. Wiesbaden: Verlag Dr. Th. Gabler.

Holsti, O. (1971). Crisis, stress and decision making. In- ternational social science, 23 (1), 53–67.

ISO 26000 (2010). Napotki za družbeno odgovornost. Ljubljana: Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo.

Jackson, J. E., in W. T. Schantz, (1993). Crisis manage- ment lessons. Business Horizons, 36 (1), 27–35.

Kash, T. J., in J. Darling (1998). Crisis management: prevention, diagnosis and intervention. Leadership & Organization development journal, 19 (4), 179–186.

Knez-Riedl, J., in A. Hrast (2006). Managing corporate social responsibility (CSR): a case of multiple benefits of socially responsible behaviour of a firm. V: Cyber.

Krystek, U. (1987). Unternehmungskrise: Beschreibung, Vermeidung und Bewältigung überlebenskritischer Prozesse in Unternehmungen. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag.

Mulej, M. (1979). Ustvarjalno delo in dialektična teorija sistemov. Celje: Razvojni center.

Mulej, M., idr. (2009). Kriza – povod za inoviranje planiranja in vodenja v smeri k družbeni odgovornosti (podjetij) ter zadostni in potrebni celovitosti obnašanja ljudi. V: Proceedings of 34 Conference DEM. Maribor: Društvo ekonomistov Maribor, str. 7–31.

Mulej, M., in Š. Kajzer (1998). Ethics of interdependence and the law of requisite holism. V: STIQE '98, ur. M. Rebernik in M. Mulej. Maribor: Institute for Entrepreneurship at Faculty of Business Economics, 129–140.

Pauchant, T. C., I. I. Mitroff in P. Lagadec (1991). To- ward a systemic crisis management strategy: learning from the best examples in the US, Canada and France. Industrial Crisis Quarterly, 5, 209–232.

Pearce, J. A. II, in D. K. Robbins (2008). Strategic trans- formation as the essential last step in the process of business turnaround. Business Horizons, 51, 121–130.

Pearson, C. M., in J. A. Clair (1998). Reframing Crisis Management. Academy of management review, 23 (1), 59–76.

Richardson, B., S. Nwankwo in S. Richardson (1994). Understanding the Causes of Business Failure Crises. Management decision, 32 (4), 9–22.

Ritchie, B. W. (2004). Chaos, crises and disasters: a stra- tegic approach to crisis management in the tourism industry. Tourism management, 25 (6), 669–683.

Shrivastava, P., in I. I. Mitroff (1987). Strategic management of corporate crises. Columbia journal of world business, 22 (1), 5–11.

6th IRDO International Conference: Social Responsi- bility and Current Challenges 2011, Youth in Focus of World Changes. Conference Proceedings (2011), ur. A. Hrast, S. Kojc, A. Fištravec, M. Mulej, A. Anterer. Zbirka Družbena odgovornost. Maribor: IRDO Institute for development of social responsibility.

Smallman, C. (1996). Challenging the orthodoxy in risk management. Safety Science, 22 (1–3), 245–262.

Smith, D. (1992). Commentary: on crisis management and strategic management. V: Advances in strategic management, ur. P. Shrivastava. JAI Press, 8, 261–269.

Social Responsibility beyond Neoliberalism. Ur. M. Mulej in R. Dyck. Bentham (pred izidom).

Starbuck, W. H., in F. J. Milliken (1988). Challenger: fine-tuning the odds until something breaks. Journal of management studies, 25 (4), 319–340.

Sweeny, K. (2008). Crisis decision theory: Decisions in the face of negative events. Psychological Bulletin, 134 (1), 61–76.

Širec, K., in D. Močnik (2010). How Entrepreneurs’ Personal Characteristics Affect SME’s Growth. Naše gospodarstvo, 56 (1–2), 3–12.

Thompson, J. L. (1998). Strategic crisis aversion: the value of a »style audit«. The Learning Organization, 5 (1), 36–46.

Vrečko, I. (2002). Projektni pristop k reševanju kriz v podjetjih. Projektna mreža Slovenije, 5 (2), 4–16.

Vrečko, I. (2011). Obvladovanje strateških kriz z uporabo projektnega menedžmenta kot celovit invencijsko- inovacijski proces. Doktorska disertacija. Maribor: Ekonomsko-poslovna fakulteta.

Withers, M. C., K. G. Corley in A. J. Hillman (2012). Stay or Leave: Director Identities and Voluntary Exit from the Board During Organizational Crisis. Organization Science, 23 (3), 835–850.

Ženko, Z., in M. Mulej (2011). Diffusion of Innovative Behavior with Social Responsibility. Kybernetes, 40 (9/10), 1258–1272.