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Faculty of Management Sciences

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://ir-dev.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/13

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Crisis management

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    Information and communication technology in disaster preparedness by eThekwini Municipality
    (2022) Sibiya, Goodness Ntokozo; Reddy, Maliga
    Natural disasters devastate societies, resulting in the loss of lives and infrastructure. The eThekwini Municipality has experienced a recurrence of flooding due to severe rains brought on by the bad weather leaving vulnerable people in distress. In order to mitigate or minimise the impact of flood disasters, the Municipality must ensure that these communities must be flood prepared. When natural disasters strike, efficient disaster communication, which includes the use of information and communication technologies, particularly from the government to the impacted communities is critical. When a disaster occurs, good communication between many parties is critical for disaster management to prepare for such events and information and communication technology tools can be valuable in communicating impending lifethreatening natural hazards. Information and communication technologies play an important role in disaster prevention, mitigation, and management, and they can be used as instruments to distribute early warning information, as well as track and communicate during emergency circumstances and post-disaster periods. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of information and communication technology in disaster preparedness by eThekwini Municipality. The study was conducted within the eThekwini Municipality Disaster Management Department, KwaMashu and Amaoti areas, which assisted the researcher to gather the information on a role of ICT in disaster preparedness. The researcher used a qualitative approach in the form of face-to-face interviews as the primary data collection, a non-probability sampling was done by means of expert and purposive sampling. This method helped the researcher in selecting disaster management practitioners and municipal ward councillors and ward committee members who could provide sufficient data for the purposes of completing the study. These instruments gave the researcher an understanding of the study and the outcomes addressed the key questions and objectives of the study.
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    An assessment of crisis communication at selected car manufacturing companies in Gauteng, South Africa
    (2022-04) Khuzwayo, Talent Sinenhlanhla; Hussain, Sameera Banu; Isheloke, Byelongo Elisee
    South Africa has several car manufacturing companies or plants, referred to as open systems. Due to their nature as open systems, crises are inevitable. Crises have the potential of inducing grave consequences for the organisation’s reputation and, ultimately, its survival. Being prone to conflicting situations necessitates that each organisation have an effective crisis management plan that details the crisis management and crisis communication steps in great detail. However, implementation of crisis communication and crisis management always comes with challenges for the crisis management teams. Increasingly, in the car manufacturing industry, car recalls are being made as certain models tend to have potentially fatal defects. This increase in car recalls is the reason behind the development of this qualitative study. Therefore, the researcher undertook a case study approach, utilising semi-structured interviews to obtain the required data. The value of qualitative research lies in its ability to provide answers to the questions ‘why’ and ‘how.’ Thus, broadening the understanding of crisis management as a phenomenon and the experiences and feelings of the crisis management teams at car manufacturing companies. The research participants were four car manufacturing companies (Companies A, B, C and D) with their head offices in Gauteng, South Africa. The crisis management teams were selected as the target population because they actively attempt to remedy the crises and interact with various organisational stakeholders when a crisis situation occurs. The findings identified gaps in crisis communication planning and implementation, given the ever-changing business and public relations environments in which organisations operate. As a result, the researcher made recommendations that will assist public relations and communications practitioners today and in the future to handle various crises effectively in the motor industry. Ultimately, car manufacturing companies will benefit by improving the protection of their organisations and their stakeholders from reputational and livelihood threats and further reducing those threats’ negative impacts.
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    Crisis communication planning and management at higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal
    (2010) Hussain, Sameera Banu; Rawjee, Veena P.; Raap, Peter John
    The National Plan for Higher Education (2001) provides a framework for achieving the vision of a single co-ordinated higher education system. In order to meet the goals of this plan, various technikons and universities had to merge. Pityana (2004: 4-5) points out that, in addition to opportunities, various challenges have also emerged from these mergers. One such challenge is that higher education institutions may find themselves in tensions with their partners which may result in disagreements that could lead to crisis situations. Marconi (2005: 262) argues that, in crisis situations, the pace of the conflict accelerates dramatically. This means that the affected parties have to react very quickly or risk having their ability to protect their interests substantially reduced, hence the need for a crisis communication plan. Implicit in this plan is the importance of communication. McCusker (2006: 108) maintains that, often in crisis a situation, communication gets distorted. As a result, rumours often supplant real facts. Thus, clear communication needs to be pre-planned and increased during a crisis. This dissertation, therefore, sets out to investigate the role of communication during the planning and management of crises at higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal. It reports on preliminary results of in-depth interviews conducted at higher education institutions in KwaZulu- Natal and offers recommendations so that crises planning and management may be improved upon.