Crisis Communication exam 1

Fact about stakeholder activism:

Today angry stakeholders are more likely to generate a crisis. Consumers, shareholders, employees, community groups, and activists are becoming increasingly vocal when dealing with organizations and are using the internet to voice those concerns. Internet channels allow the users, rather than organizations, to create content. i.e. Social Media- can create reputation crisis with disgruntled stakeholders. internet can increase power of activist groups.

Social Bookmarking:

Tool with which people share and rate content they have found online (example: delicious)

Aggregators:

Tools that collect content (news stories, blogs) from different sites in one site; content is frequently ranked by popularity and can include comments from users (ex: google reader)

Vulnerabiliies typically are assessed using:

a combination of likelihood of occurrence and severity of damage. Liklihood=odds crisis might happen. impact=the amount of damage it could cause

Crisis appendix:

a crisis knowledge database that can contain precollected information, templates, and past crisis knowledge.

Crisis Management Team CMT:

a cross-functional group of people in the organization who have been designated the handle any crises and is a core element of crisis preparation.

Recognition-primed decision making is:

a form of intuitive decision making that has been applied to crisis management.

A dark site:

a section of a website or completely separate web site that has content but no active links. When a CMT hits the dark site can become activated and accessible.

The most desirable CMP is:

a short document that is user friendly

organizational crisis:

a specific, unexpected, and non routine event or series of events that create high levels of uncertainty and simultaneously present an organization with both opportunities for and threats to its high-priority goals.

Environmental scanning:

a tool popular in issues management. means watching the environment for changes, trends, events, and emerging social, political, or health issues. uses both traditional print and online sources.

RRS- really simple syndication:

a web feed that allows others to follow and publish your content.

The CMT is responsible for:

a) creating the CMP b) enacting it c) dealing with any problems not covered in it

Facts regarding broader view of crisis:

after 9/11 organizations realized that events at other locations can affect their organizations. An event does not have to be terrorist related to create collateral damage. NOW organizations broaden their view of crisis to include nearby facilities that could create crisis for them. 9/11 also made organizations increase emphasis is on security and emergency preparedness. Security is one element of prevention and mitigation. Evacuation & shelter in place= two basic emergency responses.

the cyclical nature of issues means...

an issue should be reexamined at least annually to see if it is gaining new momentum and might once again threaten the organization.

define knowledge:

analyzes the information so that it is usable by people in the organization.

What are key contacts?

are community, industry, or organization leaders who are selected because of their expertise on a subject. Using public opinion or issue experts is a form of this.

Signal detection in the crisis prevention process:

attempts to find crisis warning signs.

Online Communities:

can be defined as groups of people with similar goals or interests that connect with one another and exchange information using web tools.

Organization's own stakeholders:

can tell the organization how they feel about issues and organizational actions.

Intranet:

custome-made for crises. They are like the internet but are self-contained within an organization- only organization members have access to the information.

Critical thinking is:

disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, or evaluation information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

Stakeholder theory:

posits that an organization's environment is populated with various stakeholders. An organization survives or thrives by effectively managing these stake holders.

Public opinion experts:

provide insights into public attitudes, lifestyles, and values.

Proactive management tetrahedron (PMT):

represents one of the four proactive management functions. (issues, risk, and crisis management). changes in any one can effect the other.

Paracrisis are likely to occur for:

rumors, challenges, and product harm. These three are most likely to have stakeholders publicly question an organization's ability and warrant a public response to the crisis threat.

The feedback from stakeholders will...

serve are the measure of success.

Define information:

simply places facts in context

Fact about social media:

social media is responsible for the growing link between crisis communication/management and the online world. Social media is an evolutionary stimulus because users, not organizations or the traditional news media, now control the creation and distribution of information. users bypass gatekeepers.

What kind of sources does Risk Management examine?

sources that have more of an internal focus

What is the first step in soliciting information from stakeholders?

the crisis team needs to construct a stakeholder map that lists all possible stakeholders.

The most common tasks required for stakeholders during a crisis are:

the emergency measures of evacuation and shelter-in-place.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

the management of actions designed to affect an organization's impacts on society.

Define Reputation Management:

the management of the relationships between the organization and its various stakeholders, and organizational success is predicted on maintaining an effective balance in these relationships.

What is analysis in crisis communication?

the process of understanding if and how a warning sign might impact the organization.

Analytical decision making is:

the type most commonly used in training. decision makers are taught a process for making decisions.

The spokesperson is:

the voice of the organization during the crisis.

What is the most effective way to determine whether an expectation gap has been closed?

to use surveys to assess stakeholder perceptions of expectation performance before and after efforts are initiated to close the gap.

What is the broadest and most inclusive subcategory of intentional crises:

unethical leadership

crisis in ulmer:

unique moments in the history of organizations.

