Unit 2: Preparing for a Crisis
This unit will provide specific steps for preparing for a crisis. This unit begins with an overview exploring how to use a SWOT analysis - looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats - to assess how a company operates within its environment. As part of strategic business 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 coordinating both internally and externally for a specific organization or company. 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 subordinate public affairs specialist may be assigned to work in internal, community relations, or media relations areas as part of the crisis communication plan. Other management roles may involve coordinating information for news releases with other private and government agencies. In this unit, you will also 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 and help assess when and how quickly the organization can resume normal daily business operations.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 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: Preparing a Crisis Communication Plan (CCP)
- Read the introductory section of this article, paying close attention to the paragraph defining a crisis. We will look at the rest of the document in Unit 4.
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 on 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 write the core values you would want your company's employees to demonstrate.
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Post your response to the previous exercise to the discussion forum. Review and respond to at least one other student's posts.
Watch this video, which discusses the steps of disaster risk assessment, particularly for more complex situations.
Watch this video to learn the basics of a crisis communication plan approach for businesses and organizations.
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Consider the following questions. Post your responses to the discussion forum. Review and respond to at least one other student's posts.
- Using a company you are familiar with, develop a strategic plan as described in the Exploring Business text in this subunit. Use the bulleted list under the "Develop a Strategic Plan" section as a checklist for the items you should include: a mission statement, core values, SWOT analysis, goals and objectives, and tactical and operational plans.
- Develop a strategic plan for a public relations consulting company. The company will have two full-time employees, a business manager, and a PR director, and three consultants, including an advertising specialist, a marketing specialist, and a social media specialist. Your target audience is small business start-ups at three local community colleges within a 75-mile radius of your location. You plan to offer one-stop integrating marketing for your clients.
2.2: The Crisis Management Team
Read this article for an overview of the purpose, role, and suggested composition of a crisis management team, which is an important part of crisis management.
Read this case study, which looked at the impact of work teams and utilizing their expertise as a form of empowerment in crisis management at the Jordanian Electricity Distribution Company. Consider the implications and recommendations listed and how they could be applied to other organizations and situations.
2.3: Responding during a Crisis
Watch this video, which discusses categories of crisis response. Responding to a crisis can involve using various tactics, depending on the specifics of the organization and situation.
This article walks through considerations in the process of decision-making during a crisis. The self-audit tool at the end could be a useful checklist for organizations.
2.4: Dealing with News Media
Read this section to refresh your understanding of the importance of always adequately preparing for news media encounters regardless of the format and whether you communicate during a crisis or a 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.
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Post the prepared statement you just wrote to the discussion forum. Review and respond to at least one other student's posts.
Unit 2 Discussion
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After reviewing the course materials in this unit, post your response to the following questions to the discussion forum. Review and respond to at least one other student's posts.
- Describe a real-world situation that may lead to a crisis needing to be managed.
- What is the situation? How did you anticipate this as leading to a crisis? What might you do to plan to resolve or evade the crisis?
- Considering your role in crisis management. What type of plans would you have in place to respond to and handle news media inquiries?
- What key messages would you have prepared for your spokesperson?
- How would you distribute this information to your various audiences?