Malaysian Airlines Crisis Management - Case Study Example

Mini Case Analysis “The loss of flight MH370 has a ‘devastating’ effect on both Malaysia Airlines and the number of inbound tourist to Malaysia” Table of Contents Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Background Information 3 2.1 Malaysian Airlines Crisis Management 3 2.2 Malaysian Airlines Initial Response 4 2.3 Malaysian Airlines Trained Response 4 2.4 Handling Misinformation 4 3 Potential Strategies and Tactics 5 3.1 Introduction 5 3.2 Speedy Response and Use of More Effective Medium of Communication 5 3.3 More Professional and Appealing Press Release 6 3.4 Make interesting and informative materials available online 6 3.5 Give the public something to work with 6 4 Conclusion 7 5 References 8 1 Introduction On March 8, 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 scheduled to carry passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing Capital International Airport mysteriously disappeared after less than an hour after takeoff. Its whereabouts months later is still unknown since the debris spotted in the Indian Ocean seabed recently according to Malaysian Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai are still need to verified if they really belong to missing MH370 . Airline companies like Malaysian Airlines are vulnerable to the devastating effect of air accidents including missing flights particularly on brand reputation. For instance, Asiana Airlines was ranked one of the world’s best airline but the recent crash landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 where it killed two people severely damaged its reputation . Similarly, the sudden disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370 according to , can severely affect the reputation of Malaysian Airlines brand particularly when it failed to manage the crisis properly . The following sections discusses some background information about the MH370 incident, the crisis communication strategy implemented by MAS, its attempts to overcome the damage caused by the incident to the company, and potential strategies and tactics that it can employ to rebuild its brand. 2 Background Information 2.1 Malaysian Airlines Crisis Management The sudden disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 from the radar screens without any distress signal and in calm weather last March 8, 2014 bewildered investigators . Similarly, the Malaysian Airlines crisis management implementation after the incident according to , is even more confusing. For instance, it took Malaysian Airlines five hours to make an announcement about the missing flight MH370. Malaysian Airlines personnel brought about 500 anxious relatives to a hotel without providing any information and held a news conference 13 hours after the incident. The reason for the poor, slow, confusing crisis communication response was clearly stated by the Malaysian Prime Minister a few days after the incident when he admitted that their priority is not communicating with relatives but finding the aircraft . However, despite some delays, the Malaysian Airlines according to managed to provide journalist, passenger relatives, and the public with information (new releases, passengers register, contact details, and others) about the incident through a one-stop resource centre. The airline company also managed to use social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, etc) to communicate and provide updates. Moreover, since the disappearance of flight MH370 is a sensitive issue, Malaysia Airlines suspended their marketing and promotion activities . Aircraft accidents according to are so rare that only a handful of airline managers possess the knowledge and capable of dealing with such occurrences. Crisis management in airline often include communication, establishing the cause of the incident, managing fatalities and their relatives, and feeding the media with information . Immediately after the incident, the concern organisation must implement its communication plan along with the technical aspect of crisis management . For this reason, communication according to should not be given low priority as Malaysian Airlines did during the first few days of the incident. This is because excellent communication can protect and enhance company reputation thus absence of communication during a crisis will likely damage an organisation’s reputation. 2.2 Malaysian Airlines Initial Response Examination of MH370 and Malaysian Airlines crisis communication after the MH370 incident suggest that the company indeed took the lead in providing the public with straightforward and truthful information. For instance, the company on same day of the incident released a media statement confirming that the Subang Air Traffic Control lost contact with flight MH370 at 2:40 am supported by details of the flight, number of passengers on board, and Malaysian Airlines current activities regarding the incident and future plans . 2.3 Malaysian Airlines Trained Response The fact that all Malaysian Airlines promotional activities in the Internet were suspended and its Facebook accounts were modified in line with mood and severity of the MH370 incident, Malaysian Airlines has a crisis communication team that is well organised, trained, prepared, and well aware of the benefits of their tasks . Similarly, although following pre-defined crisis management procedure and should be professional in their approach, the airlines crisis management team is often emotional in their dealings with the relatives of missing passengers. For instance, the tweet “every minute is like an hour. Please keep them in your thoughts as we continue to search for MH370 thru the night” is somewhat effective in eliminating family members’ disgust towards Malaysian Airlines. 2.4 Handling Misinformation A large Boeing 777-200 passenger jet with a reputation of being one of the safest in the world suddenly disappeared from the radar on a fine weather will certainly make headlines around the world. However, not all information presented by the international media is accurate as some of them are mere speculations and false reports. Therefore, one of the tasks of the airlines’ crisis management team is to provide corrective response and control misinformation. According to the observation Kirsti Kauronen (Communications and Community Manager of UK-based PR and Marketing organisation) as cited in , the Malaysian Airlines crisis management team effectively counter misinformation regarding the alleged five passengers who checked-in but never board MH370. The team in as media statement released last March 11, 2014, the crisis team clarified that there were four not five passengers with valid booking but they did not checked-in for the flight as falsely reported by some media. Another clarification was issued by the crisis management team regarding reports that flight MH370’s co-pilot was smoking during the flight and had allowed passengers into the cockpit on previous flight. In its 13th Media Statement, the crisis team clearly stated that these reports are mere allegations as the pictures and videos presented against First Officer Fariq Ab Hamid were not validated . 