Constructing Crisis : Leaders, Crises and Claims of Urgency

Crises aren't real objective events. Instead, as Spector demonstrates, they are claims of urgency strategically imposed by leaders to assert power and exert control. This wide-ranging, critical, and provocative analysis will appeal in particular to students and academics researching leadership and crisis management.

There is no such thing as a crisis. Rather than an actual, corporeal thing, a crisis is a claim asserted from a position of power and influence, intended to shape the understanding of others. A constructed crisis by a leader may or may not be legitimate, and, legitimate or not, the content of a claim alone does not determine whether people decide to believe it. Rather than viewing crises as the result of objective events, Spector demonstrates that leaders impose crises on organizations to strategically assert power and exert control. Interpreting crisis through a critical lens, this interdisciplinary book encompasses not just management and organizational literature, but also sociology, history, cognitive science, and psychology. The resulting wide-ranging, critical, and provocative analysis will appeal in particular to students and academics researching leadership and crisis management.