Critical Perspectives on Crisis Management - BlackBerry - Case Study Example

Crisis Management xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Introduction Lerbinger (2006) maintains that, crisis communication within organizations is designed to defend and protect a company or an individual facing a challenge in response to its reputation. These challenges may be in the form of a criminal allegation, shareholder lawsuit, investigation from a government agency, violation of environmental regulation and finally, scenarios involving ethical, financial and legal and ethical standing of entity. Organizational reputation is usually considered to be a valuable asset and when it is under attack defending and protecting it becomes a principal priority. Crisis communication aims at assisting companies to achieve continuity of various critical business processes and flow of information under disaster, event or crisis driven circumstances. It is observed that for effective communication crisis, there is a need to respond effectively, efficiently and quickly in a more premeditated way so as to get primary objectives in communication solution or strategy (Lerbinger 2006). Evidently, effective crisis communication strategies can only be achieved through considering most of the following objectives namely; maintaining of information security, maintenance of connectivity, supporting multi-channel communication and delivering high volume communication. Therefore this study will focus widely in describing crisis communication strategies of BlackBerry. Strategies in which BlackBerry uses in defending their reputation will be discussed. This will widely incorporate discussing public relations and social sciences theories, cultures and ethics (Lerbinger 2006). Company Background BlackBerry is a line of Smartphone and mobile e-mail devices which are developed by a company named Research In Motion (RIM). BlackBerry products are widely designed to function as portable media players, gaming devices, internet browsers and personal digital assistant. They are widely known for their ability in sending and receiving instant messages and e-mail as well as ensuring a high level of security (Blackberry 2007). These devices support a variety of instant messaging features which comprises of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Operating systems used by these devices are considered to be proprietary multitasking environment which was developed by RIM. It consist of two software namely; BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and third party. BBM supports sending and receiving of messages whereas; Third party consists of a database management system which supports customer relationship management (BlackBerry 2007). Crisis Identification within BlackBerry Clearly, BlackBerry once again prove that crisis communication adage is not that crisis that damages reputation rather it is in the way an organization is prepared to deal with it. It is therefore evident that BlackBerry is set to suffer major harm to its business process and reputation based mainly on a light lipped approach to the company communication and its failure to use social media in communicating regarding its current problem. According to (Mcphail 2002), Blackberry users from Middle East, Europe and Africa were unable to use BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), email and several other services due to a major fault. To respond to the communication crisis being experienced, BlackBerry chose to utilize social media by posting a message which stated that “some users in EMEA are experiencing issues, we are investigating and we apologize for any inconvenience” (BlackBerry 2007). As a result to this message negative comments and abuse streamed in with over two thousand massages being posted in facebook alone (BlackBerry 2007). Mcphail (2002) maintains that, communication crisis was widely experienced since BlackBerry users could not stop complaining. Some of their complains were; question regarding whether BlackBerry could compensate its users for the downtime, when the services could be restored, complains why BlackBerry customer services were not actively responding to their quest and general abusive comments from individuals using this incident as a mean of venting previous and existing frustration with BlackBerry. This incident clearly gave an indication whether companies need to think carefully on whether unrestricted social media is an appropriate medium for its customer service communication (Mcphail 2002). It is very important messages poster by BlackBerry are addressed proactively if the company decide on using social media as part of its customer service. RIM faces criticism over communication from BlackBerry users. Barely, after 24hrs had passed the CEO came up with a mere excuse that the company system had crashed and they were involved in upgrading their system. Even with such poor communication, RIM co-chief executive widely downplays the criticism on the company communication as trifle unfair since its main focus was to restore service and argued that the primary tool of contracting its customers was unavailable. The co-chief officer took more than 12 hours to issue such vague statement acknowledging the disruption. Further the company experiences more communication crisis since it is contentious to upgrade its software on Tuesday as opposed to a weekend. Then, if a scheduled upgrade was widely behind the problem, it should have been important for its public relation to be involved in communicating to all BlackBerry users constantly updating and assuring them that the system will be restored soon (Tench and Yeomans 2006.). How Blackberry Responded to the above Communication Crisis With such criticism, RIM needed to enhance their crisis communication to facilitate strong communication with their customers. The company is able to remain a leader in mobile business continuity due to its ability to develop Best Communication Practices (BCP) which in turn assists in mitigating risks and increased improvement