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21. Crisis ManagementLecture by Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine
based on Seitel’s The Practice of Public Relations
AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITYSCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
COMMUNICATIONS STUDIES
04/07/23 2
Structure of the Lecture
• 1. Issues Management • 2. Implementing Issues Management• 3. Emergence of Risk Communication• 4.Managing in a crisis• 5. Planning a Crisis• 6. Communicating in a Crisis• 7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
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1. Issues Management
• The term issues management was coined in 1976 by public relations counselor Howard Chase, who defined it this way:
» Issues management is the capacity to understand, mobilize, coordinate and direct all strategic and policy planning functions, and all public affairs/public relations skills, toward achievement of one objective: meaningful participation in creation of public policy that affects personal and institutional destiny
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1. Issues Management
• Issues management is a five-step process that:
• 1. identifies issues with which the organization must be concerned
• 2. Analyses and delimits each issue with respect to its impact on constituent publics
• 3. Displays the various strategic options available to the organization
• 4. Implements an action program to communicate the organization's views and to influence perception on the issue
• 5. Evaluates its program in terms of reaching organizational goals
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1. Issues Management
• In specific terms, issues management includes (encompasses) the following elements:
• 1. Anticipating emerging issues. The issues management process anticipates issues 18 months to three years away
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1. Issues Management
• 2. Identify issues selectively. A good issues management process will select several specific priority issues with which to deal
• Issues management can focus on the most important issues affecting the organization
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1. Issues Management
• 3. Deal with opportunities and vulnerabilities.
• Most issues, anticipated well in advance, offer both opportunities and vulnerabilities for organizations
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1. Issues Management
• 4. Plan from the outside in. The external environment, not internal strategies, dictates the selection of priority issues
• Issue management is very much driven by external factors
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1. Issues Management
• 5. Bottom-line orientation. Its real purpose should be to defend the organization in light of external factors as well as to enhance the firm’s business by seizing imminent opportunities
• 1. Bottom-line: concerned exclusively with costs and profits (bottom-line issues)
• 2. Very realistic and pragmatic
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1. Issues Management
• 6. Action timetable. Just as the issues management process must identify emerging issues and set them in order
• It must propose policy, programs and an implementation timetable to deal with those issues
• Action is the key to an effective issues management process
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1. Issues Management
• 7. Dealing from the top. Just as a pubic relations department is powerless without the confidence and respect of top management
• The issues management process must operate with the support of the chief executive
• The chief executive’s personal sanction is critical to the acceptance and conduct of issues management within a firm
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2. Implementing Issues Management
• In a typical organization, the tactical implementation of issues management tends to consist of four specific job tasks:
• 1. Identify issues and trends. Issues identification can be accomplished through traditional research techniques as well as through more informal methods
• One way to keep informed about what is being said about a company, industry, or issue is to be aware of issues from all perspectives
• Such awareness of the “enemy” prevents you from being blindsided
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2. Implementing Issues Management
• 2. Evaluating issue impact and setting priorities.
• Evaluation and analysis may be handled by issues committees within an organization
• Committees can set priorities for issues management action
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2. Implementing Issues Management
• 3. Establishing a company position.
• Establishing a position can be a formal process
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2. Implementing Issues Management
• 4. Designing company action response to achieve results.
• The best-organized companies for issues management orchestrate integrated responses to achieve results
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• The 1990 saw the emergence of “risk communication” as an outgrowth of issues management
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• Risk communication began as process of taking scientific data related to health and environment hazards and presenting them to a lay audience in a manner that is both understandable and meaningful
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• Risk communication deals with a high level of emotion
• Occasionally, intense emotion flows from a lack of knowledge and understanding about science that underlies societal risk
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• Seven steps are helpful in planning a risk communication program
• 1. Recognize risk communication as part of a larger risk management program
• and understand that the whole program is based on politics, power, and controversial issues
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• 2. Encourage management to join the “communication loop” and help train them to deal with the news media
• You know about it, because you are in the information/communication loop
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• 3. Develop credible outside experts to act as news sources for journalists
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• 4. Become an in-house/insider expert in your own area of risk to enhance your credibility with journalists
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• 5. Approach the news media with solid facts and figures before they approach you
• Verify the veracity of your data, adhere to facts
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• 6. Research perceptions of your organization by the media and other publics to gauge/gage credibility
• And help determine if your message will be believable
• The idea of public opinion
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3. Emergence of Risk Communication
• 7. Understand your target audiences and how the news media can help you communicate effectively
• Remember • Like in any other area of public relations
communications:• DEEDS not words are what count in
communicating risk
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4. Managing in a crisis
• The most significant test for any organization comes when it is hit by a major accident or disaster: that is a crisis
• What is a crisis?• According to Harvard Business Review
» “A crisis is a situation that has reached a critical phase for which dramatic and extraordinary intervention is necessary to avoid or repair major damage”
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4. Managing in a crisis
• How an organization handles itself in the midst of a crisis may influence how it is perceived for years to come
• When a crisis strikes, seven instant warning signs invariably appear:
1. Surprise. 2. Insufficient information. 3. Escalating Events. 4. Loss of control. 5. Increased outside scrutiny 6. Siege mentality 7. Panic.
