Crisis Communication and Decision Making - Case Study Example

Crisis Communication and Decision Making Name: Student Number: Course Code: Word Count: Date of Submission: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2 2.0 CRISIS AND DECISION MAKING 3 2.1 Strategic management 3 2.2 Situational awareness 4 3.0 CRISIS COMMUNICATION 4 3.1 Situational crisis communication theory 5 3.2 Other communication strategies 5 4.0 NEWS CORPORATION PHONE HACKING SCANDAL 6 4.1 Response strategies 6 4.2 Communication strategies employed 7 4.3 Message strategies as influenced by speaker and time 7 5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 8 6.0 REFERENCES 9 1.0 INTRODUCTION The occurrence of crises and emergence is with no definite or predictable pattern or time. However, relevant public organizations do have the power and resources to prevent them from happening or reduce their effects by designing and implementing mitigation strategies. Emergencies deprive humans of awareness. The subject crisis relates to the phone hacking scandal at News Corporation. The newspaper department of this company faced allegations of illegally accessing voicemails of their customers, this is an operational crisis. A critical review of the situational crisis communication theory reveals the importance of strategic management as a response to crises and emergencies. Methodologically, a qualitatively detailed study verifies the reliability of the theory. The result of this strengthens the intent of the research report which is to benefit learners, researchers or even practitioners with handy information to enhance their theoretical knowledge of crisis communication and decision making. Crisis response mechanisms, strategic management, mitigation measures, situational awareness and communication strategies are necessities that are evidence to the inevitability of unplanned occurrences like emergencies and crises. Given the reputation of News Corporation and the implications of the subject crisis, the situation had to be treated with much seriousness since the end conclusion of the scandal would effects on the company depending on how it is handled. Addressing a crisis is a procedural process that involves situational analysis, decision making and then implementation of a crisis management strategy to augment the process. The report document is in three basic segments; an introductory segment to develop a basis or theory for the discussion, a detailed report that supports and informs the topic of choice from a philosophical perspective and a third segment that draws conclusions and suggests recommendations deemed necessary. 2.0 CRISIS AND DECISION MAKING Following crisis occurrences, the affected company has to make decisions on how to address the situation. Decision making is a progressive process of coming to a rational judgement about a situation, to meet the needs of that given situation. Depending on the context, the process involves analysis of the situation to establish the real problem, designing a respective resolution criterion, implementation of that criterion and, later on, evaluation of the outcome to ascertain the effectiveness of the criterion and the satisfaction of the needs (Mullen and Roth 2002). Irrespective of how much truth is in the allegations levelled against News Corporation, the managers have to make a decision and decide on what strategies to use in response. 2.1 Strategic management Strategies are necessary for an organization or institution to realize it goals and objectives. The difference in goals and objectives or priorities of these organizations is evident that the strategies that they employ must also differ. As strategy is an official tool for operation, and must be distinguished from opportunistic, unplanned and tactical operational choices, this is as postulated by Bervvely (2007). Some of the decisions made by an organization may not be strategic but those with basis on strategy are with desirable qualities. In terms of magnitude, the impacts of a strategic decision affect, either, an entire organization or a large section of it. Such decisions influence the interaction or relationship between the subject organization and its environment of operation. Decisions of strategy are made to enhance the operation of a company and propel its operation in a foreseeable direction. Strategic decisions complement the core essence of the organization, therefore by character, the require commitment. They involve making of choices and committing resources to the achievement of organization’s objective. 2.2 Situational Awareness News Corporation is a high-risk organization as evidenced by characters to be discussed later in the report. In such organizations, most technical accidents are attributed to human actions even with the increased levels of protection built on the same modern technical systems. In basic terms, situational awareness is about having information about one’s situation or surrounding, but in this context, concern is on situational awareness for people who need to have it for specific reasons. Situational awareness can also be defined in an operational sense with News Corporation as an exemplary setting. The company established awareness for itself about the crisis, based on reliable information. Currently, system or concept automation and development of operator interface has the goal of enhancing situational awareness fro the personnel of an organization (Endsley & Garland 2000). 3.0 CRISIS COMMUNICATION Creation of awareness requires a mode of communication that best fits the crisis for effective messaging to targeted audience. For a modern society that is continually affected by natural disasters, or for high-risk organizations that face potential threats, crisis communication is necessary. A crisis is, in its property, a unique moment in the history of an organization. It is a happening with no regularity of occurrence. The characters that separate it from other forms of unpleasant occurrences include surprise, threat and short response time. Reynolds (2002) defines a crisis as a specific non-routine event that occurs unexpectedly to create high levels of uncertainty. 3.1 Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) According to research, an organization’s actions or reactions to a crisis situation affect there reputation significantly. These actions have basis on the strategies that the company adopts. Situational crisis communication theory is a tool that analyzes crisis situations and suggests communication strategies suitable for use during such times. From a research by Kyhn (2008) reveals that SCCT has three basic segments: the crisis situation, crisis response strategies and, thirdly, a system developed for matching the crisis situations and response strategies. Communications strategies are chosen for implementation by the crisis manage. The effectiveness of these communication strategies is a variable dependent on the understanding of the crisis manager about the situation. The situational crisis communication theory is an important asset that attempts to enhance comprehension of the situation and, further, provide rigidly appropriate responses for crisis communication. 