Crisis Management, Organisational Learning and Sense Making: A Study of Ghanaian Banks

Abstract

This study primarily focused on financial crises in Ghana’s banking sector. The study analysed banking crises across three major banks and examined how learning and sense-making influence crisis management in these banks. Qualitative data through semi-structured interviews formed the backbone of the research. Fifteen bank executives from three Ghanaian banks were interviewed. A combination of theoretical, empirical and conceptual models was used to comparatively analyze the data from the multiple cases. The results show four major banking crises including liquidity crisis, fluctuation in currency, natural disasters, corporate governance failures, scandals and frauds that occurred during these crisis periods: 2000-01, 2011-12, 2014-15 and 2017-2020 with different causes, consequences and severities. Shocking, some crises have been repetitive. The banks initiated different crisis management strategies to resolve crisis events including crisis resolution committees, customer grievance redressal, fraud prevention cells, crisis communication and prevention plans, automated messaging systems and disaster alert systems. Different levels of organisational learning and sense-making decisions have been developed and implemented by the banks. Transboundary crisis management covered enterprise risk management, business continuity management and disaster risk management at varying degrees. Regrettably, the banks did not document their crisis learning processes, leading to the design of crisis management frameworks.

Keywords: Crisis Management, Organisational Learning, Sense Making, Enterprise Risk Management, Disaster Risk Management, Business Continuity Management, Banking.

DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/15-8-09

Publication date: September 30th 2024