Help with web post and responses

Research post topic and submit 260 word post on the given topic, indicate at least one source or reference in your original post. Also create replies for given 2 posts, each reply should be separate and should be 260 words.

Include at least 250 words in your posting and at least 250 words in your reply.   Please see syllabus for details on submission requirements.

Post Topic:

Search “scholar.google.com” for a company or school that has defined the role of end-users in the creation of a contingency plan. Discuss why it is (or is not) important to include end users in the process of creating the contingency plan? What are the possible pitfalls of end user inclusion? 

Reply to this Post(1):

Discuss why it is (or is not) important to include end users in the process of creating the contingency plan?

Harvard Business School is a non-profit organization which helps the elite students to excel in both management and business world. Because end users are the ones who get affected by the market risks, disasters, floods or the companies who are running out of businesses. Harvard Business School believes that the end users must be involved in the contingency plans because it is for them.

By the definition itself a contingency is anything which occurs beyond the ordinary things. So, I think it is important to involve the end users to get an idea of how to operate in such abnormal situations.

Contingencies normally affect the companies way beyond than expected, they can even disrupt the entire business. No matter how much we plan for it, it is not going to as expected. Reality is often disappointing.

End users help in preparing for the planning and execution. They also help in realizing any missing security measures or lack of resources.

What are the possible pitfalls of end user inclusion?

I can’t think of many but always remember as I said reality is often disappointing. Not matter how much we plan it is hard to keep things under control when reality hits us. So, definitely, we must also take pitfalls into an account.

On one side involving users is a good thing and also a bad thing. Because contingencies happen rarely, involving users too much into the process might makes them suspicious. And also, users tend to not execute the plan well both in practice and in real event. Often people perform less in a practice session thinking that this is just a practice session. This affects them during the real event.

It is almost impossible to have resources covered for all aspects in the event of disaster. During the contingency we might think it is adequate but during the real event that may not adequate.

For example, when you shutdown your Mac book (PC) accidentally, it recovers all the data because it had a backup or a snapshot of your work just before the shutdown. This mechanism in Mac book, probably came from the contingency plan.

References:

Zsidisin, A, George. (2013). Purchasing organization involvement in risk assessments, contingency plans, and risk management: an exploratory study. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/13598540010347307

Payne, Z, Christopher. (2013). Contingency plan exercises. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/09653569910266157

Mikes, Anette. (2014). Towards a Contingency Theory of Enterprise Risk Management. Retrieved from https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/13-063_5e67dffe-aa5e-4fac-a746-7b3c07902520.pdf

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Discussion

Contingency is a future event or incident that might possibly occur but it is unpredictable. Contingency plan is a plan designed for unpredictable events, which are not part of regular plan of task or a project. Contingency planning is part of risk management plan that a company employs to avoid the catastrophe.  “Effective management of disruptions is critical to an organization’s ability to weather disruptive events and remain competitive. Contingency planning is a method of risk management that promotes effective crisis management.” (Hall, Skipper, Hazen, Hanna, 2012, p. 1 para. 1). Contingency plan can be successfully designed only when you are aware of the risk that is possibly can occur or the understanding of different aspects of the projects or programs so that branch out the possible occurrences of the issues based on the experienced executives. “Risk assessment is the widely accepted process used to understand, quantify, and document the effects of undesirable events on organizational objectives so that risk management, continuity of operations planning, and contingency planning can be performed.” (Grimaila, Badiru, 2013, p. 1 para. 1).

According to financial statement, contingencies are the cliffhanger and act as a liability. It cannot be quantified in numbers since it is not a known occurrence, it is just an expected plan assuming that problem or the risk might occur. Having contingency plan allows individual or a company to have plan to avoid disaster without which could be the end of an organization’s existence. With contingency plan, you can analysis the possible impact of the problem or risk on the business. Test the contingency plan; this is where end user comes into picture. End user are the primary source of victim who are targeted first. Therefore, if they are included in the plan and they are aware of what needs to be done; half the plan is already successful. This inclusion of end user might increase cost, it might become difficult in controlling the data flow and prevent the data form sharing this producing narrow and inflexible systems. 

References 

Grimaila, M., & Badiru, A. (2013). A hybrid dynamic decision making methodology for defensive information technology contingency measure selection in the presence of cyber threats. Operational Research, 13(1), 67. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edb&AN=86145787 

Hall, D. J., Skipper, J. B., Hazen, B. T., & Hanna, J. B. (2012). Inter-organizational IT use, cooperative attitude, and inter-organizational collaboration as antecedents to contingency planning effectiveness. International Journal of Logistics Management, 23(1), 50. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edb&AN=75905912