Fact:

websites generally reflect Web 1.0 not 2.0 2.0 promotes interaction and allows users to create content. Corporate web sites primarily distribute content (web 1.0) taather than prompt the creation and sharing of content. web 2.0= social media

internet is divided into two broad categories:

websites/email and social media

The team decides...

what does into the CMP, when and how to enact it, and how to extemporaneously handle those factors not covered in the plan.

Mass notification:

when a crisis team must send a simple message to a large number of people. it is done through an automated messaging system, which sends a message by pone, text message, email, or a combination of these to a preset list of people.

Success in closing an expectation gap is determined by:

whether stakeholders perceive the organization as meeting expectations.

Location dictates...

which natural disasters are likely to strike.

NEVER say:

"no comment"

There are three basic rules when using online crisis communication channels:

1) be present 2) be where the action is 3) be there before the crisis

Hirokawa and Roast identified a specific set of four critical vigilant functions that aid the decisions-making process:

1) conducting problem analysis 2) evaluating alternative choices 3) understanding the important positive aspects of an alternative choice

Open ended questions?

Are used to encourage interaction and to probe the nature of people's beliefs.

Risk assessment:

Attempts to identify risk factors or weakneses and to assess the probability that a weakness will be exploited or developed into a crisis.

Two factors drive the use of risk aversion decisions:

Cost and

Fact:

Downtime from a crisis is a financial drain. The quicker an organization can return to normal operations, the fewer financial losses it will incur.

Three Influential approaches to crisis management:

Fink's four stage model, Mitroff's five stage model, and a basic three stage model.

Fact:

For crisis management, it would be a mistake to focus solely on primary stakeholders. Problems in relationships with secondary stakeholders can also harm reputations and trigger crises.

The relationship history:

How the organization has treated stakeholders in the past. It is a function of an organization meeting or failing to meet stakeholder expectations.

Social Networks:

Individual web pages from which people share content and communicate with friends (Facebook, myspace, bebo)

Fact:

Individuals are another source of environmental information: Public opinion experts and the organization;s own stakeholders

Vigiliance is a composite of a variety of:

Knowledge (K), skills (S), and traits (T)

Fact:

No message should fit into more than one catagory

Revolution:

Often used in reference to the Internet and crisis communication.

Forums:

Online discussions revolving around specific interests and topics.

Fact:

Organizations build favorable relationship histories that create positive reputations by meeting and exceeding stakeholder expectations.

Fact:

Organizations may take no action when the costs of risk reduction outweigh the costs eliminated from risk.

Recovery as part of Response in Crisis Management:

Part of the response, which denotes the organization's attempts to return to normal operations as soon as possible following a crisis.

Content communities:

Places where people organize themselves around specific that they create and comment on (youtube and flickr)

What are the four interrelated factors in crisis management:

Prevention, Preparation, Response, and Revision. PPRR

Fact:

Primary and secondary stakeholders are interdependent with an organization.

Risk Management:

Represents attempts to reduce the vulnerabilities faced by an organization.

What is the combination for the Crisis Prevention Process:

Signal detection and Correction

Microblogs:

Sites on which people share small amounts of information through posts (twitter)

Fact:

Social media can be a warning sign for a problem that has the opportunity to grow into a full-scale crisis.

Fact:

Social media is dominated by user-created content. This means stakeholders are accosted to being in control.

How is social media helpful during post crisis stages:

Social media provides another channel for delivering the updates and addressing specific follow=up questions stakeholders may have.

Fact:

The best way to manage a crisis is to prevent one.

What are focus groups:

The collections of specific stakeholders who are brought together to listen to and response to questions as a group.

Serious impact:

The difference between incidents and crises illustrates the meaning of _______ ______.

Relationship:

The interdependence of two or more people or groups.

Fact:

The primary values of social media are *listening* to what stakeholders are saying, not sending them information, and providing *access* to information when stakeholders might need it.

What is the goal of crisis prevention:

To avoid a crisis.

Fact:

Typically, crisis prevention efforts are invisible to stakeholders.

Fact:

Visibility is what gives a paracrisis its impact.social media increases the visisibily and number of paracrisis

Fact:

Word of mouth is recognized as serious force that can shape consumer decisions.

Direct interactions in reputations management:

____ _____ form the basics of the organization-stakeholder relationship.

Definition of Risk in intro packet:

______ is an everyday reality in life. it is the presence of potential harm.

Group decisions-making research has consistently found vigilance to:

be valuable in making effective decisions and avoiding ineffective decisions.

Team members must..

bring certain area-specific knowledge and skills to the crisis team.

What are surveys:

conducted by having people complete questionnaires or by having researchers ask stakeholders the questions.

An intranet allows:

immediate access to data about the organization

Be where the action is means:

refers to using the online origins of the crisis as one location for the crisis response messages. If the crisis began as a YouTube video, then YouTube should be one of the places where the crisis response appears. Placing the message in the source channel increases the likelihood of people encountering your message along with the crisis-inducing message.