3.2 Other Communication Strategies Evidently, time available for responding to, reacting to or communicating over crises is of a limited edition. Therefore, a continuous scan of the operational environment is necessary to propose the appropriate communication strategy. Apart from SCCT, there are other strategies of communication available for adoption. The communicative competence of the different strategies is a function of the difference in situation characteristics and implications. The small stuff can make a difference (Parsons Brinckerhoff, 2011) this is a theoretical strategy that advocates for consideration of all messages received on abnormalities. All events that are not defined in the routine operation of the company must be responded to and addressed as a preventive measure to avoid major uncertainties resulting from accumulation of these small stuffs. 4.0 NEWS CORPORATION PHONE HACKING SCANDAL News Corporation is a British new agency and company with subsidiaries like News International. The institution is categorized as a high-risk company because of the possible damages and the severity of the impacts of these damages. The company has experienced various operational hitches, inclusive of police bribery, phone hacking and even exercising improper influences. The phone hacking scandal experienced by News Corporation was an accusation, initially, blamed on the employees. According to a study by Lukaszewski Group (1999), the phone hacking was limited to prominent personalities like politicians, royal family members and musicians. The activity went on the public fraternity that the established access to school children’s and other people. After a series of investigations, inclusive of those in the United States of America where News Corporation is headquartered, the company accepted a responsibility to some of the breaches that were levelled against it in relation to the phone hacking scandal. 4.1 Response strategies Response strategies can be viewed as the actions taken in relation to an uncertain occurrence so as to curb or counter the same. With regards to the phone hacking scandal, it is unethical to hijack a person’s voicemail without their consent. That which is of importance to manager in an attempt to restore or maintain the reputation of a company is how to handle unethical behaviour. What was notable about News Corporation’s response was the apology of the Chief Executive Officer. The apology was followed by a shutdown of the newspaper department where the scandal was. An article by Bussey (2011) asserts that the chief always takes responsibility to redevelop the institution. 4.2 Communication strategies employed Communication is an essential too for leadership, irrespective of the size of the company. An appropriate communication strategy ensures that the intended message is passed effectively to the intended audience. The mentality of authoritative communication unnecessarily turns messages ineffective. From researched literature, the massage strategy used by News Corporation was the Politeness Message Strategy. The culture of communication that is shaped and adopted by a company influences the interpretation, perception and evaluation of the politeness strategy. This interpretation lies with the audience for which the message is meant. Chueng (2009) explains that the politeness theory is linked to social environment and appropriateness of choices which may differ depending on the situation. The correct usage of these communication strategies is realizable if every member of the company adheres to them. As a sideshow, the productivity of a company is immensely affected by the mode of the relationship between senior officers and the rest of the personnel. By example, at the point where the chief executive officer admits liability of the accusations of privacy trespassing, he takes responsibility as the employer. The complication arises when the CEO shifts blame to their employers on the same not of apologizing to the public. This message strategy in play at News Corporation advocates for sincerity in implementation of roles. 4.3 Message strategies as influenced by speaker and time Message strategies are designed to ease the delivery of messages across all marketing media and to all targets. In this context, marketing does not really refer to creating market for the company products, but selling the company itself. It is meant to develop a desirable image of the organization amongst the public. The effectiveness of these message strategies vary depending on the speaker or the source of the message. The skills required to ensure correct use of these strategies vary from speaker to speaker and also with time (Henningsen & Valde 2012). Most of published materials on the phone hacking scandal display the CEO of News Corporation as the most vocal speaker for this company. As hinted earlier, time duration also affects the effectiveness of message strategies uncontrollably. This happens without control in the sense that they, the strategies can only be functional for a given duration. The crises that industries or companies face vary with time depending on how prone to threats the company is. The change in industry environment, with time, results into change of situations. This therefore requires that new message or communication strategies have to be developed to fit in those situations. However, the time effect on these strategies in hardly experienced since the situational change occurs between long periods. 5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION By now, a large part of the population knows about the phone hacking scandal by News Corporation. The aim of the report, as mentioned, is in contributing in availing information on the elements of crisis management. After a detailed discussion, the report has achieved the objective of analysing the scandal with reference to the situational crisis communication theory. Before embarking on this, the report respects the necessity of developing a knowledge basis of decision making and, subsequently, communication. With respect to the details, the report finds that set strategies are ignored or breached in many instances. The recommendation is that essential strategies must be implemented and respected. This enhances the achievement of the marketing strategies, which are to restore credibility of the organization amongst the people. 6.0 REFERENCES Bervvely, D 2007, ‘Strategic management’ Management Journal, Vol. 23, no. 11. Bussey, J 2011, ‘The missteps in managing news corp.'s hacking crisis’ The Wall Street Journal Vol. 12 Cheung, CS 2009, Politeness strategies of Chinese and American speakers. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Endsley, MR & Garland, DJ 2000, Situation awareness analysis and measurement, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah. Henningsen, MLM & Valde, KS 2012, ‘Human communication’ A Publication of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association. Vol. 15, No. 2 Kyhn, HS 2008, Situational crisis communication theory in a complex crisis, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark. Lukaszewski Group, 1999, Crisis management, leadership and organizational recovery, viewed 2 November, 2012 from http://www.e911.com/ Mullen, JD & Roth, BM 2002, Decision Making: Its Logic and Practice, Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland Parsons Brinckerhoff, 2011, Strategies and messages Vol. 1 Reynolds, B 2002, Crisis and emergency risk communication, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Read More