CRITICAL INCIDENT ANALYSIS

Critical Incident Analysis

Critical Incident Analysis

Introduction

September 11, 2001, North Americans were facing a new reality. The terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, Pentagon, and the air disaster in Pennsylvania that resulted struck the world. The balance sheet amounted to some 3,000 dead, mostly employees of various financial companies or agencies of the federal government had to undertake a normally working day. This intentional attack against people at work has raised awareness for many employers of the potential impact.

That a traumatic event can have on the well-being physically and emotionally for their employees. Few managers expect to face a major traumatic event like a terrorist attack. By cons, it is more likely to have to face a heart attack, death or serious injury of one or several employees after an accident, violent physical attack against an employee with other employees, or fallen from personal trauma that employees bring to work. Exceptionally, a manager can deal with the consequences of a major fire or an earthquake or a tornado that occurs in the workplace during normal working hours and the community devastates an employee. This paper aims to help managers to, actively promote a culture of support, understanding and care to employees who experience a traumatic event in the workplace.

Discussion

Traumatic events can take many forms and occur anywhere. A traumatic event can be defined as any extreme event: occurs in an unusual way, is a threat to human life or could cause serious injury, put the person in the presence of shocking scenes of death or injury, may give rise to a person: intense fear, helplessness, horror or other reaction of distress after being brought into contact or have witnessed such an event. Potential traumatic events in the workplace include: presence at the death of a person, violent physical assault, physical threats, bomb threat, explosion, fire, intentional or unintentional release of chemicals or infectious agents, activity search and rescue, recovery of bodies and investigation of the site following an accident or major disaster, suicide or attempted suicide.

Model Analysis

The best way to protect the physical well-being and emotional development of employees against a traumatic event in the workplace is that you and your employees be prepared. Having a well thought out response plan in case of trauma you and your employees respond quickly and effectively to a traumatic event. The threat of terrorist attacks can reduce the sense of safety of employees and lead to lower the organizational performance.

An emergency plan well planned and tested to which employees have contributed, can instil in them a sense of security, confidence and control. Knowing that they and their employers have done their best to establish a plan in case of traumatic events, employees are assured that they would be prepared to act quickly and effectively should something happen. The absence of uncertainty fosters peace of mind and well-being and allows employees to focus on their daily tasks safely and productively (Rick, 1998, 110).

An emergency plan must be developed for people who ...