Contingency Plan Essay

This amount is significant to impact the authorities, public and media when major incidents or scandals occur. The consequences of any academic or natural incidents are required to be dealt with immediately according to the circumstances. This plan includes a list of potential incidents that may possibly develop into crises in case the management disregards them. These Incidents are divided into three categories: natural, human-induced and combined, base on the nature of education institution. We concentrate specifically on the circumstances of fabricating the academic credentials of teaching staffs. The purpose of this plan is to establish proper guidelines for relevant departments in order to communicate the facts that may lead to potential crises. We intend to prompt an honest and positive image of HKBU that may affect the accuracy and wholeness of the information we announce. Yet we insist that over reaction is better than no reaction. An opportunity for the public and media’s to spread a second-guessing and unreliable report that will result in detriment of the university. This plan is to protect and even promote the entire interest of HKBU on the basis of being transparent and effective. Under any circumstances that may damage the interest of HKBU, we should identify the stakeholders and arrange proper responses to them. Internally, we have the officers of HKBU, nominated as members of Crisis Management Team (CMT). They represent the interest of HKBU and devote themselves to protect the image and profit of the university. Academic staffs should be informed timely when CMT decides to trigger the contingency plan. Externally, the Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government, students and parents are the investors and consumers of HKBU, who should be informed accordingly in terms of the circumstances. The three categories of risks will be identified and classified as: natural, human-induced and combined, based on the nature of education institution. Natural: Disasters: Fire, blizzards, wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, lightning strikes and earthquakes†¦ Technological: Equipment failure: for example; drainage system,  digital system†¦ Human-induced: In addition, this may reduce the number of new students’ enrollment and the credibility of the HKBU degree. In this point of view, a contingency plan must be prepared in advance to deal with the incident or crisis. 5. 2 Threshold of the Crisis The scenario we set in this incident is that, many news media had created a lot of negative reports regarding the fabrication of academic credentials on teaching staff. Students and their guardians suspect the teaching quality, and were displeased with the teaching staffs. The public also doubt the high valuation of HKBU. The image and credibility had been damaged by this crisis. However, the university just knew them on the reports and not made sure the authenticity of this professor’s academic credential. This crisis is not the kind of crisis, which has a single clear-cut signal. In another words, the threshold of this crisis is not a very clearly event or signal which can be notice and identified easily like fire, suicide, earthquake, and so on. So it is needed to set a series of signals as the threshold of the crisis, which in order to tell the officer that is responsible for the alarming system: the crisis is coming. We treat these assume following signals as the threshold of the crisis: the assume situation we put in this contingency plan is that, many news media had made a lot of negative reports on the fabricating academic credentials of teaching staff of The Hong Kong Baptist University already. And the influence of these media is huge, like the Apple Daily, the Ming Pao News, and the TVB. The students and their parents already had suspect on the teaching quality of HKBU, and dissatisfied with the teaching staffs. And the public also doubt the prior highly valuation of HKBU. The image and credibility had been huge damaged by this crisis. However the university just knew them on the reports and not made sure the authenticity of this professor’s academic credential. 5. 3 Specific Responsibilities of Crisis Management Team (CMT) The CMT is formed by six members and is headed by the President & Vice-Chancellor, the top level manager and final decision maker in the whole process. Each member has his/her specific responsibilities and shares the team responsibilities. Furthermore, the ultimate goal for CMT is to respond and handle crisis effectively and protect the interest of HKBU. 1. Composition of CMT Consequently, he/she must take the responsibility to activate the contingency plan. Also, he is necessary to be responsible for informing all team members together immediately and take charge of the team meetings, list and prioritize the publics that must be informed. Besides, the duty of president and vice-chancellor in the crisis is to monitor and approve PR activities and news releases. Due to the seriousness of fabricating academic credentials and the authority of the president and vice-chancellor, in this plan, he is appointed as the spokesperson to deal with news media and publics. Thus, another responsibility for president and vice-chancellor is to get media training. Vice-President(Academic) The vice-president(academic) of HKBU is in charge of the faculties and schools in academic aspects, thus the prior responsibility for him is to contact the dean of the school/faculty that is relevant to this crisis, arrange meetings with the dean, verify and understand the situation from the dean. They also need to cooperate in facts gathering. After the meeting, the responsibility for vice-president(academic) is to share the information with team members timely. Another important role for vice-president(academic) is to contact the Education Bureau of the HKSAR Government, for reports and updates the crisis. Vice-President(Administration) and Secretary The vice-president(administration) and secretary is the direct leader of Personnel Office in HKBU, while this crisis is caused by the neglection of Personnel Office, thus the main responsibility of vice-president(administration) and secretary is to coordinate with the staff in Personnel Office immediately, to ensure the effectiveness of activities in solving the crisis. Furthermore, another crucial responsibility for vice-president(administration) and secretary is to supervise and cooperate with Personnel Office in finding out the loopholes of the existing employment system, re-examining this system and amend it into a better verifying system. Vice-president(administration) and secretary need to be responsible for connecting and inviting the third party — Hong Kong Educational Level & Degree Profession Qualification Attesthion Union to verify the degree. Director of Personnel Office The principal responsibility for the director of Personnel Office is to ensure the first-hand messages are collected accurately and immediately to the Communications and Public Relations Office. Specifically, the director of Personnel Office should be responsible for leading the Personnel Office to investigate completely about the professor who are suspected in fabricate academic credentials. Director of Communications and Public Relations Office As a member of CMT, main duty for the director of Communications and Public Relations Office is to divide staffs into two groups that concentrate on internal communication and external public relations activities respectively. For the internal communication group, the director of Communications and Public Relations Office need to ensure this group can provide effective media training to spokesperson. Furthermore, this group takes charge of serving as a channel in delivering the latest news from the Personnel Office to the whole CMT. Also, they need to update new progress of the crisis to students in HKBU. For the external public relations group, the responsibility for the director of Communications and Public Relations Office is to lead this group in to preparing the media kits, sending updated information to students’ parents and contacting the media. 5. 4 Action to Be Taken 5. 4. 1Process Diagram 5. 4. 2 Specific instructions to the relevant departments 5. 4. 2. 1 Emergency arrangements within 24 hours 1) Communication and public relations office must verify the accuracy of information and current situation.