An actual crisis is a "tremendous opportunity for learning" (Pauchant& Mitroff,1992, p.158). Learning is accomplished through evaluation of the crisis management efforts in two distinct ways.
1. how the organization dealt with the crisis, its crisis management performance, is evaluated, examining the efficacy of the crisis management plan (CMP) and its execution (Barton, 2001). The crisis team carefully examines all phases of its performance.
2. the crisis impact is evaluated; a review of the actual damage created by the crisis is conducted (Sen & Egelhoff, 1991).