Shareholder resolutions:

reflect the values and attitudes of those who own stocks. They can provide insight into how stockholders feel about important issues or the organization itself.

Definition of Organizational Crisis in the intro packet:

"a specific, unexpected and non-routine organizationally based event or series of events which creates high levels of uncertainty and threat or perceived threat to an organization's high priority goals" (seeger, 1998)

Precrisis stage involves three substages:

1) signal detection 2) prevention 3) crisis preparation

Crisis sensing steps:

1. it begins by determining what information-sensing mechanisms already exist in your organization. 2. the organization must establish mechanisms and procedures for funneling relevant information and knowledge to the crisis manager of the crisis department 3. the crisis manager's assessment criteria for warning sign-related information must be carefully developed. 4. the crisis-sensing mechanism must be tested to determine whether the various parts are integrated effectively.

Expectation gaps two kinds:

1st=Performance gap- based on performance; the organization is not doing what is needs to do to meet expectations. 2nd=Perception Gap- occurs when stakeholders fail to perceive that the organization is meeting expectations. (perception is key)

Staged approach in crisis management (life cycle):

A ______ _________ means that the crisis management function is divided into discrete segments that are executed in a specific order.

Define Crisis in incident vs. crisis:

A ______ disrupts or affects the entire organization or has the potential to do so. ex. if the broken water valve leads to the company being shut down.

Reputation Management:

A ______ is an evaluation stakeholders make about an organization. Stakeholders are any group that can affect or be affected by the behavior of an organization. Reputations are formed as stakeholders evaluate organizations base upon direct and indirect interactions.

Definition of Crisis in Intro Packet:

A _______ is a major catastrophe that occurs naturally or as a result of human error, intentional intervention, or malicious intent. It may include tangible devastation (like loss of lives and/or assets) and/or intangible devastation, like the loss of credibility or reputation damage.

Reputation in organizations:

A ________ is how stakeholders perceive the organization. That is why crisis are considered dangerous to organizations' _______.

Fact:

A prior negative reputation increases stakeholder perceptions that the organization is responsible for the crisis and increases reputation damage.

Fact about reputations:

A reputation is built through the direct and indirect experiences stakeholders have with the organization. As greater emphasis is is placed on reputation, a corresponding emphasis must be placed on crisis management as a means of protecting repetitional assets.

Functional Exercise:

A simulated interactive exercise. This can be done in a large meeting room. It tests the complete crisis management system and unfolds in real time to create crisis pressures. The team will need to interact and coordinate with the groups it would encounter in a crisis such as first responders. The team should conduct one functional exercise a year.

Drill:

A supervised exercise that tests one crisis management funcion, such as employee notification of evacuation.

Facts about communication technologies:

Advances in communication technologies has begun to shape crisis management. They make the world more visible. crisis are now global. no more isolated crisis.

Fact:

Along with using safer practices, another common effort for eliminating or reducing risk is reining, and topics related to risk aversion can range from chemical safety, to email use.

Orientation seminar:

An overview of the crisis management process. The crisis team reviews roles, procedures, policies, and equipment.

Facts concluding chapter1 in coombs:

As the potential for crisis increases, so does the potential for negative outcomes. Crisis management need is increasing and greater since introduced in the 1970s. Effective crisis management is ongoing.

Fact:

Crisis managers are faced with the demand to create a quick and accurate response.

Response in Crisis Management:

Is the application of the preparation components to a crisis. A crisis can be simulated (an excersise or drill) or real. A real crisis involves the execution of the same crisis management resources, only the outcomes are real rather than hypothetical. Response is very public during an actual crisis. reported and critiqued in news media.

Crisis prevention is facilitated by tapping into the three management function that actively scan the environment for threats:

Issues management, reputation management, and risk management.

Sturges model (elaboration on Fink's)

Issustrates how different actions are required during various crisis phases. _______ proposes that different types of communication are emphasized during the carious phases of the crisis life cycle. *stakeholders need to know how a crisis affects them when it breaks but are open to reputation-building messages once it ends*

Fact about finks approach:

It is on of the first to treat a crisis as an extended event. His belief that warning signs precede to trigger event. The job of crisis managers expands and becomes more proactive when they know and read the warning signs. Proactive is better that being reactive.

What does systematic coding do?

It permits an accurate analysis of the fall data. similar organizations should develop categories for coding customer complaints. It allows for comparisons that could not be made if the written information had not been quantified. It is the recording and quantifying of the material that qualifies content analysis as a form of information collecting.

What do Insurance risks include?

Liability exposure, criminal exposure, and worker compensation exposure.

Fact:

Like crises, not all risks can be avoided or completely eliminated.

Fact:

Listening is what scanning for crisis warning signs is all about. Social media provides opportunity for finding warning signs generated by stakeholders.

Fact:

Many companies face computer rather then chemical risks.

