Crisis communication
Crisis communication is sometimes considered a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation.[1] Communication scholars define crisis communication as "the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization's performance and generate negative outcomes."[2]
Meaning is a socially constructed thing;[3] because of this, the way that the stakeholders of an organization view an event (positively, neutrally, or negatively) is a major contributing factor to whether the event will become a crisis.[4] Additionally, it is important to separate a true crisis situation from an incident.[5] The term crisis “should be reserved for serious events that require careful attention from management.”[4]
Crisis management has been defined as "a set of factors designed to combat crises and to lessen the actual damages inflicted."[6] Crisis management should not merely be reactionary; it should also consist of preventative measures and preparation in anticipation of potential crises. Effective crisis management has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of damage the organization receives as a result of the crisis, and may even prevent an incident from ever developing into a crisis.[4]
Categories of crisis management
Coombs identifies three phases of crisis management.[2]
- Pre-crisis: preparing ahead of time for crisis management in an effort to prevent a future crisis from occurring.[2] This category is also sometimes called the prodromal crisis stage.[7]
- Crisis: the response to an actual crisis event.[2]
- Post-crisis: occurs after the crisis has been resolved; the efforts by the crisis management team to understand why the crisis occurred and to learn from the event.[2]
Crisis communication tactics
Crisis communication tactics during the pre-crisis stage may include the following: researching and collecting information about crisis risks specific to the organization; creating a crisis management plan that includes making decisions ahead of time about who will handle specific aspects of a crisis if and when it occurs; preparing press release templates for the organization’s public relations team in the event of a crisis; and the chain of command that all employees will follow in the dissemination of information to all publics during a crisis situation.[8] A rapid response crisis communications team should be organized during the pre-crisis stage [9] and all individuals who will help with the actual crisis communication response should be trained.[10]
Crisis communication tactics during the crisis stage may include the following: the identification of the incident as a crisis by the organization’s crisis management team; the collection and processing of pertinent information to the crisis management team for decision making; and also the dissemination of crisis messages to both internal and external publics of the organization.[10]
Crisis communication tactics during the post-crisis stage may include the following: reviewing and dissecting the successes and failures of the crisis management team in order to make any necessary changes to the organization, it’s employees, practices, or procedures; and providing follow-up crisis messages as necessary.[10]
Landmark crisis communication case studies
- The Tylenol-Tampering Crisis – 1982 & 1986[11][12][13]
- The Exxon-Valdez-Oil Spill Crisis — 1989[14]
- The Bridgestone/Firestone & Ford-Tire Crisis – 1990s[15]
- The McDonald’s-Hot Coffee Crisis – 1992[16]
- The Pepsi-Syringe Crisis - 1993[12]
- The BP-Gulf Oil Spill — 2010[20][21][22]
Notes
- ^ Barrera, Andria. "When Public Scrutiny Requires Crisis Communications". Gutenberg Communications. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ a b c d e Coombs 2007.
- ^ Maines, David R. (2000). "The Social Construction of Meaning". Contemporary Sociology. 29 (4): 577. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ a b c Coombs 2012, p. 19.
- ^ Coombs, W. Timothy (2004). "Impact of past crises on current crisis communications: Insights from: Situational crisis communication theory". Journal of Business Communication. 41: 265–289.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Coombs 2007, p. 5.
- ^ Finks 1986, p. 21.
- ^ Coombs 2012, p. 20.
- ^ Alfonso, González-Herrero (2008). "Crisis Communications Management on the Web: How Internet-Based Technologies are Changing the Way Public Relations Professionals Handle Business Crises". Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. 16 (3): 143–153. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c Coombs 2012, pp. 20–21.
- ^ Benson, James A. (1988). "Crisis revisited: An analysis of strategies used by Tylenol in the second tampering episode". Central States Speech Journal. 39 (1): 49–66. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ a b Stockmyer 1996.
- ^ Benoit, William L. (1997). "Image repair discourse and crisis communication". Public Relations Review. 23 (2): 177–186. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ Williams, David E. (1992). "Exxon and the Valdez accident: A failure in crisis communication". Communication Studies. 43 (1): 56–64. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Blaney, Joseph R. (2002). "Blowout!: Firestone's image restoration campaign". Public Relations Review. 28 (4): 379–392. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Sherowski, Elizabeth (1996). "Hot Coffee, Cold Cash: Making the Most of Alternative Dispute Resolution in High-Stakes Personal Injury Lawsuits". J. on Disp. Resol. 521. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ Jacques, Amy. "Domino's delivers during crisis: The company's step-by-step response after a vulgar video goes viral". The Strategist. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ Veil, Shari R. (2012). "Hoaxes and the Paradoxical Challenges of Restoring Legitimacy: Dominos' Response to Its YouTube Crisis". Management Communication Quarterly. 26 (2): 322–345.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ York, Emily Bryson. "What Domino's Did Right -- and Wrong -- in Squelching Hubbub over YouTube Video". AdAge. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ De Wolf, Daniel (2013). "Crisis communication failures: The BP Case Study". International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics. 2 (2): 48–56. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Chen, Stephanie (2010). "Crisis management 101: What can BP CEO Hayward's mistakes teach us?". CNN. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ^ McCarthy, Elizabeth. "Crisis Management Case Study: BP Oil Spill". The PR Code. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
References and external links
- Coombs, W. Timothy (2007), Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding, Los Angeles: Sage
- Coombs, W. Timothy (2012), Parameters for Crisis Communication in "The Handbook of Crisis Communication" Eds. W. Timothy Coombs & Sherry J. Holladay, West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9
- Fink, Steven, "Chapter 3: Anatomy of a Crisis", Crisis management: planning for the inevitable, New York, NY: American Management Association, pp. 20–28
- Stockmyer, John (1996), "Brands in Crisis: Consumer Help For Deserving Victims", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 23, eds. Kim P. Corfman and John G. Lynch Jr., Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, pp. 429–435
- Crisis Management and Communication Entry Essential Knowledge Project from the Institute for Public Relations
- International Research Group on Crisis Communication Publications and crisis institutions database at Ilmenau University of Technology (English pages available)
