Chapter 12 Crisis Communication

1. Chapter 12Crisis Communication Definitions Crisis Management Process Theories related to Reputation Repair in Crisis Use of Denial in a Crisis

2. The Warning • No organization is immune from a crisis. • Communication matters in a crisis. • Be prepared to communicate effectively in a crisis.

3. What is a Crisis? • “the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization’s performance and generate negative outcomes” (Coombs, 2007, pp. 2-3).

4. Key Aspects of a Crisis • Unpredictable: can anticipate but not predict when a crisis will hit. • Crises violate how constituents expect an organization to act. • Violating expectations creates angry constituents who will alter how they interact with an organization.

5. Key Aspects of a Crisis • Crisis is a serious threat that can disrupt organizational operations and/or has the potential to create negative outcomes. • Negative outcomes include deaths, injuries, property damage, negative publicity, reputation loss, financial loss, and environmental damage • An organization is in a crisis if key constituents perceive a crisis.

6. What is Crisis Management? • “a set of factors designed to combat crises and to lessen the actual damage inflicted” (Coombs, 2007, p. 5). • General goal is to prevent or lessen the negative effects of a crisis. • Crisis management serves to protect constituents, organizations, industries, and the environment from harm.

7. Crisis Management as Process • The set of factors that form a process. • The crisis management process can be divided into three parts: • pre-crisis • crisis event • post-crisis

8. The Crisis Management Process

9. Pre-crisis Phase • Emphasize prevention and preparation • Identify and act on warning signs • Prepare to manage crises • Develop and test Crisis Management Plan (CMP) • Select and train Crisis Management Team • Select and train Crisis Spokespersons

10. Crisis Management Plan • Rough guide, not step-by-step “how to.” • Has no value unless tested. • Update regularly.

11. Crisis Event Phase • Organization experiences a crisis. • Crisis team is mobilized. • CMP is used as a guide. • Organization responds to crisis through words and actions (part of crisis communication).

12. Post-crisis Phase • Return to business-as-usual. • Provide updates to constituents. • Evaluate the crisis management effort.

13. Crisis Management Lessons • Preparation • Communication channels • Spokesperson training • Initial crisis response • Reputation repair

14. Preparation • Preparation improves speed and effectiveness of crisis response. • Should have CMP and crisis team. • Exercises need to test and refine CMP and crisis team. • Pre-draft messages you know you might need. • Exercises and pre-drafted messages allow for a quicker response.

15. Communication Channels • Web sites should be used. • Create dark sites • Separate web site or linked from home page • Intranets useful for employees. • Mass notification systems help reach constituents.

16. Spokesperson Training • Media training for anyone who might speak during a crisis. • Avoid “no comment”, people hear “guilty.” • Avoid speculation, you could be wrong. • Avoid jargon and technical language, can create confusion. • Fully brief all spokespersons. • Avoid markers of deception such as lack of eye contact or vocal disfluencies.

17. Initial Crisis Response • First set of messages in a crisis. • Be quick with your side of the story. • Be accurate with your information. • Be consistent with your information, unless there is a surprising twist to the crisis.

18. Initial Response Initial response should address the following: • Instructing information. • Adjusting information.

19. Instructing Information • Instructing information: tell people how to protect themselves from the dangers posed by the crisis. • Includes evacuation or shelter-in-place orders and recall information

20. Adjusting Information • Adjusting information: helps people to cope psychologically with the crisis. • Includes counseling for stress and expressions of sympathy

21. Reputation Repair • Number one priority in a crisis should be constituent safety. • Reputation repair is addressed after the instructing and adjusting information is delivered.

22. Four Research Areas of Crisis Reputation Repair • Corporate apologia • Image restoration theory • Rhetoric of renewal • Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT)

23. Corporate Apologia • Crisis threatens social legitimacy because an organization appears to be incompetent /violated expectations. • Violation is a character attack. • Corporate apologia offers a defense of the organization’s reputation in an effort to restore legitimacy.

24. Corporate Apologia Crisis Response Strategies • Denial: the organization denies any wrongdoing. • Counterattack: the organization denies wrongdoing and claims the accuser is the one at fault. • Differentiation: the organization attempts to distance itself from guilt for the crisis. There is an admission of responsibility but factors are identified that limit the organization’s responsibility. • Apology: the organization accepts responsibility and promises not to do it again. • Legal: the organization allows the legal team to handle the crisis and avoids public statements.

25. Image Restoration Theory (IRT) • Communication is goal directed. • One goal of communication is to protect one’s reputation . • Dominant recommendation that emerges from IRT research is that mortification (publicly accepting responsibility for the crisis) is the preferred response to a crisis.

