Risk and Crisis Management in the Public Sector

"This third edition is the best of the lot. It provides a comprehensive guide to new students and experienced practitioners alike. It combines, with great skill, insights from policy and public management studies to help readers understand and navigate public sector crises."

Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics, University of Stirling, UK.

"As public managers around the world try to assess the successes and failures of national COVID-19 responses, this very welcome new edition of a key text reminds us just how substantial the challenges of risk and crisis management really are. From risk identification to matters of risk communication, and from contingency planning to post-crisis evaluation and learning, the main issues are presented in a clear, highly informed and well-structured fashion. Promising to meet the practitioner 'halfway', we are taken through the complexities and contradictions of risk and crisis but pointed also to the possibilities for learning from practical and academic experience across several risk domains. The call is for better crisis leadership, enhanced levels of preparedness and for greater organizational resilience in the face of emergent risks. In the wake of recent experience, this message is more essential than ever."

Alan Irwin, Professor, Department of Organization,Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.

"Updated with a wealth of Covid era research from around the globe, the third edition of this widely used textbook easily remains the essential one stop shop for anyone seeking a state of the art overview of 'what we know' and 'what to (not) to do' in dealing with risks and coping with crises in public sector contexts."

Paul 't Hart, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.