Analysis and Evaluation of Crisis Management - Literature review Example

Running head: Analysis and Evaluation of Crisis Management Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date Introduction Public relations shortened as PR is all about the practice of management especially concerning spread of information between an organization or an individual and the public in general (Jim, 2010). In most cases, public relations consist of an individual or an organization achieving exposure to their spectators using topics that are of public interest and also news items that in many cases do not require direct payment (Macnamara, 2012). The main objective of public relations by an organization habitually is to convince the public, employees, partners, investors and other company stake holders to uphold a given point of view about the organization, its products, and leadership or of political decisions (L’Etang & Jacquie, 2008). The main common activities consist of winning industry awards, speaking at conferences, proper employee communication and working with the press. Qantas is an Australian airline company established in 1920’s and it is the eleventh world largest airline and the 2nd oldest airline company in the world (Marianna, 2012). It is a company that was founded in the Queensland outback as the Queensland and the northern territory aerial services. This airline company was previous a government owned company; it did not view efficiency or profits as its major objective (Lynam, 2011). Just any other kind of business, Qantas has experienced several disputes or crisis in the past. Due to several challenges in the past, this airline company has suffered consecutive fall downs since the time it was founded. To overcome these challenges, the company had to employ various crisis management techniques in order to win the attention and trust of the public. Social media has been the most successful technique used by Qantas airline in resolving their issues (Marianna, 2012). The use of media is seen in last year’s QF32 incident where social media help the company manage communication between them and their customers (Macnamara, 2012). This is according to the statement given by a spokesman speaking to a Dell roundtable on the venture advantages of social media. After one of their passenger planes was forced to make an emergency landing in one of the Singapore’s airports due to engine failure in 2012, the company had no other better means to get to their customers apart from using social media. Qantas Company used various social sites such twitter to inform the public concerning the incident. There are other various crises that this company has faced in the past and in most cases the only crisis management technique that has ever seemed to have worked in winning the public attention is the use of social media through the company’s social sites (Marianna, 2012). The organization became serious about the use of social media in about two years ago; they had to create their own social site accounts on Twitter and Facebook. To most organizations, social media has proven to be a very useful tool in times of ‘business crises’ (Jim, 2010).  Though fortunately the recent ash cloud state of affairs that saw hundreds of flights stuck all through the month of June 2011 did not engage any bodily harm to any person, it did stand for the greatest commotion to the Qantas network in the airline’s times gone by (Lynam, 2011). Over one hundred and twenty people were distressed by flight delays and cancellations over a period of more than sixteen days. As you can imagine, the Qantas customer care centers were swamped by these passengers who by any means needed any kind of information on when flights would resume daily duties, whether their flight was cancelled and what they should do in the meantime as they wait for the issue to be resolved (Marianna, 2012).  As expected many customers were enraged by the condition because in one way or another such situations dearly affected their holidays or corporate trips. There are very few companies in the world that are well equipped to handle so many thousands of in-coming calls at the same time.  It was un-foreseen and sudden incidence that tested the confines of the customer care service capabilities of the Qantas organization. In spite of their responsibility, the reality remained that a good number of Qantas customers were tirelessly looking for any helpful information and updates, and the time-honored channels of information exchange or communication were not proving sufficient (Ironside, 2011). This made Qantas Airline Company to speed up the accomplishment of their social media policy especially when the QF32 incident occurred late last year.  As an upshot there was already a considerable following on both Facebook and Twitter ready to harness to assist in spreading real-time updates and information. All through the period of commotion, Twitter and Facebook pages of Qantas or their social site channels were entirely devoted to ash cloud information, updates and most significantly responses to inquiries from distressed customers.  