摘要：Business organizations often come across different problems in their operations. Some of these problems are expected, some are not, some are rather simple and others, rather complicated, some can be resolved easily while others require more effort. Therefore, in business operations, issues management plays an important role. Its primary goal is to prepare organizations to act timely and to gear their activities towards changes that will help avoid a potential crisis. In critical situations, the need for issues management is even more pronounced because, in such situations, it is of crucial importance to timely recognize, analyse and manage issues. This paper contributes to an understanding of the role of issues management in crisis management through theoretical analysis of selected international and Croatian literature. The aim of this theoretical paper is to provide an overview of the impacts and advantages of issues management in business operations and to show their interrelations with risks and crises in order for business organizations to timely prepare adequate business strategies for resolving issues. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that business organizations are also a part of the communities and societies in which they operate and thus, the interests of these respective communities and societies should be considered and discussed through public consultations. Therefore, it is necessary for business organizations to recognize the importance of public relations, i.e. the importance of communication and dialogue with both the stakeholders and the media in order to find quality solution for all parties involved. The findings show that issues management is important for business organizations because it provides them with a possibility to prevent the occurrence of a crisis event, and if a crisis still occurs, it will not, in most cases, be crucial for business survival as the crisis event was timely managed prior, during and upon its occurrence.
