Crisis Communication
Crisis Communication
In this blog entry I want to talk about crisis communication. First, I start to describe crisis characteristics and crisis from the past 25 years. After that I will talk about how to prepare for crisis and the communication during crisis.
What is a crisis?
The textbook what we use in this class 2Corporate Communication” (Argenti, 2007) define crisis as: A crisis is a major catastrophe that may occur either naturally or as a result of human error, intervention or even malicious intent.
But not just human beings can get in trouble. Organization can have problems too. These can be caused by human negligence or malicious intent. The characteristics of crises could be: (1) the element of surprise, (2) insufficient information, (3) the quick pace of events, and (4) intense scrutiny. Part of the problem in dealing with crisis is that organizations have tended not to understand how vulnerable they are until after a major crisis occurs. Furthermore, managers and executives tend to be in crisis more short-term focused instead of long-term focused.
Crises from the last 25 years:
Crises of the last decade can be seen as examples how to handle crisis. The first happened in 1982: Johnson & Johnson´s Tylenol Recall. In this crisis seven people died after taking Tylenol capsules. The top management team at that time handled the crisis well without making major mistakes. In 1990: The Perrier Benzene Scare was another major crisis. This example shows how organizations should not handle a crisis. In 1993: Pepsi-Cola´s Syringe Crisis occurred. A syringe was founded in a bottle of Pepsi. But, Pepsi successfully handled this crisis. With The new Millenium: The Online Face of Crises – Data theft and beyond a new type of crisis appeared. Hacking into Reputations can cause serious damage and is a new field of business-crime. In today’s world, more and more people have access to the internet. Companies should to be aware of their image and nowadays an organization’s reputation can be damaged through weblogs and online reviews of the company’s products. Some organizations have serious problems with antibrand “communities” in the Internet. They should recognize the power of the online community. These organizations must keep this fact in mind in planning for and handling crises.
How to prepare for crises:
First, the organization has to understand that it can find itself involved in crises. To prepare for a crisis a company’s top management has to make a plan for upcoming and potential crisis. The top management has to assess the risk for their organization. They also have to think about the effect on their constituencies. Crisis communication experts should spend not to little time thinking about this question. This step is very important for the company. Furthermore, the top management or the crisis experts should set communication objectives for potential crisis. The next step would be to analyze the channel choice. It is important for the organization which communication channel is be used to convey the message. Another important part of planning for preparing for a communication crisis is to assign a different team to each crisis. Different problems require different kinds of expertise. But the management should avoid putting senior manager in charge of all communication crises. The next step would be plan for the centralization. The approach should be completely centralized when the crisis occurs. When the crisis already exists, than the management has to set up a formal plan. This plan includes the following:
- A list of whom to notify in an emergency, An approach to media relations, a strategy for notifying employees, a location to serve as crisis headquarters, and a description of the plan.
Communicating during crisis:
Communicating during a crisis is very important and include 8 steps which should be considered.
1) First you have to get control of the situation by defining the real problem and set communication objectives.
2) Second, the organization should gather as much information as possible.
3) Third, the organization has to set up a centralized crisis management system.
4) The next step is to communicate early and often.
5) Step five is to understand the media’s mission in a crisis.
6) After that the organization should communicate directly with affected constituencies.
7) The next step would be to remember that business must continue
The last point should be to make plans to avoid another crisis immediately.
Examples:
From my point of view, crisis communication is very important in any organization. Like, in the India Coke Case, they had a crisis because an institution criticized their products. India Coke did some mistakes and did not pay attention to some basic rules of crisis communication. They should have learned of other crisis in the past.
In Germany we had a crisis in one company. It was the bank called West LB. They had huge losses in the year 2007 and they handled the problem not the way they should. Even bigger companies like coca cola or the West LB still have to improve their crisis communication.
At the same time I worked for another bank in Germany and they handled their problems in a better way. They had a crisis plan and they also informed their own employees first.
Furthermore, I think that all companies could improve their crisis management and communication to their constituencies.
Links:
http://www.reuters.com/article/telecomm/idUSBRU00648520080430
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/22/business/coke.php
http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html
http://www.lsu.edu/pa/crisis.html
http://www.e911.com/monos/A001.html
