Executive Summary:

Todays business environment requires a robust, enterprise-wide plan to deal with unexpected crises.
Company reputation and brand, as well as the trust and loyalty of stakeholders, are all critical factors in
the background of crisis management. At the helm, HR leaders play a strategic role in organizational
sustainability to contribute tangible deliverables through advance preparation, including safety and
security initiatives, leadership development, talent management and solid communication plans to support
crisis management.

The sheer enormity of last year's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon gave new
meaning to the term "crisis management." Suddenly, companies near Ground Zero, as well as those more
than a thousand miles away, needed a plan. Organizations often give full attention to crises
communications after the fact, or once a crisis is publicly revealed. An important part of crises
communications is the communications that take place in an organization before a crisis strikes. Effective
crises management through the establishment of stakeholder relationships is an important pre-crises
strategy for success (Ulmer, 2001). Because the disasters disrupted established channels not only between
businesses and customers but between businesses and employees, internal crisis-communications
strategies that could be quickly implemented became a key responsibility of top management. Without
these strategies, employees' trauma and confusion might have immobilized their firms and set their
customers adrift. In this article, executives from a range of industries talk about how their companies,
including Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer Funds, American Airlines, Verizon, the New York Times, Dell,
and Starbucks, went about restoring operations and morale. From his interviews with these individuals,
author and management professor Paul Argenti was able to distill a number of lessons, each of which, he
says, may "serve as guideposts for any company facing a crisis that undermines its employees'
composure, confidence, or concentration." His advice to senior executives includes: Maintain high levels
of visibility, so that employees are certain of top management's command of the situation and concern;
establish contingency communication channels and work sites; strive to keep employees focused on the
business itself, because a sense of usefulness enhances morale and good morale enhances usefulness; and
ensure that employees have absorbed the firm's values, which will guide them as they cope with the
unpredictable. The most forward-thinking leaders realize that managing a crisis-communications program
requires the same dedication and resources they give to other dimensions of their business. More
important, they realize that their employees always come first.
Literature Review:

Organizations that fail to communicate adequately with various audiences during a crisis can suffer
serious consequences. One only needs to look at the several highly publicized organizational crises over
the years to know the importance of effective communication when things go badly. From the Challenger
Space Shuttle disaster, to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, to the recent problems at the Enron Energy
Company, public and private organizations have established a track record of their communications
successes and failures when a crises hits.

The purpose of this literary review is to look at the available literature to gain an understanding of crises
communications. This paper will accomplish its stated purpose by first defining what crises
communications are. Many organizations feel that every problem is a crisis. Thus, understanding what
constitutes a real crisis will help to determine the kinds of communications strategies that should be
employed. During a crisis numerous response strategies have emerged. Attribution theory provides a
useful framework for the conceptualization of crisis communications management (Wilson, Cruz, & Rao,
1993). Attribution theory maintains that public perception of an organization is based upon the
dimensions of locus, stability, and controllability of the crises by the organization. This paper will look at
communications strategies during a crises using Attribution Theory as a framework for the literature
review. The final part of this literature review will cover post crises communications. Organizations are
often relieved to simply have the crises behind them and not much emphasis is given to the importance of
understanding what kinds of communications strategies were successful, and what mistakes should be
avoided in the future. Understanding crises communication before, during, and after a crisis will help to
further the exploration of this interesting and important subject. This literature review begins with the
goal of advancing the understanding of crises communications, so that future scholars can explain and
predict this phenomenon. A problem in crises communications literature is the lack of a common
definition for what constitutes a crisis. I have analyzed the many definitions to determine if the majority
of the literature had similar components in the various definitions of a crisis.

Webster's Dictionary (1990, pg. 307) defines a crises as, "An unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in
which a decisive change is impending; especially one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable
outcome."

A shorter definition is, "A turning point for better or worse" (Fink, 1986, p. 15). A longer example is, "A
major unpredictable event that has potentially negative results. The event and its aftermath may
significantly damage an organization and its employees, products, services, financial conditions, and
reputations.
A more esoteric definition is provided by Pauchant and Mitroff, "A company's corporate image-
describing how favorable and accurate public perceptions are about an organization-reflects its reputation
but does not represent its essence. A crisis delves into the soul of an organization and dissects its core
identity" (1992, p. 117).

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unexpected, and non-routine event or series of events that create high levels of uncertainty and threaten or
are perceived to threaten an organization's high priority goals" (p. 233).

The main components appearing in most of the literature that defined a crisis were a negative event with
potentially serious ramifications that would result in profound change for an organization. These
components will be used as the accepted definition for this literature review. It is important in crises
communication to differentiate a crisis from an emergency or a problem. A crisis contains the element of
being serious enough so that the end result of the crisis could drastically change an organization. This
could mean the very existence of the organization could be in jeopardy, like the Enron crises, or the
organization could be fundamentally changed by the crises, as in NASA's case with the Challenger
disaster. An example of an organizational problem, or emergency, would be an employee killing a
coworker. This is a serious problem, but it would most likely not be serious enough to drastically change
the organization.

Finally, it is important to understand an organizational crisis is an entity in itself. Organizational leaders

will often make the mistaken conclusion that a crisis is a public relations problem, thus assuming that
public relations can fix it (Austin & Pinkerton 2001). Organizational communications can do nothing to
ameliorate the crisis itself, but can affect public perception of the crisis and the organization where it
occurred.

