Final readings -- April 10
Just a reminder that there is no research paper part 2 due this week. It is now folded into the final paper which is due by 9am, Tuesday May 1st (latest I can give you & get grades in).
Don't forget in your reaction blog to raise at least 3 discussion questions as well as summazing the few key points you think it's essential for others to read.
Everyone should read the two Team 7 readings available on WebCT. The individually assigned readings for this week are:
Coombs Ongoing Crisis Communication chapters 8-9
Catherine, Lauren, Liz, Mic, Tolo, Ronnie
US&S Effective Crisis Communication chapters 9, 12
Jennifer, Meredith, Minji, Nadya, Ramon
Reynolds & Seeger article from J Health Communication (available in Team 7 folder on WebCT)
Courtney, Jiun-Yi, Min, OT, Wes
Major article from Public Relations Review (available in Team 7 folder on WebCT)
Emel, Gisele, Katie, Paul, Sooyeon
Don't forget in your reaction blog to raise at least 3 discussion questions as well as summazing the few key points you think it's essential for others to read.
Everyone should read the two Team 7 readings available on WebCT. The individually assigned readings for this week are:
Coombs Ongoing Crisis Communication chapters 8-9
Catherine, Lauren, Liz, Mic, Tolo, Ronnie
US&S Effective Crisis Communication chapters 9, 12
Jennifer, Meredith, Minji, Nadya, Ramon
Reynolds & Seeger article from J Health Communication (available in Team 7 folder on WebCT)
Courtney, Jiun-Yi, Min, OT, Wes
Major article from Public Relations Review (available in Team 7 folder on WebCT)
Emel, Gisele, Katie, Paul, Sooyeon
posted by prteacher at
4/06/2007 01:20:00 PM
1 Comments:
Effective Crisis Communication
Ch. 9 & 12
Chapter 9 talked about the idea of learning from organizational failures. It used the example of NASA because the recent space shuttle Columbia disaster investigation revealed that the organization had lapsed back into some of the same organizational pitfalls that were blamed for the shuttle Challenger disaster some 20 years ago. Had NASA truly learned and remembered the lessons (or had better organizational memory) from the previous accident, perhaps the Columbia disaster could have been avoided.
The chapter discusses the difference between predictable surprises (ones that could be avoided) and unpredictable surprises (which organizations have no control over). It explains that organizations fail to learn from failures that happen around them:
1. Lack of internal and external environmental scanning
2. Failure to learn how integration of information shows how to avoid potential crises
3. Failure to reward/ encourage people who try to prevent crises or report problems
4. Failure to remember the lessons learned from past crises
The authors also note that organizations should learn from the mistakes of others and that they must be willing to abandon old or ineffective procedures in order to learn better crisis management plans.
Chapter 12 discussed the key factor to turning crises into opportunities for organizational renewal. The authors explained through the case studies principals that were consistent with post-crisis organizational success:
1. Commitment to stakeholders (seen in most case studies where organizations came away from a crisis successfully)
2. Commitment to move beyond the crisis
3. Commitment to messages that focus on rebuilding the organization
4. Commitment to rebuild
5. Commitment to correcting the problem
6. Commitment to well-established values.
The chapter also looked at Turner’s (1976) six stages of failure in foresight and applied them to crisis communication renewal principals. It explains that organizations must change their way of thinking after a crisis, as their old way of thinking may have contributed to the problem. Management doesn’t necessarily have to change for an organization to recover from a crisis, but management must change its mindset and manner of doing business if the organization is to rebound.
The chapter looked at the way in which Cantor Fitzgerald, a major bond-trading firm, recovered from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices were housed in the World Trade Center in Manhattan, and 658 employees died in the disaster. In the days and weeks following the attack, Cantor Fitzgerald established multiple channels for the families of the slain employees to receive financial, legal, and emotional support. The company began a 5 year plan of distributing 25% of its quarterly profits to the victim’s families. The company undertook the healthcare needs of the victims’ families for the next 10 years, and established a program whereby they provide internships and jobs to the relatives of those lost in the tragedy. This is an excellent example of an organization (led by a CEO who greatly valued its people) that put its stakeholders first in the wake of a massive tragedy. The organization has successfully recovered, but it makes no efforts to hide the problems it faced in a post 9/11 environment.
Can you think of other organizations which excelled and failed in their renewal efforts? What prevented those agencies from recovering as well as some of the examples in the text?
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Meredith, at 9:08 AM
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