Tutorial #5
Closing: 6.10.15
Problem : Crisis Communication and Reputation Management
Learning objectives:
- Pre: How to prepare for a crisis
- Is it possible to be prepared for a crisis?
- Recognizing the signs
- During: Crisis communication
- Define the scale of the crisis
- How to manage the communication during a crisis? what to consider (external/internal)
- Post: Effects of a crisis
- How to recover
- How to hold up the reputation post crisis. external/ internal -> social media
- Case studies
Keywords
Pre: How to prepare for a crisis
Marshell Goldsmiths article in HBR, He talks about Crisis management and Spirituality. He mentions how organizations have great business continuity but don't believe therefore don't prepare for crises. "Every crisis is simultaneously an ethical, PR, legal, communications, and/or operations crisis." So on all fronts companies have to be able to connect the dots throughout the system. There are ways to prepare that benefit your company. When he talks about spirituality, it's referring to the employees and the way they feel within the organization, people generally want to feel like they are doing good ( for themselves, in their work, for others, etc.) "Every crisis is a spiritual crisis" When things go wrong, people start to ask deep questions about the situation around them.
Ask us how had extensive lists of how to prepare, how to enforce, etc. Gray, C. 2012. How to prepare your business for a crisis.
1. Implementing a crisis team
2. training spokespeople
3. monitoring systems
4. who are your important internal/external stakeholders.
Recognizing the signs
Reading the warning signs and crisis prevention varies based on the type of crisis may arise. For example, good practices and reviews can prevent product crises from arising. If the company is ethical and reviewing their products for faulty parts they can stop problems from arising. Second part of this is being vigilant and honest. If something does arise be honest with your consumer, they will most likely be accommodating and forgiving.
Monitoring internal and external factors help understand the state the company is in at all times. Sometimes warning signs don't arise or they go unnoticed.
During: Crisis Communication
Scale
How to manage communication during a crisis
External communication: stealing the thunder. Taken from law practices. Is the concept of stating weaknesses before others have the chance. It's proven that companies that are able to report crisis, etc. to the public first face less reputation damages.
Post:Effects of a crisis -How to recover
Media will be a large controlling factor of how your company communicates their side of the situation to the public. These are some of the tips that should be used when handling media attention. coombs, T. crisis management.
How to hold up reputation post crisis
Crisis managers assess responsibility attached to a crisis in order to evaluate the way stakeholders will hold responsibility against the company: victim clusters, accidental cluster and intentional cluster. Factors that intensify the threat of reputation disaster is past history and and their relationship reputation.
A: If stakeholders see the company being majorly responsible for crises it affects reputation
B1 & B2: Prior history can affect newers crises if something similar has happened in the past/ need to take more responsibility
B3 & B4: Prior relationship with stakeholders affects the way recent crises is perceived
C: the more stakeholders feel the org. is responsible the more intense emotions become and negative word of mouth.
D: the more negative a reputation the less likely stakeholders are to support
E: The more emotional they are to a situation the more likely stakeholders will report and retaliate verbally against the org.
F1, F2, F3: Response strategy 1) shape the attributions of crises 2)change perceptions 3) reduce the negative associations
10 tips for reputation and crisis management in digital world Walter, E. 2013.
- listen and be present
- Set the right expectations
- be transparent
- respond thoughtfully
- don't lose your cool
- have a crisis management team
- manage access to social media accounts carefully
- post moderation guidelines
- hire experienced communication managers
- not everyone will be pleased
Employees are a company's best asset and should be empowered throughout a crisis. If the employees feel like the brand name is tarnished they will no longer feel a sense of pride in where they work or maintain the same level of work they did prior. utilize internal communication, empower your team.
Case studies
People were convinced this teapot looked like Hitler... However unusual this connection is, it could have affected the sales of JCpenny, but the way they took to social media in order to calm the storm even helped their sales. The media attention plus their openness to respond to the situation helped make the teapots sell like crazy.
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