3 Potential Strategies and Tactics 3.1 Introduction Based on the information provided in the previous sections, Malaysian Airlines is well-aware of their responsibility, organised, and somewhat prepared for any incident. However, as discussed earlier, the crisis response could have been more effective if it responded earlier, limit the use of social media to convey empathy and press release to professional media, made maps, videos, and audio recordings related to the incident available online, and established full control of the information of the story. The following sections are potential strategies and tactics Malaysian Airlines can use to handle MH370 crisis better. 3.2 Speedy Response and Use of More Effective Medium of Communication According to , similar to Malaysian Airlines initial crisis response where it made crisis communication secondary to the technical aspect of associated with locating aircraft, the airline company also made social media the last line of communication. Crisis according to is part of doing business thus an organisation must be organised and prepared to communicate during a crisis. Similarly, in the era where the Internet is part most people’s lives, organisations such as the Malaysian Airlines should plan and react to crisis through a medium with global reach. For instance, social media according to can significantly reduce the number of hours spent on traditional crisis response medium such as television, newspaper, and others. This because a crisis management team only need a few minutes to broadcast whatever information they feel necessary to millions of people. However, the Malaysia Airlines crisis management team that was then initially concentrating on finding the missing aircraft issued its first official statement through traditional media and only updated its social media accounts several hours after . Evidently, in terms of speed and use of relevant medium of communication, Malaysian Airlines crisis response for the missing MH370 failed the test. 3.3 More Professional and Appealing Press Release The Malaysian Airlines crisis communication according to was a bit unprofessional in terms of tone. For instance, its press release headlines through traditional media are often abbreviated and therefore less effective compared to human voice that many anxious family members want to hear. Press releases according to , is widely recognised as a major form of communication and therefore has a precise format and methods. Similarly, abbreviations can be used by different organisations and may be interpreted differently thus a good press release spell out the abbreviations and presented with complete sentences . 3.4 Make interesting and informative materials available online As mentioned earlier, maps, videos, and audio recordings were only available during the daily crisis press conference . BP or British Petroleum’s reputation was severely tarnished by an oil spill, underwhelming initial response to crisis, significantly delayed press release, and public statements made its CEO that were perceived by many as hollow and insincere . However, BP in the latter part of the crisis discovered the importance of rapid information dissemination about the crisis and became aware of public views and true feelings about the company in social networking site. Consequently, BP developed its own website and make use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others to disseminate information about the spill, the clean-up process, and success stories of people affected by the spill in order to counter some of the more severe public criticism. BP also uploaded videos of its employees cleaning up the oil in beaches in an attempt to communicate its restoration efforts through visual information . Although BP’s reputation is still far from being recovered and its social media strategy seems too late, it has now the ability to provide quick and on-going communication with its stakeholder, bigger chance to improve its public image and regain public trust, and opportunity counter public negative criticism of the firm. 3.5 Give the public something to work with The Fukushima earthquake and nuclear fall-out demonstrated according to how sharing information and knowledge can reduce the tension created by the crisis. The lessons that may be learned from both crisis is the fact that similar to the Japanese government, Malaysian Airlines and government can work together with ordinary people and benefit not only from diverse source of knowledge and information but regaining control of the situation and rebuilding of trust particularly with the families of those aboard flight MH370. For instance, with open and sincere statement and making official data and analysis of the aircraft’s flight encourage everybody to provide any information or evidence that can help in locating flight MH370. Along with transparency, this crisis management approach will provide Malaysian Airlines bigger opportunity to find the missing aircraft and reduce the negative impact of misinformation on the firm. 4 Conclusion Malaysian Airlines appears to have an organised crisis management plan but during the actual crisis, it made several wrong choices such as making crisis communication as secondary priority and issuing initial press release using traditional media rather than instantly informing millions of people through social media. However, although delayed, the Malaysian Airlines crisis management team evidently followed the protocol and worked-out an initial response by establishing a one-stop information centre about the incident. Its seems trained crisis management team was effective in targeting several critical public relation points such as the company promotional website that were made to appear as sympathetic to those aboard the missing flight MH370 and their families. The teams also effectively handle misinformation in media and made a number of sincere, emotional, and convincing statements. However, although crisis response for the missing MH370 demonstrated several good qualities, it can still benefit from speedy or timely response, use of more effective dissemination medium, being more professional and issuing appealing press releases, making videos, maps, and audio recording available online, and encouraging the public to assist and provide helpful materials and information leading to the missing flight MH370. 5 References Read More