Crisis communication

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Lauverset (talk | contribs) at 21:29, 1 March 2014 (Fixing reference error raised by ReferenceBot). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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.” [6]

Crisis management has been defined as "a set of factors designed to combat crises and to lessen the actual damages inflicted." [7] 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.[8]

Three Categories of Crisis Management:

  • 1. Pre-crisis: preparing ahead of time for crisis management in an effort to prevent a future crisis from occurring.[9]
  • 2. Crisis: the response to an actual crisis event.[10]
  • 3. 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.[11]

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.[12] A rapid response crisis communications team should be organized during the pre-crisis stage [13] and all individuals who will help with the actual crisis communication response should be trained.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

Landmark Crisis Communication Case Studies:

The Tylenol-Tampering Crisis – 1982 & 1986 [17][18][19]

The Exxon-Valdez-Oil Spill Crisis—1989 [20]

The Bridgestone/Firestone & Ford-Tire Crisis – 1990s [21]

The McDonald’s-Hot Coffee Crisis – 1992 [22]

The Pepsi-Syringe Crisis - 1993 [23]

The Dominos-YouTube Crisis - 2009 [24][25][26]

The BP-Gulf Oil Spill—2010 [27][28][29]

References

  1. ^ Barrera, Andria. "When Public Scrutiny Requires Crisis Communications". Gutenberg Communications. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  2. ^ Coombs, W. Timothy (2007). Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding. Los Angeles: Sage.
  3. ^ Maines, David R. (2000). "The Social Construction of Meaning". Contemporary Sociology. 29 (4): 577. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  4. ^ 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. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9.
  5. ^ 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)
  6. ^ 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. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9.
  7. ^ Coombs, W. Timothy (2007). Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding. Los Angeles: Sage. p. 5.
  8. ^ 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. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9.
  9. ^ Coombs, W. Timothy (2007). Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding. Los Angeles: Sage.
  10. ^ Coombs, W. Timothy (2007). Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding. Los Angeles: Sage.
  11. ^ Coombs, W. Timothy (2007). Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding. Los Angeles: Sage.
  12. ^ 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. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9.
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ 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. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9.
  15. ^ 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. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9.
  16. ^ 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. pp. 20–21. ISBN 978-1-4051-9441-9.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ Benoit, William L. (1997). "Image repair discourse and crisis communication". Public Relations Review. 23 (2): 177–186. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  20. ^ 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)
  21. ^ 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)
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ 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)
  26. ^ York, Emily Bryson. "What Domino's Did Right -- and Wrong -- in Squelching Hubbub over YouTube Video". AdAge. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  27. ^ 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)
  28. ^ Chen, Stephanie (2010). "Crisis management 101: What can BP CEO Hayward's mistakes teach us?". CNN. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  29. ^ McCarthy, Elizabeth. "Crisis Management Case Study: BP Oil Spill". The PR Code. Retrieved 28 February 2014.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crisis_communication&oldid=597722063"