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Crisis communication is aimed at raising awareness of a specific type of threat, the magnitude, outcomes, and specific behaviors to adopt to reduce the threat.
The communication scholar Timothy Coombs defines crisis as the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization's performance and generate negative outcomes and crisis communication as the collection, processing, and dissemination of information required to address a crisis situation.
Meaning can be socially constructed; because of this, the way that the stakeholders of an organization perceive an event (positively, neutrally, or negatively) is a major contributing factor to whether the event will become a crisis. Additionally, it is important to separate a true crisis situation from an incident. The term crisis should be reserved for serious events that require careful attention from management.
Crisis management has been defined as a set of factors designed to combat crises and to lessen the actual damages inflicted.
Crisis management should not merely be reactionary; it should also consist of preventative measures and preparation in anticipation of potential crises. Effective crisis management has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of damage the organization receives as a result of the crisis, and may even prevent an incident from ever developing into a crisis.
More information: Management Study Guide
Coombs identifies three phases of crisis management.
-Pre-crisis. Preparing ahead of time for crisis management in an effort to prevent a future crisis from occurring. This category is also sometimes called the prodromal crisis stage.
-Crisis. The response to an actual crisis event.
-Post-crisis. Occurs after the crisis has been resolved; the efforts by the crisis management team to understand why the crisis occurred and to learn from the event.
Inside the management step, Bodeau-Ostermann identifies 6 successive phases:
1. Reaction. Where the group behaves on first sight.
2. Extension. Because the crisis dilutes itself and touches neighbours.
3. Means (material and human). Which constitutes an overview of success/failures of emergency reaction.
4. Focus. Stands as a concrete action or event on which the team leaders concentrate to fight crisis.
5. Retraction. Is the moment where the group diminishes means involved, in accordance with its aims.
6. Rehabilitation. Where, as a last step, result is, for the group, emergence of new values, stronger than the older.
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Pre-crisis
-Researching and collecting information about crisis risks specific to the organization.
-Creating a crisis management plan that includes making decisions ahead of time about who will handle specific aspects of a crisis if and when it occurs.
-Conducting exercises to test the plan at least annually.
-Preparing press release templates for the organization's public relations team in the event of a crisis.
-The chain of command that all employees will follow in the dissemination of information to all publics during a crisis situation.
A rapid response crisis communications team should be organized during the pre-crisis stage and all individuals who will help with the actual crisis communication response should be trained.
At this stage the communication professional focuses on detecting and identifying possible risks that could result in a crisis.
Crisis communication tactics during the crisis stage may include the following: the identification of the incident as a crisis by the organization's crisis management team; the collection and processing of pertinent information to the crisis management team for decision making; and also the dissemination of crisis messages to both internal and external publics of the organization.
More information: First Up
Post-crisis
-Reviewing and dissecting the successes and failures of the crisis management team in order to make any necessary changes to the organization, its employees, practices, or procedures.
-Providing follow-up crisis messages as necessary.
Timothy Coombs proposes that post-crisis communication should include the following five steps:
1. Deliver all information promised to stakeholders as soon as that information is known.
2. Keep stakeholders updated on the progression of recovery efforts including any corrective measures being taken and the progress of investigations.
3. Analyze the crisis management effort for lessons and integrate those lessons in to the organization's crisis management system.
4. Scan the Internet channels for online memorials.
5. Consult with victims and their families to determine the organization's role in any anniversary events or memorials.
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In general, Timothy Coombs raises some practices regarding to crisis response strategy based on SCCT that crisis managers should consider carefully.
-All victims or potential victims should receive instructing information, including recall information. This is one-half of the base response to a crisis.
-All victims should be provided an expression of sympathy, any information about corrective actions and trauma counseling when needed. This can be called the care response. This is the second half of the base response to a crisis.
-For crises with minimal attributions of crisis responsibility and no intensifying factors, instructing information and care response is sufficient.
-For crises with minimal attributions of crisis responsibility and an intensifying factor, add excuse and/or justification strategies to the instructing information and care response.
-For crises with low attributions of crisis responsibility and no intensifying factors, add excuse and/or justification strategies to the instructing information and care response.
-For crises with low attributions of crisis responsibility and an intensifying factor, add compensation and/or apology strategies to the instructing information and care response.
-For crises with strong attributions of crisis responsibility, add compensation and/or apology strategies to the instructing information and care response.
-The compensation strategy is used anytime victims suffer serious harm.
-The reminder and ingratiation strategies can be used to supplement any response.
-Denial and attack the accuser strategies are best used only for rumor and challenge crises.
More information: Bernstein Crisis Management
Benoit's 5 Major Strategies
1. Denial
There are two forms of denial:
-Simple denial which involves denying the involvement or the act.
-Shifting the blame, which is also known as Scapegoating.
2. Evasion of Responsibility
Evading responsibility involves the following 4 steps.
3. Provocation, suggesting that the accused only responded after being provoked.
-Defeasibility, suggesting that lack of control or information is to blame.
-Accidents, suggesting that it was an accident.
-Good intentions, suggest that it was done with good intentions in mind, despite the negative outcome.
4. Reducing
The apologists will attempt to reduce the offensiveness of the acts by:
-Bolstering by describing positive attributes.
-Minimizing to decrease the negative view of the situation.
-Differentiation by comparing the act to other similar acts that ended in worse terms.
-Transcending by discussion in terms of abstract values and group loyalty.
-Attacking the accuser in an attempt to eliminate credibility.
-Offering compensation to victims.
5. Corrective Action
The apologist will express corrective action when they attempt to correct the situation and prevent it from ever happening again.
6. Mortification
When the apologist admits wrongful behavior and asks for forgiveness while apologizing.
More information: Sprout Social
Alastair Campbell
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