Types of crises:

Natural disasters, workplace violence, rumors, malevolence, challenges, technical error accidents, technical error product harm, human error accidents, human error product harm, organizational misdeeds.

What are some online issues management sources to monitor:

News and business wires, Online newspapers, magazines and trade publications, Archives for professional associations, special interest groups, and government agencies Consumer-generated media: Web sites, blogs, and discussion groups Newsgroups

What are some traditional issues management sources to monitor:

News media, trade journals, newsletters, public opinion polls, and stakeholder actions.

Fact:

Online communities can be collections of important stakeholders for an organization. The comments and actions of these communities, in turn, can have a significant effect on organization.

Blogs:

Online journals where people post content and others can comment on it.

Conflict happens when:

People are interdependent with one another but have different goals, which may prevent team members from reaching their goals.

Fact:

Primary stakeholders can stop organizational operations and trigger a crisis. Conflict with an organization can lead primary stakeholders to withhold their contributions.

Fact:

Some issues can develop into crises, making issues management relevant to crisis scanning.

Crisis Event:

Stage begins with a trigger event that marks the beginning of the crisis. ends when the crisis is resolved. Managers must realize that the organizations is in crisis and take appropriate actions. This phases has two substages: 1) Crisis recognition 2) Crisis containment Communication with stakeholders through words and actions is critical

Fact:

Stakeholders are more likely to draw upon indirect than direct experiences when crafting their personal views of an organization's reputation.

Fact:

Stakeholders define the constituents by determining what social concerns are appropriate for CSR efforts.

Signal detection:

The search for warning signs. Crisis prevention seeks crisis warning signs with the hopes of reducing the likelihood of a crisis developing. ____ ______ begins with scanning, a systematic search for and analysis of events. Crisis managers scan both outside of the organization (the environment) and inside of the organization for crisis warning signs.

Full-Scale Exercise:

The simulation of a real crises as closely as possible. People are on-site and in the field. The actual equipment and people that would be used in a situation are deployed there will be simulated injuries as well. Full-scale exercises are time-consuming and expensive, so they should only be done every few years.

Where does the word "crisis" come from?

The word ______ comes from the greek word "krisis" which was used as a medical term by Hippocrates to describe the turning point in a disease, and from "krinein" meaning to judge or decide.

Definition of crisis according to Coombs:

There is no one definition. but for readers purposes it is the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholder and can seriously impact an organization's perform an and generate negative outcomes.

Secondary Stakeholders:

Those people or groups whom can affect or be affected by the actions of an organization. Typical influencers include the media, activist groups, and competitors. Influencers cannot stop an organization from functioning, but they can damage it.

Primary Stakeholders:

Those people or groups whose actions can be harmful or beneficial to an organization. Failure to maintain a continuing interaction with this group could result in failure of the organization. This group is usually employees, investors, customers, suppliers, and the government.

Fact:

Watts and Peretti argue that any individual from the mass audience can create the viral spread of a message.

Vulnerabilities:

Weaknesses that could develop into crises. Basically ____ are risks.

Wikis:

Web pages where people work together to create and edit content (wikepedpedia)

Postcrisis:

When a crisis is resolved and deemed to be over, an organization must consider what to do next. Postcrisis actions help to (a) make the organization better prepared for the next crisis, (b) make sure stakeholders are left with a positive impression of the organization's crisis management efforts, and (c) check to make sure that the crisis is truly over.

Workplace violence:

When an employee or former employee commits violence against other employees on the organization's grounds

Natural disasters:

When an organization is damaged as a result of the weather of "acts of God" such as earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and bad storms.

Malevolence:

When some outside actor or opponent employs extreme tactics to attack the organization, such as product tampering, kidnapping, terrorism, or computer hacking.

Definition of Crisis in intro packet:

When the harm becomes real, we have a ________.

Challenges:

When the organization is confronted by discontented stakeholders with claims that it is operating in an inappropriate manner.

Technical-error accidents:

When the technology utilized or supplied by the organization fails and causes and industrial accident.

Technical-error product harm:

When the technology utilized or supplied by the organization fails and results in a defect or potentially harmful product.

Indirect interactions in reputations management:

_____ ____ are mediated reports of how the organization treats its stakeholders. News reports, comments from friends or family, online comments, and messages send by an organization are important sources of information for evaluating organizations.

Vigilance is:

a form of critical thinking.

crisis-sensing mechanism is:

a means of finding the knowledge an organization needs.

Crisis Control Center:

a place for the CMT to meet and discuss the crisis, an information collection center, and a place for briefing the media.

Different types of organizations....

are prone to different types of crises.

Evaluation consists of...

comparing the actual resolution of the issue to the intended or desired one. Success is measure to how closely the actual resolution matches the desired one.

CMPs should:

contain the information needed to manage a crisis, but should not be overly long and cumbersome

CMT's have two special considerations they may need to address:

coordination with external agencies and the need for a virtual team.

