| Course | HRM 420 Human Resource Risk Management (HRM/420) |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Security and crisis management paper |
| Length | about 1,010 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HRM 420 Week 3
A Fight on the Dodgeball Court, a Lost Child and a Viral Video: Workplace Violence Prevention, Emergency Plans and Crisis Communication at Lone Star Play Centers
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
HRM/420: Human Resource Risk Management
Week 3 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Lone Star Play Centers and the incidents are composites written for a model paper; security practices and research findings come from the sources listed and are stated generally.
On a Saturday night, two groups of parents at a Lone Star birthday party argued over a dodgeball game and began fighting. An 18-year-old court monitor stepped between them and was punched, suffering a broken nose. A parent's video of the fight, showing the monitor struggling alone, drew hundreds of thousands of views and comments asking why the company had no security. The general manager learned about the video from a reporter's call. The incident exposed three gaps at once: no plan to prevent or handle confrontations, no protection for the employee and no plan for what to say when the world was watching. This paper closes those gaps.
Assessing Violence Risk
Workplace violence ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assault. In a pooled review of aggression studies, Hershcovis et al. (2007) showed that both individual factors, such as trait anger, and situational factors, such as interpersonal conflict and perceived mistreatment, predicted workplace aggression, with different patterns for aggression from insiders and outsiders. At Lone Star, violence comes mostly from customers: competitive games, crowded weekend parties, parents' protectiveness of their children and, at centers that serve beer to adults, alcohol. Young, lightly trained monitors enforcing rules on adults face the highest risk.
Prevention
Prevention begins with design and staffing. Centers will place security officers on Friday and Saturday nights at the five busiest locations, limit beer sales to two drinks per adult with wristbands, separate party groups on dodgeball courts by age and keep courts within sight of a manager's station. Clear posted rules and a short pre-session announcement set expectations.
Response to Confrontations
Monitors are trained to de-escalate verbally, call a manager immediately using a radio code and step back rather than intervene physically between adults. Managers and security handle removals. If violence occurs, staff move children away, call police and provide first aid. Monitors will never be expected to separate fighting adults; the procedure states this explicitly so that no employee feels obligated to put themselves at risk.
A Missing Child
A child separated from a party group is one of a parent's worst fears and a serious risk. Lone Star adopts a code procedure: when a child is reported missing, a code is announced, staff stop all exits and check assigned zones, the child's description is shared by radio and police are called if the child is not found within ten minutes. Drills are held quarterly.
Severe Weather and Evacuation
North Texas faces tornadoes and severe storms. Following federal guidance on written emergency plans (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2016), each center has an emergency action plan identifying shelter areas away from glass, a weather radio, roles for directing customers and a method for accounting for employees and party groups. Evacuation plans for fire specify routes and assembly points.
An Active Threat
Training follows the widely taught approach of avoiding the threat by leaving if possible, denying access by locking or barricading if not and defending only as a last resort, adapted for helping children. Managers coordinate with local police on center layouts, share floor plans in advance and hold an annual walk-through so officers know the building.
Protecting Employee Data
Security includes information. Lone Star holds employees' Social Security numbers, bank details and minors' work permits. HR will limit access to personnel files, require multifactor authentication for payroll systems and train managers to recognize phishing emails that impersonate executives asking for employee tax forms.
The Crisis Communication Plan
Coombs (2007) proposed situational crisis communication theory, which holds that audiences attribute responsibility to organizations based on the type of crisis and the organization's history, and that responses should be more accommodating, with apology and corrective action, when attributed responsibility is higher. A fight at a venue without security, filmed and shared, leads audiences to assign Lone Star substantial responsibility.
Communicating After the Fight
Under the plan, the chief executive would have contacted the injured monitor and family first, then informed employees within hours with facts and support, then posted a statement acknowledging the incident, expressing concern for the employee, explaining immediate changes such as added security and inviting questions. Responding to the reporter with facts, not silence, would have prevented speculation from filling the gap.
Business Continuity
A crisis can close a center, and the company must keep paying employees and serving bookings. Lone Star's continuity plan lists which parties can move to nearby centers, how customers will be contacted and how hourly employees will be scheduled at other locations or paid for canceled shifts during short closures. HR keeps an updated contact list for all employees outside the scheduling system, so managers can reach staff if systems are down after a storm. Planning for continuity reduces the financial pressure that leads managers to reopen too soon after an incident.
Spokesperson and Monitoring
The director of marketing serves as spokesperson, with the chief executive for serious incidents. Managers are trained to refer media inquiries and not to comment on social media. The marketing team monitors social channels during weekends to detect incidents early.
