Management simply can't function effectively if it gets bogged down in details or specifics. Nor can it make important decisions if it stops to consider how each decision will affect individual persons in organization.

Still, there's much management can do to bridge divide. And first step in that process is for management to accept responsibility for better communication. Unless management takes initiative, there's no way for communication up and down hierarchy to take place.

After all, employees can -- and often do -- express their ideas and emotions. But nothing can happen unless someone in management allows it to happen.

For example, in Heathrow program, managing director spots some trash in an out-of-the-way spot and calls in a cleanup crew. The customer service manager, who supervised managing director for week, chastised him for incurring an expense that wasn't in budget (an appropriate response because customer service manager would be chastised by his immediate superior if he had done that). The CEO responded by making an important policy change on spot, yet what he really needed was a mechanism to get and give information about such problems, and a policy about when exceptions could be made.

By creating a mechanism that allowed workers at front lines to communicate about that kind of problem (trash), he would get both results and greater employee loyalty.

In event that a corporate crisis rears its ugly head in your career, do not panic. Managers have a unique responsibility to continue managing with a smile on their face and a no-fear attitude. You will find that with positive leadership, employees within a dying department can rise to occasion, as they seek out new opportunities in their careers. So if that lay off memo ever crosses your desk, simply hold your head high, stand next to your staff and follow five steps to overcoming a corporate crisis.