Organizational culture and leadership style: The missing combination for selecting the right leader for effective crisis management

Most organizations faced with a crisis will rely on the leader in place at that time to lead them out of the crisis, often with disastrous results. When the crisis gets out of hand, these organizations realize belatedly that the current leader does not necessarily possess the leadership style required to manage the crisis effectively. We present three crisis response leadership principles (CRLP) to help organizations successfully prepare for and manage a crisis. To accompany the CRLP, we provide the crisis response leadership matrix (CRLM), a prescriptive guide to help an organization improve its initial response and enhance the effectiveness of its crisis management efforts. Combining the element of organizational culture with individual leadership styles, the CRLM offers a standard methodology that allows organizations to match a given crisis with the best possible crisis response leader. We present a real-world case study that describes a successful implementation of the approach: the U.S. Air Force Taiwan-4 crisis. Organizations adopting this methodology can confidently choose the right person to lead a swift, effective response to a crisis.