Crisis and Credibility

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Chapter 13

• Crisis and Credibility

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Objectives

• To create awareness of situations that could
  become crises.
• To plan strategies and implement policies that
  help an organization through a crisis.
• To recognize the triggering event that
  precipitates a crisis.
• To understand management's likely response to a
  crisis and plan a coping strategy.
• To be sensitive to the needs of all publics,
  including nimbus publics, when a crisis occurs.

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Anticipating a Crisis

• Issues management helps organization anticipate
  crises
• Challenge is deciding which issues are likely to
  engage publics or create an event that triggers a
  crisis
• Role of PR is informing management about issues
  and situations that could escalate into crises
• Corporate culture, management attitude determine
  management reaction

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Recurring Crises

• Urban myths can be resurrected
• New developments on old issues can bring old
  crises back
• Continuing action on crisis issue can keep it at
  crisis point

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Characteristics of Crises

• Always involve people
• Always interrupt the normal chain of events or
  command

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Categories of Crises

• Physically violent or nonviolent
• Several causes
• Acts of nature
• Intentional acts
• Unintentional acts

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Crisis Management

• Key is anticipation
• Begin by identifying kinds of crises organization
  is most likely to face
• Then examine policies that might be put into
  place to prevent crises in each category of
  crisis
• Risk assessment
• Interpret data from research
• Evaluate vulnerability of organization
• Crisis management aided by use of two-way
  symmetrical public relations
• Warnings more likely when communication open and
  two-way
• Conflicts can be more easily resolved

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Crisis Publics

• Some publics easily identified
• Some often neglected in planning process because
  not immediately affected by but eventually feel
  the impact
• Called nimbus publics

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Imagining a Crisis

• Involve as many people in organization as
  possible
• Take role of intelligent and resourceful
  adversary, asking Whats the best way to wreck
  this organization?
• Assume role of corporate management and ask What
  is the best response?
• Start by asking how money, people,
  products/services, processes and locations of
  operation will be disrupted
• Consider impact each event will have on each
  public individually

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Communications Climate and Crises

• Organizations communications climate has a great
  impact on how management handles crises
• Shutting off the flow of information is probably
  worst way to handle a crisis
• An open information flow quells rumors, and makes
  it possible to create trust

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Anticipating a Crisis

• Collect information on potential crises before
  they occur
• Keep the information readily available to those
  most likely to need it
• Keep it in a form that is usable in a crisis

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Anticipating a Crisis (cont.)

• Types of information to gather
• Addresses, contact information on all company
  offices, branches
• Floor plans, employee list for each location
• Bio information on all employees, in-depth on key
  executives
• Photos of facilities, key executives
• Statistics on facilities and organization
• History of organization

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Anticipating a Crisis (cont.)

• Types of information to gather
• Emergency information such as nearest hospital,
  police, fire
• Plan for contacting every member of workforce
• Organizational documents such as vision, mission,
  positioning statements
• Position papers on key issues
• Information on key publics and how to contact
  them
• Digitalized video

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A Crisis Plan

• A crisis plan should be
• A guideline rather than an overly detailed
  process
• Easy to remember
• Flexible
• Thorough and comprehensive
• Communicated
• Reviewed regularly and updated

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Crisis Communication Essentials

• Existence of a communications plan as part of
  crisis plan
• Ability to assemble a crisis team when a crisis
  occurs
• Use of a single spokesperson during a crisis

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Guidelines for Communications Plans

• Must include strong internal as well as external
  communication
• Must carefully choose right medium for each
  public
• Must pretest message statements before they are
  disseminated
• Should designate certain members of crisis team
  as fact finders
• Legal counsel must be involved to avoid no
  comment response when openness needed

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Crisis Narrative

• Story public hears must be truthful
• Key publics must be able to relate to story
• Narrative must demonstrate that the organization
  has control of the situation and will
  successfully resolve the crisis

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Crisis Spokesperson

• Choosing the one spokesperson is the most
  important act dealing with a crisis
• May or may not be CEO
• Person sets tone for how crisis is managed
• Must be perceived as knowledgeable and up to date
  on developments
• Must have sole responsibility and authority to
  speak for the organization
• May have one spokesperson for internal audiences
  and another for external

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Employees Role in a Crisis

• Are on the front line in dealing with a crisis
• Organizations most credible representatives to
  people outside the organization
• People will develop perceptions from way
  employees behave
• Employees should never learn about a crisis from
  the news media or other second-hand source

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Hindrances in Crisis Management

• Extent of crisis may not be known immediately
• Persons affected by crisis may be hard to
  identify
• Cause of crisis may be hard to identify, and may
  be never known
• Crisis is always traumatic to audiences affected
  directly

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Hindrances in Crisis Management (cont.)

