When crisis occurs, organizations should always be prepared. There are any number of scenarios that could occur causing a crisis. Organizations are held legally liable in an event of a crisis. They are also held to an ethical and moral standard as well, by protecting those involved in and around their organization. In an event of a crisis, companies, organizations, invididuals, or groups should all know and become familiar with what their regulated crisis management plan is. Referred to as crisis communication, it is necessary to have regulations to the different scenarios that could possibly occur. Through communication, it is important and absolutely necessary to respond quickly, effectively, efficiently, andrealize an effective crisis communication strategy and solution to the occurring problems or problems. Communicating through technology is also very important. Technology ensures that a rapid and coordinated response to potential crisis will help organizations execute a well thought out plan. In the case that this does not happen, organizations' reputation and other aspects could be substantially damanged.
Below is an article titled "Crisis Communication Planning: Organizing and Completing A Plan That Works". It is an outline of how companies, organizations, or individuals should prepare and respond through communication to a potential crisis.
http://www.101publicrelations.com/crisis-communication.html
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ReplyDeleteA crisis can happen at any moment in any one persons life. A crisis may also happen to a group of people such as a country or a corporation. The magnitude and impact of the crisis can be perceived on many different levels depending on the individual or corporation. This is where it is important for a company to keep its cool and not overreact to a crisis. The most crucial part to a crisis communication plan is that everyone remain calm and think before they say. I certainly agree with Kayla when she stated that a company must communicate through technology. When communicating to constituents and members of the company it is important to relay information quickly to ensure that your crisis is confronted and your message is delievered as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe link I found is a Crisis Communication website for Longwood University. The site gives information that would be useful and valuable to students and faculty. The site also gives links to national and government websites which are involved with crisis communication such as the American Red Cross and the Department of Homeland Security. I feel that it is extremely important to put all of this information in one place in order to communicate the plan to the entire university in one place.
http://www.longwood.edu/crisiscomm/
Crisis’s are inevitable in life and at work, but it is important that from a corporate stand point that a crisis can be understood and dealt with in a timely matter. They are many examples in a company history of major crisis’s from the debacle of Enron to the collapse of major banks. An example of a crisis I witnessed was the attacked on the US on September 11, 2001. I live in the Johnstown area and when Flight 93 went down this caused a major crisis. Companies were shut down and the airport was blocked off and parents went to schools to retrieve their children. Attached is a link to an article about crisis management with real world examples and advice.
ReplyDeletehttp://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1741
Obviously crisis are unplanned events that we try to prepare for as much as we can. Sometimes it takes for a crisis to happen for people to better prepare themselves. Whether a disaster is natural or man made, everyone,not just companies should have crisis plans. Being sure that all parties under your supervision are aware of your plan is imperative. Keeping all parties actively involved and having drills periodically ensures that a everyone is familiar with your plan.
ReplyDeleteOne example of a crisis I will never forget is Hurricane Katrina. That disaster destroyed many people's lives,but through the hard work and dedication from our nation, we were able to provide relief to many people involved in this crisis. All over the media I saw people doing everything that was in their power to provide relief to the people who suffered that storm.
Here is a link to an article that I found interesting.
http://management.about.com/cs/communication/a/PlaceBlame1000.htm
Dealing with a crisis is inevitable. Having read multiple case studies including the Perrier and the Tylenol cases in my opinion the best method to deal with a crisis is to be honest. Honesty seems to be the key to the success for Tylenol (which is considered the gold standard in crisis management. If you think about it when crisis are dealt with honestly they almost always work out better even if the crisis is particularly negligent or heinous. David Letterman is another good example. He was honest about his indiscretions and he actually benefited from the crisis he was in. Perrier as we know, was less honest about an even less blatant crisis and they suffered severely. I think it shows that consumers truly do value the integrity of a product and not just its price.
ReplyDeleteThe last company I worked for, Fastenal Company, dealt with a crisis situation that was similar to the Tylenol and cyanide situation, but on a much smaller scale. I say it was similar because there was a potentially dangerous mistake made with one of our products. Fastenal is an industrial supplier that has 12 product lines, with the main product line being fasteners. I received an email one day at the branch that I managed detailing a brand and size of rivet that had a faulty head and could malfunction and potentially cause injury if the head snapped and the rivet came loose. This would be dangerous because if a customer used this certain rivet to fasten something such as a roof or another structure then the rivet(s) could snap and the structure could fall or collapse and injury someone. However, Fastenal was very prepared for this potential crisis by issuing a total recall with detailed instructions for each branch on how to check for any faulty rivets in our stock and how to properly send them back to the correct warehouse. The email also gave us the part number(s) of the faulty rivets and how to check if we sold any of them and how to deal with any customers who may have bought those rivets. Thankfully, there were no injuries or issues from these faulty rivets with any customers but Fastenal had a very good crisis plan in place that supported its employees and the potential crisis situation. As I said this was on a much smaller scale compared to the Tylenol crisis, but was similar in the fact that there was a faulty product that had the potential to be dangerous but both companies were well-prepared with a strong crisis plan.
ReplyDeleteFor those that may not be familiar with the Tylenol crisis, I have provided a link that details the crisis and how Tylenol dealt with the situation. There are also links within the article that detail crisis situations that occurred at Exxon and Coca-Cola.
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall02/Susi/tylenol.htm
I appreciate that all the authors have noted that crisis is both inevitable and unplanned. These two underlying factors make dealing with a crisis and the communication efforts needed to effectively. To effectively communicate in a crisis situation, an organization needs to have a strong grasp on the techniques and tactics that can be applied in such a situation. Due to the unique nature of each crisis no concrete plan can be forged. Rather, a dynamic, well thought plan must be in place that has the ability to address a myriad of different situations.
ReplyDeleteNotably, the largest crisis in recent history was that of September 11. Crisis communication was thrust to the foreground and many organizations were forced to recognize its worth. As a sophomore in high school I was happy to see the attention the administration placed on crisis communication. New plans for moving students and communicating among teachers were implicated. The changes were made public to let the parents know action was being taken.
From the National Center for Crisis Communication comes a response plan for schools.
http://www.schoolcrisisresponse.com/