Crisis Communications

1284 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literature review for crisis management

Crisis Communications

Crisis communication is the most important aspect of external and internal organization communication. This type of communication ranges from image restoration campaigns to employee turnover. In the articles that I have analyzed, I discovered many examples of crisis communications and its importance. I will discuss the Bridgestone-Firestone Corporation’s image restoration campaign and explain Benoit’s theory of image restoration. Also, I will discuss how crisis communications fits into public relations models. Two examples for discussion will be how supervisors should convey bad-news to their employees, and group communication within employee turnover. My last example for this discussion will be Bill Clinton’s image repair discourse.

This essay will analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of crisis communications and its place within an organization. As stated earlier, I will discuss different examples retrieved from five scholarly articles that are relevant to this topic. I hope to convey the importance of crisis communications.

In the article “Blowout! Firestone’s Image Restoration Campaign” Blaney, Benoit, and Brazeal (2002) discuss how Firestone failed in its recovery efforts. The authors claim that Firestone’s attempt to shift blame was “poorly conceived.” (p. 379) Also, they claim the use of celebrities to support their products and reputation was unsuccessful due to the obvious financial relationships between them. This discussion leads up to the application of Benoit’s image restoration theory. (2002). This theory states that “communicators who need to restore damaged reputations have five general rhetorical options: denial, evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification.” (p.380) The author’s conclude that this case study displays “denial and, sadly, concealment of incriminating data, are common responses to wrongful action. Had corrective action been implemented immediately, it seems likely that many deaths and injuries could have been avoided.” (p.388-389)

This article gives a great example of how important crisis communications is. The failed image restoration campaign still haunts this corporation. Blaney, Benoit, and Brazeal make a valid point of why this campaign was unsuccessful. Organizations must educate their selves on proper crisis communicatio...

... middle of paper ...

...an make an event that may end someone’s career, turn into a mere smudge on their character.

With this discussion in mind, I am assured that crisis communications is the most important aspect of external and internal organization communication. The studies and examples given by the scholarly resources establish this point.

Works Cited:

Blaney, Joseph R., Benoit, William L. & Brazeal, LeAnn M. (2002). Blowout!: Firestone’s image restoration campaign. Public Relations Review, 28, 379-392.

Cox, Stephen A. (1999). Group communication and employee turnover: How coworkers encourage peers to voluntarily exit. The Southern Communication Journal, 64, 181-192.

Wagoner, Ruth & Waldron, Vincent R. (1999). How supervisors convey routine bad news: Facework at UPS. The Southern Communication Journal, 64, 193-209.

Guiniven, John E. (2002). Dealing with activism in Canada: an ideal cultural fit for the two-way symmetrical public relations model. Public Relations Review, 28, 393-402.

Benoit, William L. (1998). Bill Clinton in the Starr chamber. American Communications Journal. 12, (2). retrieved from http://acjournal.org/holdings/vol2/iss2/editorials, Apr. 21 2005.

Show More
Related

  • The Rhetoric of an Apology: The Bill Clinton Sex Scandal

    1763 Words  | 4 Pages

    On August 17, 1998, exactly one year after making the statement above, President Bill Clinton prepared to deliver a speech concerning a scandal that had gripped the nation for months. It is needless to say that this was an important moment during the Clinton administration. After accusations of sexual harassment, Clinton addressed the nation and admitted to having a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In this critical speech Clinton set out to admit to wrong-doings, provide a few reasons for his action, and ultimately persuade the audience into moving on and forgetting the scandal. This essay will break down his speech into sections and examine the most and least effective strategies that Clinton employed and how well he executed those strategies. This is an interesting speech given under rare circumstances. Not since Watergate had an American president been under such harsh moral criticism from the public. By looking critically at this speech we are able to gain valuable insight into Clinton's motives.

    Read More

  • Describing the Interaction of the Components of the Autonomic Nervous System in a Relation to the Stress Response

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harmening, W. (2014). "Crisis communication" In Harmening, W. (2014). Crisis intervention: The criminal justice response to chaos, mayhem, and disorder. Boston, MA: Pearson

    Read More

  • Philip Tompkins Organizational Communicatin Imperatives

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    Philip Tompkins' Organizational Communication Imperatives. INTRODUCTION In the book Organizational Communication Imperatives, by Philip K. Tompkins, we are introduced to a chapter that deals with an organization that is held under high prestige by not only those who are employed by it, but by a country as well. This American organization is NASA (National Aeronautical Space Administration), and although a very prestigious place to work, it is not free of its share of wrongdoing and counter productive ways. Ten years ago (1986), NASA was faced with its biggest catastrophe, the Challenger Explosion.

    Read More

  • Tylenol Crisis

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lazare, Lewis. " Crisis Triggered Brilliant PR Respose." Chicago Sun-Times Sept. 1982. Print. Mitchell, Mark.