in responding to emergency situations. The following are ways in which Blackberry is involved in responding to above mentioned criticism; Maximizing Reliability Sriramesh and Vercic (2003) assert that, Blackberry Enterprise Solution widely provides a reliable and proven wireless platform which is involved in delivering information and maintaining communication during crisis. Blackberry network infrastructure and its secure push delivery capabilities have mechanisms which possesses fault tolerance and high degree of redundancy which assists in ensuring all messages reach their destinations even when the organization servers fail or much more unavailability of internet access. Further, Blackberry users can directly communicate through the use of PIN to PIN messaging during emergency situation. PIN to PIN is easily configured as required by system administrators thus offering unique advantages during crisis situation. Alerts and Notification Blackberry understand that procedures and polices changes gradual thus it is important to constantly modifying data on a central server. RIM has adapted the use of Blackberry Enterprise Solution to utilize push technology so as to automatically and proactively update information to users during communication crisis or crash in their system. Push technology have also ensured that information is effectively and consistently distributed to Blackberry users (Sriramesh and Vercic 2003). Alerts and notification regarding problem within RIM system ensures that message is send automatically to users’ wireless device and depending on the importance of the notification, there will be accompanied with appropriate vibrations and sounds on the Blackberry to highly signify the relative level of importance. Also, PIN to PIN capabilities of Black Berry increases communication exchange which takes place in instances whereby there is local power disruption or failure of the company server not forgetting in cases where traditional communication lines are disrupted or overloaded (Sriramesh and Vercic 2003). Locating Staff Members Instantly Tench and Yeomans (2006) maintains that, responding to criticism of Blackberry communication crisis, there was introduction of Smartphone that contains a feature with integrated GPS which leaders can use to locate key team member. This is very important in responding to communication crisis since it assists in determining which members are in the best position to respond to such crisis. This has enable Blackberry users get information especially in times when the company is experiencing failure in their systems as well as in times where there is disruption of power and traditional communication systems (Tench and Yeomans 2006). For this application to be effective, the company ensures that the applications are secure and confidential, reliable and one which enhances and extends communication capability among blackberry users. Issues in crisis management Organizational crisis is defined as any negative situation faced by a company that costs its reputation in the eyes of stakeholders and the general public. Such situations may be caused by resignation or death of a prominent figure in the company, labor disputes, products recall, computer data losses, natural catastrophes among other factors. Although majority of the crises can be handled effectively at the organizational level some can be as detrimental as to causing the demise of the company. Organizational crises can be subdivided into two broad categories; natural crises and avoidable/intensional crises. Natural crises comprise of those events in which the organization has no control over such as natural disasters and external forces. On the other hand, avoidable crises are the events whereby the company ignorantly takes some detrimental actions that could be adequately avoided before its occurrence. An example is distribution of substandard products to the public (Davies 2008). Crisis management is defined as the management role that encompasses all pre-established guidelines and activities for preparing and responding to catastrophic incidents and events in an effective and safe manner. According to Berens et al (2007) crisis management includes programs such as risk management, emergency response, business continuity, disaster recovery among others. In addition, crisis management incorporates organizational capabilities that enable the company to promptly and flexibly respond to crisis. Traditionally, public relations were regarded as an organizational docket that mainly focused on production and dissemination of messages, conducting of campaigns and dealt with mass media. However, scholars have gradually redefined the term and it is now considered as the management office responsible for the mediation of communication between the organization and the public. Ledingham (2003) asserts that public relations are widely practiced by many companies around the world and may sometimes be referred to as communications management or information management. Indeed, the key aspect that underlies the excellence in the communication program of an organization is its public relations. Similar to behavioral and social sciences, public relations entails detailed understanding and explanation of human behavior. Public relations have impacts in the organization including client relations, personnel relationships, organizational ethics, legal issues, crisis communication, technology and finance (Butterick 2009). It is important to understand all the stages of a crisis in order to know the kind of strategy that should be applied. The first stage is the conception stage where the features of the crisis are showing up. It is also known as the pre-crisis stage and it indicates signs of upcoming crisis in the organization. A crisis at this stage can be terminated and prevented before it is fully blown. The next stage is the birth stage and at this point the crisis overflows to the public and becomes publicized through the media. Interventional models and creative timely measures should be applied