lecture nine, week nine - thursday september 19

Issues Management and Issues Management and Strategic Planning Strategic Planning

PRL2001 PRL2001

Crisis ManagementCrisis Management

Course Examiner - Elizabeth Dougall

Lecture 9, Week 9

Semester 2, 2002

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ObjectivesObjectives

On completing the lectures, tutorials and readings for this week you should be able to:

Describe Crisis ManagementExplain the relationship between Crisis

and Issues Management

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Confronting a CrisisConfronting a Crisis

Learning Resources. Heath, Chapter 9. Selected Readings.

7.1: Barton, L. 1991, 'When managers find themselves on the defensive', Business Forum , Winter, pp. 8-13.

Revisit Selected Reading 5.2 to refresh your understanding of the key issues raised.

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Issues Management Is . . . Issues Management Is . . .

Identifying stakeholders. Monitoring their opinions and perceptions. Understanding the organisation's internal and

external environments. Monitoring the progressive effect of those opinions

and perceptions on public policy. Monitoring broader trends within the organisation's

external environments. Identifying potential issues (ie. the gaps between

stakeholders' expectations and the reality).

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Issues Management is . . .Issues Management is . . .

Monitoring and analysing potential issues to evaluate their potential impacts.

Integrating with the organisation's strategic planning process.

Modifying the organisation’s behaviour/ Changing corporate policy.

Two-way communication with stakeholders to build relationships.

Working to match perceptions to reality.

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What Is Crisis Management?What Is Crisis Management?

Heath quotes Fink (1986) defining a crisis as:

“an unstable time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending - either one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome or one with the distinct possibility of a highly desirable and extremely positive outcome.”

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Heath goes on to quote Weick (1988): “Crises are characterized by low probability

of high consequence events that threaten the most fundamental goal of an organization.”

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Like issues management, crisis management is not simply a communication function that is enacted in the face of a particular set of circumstances. It involves: the analysis of the risks to which an organisation is

exposed; negation of those risks where possible through

organisation-wide strategic planning; and. implementing communication plans interlocking

logistical, incident response plans (ie. the plans that dictate how an organisation will react to the physical dimensions of a crisis incident).

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Crisis - Issues ManagementCrisis - Issues Management

Heath states:

'... crisis management is an issues management function that entails issues monitoring, strategic planning, and getting the house in order, to try to avoid events that trigger outrage and uncertainty and have the potential of maturing into public policy issues. If all of these management pieces are in place, then crisis communication - especially media relations - is easier to manage.’

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A situation may begin its life as an issue and develop into a crisis situation: Barton (1991), describes how the AIDS issue

became a crisis for New England Telephone when an HIV positive worker was harassed by co-workers and protests and boycotts from angry activists resulted.

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Similarly, a crisis can lead to an issue: In 1999, two of Australia's leading radio

commentators, John Laws and Alan Jones were accused of giving favourable endorsements and "editorial coverage" to organisations in exchange for large, regular payments directly to the announcers themselves. This situation became known as the "cash for comment" story.

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Crisis Management involvesCrisis Management involves

Analysing the risks to which an organisation is exposed.

Prioritising those risks according to likelihood and severity of impact.

Categorising major risks. Analysing the formal and informal

communication and incident response systems an organisation has in place.

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Crisis Management involvesCrisis Management involves

Negating risk where possible. Putting plans in place to safeguard important

relationships. Responding to reputation-threatening incidents

or accidents by: - implementing a responsible strategic response on

the part of the organisation;- communicating quickly and honestly with key internal

and external stakeholders in a way which manages the messages they receive in relation to the incident.

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The Need for Clear The Need for Clear CommunicationCommunication

As outlined by Stickels (1994): “no business, large or small, can afford to

think that if a crisis does arise it is no one else's business. Shareholders, clients and employees will all want to know what has happened and how their company is dealing with a problem.”

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Stakeholder CommunicationStakeholder Communication Communication be quick, honest and ongoing: Stakeholders to communicate with include:

Staff; Any staff, contractors, customers or neighbours who

have been injured (in a situation where an accident triggers a crisis situation);

The families of those injured or killed; Board members; All three levels of government (elected

representatives and bureaucrats);

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Stakeholder CommunicationStakeholder Communication

Neighbours;Business associations/industry bodies;Customers/clients;Suppliers; Investors/shareholders;The Australian Stock Exchange (if the

organisation involved is a listed company);Emergency services and their media units;

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Stakeholder CommunicationStakeholder Communication

Special interest groups;Health agencies and experts;Local community;Media;Competitors; and. Industry commentators.

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Corporate ResponsibilityCorporate Responsibility

Critical for an organisation to be constantly depositing 'corporate credit points'.

An organisation that is perceived by its stakeholders as being responsible, ethical and contributing to its community will be better positioned during a crisis.

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Corporate ResponsibilityCorporate Responsibility

In November 1999, for instance, an accident killed four mine workers at the Northparkes mine near Parkes in New South Wales.

Media coverage immediately after the accident portrayed the company as one of Australia's most modern mining organisations, with safety practices among the best in the nation's mining industry. Company spokespeople for parent company, North Limited were portrayed as compassionate towards their workers and the families of those killed. The accident was regularly referred to in media coverage as 'rare' and the company was quoted as saying the accident would be investigated 'fully and openly to ensure this doesn't happen again.'

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Depending on the 'news worthiness' of the situation, a story can quickly achieve state, national or even international prominence.

Just like the communication elements of issues management, crisis communication is not only about communicating with the media and controlling the messages which feature within that medium.

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It is about establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with all of an organisation's important stakeholder groups, both in anticipation of a crisis and when the organisation does face a reputation-threatening situation.

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Over the RecessOver the Recess

Assignment 2 – ORAL and PAPER ORALs start Week 13Rowland Qld want 10 PR/Journalism

students to be part of a “media throng” for a “mock” crisis.

Take care!