Public Relations and Crisis Communication - Action for Farmers - Assignment Example

Crisis Management Name: Institution: Date: Discuss the management of a crisis in relation to the stage of a crisis and the general response at each of the stages The crisis management can be divided into three critical phases, the pre-crisis management, the crisis response, and the post-crisis management. The pre-crisis management are all the management efforts that are implemented before the crisis can hit for the preparation to reduce the risks that could lead to a crisis and to reduce the impact of the crisis in case it hits. The crisis response are the management activities after the crisis has occurred. This is important to reduce the impact the crisis will have on the organization. The post-crisis management happens after the crisis have been addressed and the organization is returning back to the usual business (Coombs, 2007). In the simulation as Action for Farmers (AFF), the news had started to spread regarding the contamination and poisoning of milk. The crisis went to be a major crisis when the prime minister cautioned the consumers taking the milk to be very careful. Pre-crisis Phase The crisis prevention is the forward thinking that is aimed at preventing unfavorable occurrences. The crisis communication team is tasked with brainstorming and coming up with a comprehensive list of all possible crises that could impact the organization. The major management activities in this phase is the warning and risk assessment. In the case of the AFF the crisis had already begun and there was no time of risk assessment. When it was apparent that about 60 has been hospitalized, and the fingers were poining at the milk contamination. The AFF started to plan how to address the crisis with respect to different stakeholders. The preparation of effective communication of the crisis warning is very important for the overall crisis communication. The communication in the warning stage involves notifying the specific constituents that could include key personnel, law enforcement, and risk management individuals. The role of the communication is to inform them of the possible crisis, the description of the crisis, and the magnitude of the foreseen crisis for the purpose of preparation Roberts & Ottens, 2005, p. 334). In this case, the team designed to communicate with all the farmers to caution them on possible poisoning and advise them on what they should do to avoid further poisoning or contamination. The processing firms were also cautioned to be vigilant to ensure that contamination did not happen. The communication also targeted customer and requested them to ensure they consume milk that meets the health requrements. The the communication requested the retail staff to ensure that they purchase and sell milk from recognized processors and avoid milk from vendors who could compromise quality. The other management activities that happens in the pre-crisis phase involve creating the crisis management plan and the crisis management team. This was important to ensure that there was a guideline to addressing the issue and ensuring there are right people with definite roles in the crisis management process (Roberts & Ottens, 2005). In this case, one person was given the responsibility of addressing the media while the other person was given the responsibility of communicating with the farmers, processors, and the retail staffs to ensure compliance with safety standards and prevent escalation of the crisis. The pre-crisis phase of the crisis management is the most critical because it determines whether the crisis will escalate and what should be done during the event the crisis escalated. Important to the pre-crisis phase is the communication. To ensure there is awareness and proper preparation; physically and psychologically, the communication should be very important (Lukaszewaki, 2015). The stakeholders re convinced to allocate resources to prevention and response depending on the effectiveness of the communication. The crisis management team should communicate with the stakeholders effectively. This involve requesting their support and resources to facilitate a quick response to the crisis. The stakeholders who the AFF reached out to included retail stores, the staff, the shareholders, and the farmers. Crisis Response Phase The crisis response phase of the crisis management is what happens after a crisis happens. The crisis response aims at diffusing the crisis to reduce the interruption to business activities as well as mitigating the effects it could have on the organization. The response is very easy in case there was a thorough pre-crisis preparedness. The crisis management plan developed in the pre-crisis phase is implemented thoroughly by the management team (Lukaszewaki, 2015). In the response to the crisis, the AFF cautioned the retailers to be extra-cautious with the milk suppliers to ensure that they do not escalate the issue by distributing milk that did not meet the quality requirements. The consumers were asked to be hesitant to use dairy products until the exact cause for concern was addressed. The farmers were also requested to maintain cautionary and adequate quality measure to prevent escalation. This was to prevent the escalation of the crisis Post-crisis Phase This is the continuation of the reputation repair that was started in the crisis response. The crisis is not the focus but recovery. This phase involves follow-up communication during the crisis response, the crisis managers offer to provide additional information regarding the recovery process and future preparedness (Lukaszewaki, 2015). This involved asking