Crises Communication, Its Concept - Vodafone and Exxon Mobil - Essay Example

?Crisis Communication Introduction Crisis in an organization is described as the situation, which leads to unavoidable circumstances resulting in ultimate negative outcome (J. E. Hale, Dulek and D. P. Hale, 2005). The organizations are affected badly due to the crisis. It brings a situation including complex system within the organization. Every company is subjected to some amount of crisis, which is simply unavoidable (Lyu, 2012). Thus it becomes important for the organizations to deal with these events which are providing threat. It is preferable for the organizations to prepare themselves for facing the crises situation, by arranging for various effective crisis communication or techniques. The study would be reflecting the significance of crises communication techniques in terms of handling crises situations within the organizations. Crises Communication: Concept and significance In order to prevent them from facing any crises situation, every organization plans for effective crises communication techniques. Crises communication is mainly the sub specialty of the strategy associated with the public relation activity, which is planned, designed and implemented for protecting any organization from facing any sort of challenge harmful for its reputation (Greenberg and Elliott, 2009). Such a challenge might include any sort of immoral allegation, media inquiry, inquiry from any government agency etc. As already stated above almost every organization is vulnerable to face crises situation once in its overall operational life time. It becomes very important for the organizations to prepare them for these crises situation. If they fail to plan for effective crises communication strategies within time then it would result in incurring more damage for them. The crises management plans should be efficient enough to address to the communication issues linked with the crises or disastrous situation. If the companies do not prepare themselves for the crises situation, then it would result in a number of negative outcomes for them, such as: The operational response will get disturbed. The stakeholders will become totally confused, annoyed and react in a negative manner. The solution to such crises situation either will not be reached by the companies or will take long time to get resolved. It is often the joint effort of a large number of online platforms along with the common people who victimize the organizations and guarantees to the fact that they face crises situation by spreading harmful messages, which negatively impacts their reputation. These messages are often termed as ‘rumours’. The art of dragging an organization into worst situation is such that if somehow the messages that are spread are found as true, then the victimized companies would be dragged to distrustful corner without giving them a single chance of collecting relevant evidences to prove themselves innocent. In case of an urgent situation, the organizations should communicate with the customers, stakeholders and media instead of avoiding such a circumstance. Avoidance to the crises situation results in increasing distrust of the customers, employees and other stakeholders. Thus, the organizations should be ready with communication plans for handling such situations by communicating with the internal and external stakeholders in an accurate and prompt manner. They should be reached in such manner that they appear to be the priority for the organizations holding high value. In case of any crisis situation, the first impact on the customers, employees as well as other stakeholders is that they start clarifying how it would affect them and their position in the market. The crises communication strategies of the organizations must have the ability to satisfy them with proper replies to all their demanding queries. It is the effectiveness of the crises communication techniques, which determine whether the organizations’ reputation would be impacted negatively or not. An appropriate communication strategy implemented in best manner helps to change the public perception positively in the crises situation. As we know that for all organizations their reputation and image holds high value, it becomes very important for them to handle the crises situation very carefully. Moreover, the organizations should also try to hold their potential audiences in the crises situation. There remain a large number of audiences who want to get information in the occurrence of a crisis situation and even after its happening. The easiest way of convincing these audiences with sufficient justification, is to understand them properly, which would help in planning out the most effective communication strategy to reach to them. It is a challenging task for the organization to identify these potential audiences, determine their queries and information and communicate and explain them with enough justifications for holding them. Effective Techniques of Crisis Communication Three effective communication techniques are mentioned below: The use of WWW and Internet helps in the development of strong public relation for the organizations (Veil, Buehner, and Palenchar, 2011). The innovation of WWW and internet is diffusing throughout the news rooms and the organizations at varying rates (Taylor and Perry, 2004). The WWW has helped in making effective communication strategies for the companies and thereby acted as one of the most effective strategic communication tool. The major reason of concern is not in the fact that crises