The intuitive method is:

derived from naturalistic decision making, how people use experience to make real-world decisions.

Correction in the crisis prevention process:

designed to reduce or eliminate the threat.

KM does what?

differentiates between information and knowledge

Legitimacy and willingness can be used to....

establish a likelihood score.

Fact about crisis in organizations:

if business is disrupted, an organization will usually suffer financial losses (drop in earning, lost productivity). Crisis damage extends beyond financial loss, however, to include injuries or deaths to stakeholder, structural or property damage, tarnishing of a reputation, and environmental harm.

What can misuse of online communication tools result in?

information leaks, computer viruses or worms, discrimination and harassment lawsuits, or reduced bandwidth capacity.

Decision making in a crisis follows one of the styles:

intuitive, rule based, or analytical.

Rule-based decision making:

involves finding a rule that can be applied to events in the crisis.

What does willingness refer to?

refers to Stakeholders' desire to confront the organization about the problem

what tops the list of the most urgent intentional causes of crisis?

terrorism

Be present means:

that crisis managers should not hide from the online world. If the crisis is never mentioned in the organization's online communication, the absence will be noticeable.

Be there before the crisis means:

that implementing a social media push after a crisis is less effective than if the organization was already utilizing social media. Having an existing presence builds credibility and authenticity for your crisis messages.

What are coding categories:

the boxes in which discrete pieces of information are placed.

All crises have both similar and different characteristics. For example, *organizational crises are almost always human-induced by accident or malicious intent, rarely by natural forces*. *The following is a sample of characteristics that all crises have in common*:

- Element of surprise - Immediate demand for information, but insufficient information available - Quick pace of events exacerbated by the "ripple effect" - Emotional reaction by internal constituents - Negative news affects people more than positive news - Psychological and emotional impact- overt and covert - Intense scrutiny by the external world - After-the-fact ability to see warning signs and signals

A crisis is:

- Perceptual. What we typically think of as crises are events that are easy to perceive as such

Causes of Organizational Crises:

- The cause of a particular crisis is, in many regards, unique. However, some researchers suggest that all crises are consequences of failures to identify or attend adequately to emerging risk. - When organizations and/or groups of individuals become highly compartmentalized and fail to communicate well, they are crisis-prone because they fragment complex questions and issues and rely on restricted numbers of isolated perspectives in making decisions.

The role of communication in all phases of crisis management:

- Traditionally, communication was associated only with post-crisis management and response: media relations. However, today, the roles of communicators in crises have changed dramatically. - Communicators are involved in pre-planning activities, during-crisis response, and post-crisis evaluation. Communication managers are part of the highest level management teams and are engaged actively in all aspects or decision-making on every subject. They also pave the way for crisis management activities by establishing excellent pre-crisis relationships with partners and stakeholders, internal and external. - Communicators guide organization leaders in during-the-crisis communication. Good communication helps control/stop the crisis, ameliorate the impact of the crisis, get people past the crisis, and maintain the organization's credibility and functionality. - Communicators help restore the organization's image, operability, etc. and communicate the "new normal" that results.

Background facts in intro packet:

-*increasingly, crises are more common parts of the social, psychological, political, economic, personal, and economic landscape of modern life.* - Crises affect more people than ever before, are more widely reported in the media, and have a wider impact on increasingly interconnected, dynamic social-technical systems. - All crises are sources of profound human loss, tragedy, and agony; at the same time, all are the precipitating factors in radical, rapid, and often positive social change. They are stories of short-sightedness, greed, indifference, ignorance, and stupidity; they also are stories of heroes, selflessness, hope, benevolence, compassion, virtue, and renewal. - Understanding the complex dynamics of crises is imperative for researchers and practitioners who want to reduce the frequency of crisis and the level of harm they cause.

The concept of crisis:

-*the term "crisis" evokes a sense of threat, urgency, and destruction, often on a monumental scale.* - "crisis" suggests an unusual event of overwhelmingly negative significance that carries a high level of risk, harm, and opportunity for further loss if the crisis is not abated. -every kind of crisis eventually involves organizations, even though not every crisis is an organization crisis. - For organizations, "crisis" usually conveys a fundamental threat to system stability, core values, high priority goals, image, legitimacy, profitability, and even survival. Careers may be threatened; livelihoods jeopardized; and health, well-being, sense of security, and sense of predictability shattered. Crises like floods and other disasters may alter communities forever. - A crisis usually begins with a dramatic and surprising trigger event ends with resolution and near normalcy. The crisis state is all the time and events in between these two points in time. The pre-crisis phase occurs BEFORE the trigger event. The post-crisis stage occurs following the resolution and return to near normalcy. - Crisis victims usually are portrayed as powerless, helpless, harmed, and exploited by forces over which they have little or no control, and in need of broad social support. These same victims/survivors will become key players in the post-crisis effort to determine, cause, assign blame, determine legal liability, and ensure that such a crisis does not recur. - Most portrayals of crises- especially organizational crises- are too simplistic. Such crises are almost always the result of long-term, complex interactions between social, psychological, and cultural factors on one hand and technical, structured, and standardized elements on the other. The complexities of these interactions are salient characteristics of organization crises. In fact, Pauchant and Mitroff (1992) viewed organizational crises as "normal events triggered by the complexity of the system itself and by faulty decisions as well as by the interrelationship between technological systems and the humans who attempt to manage them" - Perow (1984)- "human-made catastrophes appear to have increased with industrialization as we build devices that could crash, burn, or explode" - Organizational crises are more wide-spread and comprehensive than represented in the media. Crises affect the core organization, managers, employees, stockholders, customers, stakeholders, suppliers, members of the community, and competitors. Crises affect friends and family, government systems, courts, community service providers and special interest groups. - Often, crises are life-altering events for individuals, organizations, communities, and nations. - The consequences of crises include positive outcomes. In fact, they become a natural stage of development, evolution, growth, and change.