to reduce impacts of potential negative consequences. The third stage is the growth stage where the crisis is natured and its magnitude escalates to large scale. This stage is quite problematic to the organization and has the potential of completely damaging its reputation. The climax is the maturity stage the point where the crisis is wide spaced and full-blown. Consequences of this stage are very unpleasant hence management should strive to ensure that a crisis is managed properly before it gets to this final stage (Ulmer et al 2010). A key aspect in the management of a crisis is crisis communication. One of the responsibility to ensure that all information regarding the crisis is adequately communicated to all stakeholders of the organization. According to the corporate apologia (reference) theory the first step in crisis management is making the crisis known to all stakeholders. This theory emphasizes that the management should actually make apologies for all its wrongdoings and shortcomings. Organizations that institute positive and strong positions such as honesty, openness, accountability, responsibility and trustworthy will all, the key holders before and after the crisis earns the credibility of its stakeholders. In addition, any communication targeting both the stakeholders and the general public should not focus on the past but rather the future prospects of the company. Many of the traditional image and reputation theories emphasize retrospective vision which looks into who did what but this are gradually being replaced by new theories that emphasize in prospective visions. A company that intends to restore its reputation should infuse its crisis communication with stress rebuilding and strong optimism rather than engaging in the blame game. One of the most valuable assets in any given organization is corporate reputation. However, a crisis poses to be a major threat to an organization reputation and it is for this reason that it is in order to manage a crisis very effectively. Attribution theory has proved to be a useful tool in responding to a crisis. It enables the company to identify the best strategy to apply in solving the crisis. According to this theory, crisis management strategies differ depending on the nature of the crisis. Attribution theory is a sub category of a broader crisis management theory known as Situation Crisis Communication theory. It is used by PR managers to develop a set of recommendations and to test their effectiveness in crisis response strategies. SCCT determines the intention of the response strategy that is, whether the intention is to change perception of the organization during the crisis or to change magnitude of the crisis itself. In addition, crisis communication that is audience centered is made possible by the use of SCCT (Lee 2007). Recommendations The first step to crisis management is crisis prevention. It will enable the company to be well prepared for such an eventuality and might actually reduce chances of the crisis occurring. Prevention entails identification of flaws and minor incidents within the organizations which can be addressed before they develop into major crisis. Companies should regularly assess reputational risks by giving priority and attention to risks that pose as major threats to its reputation. A well outlined crisis management infrastructure is an important device in dealing with a crisis. It should contain all the procedures and processes of effective communication of the crisis to all stakeholders. In order to be ready for a crisis a company crisis response plan should be developed. It contains a SWOT analysis that examines organizations internal and external forces that are important in determining plausible crisis. SWOT stands for organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is an effective tool in determining the factors directly related to the organization and might pose to be the cause of potential crisis. Media training is also fundamental in crisis management. This involves training and coaching all company personnel including spokespersons and receptionists on ways of dealing with a crisis. It will enable them to have the competence and confidence in answering questions from the media in order to guard the company reputation. Crisis simulations are essential in testing the effectiveness of the crisis plan. It is the realistic rehearsal of what is written down so as to have an idea of what should be actually done in the eventuality of a crisis. Crisis communication is also a critical factor in crisis management. All stakeholders should be made aware of the incident once it occurs to avoid further damage to the company reputation. This can be done effectively by use of the media such as newspapers, television and the internet. The management can also call for an urgent meeting with stakeholders to communicate the issues (Boton and Taylor 2004). Conclusion With increasing global competition, public relations management is increasingly becoming an essential aspect in organizations. Among other factors, crisis management and communication forms part of the PR functions. Crisis communication is a defense mechanism that guards the company reputation in the eyes of the public and stakeholders of the organization. Failure to communicate crisis can be quite detrimental as demonstrated by the case of blackberry. Therefore, the PR should be empowered in all its functions including corporate communication, reputation management, client and personnel handling and corporate social responsibility (Zaremba 2010). References Berens, G, Riel, C, and Rekom, J, 2007, The CSR-Quality Trade-Off: When can Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Ability Compensate Each Other?, Journal of Business Ethics, 74:233–252. BlackBerry, 2007. Improving communication in emergency situation; mobile business continuity planning solutions. 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Zaremba, A., 2010, Crisis communication: theory and practice. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Read More