Level of Manager:

A crisis is the ultimate unplanned activity and the ultimate test for managers. In a time of crisis,
conventional management practices are inadequate and ways of responding usually insufficient. This
author, a communications practitioner with global experience, details a well-managed crisis response that
will leave stakeholders with a favorable impression and renewed confidence in the affected company.
Since the Tylenol crisis of the 1980s (unknown parties tampered with bottles of the product), the concept
of crisis management has become a specialized activity in the domains of communications and public
relations. Companies have come to recognize crisis communications capabilities as a vital part of their
risk management and business continuity strategies.

Figure 1: Strategic Management Level

Executive & decision support system is a growing interest in the connection between the importance of
leadership and crisis management. According to Harvard Business School leaders with emotional
intelligence competencies (such as empathy, self-awareness, persuasion, teamwork skills and the ability to
manage relationships) are effective leaders. Such skills would be important in crisis management. During
a crisis, one of the roles of a leader is to create and sustain the organizations credibility and trust among
crisis stakeholders (e.g.: employees, customers, suppliers, partners, communities, investors, media,
government, special interest groups). Depending on the crisis situation, a leaders goal is to assist the
organization in returning to productivity. Overall, it is important to protect and sustain the organizations
reputation, brand and value in the marketplace.

Thus, one of HRs strategic roles is to focus on leadership qualities, such as strategic thinking,
communication, empowerment, trust and integrity, when considering succession planning for crisis
management. Crisis management, when handled well, safeguards the reputation of the organization,
which can have a long-term impact on sales and profits. Further, one of the most important aspects of
crisis management is a good communication strategy (how quickly the organization will respond and
what the message will be). For example, it may be the CEO who sends the message of personal
involvement, honesty and compassion.

Four steps in value enhancement plan by EXECUTIVE Level:

Step 1:

Establish a Planning Team

Provide broad perspective on the issues.

Establish a schedule and a budget.

Step 2:

Analyze Capabilities and Hazards

Meet with outside groups (governmental agencies, community organizations and utilities).
Identify applicable state and local regulations (e.g., OSHA, fire codes).
Identify internal and external resources and capabilities.
Estimate probability and potential impact.

Step 3:

Develop the Plan

Develop emergency response procedures.

Identify challenges and prioritize activities.
Establish a training schedule.
Step 4:

Implement the Plan

Integrate the plan into company operations.

Why They Practice Smart Crisis Management?

Bad news travels fast.

Media thrive on bad news.
Preserve library reputation.
Smart crisis management is far simpler than rebuilding a damaged reputation.

Decision support system navigating a Crisis by:

Maintain records of all proceedings.

Communicate quickly and fully with one another and public.
Monitor events and adapt as necessary.
Lead and facilitate investigation.
Immediately notify and maintain contact with appropriate local authorities (Police, Fire, etc.)

Figure 2: Core Competency Contrast with Crisis Communication

To get control over Crisis Communication and attain efficiency Decision makers Effective motivation
need to enhance and the new plan will be located in operation level where labors rights as well as the
increase of innovative ideas will be high to attain core competency from the competitors.
Recommendation:

Respect the role of the media: The media are not the enemy; they have direct access to the audiences
you need to reach. Rather than avoiding media, use them as a conduit to communicate key messages.
Prepare a statement that includes the confirmed facts; communicate what the company is doing and
provide background information.

Take responsibility: One of the more controversial tenets of crisis management is that someone involved
in a crisis must be prepared to empathize, even publicly apologize, for the events that have transpired.
This is different from accepting blame. Taking responsibility means communicating what an organization
is doing to remedy a situation that the media and the public have determined involve that organization in
some way.

Centralize information: A company needs to move quickly to gain control over information and the
resolution of the crisis. Ensure that appropriate levels of management are updated with information from
a wide variety of sources (media coverage, analyst comments, competitive intelligence, managers first-
hand reports, etc.).

Establish a crisis team: Create and train the crisis team before a crisis strikes, and establish a situation
room. During a crisis, when everyone goes into action, be sure the team has access to the highest levels of
management.

Communicate with employees: Employees are my front-line ambassadors in a crisis. Be sure they are
aware of what the company is doing to deal with the situation.

Use research to determine responses: Market research and focus groups provide essential insight into
the magnitude of a crisis and public attitudes about where hidden issues may lie. Monitor the Internet,
chat rooms and blogs.

References:

Ulmer, R. R. (2001). Effective crisis management through established stakeholder relationships:

Malden Mills as a case study. Management Communication Quarterly, 14 (4), 590-615.
Ulmer, R. R. & Sellnow, T. L. (2000). Consistent questions of ambiguity in organizational crisis
communication: Jack in the Box as a case study. Journal of Business Ethics, 25, 143-155.
 Wilson, S. R., Cruz, M. G., Marshall, L. J., & Rao, N. (1993). An attribution analysis of
compliance-gaining interactions. Communication Monographs, 60, 352-372.
Fink, S. (1986). Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable. New York, NY: American
Management Association.
Pauchant, T. C., & Mitroff, I.I. (1992). Transforming the crisis-prone organization: Preventing
individual, organizational, and environmental tragedies. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sellnow, T. L. (1993). Scientific argument in organizational crisis communication: The case of
Exxon. Argumentation & Advocacy, 30 (1), 28-43.