CEN/TC 391/WG 3 - Crisis management/civil protection

This document provides guidance on crisis management to help organizations plan, establish, maintain, review and continually improve a strategic crisis management capability. This guidance can help any organization to identify and manage a crisis. Elements for consideration include:
—    context, core concepts, principles and challenges (see Clause 4);
—    developing an organization’s crisis management capability (see Clause 5);
—    crisis leadership (see Clause 6);
—    the decision-making challenges and complexities facing a crisis team in action (see Clause 7);
—    crisis communication (see Clause 8);
—    training, validation and learning from crises (see Clause 9).
It is applicable to top management with strategic responsibilities for the delivery of a crisis management capability in any organization. It can also be used by those who operate under the direction of top management.
This document acknowledges the relationship and interdependencies with various disciplines but is distinct from these topics.

This document provides an outline of crisis concepts and the principles that inform and support contemporary thinking on the circumstances and conditions under which crises can develop.
It specifies:
—     concepts and principles, governing crises;
—     the social-ecological system (SES) framework in which crises develop;
—     factors that contribute to crises;
—     the progression and evolution of a crisis;
—     a structure for classifying crises;
—     the relationship between issues, incidents, emergencies, disasters, and crises;
—     a crisis taxonomy for the systematic development of policies, strategies, and standards, relevant to crisis management (see Annex A).
This document does not provide guidance on how organizations can:
—     manage physiological or psychological aspects of human reactions to personal crises;
—     manage personal health or public health crisis affecting individuals, communities, or having broader impacts on society;
—     design, develop or implement crisis management programs or plans;
—     develop a strategic capability for crisis management;
—     apply crisis management techniques to specific crisis situations.
This document is applicable to all organizations. It can also be applied by standards users and standards writers and educators. It encourages a better understanding of crisis concepts and the interconnected characteristics of factors that contribute to crises through referencing the crisis controls and effects social-ecological system model. The application of the principles described in this document can encourage consistency in the use of crises related terms and definitions and complements other ISO standards for crisis management.

This document provides guidance on good practice for crisis management to help the strategic decision makers of an organization to plan, implement, establish, operate, monitor, review, maintain and continually improve a crisis management capability. It is intended for any organization regardless of location, size, type, industry, structure, or sector. While it is important to be aware of human and cultural factors as they can cause stress when working as individuals and as part of groups, it is not the purpose of this document to examine aspects of these areas in detail.
This document provides guidance for:
- understanding the context and challenges of crisis management;
- developing an organization’s crisis management capability through preparedness (see 5.5);
- recognizing the complexities facing a crisis team in action;
- communicating successfully during a crisis; and
- reviewing and learning.
NOTE 1 For further information on organizational resilience, see ISO 22316.
This technical specification is intended for management with strategic responsibilities for the delivery of a crisis management capability. It is for those who operate under the direction and within policy of top management in:
- implementing the crisis plans and structures; and
- maintaining and assuring the procedures associated with the capability.
It is not intended for emergency and incident response - these require the application of operational procedures whereas crisis management relies on an adaptive, agile, and flexible strategic response (see 4.3).
It does not cover interoperability or command and control or business continuity management systems.
NOTE 2 For more information on interoperability and command and control, see ISO 22320. For more information on business continuity management systems, please see EN ISO 22301.