Communication in Crisis Management - Essay Example

? Communication and Crisis Management Communication and Crisis Management The crisis situation facing a region is one that threatens the welfare of the residents. There is also a need to avoid the adverse attention that could be created by the media around the emergency situation – a state that could lead to panic and cause a threat to regional integrity. The effective communication and addressing of the situation by the management office is also very important, as the media may convey a message and give its response or reaction may not be appropriate and effective. Handling the emergency situation properly will ensure that the damage already caused by the contamination is minimized or stopped, thus avoiding further harm. Further, it is important to communicate the crisis as it is – communicate the issue quickly and tell the truth, both to the public and within the emergency management office. By doing this, all will have been accomplished to minimize the effects of the situation (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2006). As the director of the Regional Emergency Management Office, he or she should ensure that communication within the organization takes the following channel. First, the head officials of the management office and the head of public relations should be contacted. As soon as these two heads and their respective offices have been contacted, the implementation of the plan can be started. After discussions between these different offices, communication of the crisis is then released to the other departments and staff so that they can prepare for the communication and deal with the crisis. Effective communication within the organization will involve the formation of a crisis communications team, exploration of the crisis situation, developing a message and managing communications. Later, the course of communication and action is decided; the information is communicated to the sub-regional heads and the service directors of regional divisions. After the communication of the crisis situation has reached the regional divisions, teams will be formed among the concerned and non-concerned departments due to the need to address the crisis situation in the shortest time possible. Further, communication will be continued during and after the implementation of the mitigation of the emergency situation (Smith & Millar, 2002). The potential advantages associated with communicating the crisis situation within the organization and to the public and private sector include effective crisis communication aimed at crisis management, which will equip the organization, the public and the private sector players with survival strategies during similar threatening situations. The awareness of the potential threat will put the organization, the private and public sectors in a position of taking action early, which will prevent further crisis. Effective crisis communication will help the different stakeholders adopt improved levels of regulatory compliance. Through the crisis communication, well prepared private and public players will receive competitive advantage over poorly prepared competitors. Effective communication will shed light on the core values of the management office, thus enhancing its perception from the public and private sector players. The communication of the crisis will help save lives, money and the costs to be borne – for the organization, the public and private sector players. The damage likely to be borne by the different stakeholders will be reduced. Effective communication will offer insights into the crisis that could face the organization, the public and public sector, as well as prepare them for future crisis situations (Mitroff & Gus, 2000). The potential challenges associated with the crisis communication within the organization and with the public and the private sector include the fact that crisis communication may seem expensive and tedious within the organization as well as when directed to the public and private sectors. The communication process involves exhaustive planning, taking into account any conceivable threats as they can be counterproductive. For example, communicating conflicting reports may degrade the reputation of the organization. During the crisis communication process, placing excess focus on potential threats can divert the focus of the management among other involved parties, from planning growth opportunities (Smith & Millar, 2002). The communication processes used during crisis situations are different from ordinary communications. This is the case as it holds the goal of protecting the reputation of the management office, which is a valuable asset towards realizing organizational success. Contrary to the effective and characteristically different communication, launching the “crisis approach” without a carefully evaluated course of action could affect the reputation of the organization and its credibility negatively. Acting effectively during such a crisis will positively impact the organization as one which is committed to the welfare of the region and not one that acts in pursuit of its own interests (Mitroff & Gus, 2000). Different aspects of the communication processes used during crisis communications include identification of the crisis communication team, assigning a spokesperson for the group, training the spokesperson, developing a notification model, and identifying the stakeholders of the crisis plan. Other differences include planning for anticipated crises, developing crisis communication messages, evaluating the crisis situation, identifying key message areas, and riding out the storm caused by the communication of the crisis situation. Following these considerations and variations required during the crisis communication, these variations could be incorporated into healthcare communication towards improving the strategies used during service delivery. For example, a medical condition could be carefully evaluated by a medical team, which identifies a team member who can communicate the discussed facts; they have to be trained on how to communicate the information in an effective manner. A definite notification system should also be developed as a haphazard communication system can release confidential information to the wrong stakeholders, thus undermining the practice of healthcare. As little as may be expected, crises should be expected, assessment of the crisis situation should be done and the excitement or the panic caused by the communication should be addressed (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2006). The use of technology systems should take into account the need to improve professional