26. IRT Crisis Response Strategies 1. Denial - simple denial: did not do it - shift the blame: blame someone or something other than the organization 2. Evading responsibility   - provocation: response to someone else’s actions - defeasibility: lack of information about or control over the situation - accidental: did not mean for it to happen - good intentions: actor meant well

27. IRT Crisis Response Strategies 3. Reducing offensiveness. - bolstering: reminder of the actor’s positive qualities - minimize offensiveness of the act: claim little damage from the crisis - differentiation: compare act to similar ones - transcendence: place act in a different context - attack accuser: challenge those who say there is a crisis - compensation: offer money or goods 

28. IRT Crisis Response Strategies 4. Corrective action: restore situation to pre-act status and/or promise change and prevent a repeat of the act. 5. Mortification: ask for forgiveness; admit guilt and express regret.

29. IRT Crisis Response Strategies • Emphasis the positive view of the organization’s future and helping victims. • Is about an organization creating a new direction and sense of purpose after emerging from a crisis. • Is an extension of accommodative strategies, adjusting information, and compensation.

30. Criteria for Renewal • Organization has a strong pre-crisis ethical standard. • Constituency-organization pre-crisis relationships are strong and favorable. • Focus on life beyond the crisis rather than seeking to escape blame. • Desire to engage in effective crisis communication.

31. Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) • Combines elements of the rhetorical approaches to crisis communication with Weiner’s (2006) conceptualization of Attribution Theory.

32. Attribution Theory • People search for causes of negative and unexpected events. • Cause is attributed to either the person involved in the event or circumstances surrounding the event.

33. Application to Crises • Crises are negative and unexpected. • Constituents attribute cause to: • Organization in crisis • Circumstances surrounding the crisis • Attributions of crisis responsibility have serious implications.

34. Crisis Responsibility Increased crisis responsibility: • Intensifies the reputation damage from a crisis. • Reduces purchase intention. • Increases anger. • Increases the likelihood of negative word-of-mouth.

35. SCCT and Communication • Start with base of instructing and adjusting information. • Match the response to the reputation threat posed by the crisis.

36. Assessing the Reputation Threat • Two-step process. • Step one, identify the crisis type — how crisis is being framed.

37. Three Categories of Crisis Types • Victim crises: very weak crisis responsibility. • Accident crises: minimal crisis responsibility. • Intentional crises: strong crisis responsibility.

38. Victim Crises • Natural disasters: acts of nature such as tornadoes or earthquakes. • Rumors: false and damaging information being circulated about your organization. • Workplace violence: attack by former or current employee on current employees on-site. • Product tampering/malevolence: external agent causes damage to the organization.

39. Accidental • Challenges: stakeholders claim that the organization is operating in an inappropriate manner. • Technical error accidents: equipment or technology failure that causes an industrial accident. • Technical error product harm: equipment or technology failure that causes a product to be defective or potentially harmful.

40. Preventable Crises • Human-error accidents: industrial accident caused by human error. • Human-error product harm: product is defective or potentially harmful because of human error. • Organizational misdeed: management actions that put stakeholders at risk and/or violate the law.

41. Assessing the Reputation Threat • Step two, check for intensifiers • Past crisis histories intensify threats • Unfavorable prior reputation intensifies threats

42. Assessing the Reputation Threat • SCCT rates crisis response strategies according to accommodation — concern for victims • The greater the reputational threat, the more accommodative the crisis response strategy.

43. Crisis Response Strategies in SCCT Deny strategies: seek to eliminate crisis responsibility. • attack the accuser: confront person or group claiming a crisis exists • denial: claim there is no crisis • scapegoat: blame someone else for the crisis. Diminish strategies: seeks to minimize the crisis responsibility. • excuse: deny any intent to do harm and/or claim inability to control the event • justification: seek to minimize perceptions of damage from the event

44. Crisis Response Strategies in SCCT Rebuild strategies: seek to repair the reputation. • compensation: offer gifts or money to victims • apology: accept responsibility and ask for forgiveness Reinforcing strategies. • bolstering: remind people of past good works by the organization • ingratiation: praise people who help address the event

45. Caution • Do not automatically use the most accommodative strategies. • Most crises with low levels of crisis responsibility do not benefit from the most accommodative crisis response strategies. • Crisis managers risk a boomerang effect if a crisis response is too accommodative for the crisis.

46. SCCT Crisis Response Strategy Recommendations • 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.

47. SCCT Crisis Response Strategy Recommendations • 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.

48. SCCT Crisis Response Strategy Recommendations • 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.

49. Denial • Research is deceptive. • Only effective if no evidence to contradict it. • If evidence does suggest guilt, using denial worsens the crisis threat. • Also consider how constituents are evaluating the evidence.

50. Reflection Points • What are the arguments for and against partial disclosure? • What are the arguments for and against and full disclosure? • Why does partial disclosure raise questions of ethics?