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Importance of communication in crisis
Ways To Manage Disasters
Ways To Manage Disasters
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Recommended: Importance of communication in crisis
The author, Judith Hoffman’s book, Keeping Cool on the Hot Seat, addresses the need to handle the media when dealing with a crisis.
One of the advantages of being proactive when referring to a crisis, is that the chances of reducing the problems, issues, fatalities of a crisis go down exponentially. With no preparation for a crisis, many will find themselves” being reduced to being reactive and chasing the crisis, making a poor first impression”. (Hoffman 2011, 4). By thinking through the types of crisis that could occur during any specified event, hurricane, flood, vandalism, epidemic, etc., and taking the proactive approach can 1. minimize the damage that the media – to include social medias – could do to an organization, business or agency;
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A sudden crisis is an event that occurs unexpectedly and often escalated quickly, such as a fire at a neighboring house, or a relative or loved one that has been in an accident. This type of crisis can be planned for (emergency contacts, ‘what-to-do-in-case-of…”, etc.), but often catches the person off-guard. The creeping crisis is a problem that may have started out small, but due to poor management or being unprepared, it grew into a large crisis. Predictable crises are ones that can be counted on to happen; cars on a racing course may crash causing minor and/or major injuries or fatalities. Crises caused by dumb decisions usually stem from an internal source that does not foresee or predict the final outcome. The 2008 stock market crash could be counted in this type of crisis; lack of government supervision and bad financial decisions by the consumers nationwide led to one of the largest financial collapses since the Great Depression. Finally, there is cyber crisis. When a major breach of a system occurs, attackers/hacker are working at network speed as is the media, both news and social are reporting at the same speed. Thus crisis action teams must also respond at the network speed. A cyber crisis has multi-dimensional issues that are far too complex for a normal planning process and …show more content…
Be cooperative, provide control, demonstrate caring and concern, demonstrate competence, be credible, be consistent, be clear, be concise, keep current, and act with calm. These are important for anyone who must put out statements/messages. This goes both ways for both the spokesperson and the media. By losing control of emotions, letting people taunt or de-rail the speaker is a sure way of losing credibility for both the spokesperson and the organization. By keeping things current, clear, and concise with the message being conveyed, it is hard for splentetics and skeptics alike to stir the hornets’ nest, and the organization stands a good chance of getting a fair and objective coverage from the press corps. (Hoffman 2011, 79-90).
Hoffman points out in chapter 14, there are two “C’s” to avoid when the situation has emotions and tensions running high: cute and cleaver. There is a time and place for these, but a crisis is not one of them. It can make the speaker/organization look like they are not taking the situation seriously, and will cause damage to both the mission’s message and the loss of credibility. (Hoffman 2011,
Crisis is an event that is unplanned, unwanted, and dangerous and leads to hard decision making. There are many different types of crisis such as economic crisis, mental health crisis, situational crisis, social crisis, adventitious crisis and many more. Every type of crisis affects people more than we think and know. There is always someone who loses and who gains during a crisis. People who lose are usually the ones who are affected the most such as losing a job, losing a family member or someone close to them, losing their homes and sometimes even their own lives. The people who gain are usually the rich people who prey on the poor and usually gain from making money and the poor’s lives miserable.
1. First, in order to prevent a crisis situation, it is very important to know your triggers and arousal patterns. I came to know how to maintain control when someone is triggered and how to reduce arousal patterns. This is course provide me with great knowledge that will help me during a crisis. I also came to know how attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs may influence the worker’s response.
Echterling, Presbury and McKee (2005) define crisis as a turning point in one’s life that is brief, but a crucial time in which, there is opportunity for dramatic growth and positive changes, as well as the danger of violence and devastation. They further state that whatever the outcome, people do not emerge from a crisis unchanged; if there is a negative resolution, the crisis can leave alienation, bitterness, devastated relationships and even death in its wake; on the other hand, if the crisis is resolved successfully a survivor can develop a deeper appreciation for life, a stronger sense of resolve, a mature perspective, greater feelings of competence, and richer relationships.