    Read More

  • JetBlue's Valentine's Day Flight Disasters of 2008

    1318 Words  | 3 Pages

    You would need to be able to figure out how to notify and keep the customers updated on the flights that are cancelled, where you are in the process of rescheduling flights, and when the internet system would be back up so that they could reschedule their flights. The crisis communicator would also need to get a plan in place to be able to recover the good reputation of JetBlue, and how to keep people from being negative during this crisis. They also need to make sure that the company is quick to address the crisis with the public so that the public does not think they are trying to cover up the crisis and that they are trying to handle it quickly and effectively. After the crisis has subsided a crisis communicator needs to make sure there is plan in place to provide training for any future crisis such as this one. They need to make sure that the CEO and leaders of a company get out in the public eye to make a statement and to let them know how they will be handling the crisis. It is also there job to help the company stay transparent and ethical throughout the crisis to avoid any more tarnishes in JetBlue’s reputation. The crisis communicator should also stress the importance of discourse of renewal to JetBlue, helping them to take this crisis as an opportunity to learn and grow as a company. Overall, the crisis communicator I feel did a great job in stressing all of these things and helping JetBlue to regain its reputation and to grow in through this

    Read More

  • The Ever-changing World of Healthcare

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Baird, J. E., & Bradley, P. H. (1978). Communication Correlates of employee Morale. Journal Of Business Communication, 15(3), 47-56.

    Read More

  • Alan Jay Zaremba's Case Study: Organizational Communication At The Nuance Group

    1712 Words  | 4 Pages

    The crisis at the Nuance group appears to be a “Reputational” crisis. The case study states that the Nuance Group is “a successful management consulting company.” (Zaremba, 2010) In order to be successful, you must have a positive reputation, which was most likely the case with the Nuance Group. However, as Warren Buffet said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it”. (Tuttle, 2010) By publishing false information in their brochures, and distributing them to the public, the Nuance Group portrayed themselves as devious and untrustworthy, amongst other negative

    Read More

  • Past Political Controversies

    2080 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jourdan, C. "The Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky Scandal | PoliticianScandal.com." PoliticianScandal.com - Political News & Articles. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .

    Read More

  • Tylenol Case Study

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    The discipline of public relations is a modern profession which has been in existence for only close to a century; however, it has already taken an important role in the fields of business, government, entertainment and non-profit organizations including educational institutions and healthcare organizations. Public relations professionals are required to have excellent organizational, interpersonal and communication skills and have the ability to persuade the public. It is imperative for PR professionals to effectively communicate with its public in order to establish and maintain a positive relationship. Furthermore, public relations professionals must have the ability to work under pressure and effectively manage crisis which may have detrimental effect on the company and the public it serves. State purpose of paper and an overview of what will be covered in the introduction

    Read More

  • An Assessment of BP's Risk Management Issues and Poor Response to the Oil Spill

    3188 Words  | 7 Pages

    Ulmer, RR, Sellnow, TL & Seeger, MW 2007, Effective crisis communication, Thousand Oakes: Sage Publications.

    Read More

  • Effective Crisis Communication

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    The communication process is not something that begins when a crisis rears its ugly head rather it is a process that takes place in preparing for a crisis before it happens. While the term crisis represents a blanket term used to describe many situations, each situation is unique, thus presenting different obstacles to overcome. However, with a well-established advanced plan in place an organization places itself in a position to overcome and work around obstacles. The development of a comprehensive crisis management plan is one achieved through effective communication where each member of the crisis management team has an advanced shared understanding of his or her role and responsibility during a time of crisis (du Pr'e, 2005).

    Read More

  • Managing a Crisis Using Public Relations

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    2) Limit the damage, and 3) restore credibility. Following these goals ensure a successful public relations plan for any organization. Crisis management definitely needs to be addressed in any organization. ? Although it is usually not a fun role for public relations manager. The.

    Read More

  • Strategic Management of Public Relations

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the evaluation of strategic management of public relations, both concepts of risk communication and situational theory can be integrated into the above-mentioned model. Risk communication is an ongoing process that builds the foundation for crisis communication. Particularly, the risk analysis process consists of hazard identification, risk assessment, significance of risks and communicating risk information.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Crisis Management in Schools

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to comprehend what is crisis management, it was build the crisis framework thought defining the concept and the core issues and discussing the various definitions, types, stages, and phases of crisis. The key words that were used in the research included “school crisis”, “intervention”, “trauma”, “crisis planning”, “crisis intervention”, “school response”, “crisis response”, “disasters”, and “school health” (Love & Cobb, 2012, p. 159). This research is based on the existing theretical and empirical information about crisis management. Hence, it is important to maintain the crisis plans for each difficulty in order to protect the educational institutes and to prevent it from happenning in the future, but some institutes fail it.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Crisis Planning In Crisis Management

    3042 Words  | 7 Pages

    To understand the position of proactive vs. reactive approaches to crisis management, I will use Mitroff et al.’s (1987) model of Crisis management. The above model illustrates the crisis an...

    Read More

More about Crisis Communications

Open Document