Safety Management System and Business Continuity Planning Considering COVID-19

Introduction

The terms emergency, contingency, crisis, disaster, catastrophe, interruption (Herbane, 2010), disruption, critical event, unintended event, and adverse event are used interchangeably in the literature although there are slight differences between them. Sources of crises are varied depending on the organizational and environmental context. They may be caused either internally or externally, related to various factors such as individual, social, economic, political, technical, natural, or health and safety factors.

An emergency is defined as a sudden, immediate, and generally unexpected event that requires urgent action, and a crisis is described as an unsteady situation including an important change that needs immediate action to save life, resources, possessions, or environment (International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2018a). Disaster Recovery Journal Glossary explains a disaster as a condition in which extensive human, physical, financial, or environmental losses have happened exceeding the capacity of the afflicted individuals, entities, or societies to react and restore with their own resources. Managing ‘high-consequence and low-probability events’ (Fuller & Vassie, 2004, p.27), such as pandemics, floods, earthquakes, terrorist attacks are generally involved in disaster management. Business continuity is described as an organizational ability to continue operations at predetermined levels after an interruption (ISO, 2018a).

Safety topic is vital during crises for the following reasons:

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  Firstly, a crisis, if not prevented and handled appropriately, may turn out to be a disaster, causing many life losses or serious injuries. There is nothing more important than human life, because, nobody can compensate for a life with anything. Increasing awareness of the value of human life leads researchers and practitioners to investigate how to maintain survival without any harm.

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  Secondly, crises may result in economic loss due to the risks of complete loss of or damage in vehicles, machines, equipment, and facilities. The ways on how to protect and recover organizational assets determines the success of business in long-run, since the organization may go bankrupt and unable to survive depending on the severity of disaster. An organization’s safety performance has a significant part in the evaluation of its creditworthiness and capacity to mitigate risks, through insurances (Li and Guldenmund, 2018).

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  Thirdly, crises may tarnish the corporate image. For instance, if a crisis results with the deficient safety performance of an organization, it will attract the media’s attention and negative word of mouth will arise. Nobody will want to transact with such an organization anymore. The organization will lose the trust of their customers resulting with a shift to competitors.

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  Fourthly, a crisis that has become a disaster, gives rise to legal and regulatory sanctions against the organization(s) and people involved. Top management and employees who may have any negligence or violation are legally responsible. They are subject to being sued and compensate for damages.

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  Fifthly, crises may lead to environmental disasters. Accidental release of chemical, biological, or radiological contaminants into the environment will decrease the survival of the organisms and quality of living creatures.

Because of these reasons, establishment of Safety Management System (SMS) and maintaining it through safety policy and objectives, risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion, together with Business Continuity Planning (BCP) through prevention, preparation, response, and recovery activities for crises are crucial from many aspects such as health and safety, loss minimization, continuity of critical functions, reinstatement of normal operations, organizational resilience, competitiveness, and sustainability.