the processors and reyail chains to increase the amount of money theyu pay for the milk to ensure that the farmers stop talking shortcuts to increase their revenues. Calling for investigation to identify the cause of contamination once the crisis is addressed. Critically evaluate the communication strategies and tools used in managing the crisis. Reflection to different stakeholders Crises within organizations can range from simple crises that can disrupt an organization in hours to horrific crises that can bring the entire business organization to a standstill. In any other cases, communication is a very important aspect of the crisis management. This is because other than the physical and psychological damage the crisis might have on an organization, the public relations is very important and it is shaped by the communication. The appropriateness and effectiveness of the communication is very important in crisis management (Valvi, et al., 2013, p. 384). The team took to account these three important principles of communication in crisis management: Planning ahead: a comprehensive scenario/contingency plan outlining conceivable crisis and appropriate response need to be prepared. Even though the contingency plans are time-consuming, they save critical time and resources in the event of a crisis (Davenport, 2016). In planning ahead, the team went through the concerns that had been raised on the media and prepared what to say in advance, the planning involved taking short notes and consulting the relevant individuals who were at the center of crisis. Speed is important: it is important that the public relations officer acknowledge crisis events immediately. A prompt communication and announcement in the media regarding the details of the crisis is very important. This prompt communication helps address and minimize the speculations and rumors and let the stakeholder knows that the organization is in control. With this in mind, the team sought to address the issues as soon as they happened. Once the crisis became apparent. The stakeholders were identified and contact established with them to brief and caution them. Responsibly transparent: the public relations office should be responsible enough to tell the truth. The communication should be based on facts and true state of the conditions on the ground. It is important to note that the falsehoods and cover up do not at all times repair reputation and restore trust (Valvi, et al., 2013, p. 385). The team took the responsibly of being transparent and present the information as it was. No attempts to cover up what was on the ground during the investigations. The communication process in the crisis management should be easy to understand, relate to, and buy into it. In order to achieve, the crisis management team should employ a five-level strategy. First, priority should be given to stopping the production of victims. To get control of the crisis, ending the production of victims should be the priority. This is the most important aspect of the crisis response. The concern, including that of the public relations should not be about media and other communication activities finding out but the stopping the production of the victims ((Gîrboveanu, 2011, p. 09). In this regard, the AFF team wanted to ensure that no more patients were hospitalized. The communication was drafted that could deter further possible poisoning and contamination from the dairy products. The farmers were requested to be vigilant and comply with safety measures. The retailers were requested to be vigilant and avoid suppliers with no credentials, and the consumers were requested to avoid dairy products that were not certified for quality. The second is managing the victims and those who are directly affected. After the production of victims has been stopped, the effort should be geared towards the management of the victims and those directly affected. What the public relations and every other member say or do to the most affected is an important strategic objective in the crisis management (Gîrboveanu, 2011, p. 11). In this regard, AFF focused on communicating with the patients who have been affected, the farmers who were affected, the retailers affected, and the stockholders. The communication aimed at giving them details of where they could access resources to help address the issue. The resources included the public health officials, the veterinary services, and the food licensing to test for safety of the dairy already in store. The third strategic step is communicating with the employees. The employees form a special audience for every crisis communication. Communication with the employees is important to ensure that they know their roles during the crisis. They also need to know what the company is doing to return to normal conditions and how this will be achieved (Gîrboveanu, 2011, p. 11). In this regard, the AFF prepared circulars and disseminated them to the employees of retail stores and farms requesting them help address the issue through taking into account the measures of safe milk production and distribution. This was to convince them of the role they need to play to ensure that the current crisis was brought under control. The information was also released to the media to sensitize more people. The fourth strategic step involves communicating with those who are indirectly affected. This might include among others the survivors, the public, and the government officials and regulators. The role of communication in this case will involve describing the crisis and how the organization managed to respond. It will also inform them of the business recovery process and what has been