Communication goals during a crisis:

-Help ameliorate and/or end the crisis. Do not let communication or lack of communication exacerbate the crisis. People generally do not panic when they have information. - Protect the organization's reputation. -demonstrate the organization's commitment to its values and to humanity. -Reduce internal and external tension and address all types of emotions. - Maintain and control the flow of information in all directions.

Types of Crisis:

-Natural disasters -Human-induced malicious events -Human-induced accidents -Medical crises (This is a recent addition to the list.) -Technological disasters (e.g., viruses and worms) -White collar crises -Crises of credibility

Crisis communication is:

-Present, specific orientation - messages of consequences, blame, and impact - based on what is known and unknown - immediate and short-term focus - community scope: impact on us/we - Reactive: press releases, conferences, speeches - Spontaneous, reactive, and responsive, even if planned

Facts about Risk Vs. Crisis in intro packet:

-Uncertainty (our inability to predict the future or determine all there is to know about the present) also is routine in organizations. (crisis induced uncertainty is different because crises can occur quickly and unexpectedly) - We try to manage and eliminate risk by managing: 1) by identification and mindfulness 2) by having dialogues with identified audiences/constituencies who might be impacted. 3) by encouraging free choice through openness. - Effective risk communication can prevent crises or mitigate their magnitude and/or impact.

Crisis usually are exacerbated by- and may be caused by- communication problems:

-credibility gaps -unheeded warning - Language and cultural barriers-social and organizational cultures - organizational climate issues - closed communication channels - information filtering - failures in foresight

Risk communication is:

-future oriented -messages to reduce likelihood and impact -based on what is known -long-term focus -personal scope: what YOU can do - mediated communication campaigns: education - Controlled and structured

What are some unintentional crises:

1) Natural disasters 2) Disease Outbreaks 3) Unforeseeable Technical Interactions 4) Product Failure 5) Downturns in the Economy

Social media is a collection of online communication channels/tools that share five common characteristics:

1) Participation: anyone can create and give feedback on content. 2) Openness: most social media permits people to post content and feedback. 3) Conversation: it facilitates two-way interaction. 4) Communities: groups with similar interests can form quickly. 5) Connectedness: there is heavy utilization of links to other content. * Interactivity is the key factor connecting the five characteristics*

All organizations should prepare to handle crises by addressing six concerns:

1) diagnosing vulnerabilities 2) assessing crisis types 3) selecting and training a crisis team 4) selecting and training a spokesperson 5) developing a crisis management plan (CMP) 6) reviewing the crisis communication system

Four specific tasks have been isolated for crisis teams:

1) group decision making 2) working as a team 3) enacting the CMP 4) listening

The five-step crisis prevention process (formed by signal detection and correction)

1) identify the sources to scan 2) collect the information 3) analyze the information 4) take preventative action if warranted 5) evaluate the effectiveness of the threat reduction.

Crisis sensing mechanism built on three points:

1) locating the source of crisis risk information 2) funneling the information to a central location 3) making sure the information is analyzed- converted into knowledge

What is the three stage model of crisis management that provides the foundation?

1) precrisis 2)crisis event 3) post crisis

Three common risk-reduction strategies resulting in inherently safer practices are:

1) reduce the amount of hazardous material on-site 2) substitute a less hazardous substance 3) use a less hazardous process or storage condition

Prevention in precrisis 3 catagories:

1)Issues management- taking steps to prevent a problem from maturing into a crisis 2) Risk management- eliminates of lowers risk levels 3) Reputation management- seeks to resolve stakeholder-organizations relationship

3) The three stage model: No identifiable creator

1. *Precrisis* or pre disaster phase: warning signs appear and people try to eliminate the rise. 2. *Crisis impact* or rescue phase: the crisis hits and support is provided for those involved in it 3. *Recovery* or demise phase: stakeholder confidence is restored.

