Analysis of the Crisis Management of Malaysia Flight MH370 Disaster - Essay Example

ANALYSIS OF THE CRISIS MANAGEMENT OF MALAYSIA FLIGHT MH370 DISASTER Introduction On 8th March the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared within 1 hour of takeoff while en route from the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur to the Chinese city of Beijing. The airplane, a Boeing 777 registration number 9M-MRO, was carrying 239 persons from 14 different countries, of which there were 227 passengers and 12 crewmembers. Of major concern was the fact that the aircraft deviated from its set flight path, no distress call was received from it, there were no reports of bad weather, and there were no reports of aircraft equipment malfunction. The airline only reported the flight missing six hours after the fact and one hour after the plane was supposed to have landed in Beijing City. Despite countless hours and millions of dollars spent while searching for the airplane, there has been not confirmed sighting of the plane or even its debris. The search areas have covered large tracts of the Indian Ocean, Andaman Sea, Gulf of Thailand, South Pacific and the South China Sea (CNN 2014; The guardian 2014). Close to three months since the crisis began, Flight MH370 remains missing, and the crisis management team has not communicated any convincing explanations as to what could have caused the crisis. The plane’s location remains a mystery that has baffled the whole world. In the wake of the crisis, Malaysian Airlines has experienced a 20 percent drop in share prices and slump in passenger numbers. Relations between China and Malaysia have been strained as Chine alleges that Malaysia has little to nothing to recover the disappeared plane. These are clear indications that the crisis management team failed in their duties. They good a number of issues right but failed in most. Some of the issues they got right include: (1) access, they created an emergency site that was regularly updated to provide information on the search progress. The site was in both Chinese and English showing a sensitivity to family members and the general public: (2) consistency, all the media channels used, including the social media sites, carried the same information: and (3) tone, all promotional and marketing activities were suspended as the crisis progressed (Pownall 2014). Discussion The disappearance of the flight was, and still is, a tragedy as any sign of the plane is yet to be found but the crisis management employed in the whole scenario has clearly failed. This was made embarrassingly clear by social media sites that provided time and accurate information even before the official communication channels could do so. The crisis management team that handled the crisis communications failed in six key area; how they communicated; when they communicated; using of communication tools; including all stakeholders in the communication; communication content consistency in both online and offline platforms; and preparedness to handle a crisis of such magnitude (Turner 2014). The first failure of the Malaysian Flight MH370 crisis management team was how they communicated. Their first official communication was sending text messages to all the next of kin of the 239 individuals who had boarded the flight informing them that the flight had disappeared, and there was no hope of rescuing anybody alive. They implied that everyone who had boarded the flight was dead (CNN 2014). The use of text messages passed the three key thresholds for good crisis management communications as it was fast, reliable and direct, but it failed the test of sensitivity and appropriateness. Turner (2014) reports that any crisis communication must pass the ‘cringe test’ in which a select group is asked to review the message format and communication channel for sensitivity. Should the communication channel and message fail the test then they had to be revised. The second failure of the crisis management team was speed as they were communicating after the information had appeared in other media like social-media, print media and broadcast media channels (The guardian 2014). Social media sites were only updated one hour after the first official statement on the plane’s disappearance had been issued offline, with the trend continuing as the crisis progressed (Pownall 2014). Good communication would involve informing the relevant persons as soon as information is received. The public was only informed of the flight’s disappearance six hours after its last communication and one hour after its scheduled arrival in Beijing City. Even though, they only had the basics of the flight disappearing en route, but no additional information regarding where it had disappeared to or why it had disappeared, they should have disseminated the information they received as soon as they verified it (Turner 2014). Communicating in a timely manner ensures that the crisis management team controls the story surrounding the crisis and controls how the communication is conducted. By being late, they allow other communication platforms to hijack the communication process, control the story line and message being disseminated as the public will only trust the channel the breaks the news to inform them in a timely and accurate manner, regardless of their being the official communication channel or not. In the case of Malaysia Flight MH370 crisis, social media broke the news