achieved in the recovery process (Gîrboveanu, 2011, p. 13). In this regard, the AFF requested people to be vigilant to avoid the dairy products that were suspect. The government was requested to address the plight of the farmers to ensure that they are able to pay more attention to quality and safety at the expense of income. Discuss your approach to managing media relations and explore ways to manage this The relationship between the public relations and the media is very important because the media will set the narrative with the information they have regarding how scanty it is. The media also reaches to the stakeholder better than every other tool that can be used for communication. The media need to have the right information because the reputation of the company depends on it (Xu, 2009). Therefore, the approach to managing the media is very critical for the AFF team to ensure that the desired goals of crisis management are achieved. The approach to media relations was established on truth and facts. Honesty was embraced as the best policy after understanding what the media is interested in and making efforts to provide that without fail. The media is interested in in honest, accurate, and truthful information and if the public relations office will provide this then the relationship between them and the media will be positive (Thomson, 2016). Therefore, the AFF teams will prepare the information that the media is looking for with facts and truth. If the team will be having something that is not clear, it will admit lacking information as opposed to giving details that are not visible on the ground. The approach to the media will involve open transparency and being forthcoming and tell as much story as within the limits of common sense. The other approach is to provide useful information. The public relations office should be forthcoming as possible with information regarding the crisis, provide relevant background information that will help the media put the information in proper context. The crisis management team should be managed by the crisis management team to ensure that there is accurate and updated information. Finally, the way the media relations is approached in to plan for the media relations while formulating the crisis management plan. The crisis management team should think through the options and course of action before it is needed. The public relations responsible for managing media dealings should include the media relations from the beginning. The other approach to manage the media relations is through training of the spokespeople the person talking with the media should be someone who have gone through training to acquire skills to deal with the media. The spokesperson should be able to deal with the media interview skillfully. The media relations is not an intuitive skill. The approach should further be established on an ongoing good relationship with the media. This is important because it will help the company avoid the misunderstandings with the media whenever a crisis occur. The public relations should the organization and the public relations should know that the more they treat the media as enemies not treat the media as enemies. The more the media will speculate on what happened at the expense of obtaining the truth and facts from the company. This can potential damage the reputation of the company. Finally, the public relations should not let the media be the only source of information for the company (Violino, 200, P .7). The public relations should complement the media efforts through establishing platforms like website, social media, and press briefing as complementary to what the media knows. This will be important to cover up for what the media misses but the company would like the public to know. The public relations should give responsibilities to the designated people from the employees who should address the media. This is important to ensure that they take time to learn the facts before they can go out to engage media. References Coombs, T., 2007. Crisis Management and Communications. [Online] Available at: http://www.instituteforpr.org/crisis-management-and-communications/ [Accessed 17 April 2017]. Davenport, D. B., 2016. The 3 Most Effective Crisis Communication Strategies. [Online] Available at: http://online.purdue.edu/comm/masters-in-communication/resources/effective-crisis-communication-strategies [Accessed 17 April 2017]. Gîrboveanu, S.-R., 2011. Hpow to Mange a Public Relations Crisis. University of Craiova, pp. 1-14. Lukaszewaki, J. E., 2015. Setting Crisis Response, Communication Strategies, And Priorities. [Online] Available at: http://www.disaster-resource.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2326:setting-crisis-response-communication-strategies-and-priorities&catid=9:crisis-response [Accessed 17 April 2017]. Roberts, A. R. & Ottens, A. J., 2005. The Seven-Stage Crisis Intervention Model: A Road Map to Goal Attainment, Problem Solving, and Crisis Resolution. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention , 5(4), pp. 329-339. Thomson, S., 2016. Media Relations and Crisis Management. [Online] Available at: https://www.bdb-law.co.uk/services/expertise/public-affairs/media-relations-and-crisis-management/ [Accessed 17 April 2017]. Valvi, A., Fragkos, C. & Konstantinos, C., 2013. Crisis communication strategies: a case of British Petroleum. Industrial and Commercial Training;, 45(7), pp. 383-391. Violino, B., 2007. How to Handle the Media During a Crisis. CIO, pp. 1-8. Xu, J. H., 2009. Students’ Guide to Media Relations in Crisis Management: Using Communication Tools to Protect Company Reputation. The Arthur W Page Center. Read More