The Role of Public Relation in Crisis Management in the Oil and Gas Industry - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages The operational group, responsible for ensuring that the disruption is under control, the management at the top, allocating the resources and making vital decisions required to provide a solution for the situation, and the public relations individuals, ensure that the stakeholders and the public are informed initially and kept informed until the incident has been handled are vital in crisis communication.  Whenever a crisis happens, the management of an organization needs to proceed in a manner that would guarantee the most effective coordination of the three groups, which would ensure that public relations are used in the management of the crisis. 

The oil and gas industry has experienced a number of crises with some generating good public response and others attracting a public outrage and rendering the company almost bankrupt. The response to the crisis of a toxic gas release, which happened in December 1984 at a Union Carbide Chemical Factory or Plant located in Bhopal, India killing over 2000 (3800) people formed one of the most effectively managed crises in history. The team managing this crisis consisted of ten of the executives and managers of Carbide headed by the C.E.O and worked for several months in coordinating the management, operation, and communication response to the industrial accident. The public relations methods that were utilized in managing this crisis included crisis communication, consumer public relations, internal communication, and government relations. According to a report by Jackson Browning (1993), the then vice president of Union Carbide Corporation in charge of safety, health, and environmental programs, the team held its first press conference that took very few minutes. In the press conference, the team acknowledged that the serious disaster had happened in a factory owned by the Union Carbide where they had a 50.9% share. The team explained to the press some of the immediate measur5es that they were already undertaking in addressing the crisis.  ...Download file to see next pagesRead More