Categorical Lists of Crisis Types

One way to organize a typology on different varieties of crisis is to produce a simple list of different types. A quick Google search of crisis types will generate almost a billion results. Many of these results are lists of crisis types. This is by far the most common method of crisis type organization. During the production of any of these lists, the author or organizer will use some differentiation criteria to facilitate the distinction of one item on the list from another. In most cases, the first criterion on every author’s list is simply, “This item is different enough from the others that you’ll want to manage it differently.”

At a deeper level, what they’re actually trying to say, and many authors mentioned this explicitly, that the different items on the list will have different implications for different stakeholder groups. Following this logic, having a list of unique crisis types can help a great deal in the development of a stakeholder-centric approach to crisis management. The general idea here is the fabrication of a tool that will help us identify, understand, and respond more effectively to a given situation. If we find ourselves in this type of crisis, we might think because we use our topology, then these stakeholder value propositions are threatened, therefore we should be doing these things, and engaging these stakeholder groups with this information.

That might sound a bit convoluted, but it should be pretty clear that if you had a list of crisis types, and you knew how each type typically impacted each of your organization stakeholders, then you would have a tool that could help crisis leaders effectively prioritize the appropriate stakeholders to engage in a given scenario and the best way to engage them. In the following readings, you’ll be presented with four crisis typology lists. This is in no way supposed to represent an exhaustive set of these lists, but these particular examples are useful for seeing how different experts have organized their frameworks. As you’ll see, each of these list was created with a slightly different objective and perspective in mind.

If you like the idea of having access to a list of crises types that your organization might have to deal with, you should pay particular attention to what I’m about to share. Later in this module, in fact, I’m going to ask you to craft a high-level, not particularly detailed, crisis typology of your own. I’m going to walk you step-by-step through a very simple process to produce it. When I do so, I’m going to suggest that you start with the list of crisis types that seem appropriate for your organization, therefore as you’re reading through the list that follow, I would like you to be on the lookout for specific items that might be worth adding to your own list.

Even though you’ll see many common elements and overlapping concepts across the four lists, you will almost certainly be able to identify some unique crisis variety that’s worth noting for your own typology. Enjoy reading through the different examples of categorical lists. Which types of crises might be suitable for inclusion on your list? I’m certain that you’ll find at least a handful.