2) Ian Mitroffs 5 stage model:

1. signal detection: new crisis warning signs should be identified an acted upon to prevent a crisis. 2. Probing and prevention: organization members search known crisis risk factors and work to reduce their potential for harm. 3. Damage containment: a crisis hits and organization members try to prevent the damage from spreading into uncontaminated parts of the organization nor its environment 4. Recovery: Organization members work to return to normal business operations as soon as possible. 5. Learning: organization members review and critique their crisis management efforts, thereby adding to the organization's memory.

Hermann identified 3 characteristics separating crises from other unpleasant occurrences:

1. surprise 2. threat 3. short response time

seven general categories for crises that are initiated by intentional acts designed to harm an organization:

1. terrorism 2. sabotage 3. workplace violence 4. poor employee relationship 5. poor risk management 6. hostile takeovers 7. unethical leadership

Paracrisis:

A _____ is a specific type of crisis warning sign. it mimics a crisis itself. part of this word means resembling or protection from something. A ______ resembles a crisis because it threatens the organization's reputation and related assists. However, a ________ would not require the activation of the crisis team and does not disrupt the organization. Still, a ______ warrants attention because neglect or mismanagement could create an actual crisis.

Define Stakeholder:

A __________ is a person or group that is affected by or can affect an organization. if this person believes an organization is in crisis, then it is.

CMPS should have:

A cover page, introduction, acknowledgement form, rehearsal dates page, first-action page, crisis management team contact sheet, crisis risk assessment section, incident report sheets, proprietary information section, crisis management team communication strategy worksheet, stakeholder contact worksheets, business continuity plan, crisis control center description (CCC), post crisis evaluation forms,

Crisis fact:

A crisis creates a condition in which the leaders' abilities to make reasoned decisions are reduced. In the case of an organizational crisis, additional devastation may occur as a result of management's response to the initial crisis.

In addition fink divides the crisis event into three stages:

A crisis does not just happen it evolves. It begins with a trigger event (acute phase), and moves to extended efforts to deal with the crisis (chronic phase), and concludes with a clear ending (resolution). *crisis management is enacted in stages and is not one simple action*

Fact about crisis:

A crisis is unpredictable BUT NOT unexpected.

Fact:

A crisis presents real or potential negative outcomes for organizations, their stakeholders, and their industries.

Tabletop:

A guided analysis of crisis situation. A facilitator leads the team through a discussion of what they would do in a particular crisis situation. This exercise does not have the time pressure of a real crisis.

Prevention in Crisis Management:

Also known as mitigation, represents the steps taken to avoid crises. ex: faulty toaster is recalled before its overheating problem causes any fires or injuries to customers. _______ is largely unseen by the public.

Issues Management:

An _____ is a "trend of condition..that, if continued, would have a significant effect on how a company is operated". *a type of problem whose resolution can impact the organization*. ______ _______ includes the identification of issues and actions taken to affect them.

Define Incident in incident vs. crisis:

An _______ is a minor, localized disruption. ex: broken valve spraying water in a meeting area. basically when something can be fixed without disrupting or harming harming the larger organizational routine.

Fact:

An entire industry can be affected by a crisis in one of its member organizations. e.g: people projecting a localized crisis to onto an entire industry. ex: carnival cruise ship fire onto entire cruise line.

Podcast:

Audio and video content created and distributed through a subscription based service (the executive lounge with andrew coffey)

What are some reputation sources to monitor:

Consumer-generated media: websites, blogs, and discussion groups Stakeholder comments sent to the organization

What are some frequently used collection tools for crisis management?

Content analysis, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and informal contacts.

What is the crisis threat assessment formula?

Crisis Threat= Likelihood x Organizational Impact x Stakeholder Impact

Fact about stakeholders expectations:

Crisis can violate expectations that stakeholders hold about how organizations should act.

Fact:

Crisis managers must develop a system for detecting potential crises and responding to them.

Preparation in Crisis Management:

Is the best-known factor in crisis management because it includes the *crisis management plan* (CMP). EVERY ORGANIZATION SHOULD HAVE A CMP. ________ also involves diagnosing crisis vulnerabilities, selecting and training a crisis management ream and spokespersons, creating a crisis portfolio, and refining a crisis communication system.

The Jones and Chase model:

Issue identification, analysisis, change strategy option, action program, and evaluation. The action step centers on communication the organization's position on the issue to stakeholders involved with the issue. Goals and Objectives for comm program are developed, followed by the selection of the means and resources needed to achieve them.

Fact:

Issues and reputation management emphasize external threats, while risk management has more of an internal focus.

The advantage of intuitive decisions making is:

Its speed and the limited negative effects of stress. viable over optimal

Every organization should have:

MULTIPLE spokespersons

Fact about management:

Management must be able to see the event from the stakeholders' perspective to properly assess whether a crisis has occurred.