first and set the story line with the crisis management team left to play catch up. The crisis management team excuse that they needed to verify the information first did not hold any weight as they could always make corrections to the released information after it had been verified. While the importance of being the first to break news has been ascertained, pure speculation is discouraged, as they are more damaging than being late with information (Turner 2014). The third failure was not using the communication tools at their disposal. In the present age of globalization where almost everyone has access to the internet, the crisis management team used the internet to inform the public, but failed to control commentary. Immediately after the flight had been reported missing, Malaysia Airlines cancelled all advertisements from their website and failed to control commentary on the crisis when they did not turn off the commentary feature in their website and social media sites. The discussions on unfavorable topics like ‘Malaysian Airlines and government incompetence and insensitivity’ went viral. There was also condemnation that the crisis management failed to use social media sites to collect valuable information on the disappeared flight. The information available during a crisis may not be accessible in the long run and analyzing messages as they are posted in real time is essential (Turner 2014). The fourth failure was exclusion of their legal representatives from the crisis management team. Some of the families whose members boarded the flight that disappeared have already filed suits mentioning Malaysian Airlines and the Malaysian government as plaintiffs. Involving the legal team at the onset of the crisis occurrence would have allowed them to gather evidence as they are discovered, and even advised on whether an accident investigator was needed to strengthen their court defense. As it stands, the crisis management team has already risked strengthening the cases against Malaysian Airlines by disclosing information in an inappropriate manner, using text messages to inform family members that the flight had disappeared and their loved ones were feared dead, and negatively impacted the defense strategy in the lawsuits against them. The legal team can also help avoid legal battles by resolving disputes outsides courts and ensuring that the company image is not compromised. The crisis management team made overtures to prevent lawsuits against Malaysian Airlines by putting the hosting family members in hotels and facilitating their travel to the information release sites (Turner 2014). Even as a crisis unfolds, plaintiffs’ lawyers are already conducting discoveries, filing lawsuits and exploiting family members’ grief to strengthen their cases. The fifth failure was the communication content. Though a lot of information was provided in offline press releases, the online communications clearly lacked in content. Audio recording, videos and maps that were availed in offline press releases were not availed in online platforms (Pownall 2014). The sixth failure was a lack of preparedness to handle this kind of crisis. Given that Malaysian Airlines operates international flights, they should have been ready to handle the crisis by setting up crisis centers and press release centers in both their headquarters and the flight destination country. Setting up communication centers and family assistance centers in the destination city, away from the company head office is a massive logistical task, but this is a scenario that all international airlines must be prepared for. Malaysian Airlines was not ready for this and had to spend a lot of time and resources transporting family members to Malaysia and accommodating them in hotels (McCarthy 2014, p. 3). Conclusion Give the identified failures, it was hardly surprising that the communication on Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappearance was dominated by misleading and erroneous information, innuendoes and rumors, and the Malaysian Airlines brand suffered a slump as was evidenced by share prices fall and passenger numbers drop. By avoiding the identified failures, Malaysian Airlines could have stood a better chance of finding the plane, regained controlled of the crisis narrative, rebuilt trust with the public, avoided some of the pending legal court cases, reduced misinformation, and maintained their customer base by reassuring their passengers. Pownall (2014) succinctly summarizes these points by stating that every establishment’s reputation is at the mercy of aggrieved parties and that they must tend their communications constantly to ensure that their reputation is not damaged, a point that Malaysian Airlines crisis management team clearly failed to consider. References CNN 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, viewed 4 June 2014, McCarthy, B. 2014, Lessons in Crisis Communications, KENYON International Emergency Services, London. Pownall, C. 2014, Malaysia Airlines, MH370 and social media crisis communications, viewed 4 June 2014, < http://charliepownall.wordpress.com/category/crisis-communications/> The guardian 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: The latest news and comment on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing lost on 8 March 2014, viewed 4 June 2014, Turner, S. 2014, Four Crisis Management Lessons from the Disappearance of Flight MH370, viewed 4 June 2014, Read More