has occurred in an organization but how to handle such situation holds main importance (Weick, 1995). The internet and WWW act as effective crisis communication tools can for all organizations, while communicating with the media and public in these crises situations. The second technique of handling the crisis situation is establishing social media channel which would engage the customers in favour of the organizations before the crisis occurs (Phillips, 2013). The online loyal audiences have the potentiality to preserve the reliability, reputation and image of the organizations in the occurrence of crises situation. Another technique is communicating with them immediately by preparing public statement. The organizations discover that it is very important to hold public by providing public access to all the necessary information. The support of the common public is very essential during the crises situation as it helps in protecting the reputation and image of the organization by acting as a barrier to the harm and damage to its credibility and reputation. The primary objective of the organizations should remain in providing satisfaction to its customers in every single point of time as their loyalty help in getting their assistance during unfavourable situations. An organization should make immediate communication with its customers and other stakeholders when the crisis occurs. They should prepare for the public statements within hours. The statement should contain all the necessary information for meeting the queries of these customers. The organizations suffering from crises should not avoid facing the media or the customers. They should be ready with coverage statements which would reduce the chances of the competitors in taking advantage of the crises situation. The external sources give inaccurate information mostly. Thus, it is very important for these organizations to get prepared for the unwanted circumstances with own coverage statements otherwise the false allegations would become acceptable by the public and media. The media always supports the victimized customers, employees and other stake holders when crisis strikes an organization. So pulling these stakeholders in favour of the organizations become essential. It is really difficult for the organizations suffering from crises to pull the media in their own favour. At that time the public opinion is highly important. Thus, the companies should keep the public in first place by providing them with all necessary information in order to achieve their faith in a crisis situation. Comparison between Two Companies The two companies that have been selected are Vodafone and Exxon Mobil. Vodafone is one of the British international telecommunication companies having it’s headquarter located in London. The company efficiently implemented its crisis communication strategy, where it has maintained and managed all the necessary steps to carry out the crisis management plan in an effective manner. It has achieved a reputation in its operational market by gaining the trust and loyalty of the customers. The primary objective of the company is keeping its customers, employees and other stakeholders in first position. The high customer loyalty towards Vodafone has enhanced the strength of the public relation activities. Exxon Mobil is an ‘oil & gas corporation’ whose headquarter is situated in Texas in United States. The company could not execute its crisis communication strategy effectively. The customers were dissatisfied and the ultimate affect was loss of faith and trust for the company. The failure in providing satisfaction to these customers by quality service resulted in Public Relation Crisis affecting the reputation of the company very badly. Conclusion Crises communication is associated with the public relation activity, which is planned, designed and implemented for protecting any organization from facing any sort of challenge harmful for its reputation. Every organization must prepare public statement having their coverage statement as soon as crisis strikes. The choice of the crisis communication strategy must take place in such way that it can prove to be the most suitable one. The example of Vodafone has represented how carrying out public relation activity in a successful manner helped in achieving the loyalty of the customers. The example of Exxon Mobil represented how failure in carrying out an effective communication plan resulted in losing valuable customers for the company. Reference list Greenberg, J. and Elliott, C., 2009. A cold cut crisis: Listeriosis, maple leaffoods, and the politics of apology. Canadian Journal of Communication, 34, pp. 189-204. Hale, J. E., Dulek, R. E. and Hale, D. P., 2005. Crisis response communication challenges. Journal of Business Communication, 42(2), pp. 112-134. Lyu, J. C. 2012. A comparative study of crisis communication strategies between Mainland China and Taiwan: The melamine-tainted milk powder crisis in the Chinese context. Public Relations Review, 38, pp. 779– 791. Phillips, B., 2013. Crisis communication. Financial Executive, April, pp. 47-49. Taylor, M. and Perry, D. C., 2004. Diffusion of traditional and new media tactics in crisiscommunication. Public Relations Review, 31, pp. 209-217. Veil, S. R., Buehner, T. and Palenchar, M. J., 2011. A work-in-process literature review: Incorporating social media in risk and crisis communication. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 19(2), pp. 110-122. Weick, K., 1995. Sense making in organizations. CA: Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Read More