• Accurate and appropriate information about the
  crisis is expected by the publics, sometimes at
  unreasonable levels
• Information decisions are made under high stress
• An organizations credibility is suspect in a
  crisis
• A crisis incites emotional behavior

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Crisis Constants

• People learn about a crisis primarily from
  personal networks
• People tend to interpret the seriousness of a
  crisis in terms of personal risk or risk to
  people important to them
• Government sources are relied on as the most
  authoritative

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Crisis Constants (cont.)

• Amount of mass media coverage indicates the
  significance of the crisis to a global public
• Availability to information in an
  open-communication environment reduces rumor and
  increases the accuracy of assessments of the
  situation

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PRs Responsibility in a Crisis

• Forewarn and prepare management
• Continuously monitor publics
• Convince management to act
• Give management insight and objective information
  they dont have
• Provide guidance to avoid arrogance and bad
  judgment
• Identify appropriate ways to involve employees

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Dealing with the Media

• Prepare a first response release immediately
• Issue update bulletins as written briefs, taped
  actualities, updates on Web site
• Crises generate contradictory information, hard
  to keep facts straight

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Role of PR Practitioner in a Crisis

• Conduct the delicate negotiations between the
  source and media about what to use and what not
  to use
• Provide enough opportunities for information to
  be given to the media
• Educate as well as inform the media

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Media Tips in a Crisis

• Speedy replies to queries are all important
• Keep cool under pressure
• If you dont know the answer, say so and attempt
  to get it
• Eliminate obstacles reporters might encounter
• Never ask to see a reporters story
• Use your name when providing information and
  allow yourself to be quoted by name
• Never argue with a reporter about the value of a
  story

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Media Tips in a Crisis

• Any information that goes to one source should go
  to all
• Never flatly refuse to provide information
• Always know the name and employer of the
  reporters you are talking with and how to contact
  them
• Never give an answer to a reporters question
  that might not stand up or might embarrass you
  later
• Never falsify or slant your answers

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Media Tips in a Crisis (cont.)

• Be especially alert about photographs
• Pass information along to reporters as soon as
  you get it
• Have employee and organization records available
  to refer to in the event of a reporters question
• Point out positive aspects of the organization
  even as it deals with crisis
• Confine damage estimated to general descriptions

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Media Coverage of Crisis

• Instantaneous coverage creates problems of
  perception vs. reality
• Time pressures may force media to release
  information without adequate checking or editing
• Media coverage of military, terrorist events may
  use inflammatory words or descriptions, and may
  use victims of terrorism as symbols

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Media Coverage of Crisis (cont.)

• Difficulties arise due to a conflict of opinion
  about the function, role and responsibility of
  media in reporting global crises
• Differences in government control of media and
  journalists own sense of responsibility lead to
  different global interpretations of the same news

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Rumors

• Thrive in crisis situations of anxiety, emotion,
  uncertainty, distress
• Are likely when
• Authentic information is lacking, incomplete
• Situations are loaded with anxiety, fear
• Doubts exist
• People feel they cant control the situation
• Prolonged decision-making delays occur
• Organizational conflict is present

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Combating Rumors

• Analyze the scope, seriousness, impact of the
  rumor before trying to combat it
• Analyze the causes, motives, sources and
  disseminators of rumors
• Confer with persons affected or damaged and share
  your concern
• Immediately provide complete and authentic
  information

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Combating Rumors (cont.)

• Feed the grapevine yourself
• Contact the formal and informal leaders, opinion
  leaders, influentials to clarify the situation
• Avoid referring to the rumor in the process of
  combating it
• Conduct meetings to dispel the rumor at the
  grassroots level

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Crisis Evaluation

• Crises should be evaluated in terms of the damage
  done or the risk of future damage
• Much of the evaluation is based on communication

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Crisis Evaluation Questions

• What was the cause?
• What strategies, policies could be developed that
  would prevent a similar or related crisis?
• Did the crisis plan work? Are changes needed?
• How did involved personnel perform?

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Successful Crisis Handling

• Early detection
• Incident containment
• Business resumption
• Lessons learned
• Timely decisions made on facts
• Improved reputation as a result of appropriate
  response

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Points to Remember

• Credibility always at stake in crisis situation
• Public perception of honesty, openness is
  essential
• Failure to be available or prepared damages
  credibility