Facts about negligent failure to plan:

Organizations are considered ______ if they did not take reasonable action to reduce or eliminate known or reasonably foreseeable risks that could result in had,. Liability is based on the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act. Organizations can be found legally liable if they did not take precautions to prevent potential crises and were not prepared to respond. Crisis prevention and crisis preparation are defenses against negligent failure to plan. Crisis management is becoming firmly established as a form of due diligence (efforts to avoid harm to others or the organization) that will protect an organization not only from the immediate harm of a crisis but also from secondary harm resulting from lawsuits.

Fact:

Risk assessment has more an internal rather than external focus.

Crisis-sensing mechanism:

System developed by crisis managers designated to scan and monitor for crisis warning signals- and act on those signals when necessary.

The big seed approach to viral messages:

The ______ ____ is used in contrast to the small-seed notion of how ideas spread on the internet- how a message becomes viral. The small seed concept argues that only a few influential people need to spread the message for an idea to emerge online. In the ____ ____ approach a large number of people (seeds) are targeted with the initial message.

Fact:

The internet serves as a dual information source: it can be used to access information also found in print or broadcast form, and it can be used to collect information unique to social media.

What are watchdog positions?

The monitor a variety of sources including the internet, news reports, and information from local stores, and weather. developed by walmart director of emergency manaegemtn jason jackson

Business continuity:

The name used to cover the efforts to restore operations to normal.

Fact:

The paracrisis blurs the line between pre crisis and crisis response because addressing the paracrisis can appear to be a crisis response rather than preventative action.

What are some Risk Assesment sources to monitor:

Total quality management liability exposure natural disaster exposure environmental crisis exposure criminal exposure product tampering exposure legal compliance audits financial audits ethical climate surveys workers compensation safety, accident records behavioral profiling exposure internet use monitoring

Rumors:

When false or misleading information is purposefully circulated about an organization or its products in order to harm the organization.

Human-error accidents:

When human error causes an accident

Human-error product harm:

When human error results in a defect of potentially harmful product.

Organizational misdeeds:

When management takes actions it knows may place stakeholders at risk or knowingly violates the law.

Fact:

When managers choose to engage in risk aversion, risk management becomes crisis prevention. Actions are taken to completely eliminate the risk or reduce it to as low a level as reasonably possible.

Crisis management in the Coombs book:

______ _______ represents a set of factors designed to combat crisis and to lessen the actual damage inflicted. It seeks to prevent or lesson the negative outcomes of a crisis and thereby protect the organization, stakeholders, and industry from harm.

Social Media:

a broad term that covers a variety of different online communication tools. New tools keep emerging so you cannot have a complete and comprehensive list.

1) Fink's four stage model:

earliest model, from his book, Crisis management: planning for the inevitable. 1. Prodominal: clues of hints of a potential crisis begin to emerge. 2. Crisis breakout or acute: a triggering event that occurs along with the attendant damage. 3. Chronic: The effects of the crisis linger as efforts to clean up the crisis progress 4. Resolution: There is some clear signal that the crisis is no longer a concern to stakeholders-it is over.

Stakeholders:

generally defined as any persons or groups that have an interest , right, claim, or ownership in an organization. They are separated into two groups Primary and Secondary.

Internet:

hastening the evolution of crisis communication. Many communication channels not just one. evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Revision in Crisis Management:

involves evaluation of the organization's repines in simulated and real crisis, determining what it did right and what it did wrong during its crisis management performance. The organization uses this insight to revise its prevention, preparation, and response efforts.

sabatoge:

involves the intentional damaging of a product or the working capacity of the organization by someone inside the organization.

No one person in an organization:

is an authority on every subject.

A stakeholder concern...

is more serious when it is deemed legitimate by other stakeholders

Communication apprehension:

is the fear or anxiety some people feel in a communication setting.

Task Analysis:

is the technical term for identifying the key characteristics needed for job performance.

The spokesperson's role:

is to manage the accuracy and consistency of the messages coming from the organization.

What is impact:

it is the effect the crisis can have on stakeholders and the organization. (1-10)

what is likelihood:

it is the probability that a threat will become a crisis. for issues: the probability of an issue gaining momentum for risks: the probability that the risk can or will become an event for reputation: the evaluation of likelihood and impact are not developed

Functional Approach (in selecting CMT)

it posits that team members must represent specific functional divisions or positions within the organization, including legal, security, public relations or communications, operations or technical, safety, quality assurance, human resources, information technology, finance, government relations marketing, and the CEO or representative.

Crisis sensing mechanism can be viewed as....

knowledge management (KM)

What are the two factors that we can build threat assessment analysis around?

likelihood and impact.

The spokesperson should have:

media training

What can a weak ethical climate encourage?

organizational misdeeds, such as check fraud, sexual harassment, or racial discrimination.

Typical risk factors:

personnel, products, the production process, facilities, competition, regulation, and customers.