Better crisis management

Dear editor,

A March 18 editorial, “Crisis management,” is full of wisdom, journalistic maturity, thought provoking and worth considering by the stakeholders of modern global society of information revolution which has converted the world into a global village. A village is considered better than a city in the sense that there is close communication with relationship management of the highest order.

Truly effective management is a function of effective communication which can bring operational efficiency at all levels in any economy like Korea or India. But sadly, we don’t understand the difference between management and administration. To get the precarious situation under control, we need managers and not administrators in the present times of crisis after crisis and at one place or the other.

Crisis management can best be learnt from an Indian woman in the kitchen where she works under a pressure cooker environment. Meaning thereby, she keeps on working with other activities till there is a whistle from the pressure cooker. She does not sit idle waiting for the whistle from the pressure cooker. Management is an innovation and is a way of life without distinguishing between crisis or normal times.

We need not conduct a postmortem on a dead body when there is no benefit from knowing the cause of death. There is a strong case for a prognostic approach to be adopted by the authorities to work honestly to prevent any type of crisis.

Time management is crucial in decision-making as is the implementation of policies and programs with operational efficiency. There is certainly no place for official secrets in present times of information technology and there are calls for transparency at all levels with accurate and authentic information on the issues of concern including steps taken, to be taken with the problem at hand.

There is a strong case for an International Cyber Law by the United Nations to punish cyber criminals anywhere in the world including Korea and India. The causes for these crimes are antivirus companies which send viruses and indulge in unhealthy competition without business ethics making communication difficult and can no longer be tolerated by the awakened people of the globe.

Let us transfer the values of ethics in cyberspace which is the need of the day to stop rumors of any kind, particularly in times of crisis.

Prof. M.M. Goel

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Seoul