and organizational practices, which touch on corporate communication, public relations, stakeholder communication, employee communication and the communication of change. The best media to use in communicating crisis information should be practice-driven. On the basis of the grounded theory, the choice of a given medium of communication should be made on understanding the phenomenon, through describing patterns and the conceptual categories represented through it. These contexts reviewed through the phenomena can then be explored from other perspectives to determine whether they can be applied in a generalizable manner (Seeger, 2006). Crisis communication for different situations requires different strategies with regard to how appropriate the given medium is for a given context. Despite many similarities, the strategies required for the current crisis will differ from those taken for a food safety emergency. At the beginning, the current crisis communication should start with the collection of necessary and background information. This will be preceded by the preparation and assembly of the appropriate communication content – the appropriate dissemination and sharing model. These will also need backing from a follow-up review and an examination of the impacts of the communication medium (Seeger, 2006). For instance, the current case of water poisoning will require the collection of information on the risk details needed by the residents of the region. At the assembly stage, the residents should be made aware of the benefits that come with addressing the risk in question. During the dissemination of the information, the public should be fully informed in an open manner, where the discussion of all issues is exposed. During the review stage, emphasis should be placed on action monitoring – to help manage and reduce risk. For this reason, the initial stages of the communication can be done over non-interactive media channels, but the later ones should be administered through media that can allow for survey or feedback collection. For instance, at the initial stages, televisions, radio and advertisements can be used to communicate the information. However, at later stages, social media which offer a highly interactive communication can be helpful in reaching a wide population in the shortest time possible (Seeger, 2006). Most organizations approach crisis situations very suspiciously when it comes to the issue of crisis planning. This is the case as they believe that nothing will go wrong around the organization. Some will also assume that whatever the crisis may be, it will be highly unexpected that planning will not help much. However, this is wrong, particularly in the current world of fulltime communication. This implies that it is possible for the emergency management office to find out the crisis from users of their services. As a result, technology should be used and applied to stretch the crisis detection mechanisms of the office and allow for preparedness to address the challenges from the crisis as fast as possible. As a result, they will be able to maintain the trust of their users, as the agents that play the role of detecting, informing about and addressing crisis situations (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2006). The use of technology also requires that the office changes the ways through which it can communicate, although there are still fast and hard rules regarding communicating during crisis situations, as opposed to before or after. For example, traditional news media still play a major role in a crisis situation: newspapers set the table for agendas while nightly newscasts reach a large number of information users. As a result, the issue of whom to communicate to, how and when to communicate becomes important. For instance, the emergency management office should maintain the same opinion regarding the crisis situation so as to avoid conflicts resulting from the information disseminated. Therefore, with regard to the use of technology, the office should be on alert and fully prepared for any emergency during the crisis. This includes preparedness to offset the negative messages communicated by the media, which is not the case at other times when preparedness for crisis situation is all that is of importance. Media opportunities resulting from management crisis and crisis situations, in general, depend on the level of preparedness before a given crisis strikes. For example, the survival of the regional Emergency Management Office during this particular regional crisis depends on the action taken in the shortest time possible and the success of the action taken by the organization. For example, the organization can use the situation to boost its reputation or lag behind until every other actor has taken part. Through addressing the current situation in an effective manner in the shortest time possible, the organization will be left at the limelight of the media, which will boost the public and private sector’s confidence in it, and its reliability in the region. However, a blunder in addressing the crisis will be expanded by the media to show the public that the organization is not credible to represent the crisis preparedness of the region (Smith & Millar, 2002). Media opportunities also come to the actors who communicate the required information at the time of need and before anyone else has done so. For instance, an actor reporting the exposure of the region’s water supply to pollutants in a timely manner offers them a sense of reliability before the public and the media. In case the organization reported a crisis situation in less than one hour, it would avoid the possibility of damage caused by the pollution – which will act in favor of its course across the region. Further, the current crisis situation presents an open media opportunity through which the organization can use the media at the ground to listen to the residents it serves and to offer customer service to them. Also, using the media to communicate vital information can be an amazing tool to promote the course of the organization (Ulmer, Sellnow, & Seeger, 2006). References Mitroff, I., & Gus, A. (2000). Managing crises before they happen: What every executive needs to know about crisis management. New York: AMACOM. Seeger, M. (2006). Best practices in crisis communication: An expert panel process. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 34(3), 232–244. Smith, L., & Millar, D. (2002). Crisis management and communication; How to gain and maintain control. San Francisco, CA: International Association of Business Communicators. Ulmer, R., Sellnow, T., & Seeger, M. (2006). Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Read More