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5. Planning a Crisis
• One irrefutable key in crisis management is being prepared
• Reporters consider themselves the “guardians of the public trust” and therefore may be quick to point fingers and ascribe blame in a crisis
• Heightened preparedness is always in order, with four planning issues paramount:
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5. Planning a Crisis
• 1. For each potentially impacted audience, define the risk.
• The risk must be understood before framing crisis communication
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5. Planning a Crisis
• 2. For each risk defined, describe the actions that mitigate the risk
• If you do a credible job in defining the risk, • the public will more closely believe in your
solutions
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5. Planning a Crisis
• 3. Identify the cause of the risk. If the public believes you know what went wrong,
• they are more likely to accept that you will quickly remedy the problem
• If the organization helps identify the cause of the problem,
• the coverage of the crisis is likely to be more balanced
04/07/23 32
5. Planning a Crisis
• 4. Demonstrate responsible management action.
• Essential to the planning phase is to appear to be in control of the situation
• Defining an issue means both having a clear sense internally of what the focus of communications should be
• And effectively moving that focus out into the marketplace to reach key constituents
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5. Planning a Crisis
• Simple but appropriate watchwords/passwords for any crisis plan are the following
Be prepared
Be Available
Be Credible
04/07/23 34
6. Communicating in a Crisis
• The key communications principle in dealing with a crisis is not to clam up when disasters strikes
• Public relations advice takes a different track
• The most effective crisis communicators are those who provide prompt, frank, and full information to the media in the eye of the storm
• In saying nothing, an organization is perceived as already having made a decision
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6. Communicating in a Crisis
• The cardinal rule for communications during a crisis to be:
• TELL IT ALL AND TELL IT FAST
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6. Communicating in a Crisis
• When information gets out quickly,
• Rumors are stopped and nerves are calmed
1. Terminate the crisis quickly 2. Limit the damage 3. Restore credibility
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6. Communicating in a Crisis
• The quickest way to end the agony
• And begin to build back credibility
• Is to communicate through the media
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7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• Handling the media is the most critical element in crisis
• Treating the media as “friendly adversaries” makes great sense
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7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• So dealing with the media in crisis demands certain “battlefield among them:
• 1. Set up media headquarters. Organizations in crisis must immediately establish a media headquarters through which all authorized communication must flow
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7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• 2. Establish media rules. In a crisis the media are sneaky (furtive)
• Their goal is to unearth any salient/noticeable or salacious/lascivious element that will advance the story line of the crisis
• They are operating at cross-purposes with the organization, which is trying to put the crisis behind it
04/07/23 41
7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• 3. Media live for the “box score” crisis is about number
• An organization is crisis must be ready to provide enough numbers to “feed the best”
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7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• 4. Do not speculate. If you do not know the numbers, do pretend you do
• • Speculation is a suicidal in crisis
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7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• 5. Feed the beast. The media in crisis are insatiable
• The media never sleep
• Nature abhors vacuum, goes the old saying
• In crisis any vacuum will be filled by your enemies
• Smart organizations in crisis will strive to keep the media occupied
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7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• 7. Speed triumphs. In crisis, the media mantra is speed first, accuracy second
• Cable Rules. Cable TV is 21st century phenomenon: CNN and Fox News
04/07/23 45
7. Engaging the Media in Crisis
• The following principles apply:
• 1. Speak first and often
• 2. Do not speculate
• 3. Go off the record at your own peril
• 4. Stay with the facts
• 5. Be open and concerned, not defensive
• 6. Make your point and repeat it
• 7. Do not wage war with the media
• 8. Establish yourself as the most authoritative source
• 9. Stay calm and be truthful and cooperative
• 10. Never lie
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