Unit 2: Preparing for a Crisis
Unit 2 will provide you with specific steps for preparing for a crisis. This unit begins with an overview that explores how you can use a SWOT analysis - looking at strengthens, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats - to assess how a company operates within its environment. As part of business strategic planning, this unit covers setting goals and objectives that can also be applied to crisis contingency planning. This includes learning the basics of preparing a written crisis communication plan that has been coordinated both internally and externally for a specific organization or company. The length of the plan depends on the type and size of the organization, but it should include information regarding the crisis management team - team members' names, titles, phone numbers, and responsibilities for helping execute the plan. Effective plans should also identify the spokesperson, have pre-developed key messages, and sample news releases. The plan should also document media training, other operational training, lessons learned, and best practices as appropriate. As an example of crisis communication planning, you will watch a lecture that provides a look into how the United States' Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) expanded its crisis management team to include a monthly think tank that is open to the public for participation and comment. Additionally, you will learn about the various roles employees, leaders, and managers play in crisis management. Because each organization or company is unique in its size and has a specific mission, the roles should be modified appropriately. For example, a large government office may have multiple public affairs specialists providing information to a central public affairs officer who serves as the key spokesperson. Each of the subordinate public affairs specialists may be assigned to work internal, community relations or media relations areas as part of the overall crisis communication plan. Other management roles may involve coordinating information for news releases with other private and government agencies. In this unit, you will learn how a press conference should be conducted and how the 24/7 digital news environment affects the need for quick and accurate responses to news media inquiries. Depending on the type of crisis, it may require roles and responsibilities involving physical and personal security, personnel issues handled by human resources, legal counsel for liabilities, and medical liaisons coordinating information on injuries and deaths. All of these roles help management make responsible decisions that will help minimize damage and harm as well as will help in the assessment of when and how quickly the organization can resume normal daily business operations.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 7 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- explain how to prepare for a crisis;
- identify how to anticipate crises;
- describe a crisis management team (CMT); and
- explain how to deal with news media during a crisis.
2.1: How to Prepare for a Crisis: Crisis Communication Plan
Read this section to learn the steps for crisis planning. Be sure to take notes as you read. Pay special attention to real-world crisis events, including Wendy's handling of a woman's claim of finding a fingertip in her bowl of chili. Another example discussed in this section is BP's oil rig explosion in the Gulf Coast and how CEO Tony Hayward responded.
Complete exercise 2 (AACSB) Analysis. This exercise requires you to role play as the CEO of a large company and to write the core values you would want the employees of your company to demonstrate. Post your response to the exercise to the PRSM107 Course Discussion Forum as well as review and respond to one or two other students' posts.
Watch this video to learn the basics of a crisis communication plan approach for business and organizations.
- Make forum posts: 1
2.2: What Is a Crisis Management Team (CMT)?
Read the first six sections of this article, stopping at "Pre-draft Messages", for an overview of crisis management teams.
2.3: Case Study: How Does FEMA's Think Tank Operate?
Read this article to get a basic understanding of how the Federal Emergency Management Agency uses the think tank forum to enhance the overall effectiveness of its crisis response operations.
Listen to this audio recording of part of FEMA's think tank conference call on February 6, 2013. Also, download the transcript of the full conference call, and skim the transcript for an overview of this session. This audio recording provides a sample of what goes on in this type of meeting. The topic focuses on innovations and solutions to emergency management.
2.4: Your Role in Crisis Management
Read the article, beginning at "Pre-draft Messages" through "Table 8 Post-Crises Best Practices" to get a better understanding of your role as a public relations specialist in helping your organization use best practices during a crisis and in crisis management. This article is also an effective lead into the next subunit, "Dealing with News Media".
2.5: Dealing with News Media
Read Section 4 of Chapter 17 to refresh your understanding of the importance of always adequately preparing for news media encounters regardless of the format and whether you are communicating during a crisis situation or non-crisis situation.
After reading about press conferences, complete the exercise at the end of the section. For this exercise, you will select one scenario based on your birth month. Then, you will write a prepared statement that responds to at least five questions related to who, what, when, where, how, and why regarding the scenario. Post your written response to the PRSM107 discussion forum as well as review and respond to one or two other students' posts.
- Make forum posts: 1
Unit 2 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.