Social media assisted a good number of customers who could not get through to the call centre to inquire if their flight was going ahead; they could simply access the social site of the company to find out the kind of information they needed concerning their flights. Planning is one of the crisis management technique that assisted Qantas corporation solved their disputes as they had already developed or created a plan for future unforeseeable crises (Lynam, 2011). Planning is a task that is always reserved for public relations experts, who in most circumstances work with management. Good enough, the Qantas organization had on board crisis management professional who helped them deal with the issue effectively through technique of planning. Such professionals assisted a lot in giving advices on how to handle any kind of crisis. What Qantas crisis management experts did first was to describe the problem for their customers who were affected directly or indirectly and they embarked on what was supposed to be done at that time and not on what went wrong (Marianna, 2012). Anticipating a crisis in advance was the most effective crisis management method that the Qantas airline company used. The good thing is that the company had a crisis management protocol to assist in time of crisis. The protocol included how to identify the crisis, how to map out the potential solutions, how to delegate actions and understand the root problem. These actions included designating a writer to deal with online updates or assigning the Qantas Company’s official spokesperson to talk to the media. Action steps used by Qantas crisis managers assured the public that the organization is in control of the problems they were experiencing (Kevin, 2011). Qantas also managed to resolved most issues by maintaining a straightforward and a clear position while continuing to inform the public about the matter at the same time measuring if the pieces of information that were put forward were working. One other thing that the company did was to involve their employees in the entire process of finding a way out of the crisis. Additionally, the company kept their top management officials involved and close to the disaster. Qantas crisis managers prepared communication responses to conditions that in any way would have caused damage within the firm. Such damages can exist in the form of physical danger, negative public perceptions, material loss or legal battles (Drew, 2011). One other helpful method that the company used is the “publics to consider”. ‘Publics’ is a term used to refer to groups or individuals that have interest in or are distressed by the situation. This may consist of an endless number of entities such as government companies, employees, investors, media, consumers or unions. By considering the public interest, the company made a very big step in ensuring that their customers are satisfied with the way they were handling the matter at hand. In spite of which method or methods are suitable for managing a crisis, the Qantas Company utilized the basics of building blocks of crisis planning. The company first identified the people who were affected by the situation; in this case their customers who got distressed when a good number of Qantas flights were cancelled or delayed worldwide (Marianna, 2012). The company top officials and experts in crisis management went as far digging deeper into the primary causes of disputes. Then they analyzed all factors that were connected to the crisis which assisted them in determining a proper direction and point of communication. Due to the hard struggle, the Qantas business might be back on its feet again in the near future. The company’s recent actions and its approach generally to industrial relationships have caused incalculable harm to the Qantas franchise (Robyn, 2011). Qantas airlines have been in full out emergency administration mode for nearly a whole month now, ever since one of its new passenger jets was forced to make an urgent landing due to a mid-flight engine break down. Some corporations would disintegrate under the pressure, but the forward and first thinking Qantas Airline Company has rallied back, led by Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce(Drew, 2011). The company in the past three weeks has experienced a masterful expression of emergency management. As soon as the new A380 passenger jet crisis hit, the chief executive officer, Alan Joyce took direct management concerning the issue. It was a lightning quick reaction and one in which Allan Joyce right away placed the importance on the jet ’s Rolls Royce engines and not on the company’s service record (Marianna, 2012). The company’s Chief Executive Officer took the right path in successfully shifting the blame to Rolls-Royce hence struggling to assure their potential passengers and shareholders that the company is in fact more safe than ever before (Lynam, 2011). Crises are taken as a threat to the organizational reputation (Jim, 2010). Crises ruin the reputation and such changes can affect how stakeholders interact with the association. Techniques employed by Qantas were successful because they managed to restore their daily business. References Drew, Kevin. 2011. ‘Qantas grounds worldwide fleet over dispute’. The New York Times. Feast, Lincoln. 2011. ‘Stranded Qantas passengers await labor ruling’. Reuters. Gower, Karla, K. 2008. ‘Doing the right thing.’ Legal and Ethical Considerations for Public Relations. Illonois: Waveland Press Ironside, Robyn. 2011. "Flight attendants' union backs Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in standoff with other unions". The Courier-Mail. L’Etang, Jacquie. 2008. ‘Public Relations: Concepts, Practice and Critique. London: Sage Publications Lynam, Joe. 2011. "Qantas boss's risky strategy to refocus airline on Asia". BBC News. Macnamara, Jim and Crawford Robert. 2010. “Reconceptualising public relations in Australia: A historical and social re-analysis.” Asia Pacific Relations Journal. Macnamara, Jim. 2012. ‘Public relations theories and models’ Public Relations: Papadakis, Marianna. 2012. "Qantas industrial dispute ends". St George & Sutherland Shire Leader. Sison, Marianne D. 2012. Eds. Joy Chia and Gae Synnott. An Introduction to Public Relations and Communications Management.Sydney: Oxford University Press: Read More