Creating crisis-ready school districts

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the status of crisis management in one state's public school districts. The dissertation focuses on crisis management preparation in South Carolina school districts and the extent to which these districts are “crisis-ready” organizations. With much of existing crisis management research focused on the for-profit business sector, it is important to examine the level of understanding of crisis management theory and practice among those in the public sector and to ascertain the level of implementation of effective crisis management techniques.; A new framework is proposed for analyzing the crisis-ready status of these organizations. The three Cs—crisis management planning, communication (twoway/relationship-building), and cultural leadership within the school community—are essential, interconnected elements of successful crisis management in the 21st century.; The central problem to be examined was: What are South Carolina school districts doing to be prepared to respond more effectively to crises, i.e., what are these districts doing to be considered crisis-ready organizations? Two research methods were used: a written mail survey of superintendents and public relations managers and a quantitative content analysis of professional publications designed for public education leaders.; Dissertation findings make it clear that South Carolina public school districts have made significant strides in implementing generally accepted strategies of crisis management. Findings also point to the need for educational leaders to designate crisis management training as a non-negotiable priority to safeguard the ability of school district to educate children in a safe environment. Educational leaders also must recognize the obligation to create and maintain two-way communication and mutually beneficial relationships with key publics as another non-negotiable priority. Research findings may be generalizable to other districts to the extent that pressures, challenges, crises, and crisis management/public relations best-practice strategies are common across school districts.