Support for Employees
Employees who experience violence or trauma receive paid time off, free confidential counseling sessions and a manager check-in before returning. The injured monitor's medical costs were covered by workers' compensation, and HR checked in weekly during recovery.
Drills and Review
Plans fail without practice. Each center will run quarterly drills rotating among missing child, weather and evacuation scenarios, and leadership will run an annual tabletop exercise on a reputational crisis. After every real incident, managers will review what worked and update procedures.
Conclusion
The Saturday night fight revealed missing prevention, unsafe expectations of young employees and no crisis communication plan. Research-based violence prevention, explicit limits on physical intervention, procedures for missing children, weather and active threats, employee data security, a communication plan matched to responsibility and after-care for employees give Lone Star a plan that protects people first and reputation as a result.
References
Coombs, W. T. (2007). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10(3), 163-176. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550049
Hershcovis, M. S., Turner, N., Barling, J., Arnold, K. A., Dupré, K. E., Inness, M., LeBlanc, M. M., & Sivanathan, N. (2007). Predicting workplace aggression: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(1), 228-238. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.228
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2016). Recommended practices for safety and health programs (OSHA 3885). U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.osha.gov/safety-management
What the HRM 420 Week 3 instructions ask
The third HRM 420 assignment generally centers on workplace security and crisis management. Typical requirements include assessing and preventing workplace violence, physical security measures, emergency action and evacuation plans, business continuity, protecting employee data and privacy, crisis communication with employees, customers and the media and supporting employees after traumatic events. Many prompts ask students to prepare a security or crisis plan for an organization or analyze a real incident. Explain the steps clearly and assign roles and backups for each. Use research on aggression and crisis communication to justify choices, plan communication for employees as well as the public and include drills. Support the plan with sources in APA format.
How this HRM 420 Week 3 example is built
A weekend fight at a party venue, recorded on a parent's phone, combined a security failure with a reputational crisis, and the paper plans for both. It begins with what happened and what the company lacked: no de-escalation training, no security on busy nights and no plan for responding to the video. Research on workplace aggression identifies risk factors. Prevention and response procedures follow for confrontations, with clear limits on physical intervention. Emergency procedures cover a lost child, tornado warnings and an active threat. Employee data security is addressed. A crisis communication plan uses research on how audiences judge organizations. The paper ends with support for affected employees.
HRM 420 Week 3 grading rubric: where the points go
Grading for this week rewards plans that are specific, role-based and grounded in research on aggression and crisis communication. Credit goes to papers that assess violence risk factors, distinguish prevention from response, write procedures with clear roles and steps, address employee data security and plan communication with each audience. Including support for employees after traumatic events, and drills to keep plans usable, shows awareness that plans fail without practice. Linking the plan to the incident that prompted it keeps the analysis grounded. Clear procedures with APA citations make the plan credible, and writing out a sample first message to employees and to the public shows the plan can be put into words under pressure. A table of roles with backups makes the plan usable when key people are away.
HRM 420 Week 3 help: mistakes to avoid
The most frequent HRM 420 Week 3 weakness is a crisis plan that lists generic steps without assigning who does what. Name roles and backups. Another common gap is training employees to intervene physically in fights, which raises injury risk; teach de-escalation and when to step back. Set limits. Students also overlook communication with employees, who learn about crises from social media if leaders say nothing. Plan internal messages first. Avoid ignoring after-care for employees involved. Include drills and reviews. Address data security as part of security. Finally, explain how the plan will be tested and updated.
Related HRM 420 sample papers
Other HRM 420 week samples
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- HRM 420 Week 2: Workplace Health and Safety
- HRM 420 Week 4: Compliance and Discrimination Risk
- HRM 420 Week 5: An HR Risk Management Plan
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HRM 420 Week 3 questions, answered
What does HRM 420 Week 3 usually cover?
It usually covers workplace security and crisis management, including workplace violence prevention, emergency action plans, business continuity, employee data security, crisis communication and support for employees after incidents.
Where can I find a free HRM 420 Week 3 sample paper?
The complete security and crisis plan for family entertainment centers, from a court fight to a viral video, with roles explained beside each step, can be studied here. A free draft of your own is available.
What are risk factors for workplace violence?
Contact with the public, handling money, working alone or in small numbers, working late at night, serving alcohol and enforcing rules on customers are common factors that raise the risk of violence.
What is an emergency action plan?
A written plan describing how employees respond to emergencies such as fires, severe weather or threats, including alarms, evacuation routes, assembly points, roles and accounting for everyone.
What is situational crisis communication theory?
A framework holding that an organization's response should match how much responsibility audiences assign it for a crisis, with more accommodating responses when responsibility is greater.
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