Crisis Management & Information Technology
(2008)Department of Informatics
- Abstract
- Information technology has become an important part of the business world. IT is
involved in communication and business processes across departments making the
uses dependant on the technology to perform their work. In this thesis the authors are
focusing on how companies prepare themselves for crisis that can affect information
technology within the businesses, and what types of crisis they are worrying about. To
answer these questions a theoretical framework is formulated by reviewing a
collection of crisis management literature. The theory is later compared with
empirical findings to reveal differences and similarities. The empirical work is based
on interviews with four managers that work with IT and is involved in the crisis... (More) - Information technology has become an important part of the business world. IT is
involved in communication and business processes across departments making the
uses dependant on the technology to perform their work. In this thesis the authors are
focusing on how companies prepare themselves for crisis that can affect information
technology within the businesses, and what types of crisis they are worrying about. To
answer these questions a theoretical framework is formulated by reviewing a
collection of crisis management literature. The theory is later compared with
empirical findings to reveal differences and similarities. The empirical work is based
on interviews with four managers that work with IT and is involved in the crisis
management process. Three international enterprises with head offices in the Öresund
region participate.
The findings in this research show that the differences between theoretical and
empirical work is limited, and the similarities are many. Both explains that gathering
experts and decision-makers in a crisis management team that can point out possible
critical scenarios and construct action-plans, is a key part of crisis preparation.
Alternative ways of communication must be prepared, and user training help the
people involved feel safe and know what to do when a critical situation occurs. All
plans and responsibilities must be reviewed frequently so that they always are up-todate,
old plans are of little help. Crisis preparation has to be motivated. It takes time
and is costly.
The second part of the thesis looks at what kind of IT related crisis companies’
worries about. This includes loss of communication such as email and intranet, failure
of advanced information systems like ERP, and threats from malware and hackers.
But the all agree that the biggest threat comes from inside the companies – the
employees. Big resources are therefore spent on making the IT users more concerned
about safer usage of company technology.
This research contributes to the field of crisis management and shows that the
growing usage of information technology in businesses demands focus. Preparation
and planning is the first step in avoiding a crisis from happening. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1337842
- author
- Esbensen, Lars and Krisciunas, Tomas
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2008
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- crisis management, Information Technology, Öresund Region, Risk Assessment, Critical IT, IT related threats, Informatics, systems theory, Informatik, systemteori
- language
- English
- id
- 1337842
- date added to LUP
- 2008-07-07 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2010-08-03 10:51:53
@misc{1337842,
abstract = {{Information technology has become an important part of the business world. IT is
involved in communication and business processes across departments making the
uses dependant on the technology to perform their work. In this thesis the authors are
focusing on how companies prepare themselves for crisis that can affect information
technology within the businesses, and what types of crisis they are worrying about. To
answer these questions a theoretical framework is formulated by reviewing a
collection of crisis management literature. The theory is later compared with
empirical findings to reveal differences and similarities. The empirical work is based
on interviews with four managers that work with IT and is involved in the crisis
management process. Three international enterprises with head offices in the Öresund
region participate.
The findings in this research show that the differences between theoretical and
empirical work is limited, and the similarities are many. Both explains that gathering
experts and decision-makers in a crisis management team that can point out possible
critical scenarios and construct action-plans, is a key part of crisis preparation.
Alternative ways of communication must be prepared, and user training help the
people involved feel safe and know what to do when a critical situation occurs. All
plans and responsibilities must be reviewed frequently so that they always are up-todate,
old plans are of little help. Crisis preparation has to be motivated. It takes time
and is costly.
The second part of the thesis looks at what kind of IT related crisis companies’
worries about. This includes loss of communication such as email and intranet, failure
of advanced information systems like ERP, and threats from malware and hackers.
But the all agree that the biggest threat comes from inside the companies – the
employees. Big resources are therefore spent on making the IT users more concerned
about safer usage of company technology.
This research contributes to the field of crisis management and shows that the
growing usage of information technology in businesses demands focus. Preparation
and planning is the first step in avoiding a crisis from happening.}},
author = {{Esbensen, Lars and Krisciunas, Tomas}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Crisis Management & Information Technology}},
year = {{2008}},
}