Abstract

Human Resources Management is one of the most important units of modern firms and organizations. It gains even more importance in times of crises, because it makes up an important dimension of crisis management. It is well known that human resources policies have a great influence on people; therefore, those polices are to bring about humanistic consequences.

In this study, possible effects of always looming crises and ways to avoid or cope with those crises have been examined and presented to readers. The study mainly focuses on the human resources strategies aspect of management at managing crises; and, it compares classical and modern ways to handle the effects of crises on human capital.

Introduction

Crisis management may be defined as an organization’s acts and behaviors which prepare it to be ready to manage major catastrophic happenings in a safe and effective style (Lockwood, 2005). In the general scope of the study, crisis is taken as only a financial crisis. However, from a human resources perspective, any kind of crisis is important to consider; so, in this study crisis in general will be evaluated. A crisis can be described as a total disruptive event to a partial disruption where people, property, equipment or the environment that may end up effecting company value negatively. It ruins the reputation and upsets stakeholder perception towards the organization. In today’s world, the human resources’ role is ever more important during times of crisis to prevent irreparable damage than it was before. Human resources managers have important role to guarantee their environment are aware of the crisis from employee side and make plans and projections ahead to help reduce its disruption. For this purpose, human resources managers work together with complete commitment to produce solutions for the sake of organization. (Lockwood, 2005). While the focus of this study is derived from the last financial crisis of the world, as it is mentioned above, crises come in all shapes and forms; henceforth, this work will try to deliver the author’s view of human resources during any crisis.