In the midst of a crisis, many people rely on their human instincts to quickly respond to the situation. Society idolizes these types of hero’s, and, often times, awards them medals for their courageous deeds. George Clemenceau, a French statesman from World War 1, said “A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he is not a man of action… You must act as you breathe.” While Clemenceau applauds immediate action, he fails to recognize that many situations simply become worse because of immediate decisions. When crisis’s strike, one should not act quickly and instinctively, but should evaluate the situation and asses the right course of action.
A crisis or emergency may be an incident, extreme climatic event, disease outbreak, security issue or any other event that poses a significant threat to:
In order to understand the thought process of leadership during a crisis, the authors state that we must first understand a conceptual model that is theoretically grounded, (Combe & Carrington, 2015). The conceptual model is divided into two elements, the descriptive and prescriptive mental models, (Combe & Carrington, 2015). The descriptive mental model focuses the external changes that occur during a crisis. The prescriptive mental model concentrates on future actions that need to be implemented to derail the cognitive overload due to continuous external changes as the situation unfolds. The prescriptive model aligns objectives, providing clarity to future implications related to the crisis, (Combe & Carrington, 2015). The authors, Combe & Carrington, (2015) have noted the importance of longitudal research perspective to capture the thought processes of interaction, communication and problem solving in a crisis. This type of research method is instrumental in depicting the challenges to incorporate better solutions to evolving situations. Sense making in a crisis defines these issues to ascertain the complexity and provide meaning to the event, (Combe & Carrington, 2015). Sense making entails the filtering of excessive data to identify the areas of importance. This perspective provides a means of taking a negative, that being disruptive and changing it to a positive or opportunity for
The crisis team must keep one thing in mind, above all, when anticipating and planning for crises: crises are fraught with risks, which present themselves immediately, and opportunities, which give small clues and only manifest themselves over time.
Crisis is defined as a major, unpredictable event that has potentially negative results. The event and its aftermath may significantly damage an organization and its employees, products, services, financial condition, and reputation. There are many types of crises, for example, economic crises, physical crises, personnel crises, criminal crises, information crises, reputation crises and natural crises. This incident has been grouped into physical crises, natural crises and economic crises. In order to prevent crises from adversely affecting the firm, organizations need effective plans and procedures in place to prevent crises if possible, or to mitigate their effects when they do occur.
Crisis is a critical moment and an important decision have to be made and if not handled carefully, it may lead to a disaster. The characteristics of crisis is the presence of danger and opportunity, seed of growth and change, complicated symptomology, the necessity of choice, no pancreas or quick fixes, universality and idiosyncrasy, resiliency and perception. Crisis can affect a person’s feelings, behaviours and thoughts negatively to the point where they self-harm, commit suicide or even harming others around them. You might not know when crisis will happen as it can happen anytime. Crisis is a dangerous as Ait can harm an individual thoughts to the extend where they commit suicide. It is difficult to understand the effect of description
The choice to act or not to act when crisis strikes lies within a person’s psyche. This
A crisis may occur when an individual is unable to deal effectively with stressful changes in the environment. A stressful event alone does not constitute a crisis; rather, crisis is determined by the individual's view of the event and response to it. If the individual sees the event as significant and threatening, has exhausted all his/her usual coping strategies without effect, and is unaware or unable to pursue other alternatives, then the precipitating event may push the individual toward psychological disequilibrium, a state of crisis (Smead, 1988).
A study by the University of Maryland indicated a third of Fox News’ audience believed Iraq participated in the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center despite military and diplomatic proof they did not. This belief, accompanied by several other misunderstandings about the Iraq war, developed through negligent representation of world events by the news (Marcovitz). Sometimes, the news doesn’t do what it is intended to do—accurately publicize information. Media has a tendency to focus less on the truth and more on a good story for high ratings. Obsessive coverage of certain pieces can lead to the neglect of other important issues, specifically, world tragedies—natural disasters and civic crises. Regarding our response to human adversity, the advent of social media has come with new advantages and new problems. Media’s coverage of worldly disasters is important to inform people and encourage help, but the wide variety of media available now must be used responsibly.
A review of the literature suggest that managers should be effectively prepared to deal with crises as they arise and even to the point where they develop a suitable communications strategy to deal with
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).
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.