IT Manager Crisis Leadership: Do Prescriptions Given for General Management Apply?

Earthquakes are destructive events, but can also give opportunities for learning in crisis management for organizational information technology (IT) functions. In their role as stewards of company data and IT, it is important that IT managers participate in company crisis management activities. However, the role of IT managers in crisis management is not well understood. This paper addresses IT manager actions during the crisis response effort, when appropriate actions need to be taken at short notice. Recognizing that few guidelines exist for IT manager leadership in these situations, we attempt to fit leadership recommendations intended for the general management to five cases of IT manager crisis response activity during earthquakes. We find that several recommendations from this set were relevant also for IT managers, showing that IT managers can learn from crisis response lessons derived from the general management.