www.cipr.co.uk / @cipr_uk issues and crisis management sue wolstenholme fcipr cipr chartered...
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Issues and Crisis Management
Sue Wolstenholme FCIPRCIPR Chartered Practitioner
Crisis (Response) Communication Diploma
10th April 2015
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Today
The course and the project Some background Issues Management Crisis
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Definitions
Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. CIPR, 2004
"Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other." PRSA, 1988
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Reputation By generating a positive reputation, a company
can, moreover, gain competitive advantage, because from the customer perspective, a good reputation reduces the perceived risk of buying a company’s products and services.
Reputation is something that has to be earned, but cannot be bought.
Henry Ford - "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." Reputation is the result of a company's former actions, but at the same time, it has an expectational quality.
Roberts, P., Dowling, G. (2002) Corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance, p. 1077 Dowling, G. (2002) Creating Corporate Reputations: Identity, Image, and Performances, p. 23 Ford, H. (2005) Quotations of Henry Ford, p. 21 Compare Dowling, G. (2006) Reputation risk: it is the board’s ultimate responsibility, p. 62 Lewellyn, P. (2002) Corporate Reputation: Focusing the Zeitgeist, p. 447
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Reputation
Research in 2000 - definitely affected by bad behaviour, low morale etc
Little or not at all affected by business as usual or ‘good news’ stories
Most ‘relationships’ are built with those who have no consequence
PR must be at a the leadership level D Vercic, PhD paper 2002
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Reputation is intangible
“We've entered a new ‘reputation economy,’ in which people increasingly choose among competing products and services based on their impressions of how the companies behind them behave.
Corporate brands therefore have to worry more than ever about becoming embroiled in any controversy that might tarnish their image.” Fombrun (2010).
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Issues Management
Issue….an unsettled matter which is ready for decision
Trends….detectable changes which proceed issues
Howard Chase. Issue management - Origins of the Future. Issue Actions Publications 1984
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Issues Management
Issues managers ‘take a competitive pro-active stance by meeting or exceeding stakeholder’s expectations and lessen unwanted interference by fostering mutual interests and developing harmonious relationships with stakeholders’
(Heath, 1997 cited in Daugherty, 2001 p.397).
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Publics
Publics are not fixed categories waiting to be identified but are formed dynamically through the conversation in which they participate.
Bringing Publics into Public Relations: New Theoretical Frameworks for Practice; Shirley Leitch and David Neilson, Handbook of Public Relations; Sage Publications (2001)
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Publics share
Problems Pleasures Concerns Issues
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Publics
Latent
Aware Active
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But not necessarily
Age Gender Race Ethnicity Religion Employer Location
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Who are your priority publics? Are any of them are listening? Do you have anything to say? What could you say/do?
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Global Village 51 female - 49 Male 30 white - 70 non-white 30 Christian - 70 non-Christian 50% of wealth in 6 people’s hands - all US 80 in substandard housing 70 unable to read 50 suffer from malnutrition 1 has a college education No-one owns a computer Mizgayla in Carmichael
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Interview
The publics next door
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News for Parrots
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Publics
If you spend a month showing genuine interest in someone else’s concerns you will be likely to form friendship
If you spend 10 years only putting forward your own concerns you might be very lonely
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Aristotle’s 3 Pillars
The sharing of pleasures Being useful to one another Being committed to a common good
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Life cycle
Emerges Public Debate Codification Legislation
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Workshop
Identify publics!
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Public Relations
Truth Concern for the publics’ best
interests Dialogue
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Dialogue
A conversation with a centre, not sides
the intention of dialogue is to reach new understanding and, in doing so, to form a totally new basis from which to think and act.
Isaacs, Dialogue - the art of thinking together, Currency Doubleday 1999 :19
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Duck or lead?
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Your Team
Cross section of internal publics In touch with external publics Using all channels Communication linchpins Gossips Rumour mongers
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African Proverb
If lions had written histories the tales of hunters would be differently told.
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Wei Jii
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Reputation
A survey of the top 250 UK companies in 2000 revealed that damage to reputation was the biggest business risk managers faced. In times of increasing competition, what the public perceives is prominent. The focus has shifted from what a company does to how it does its business.
Smith, W. (2003) Give yourself a good name, p. 28 compare findings of Gatewood, R., Gowan, M., Lautenschlager, G. (1993) Corporate image, recruitment image and initial job choice decisions, p. 414–427 Fombrun, C., van Riel, C. (1997) The reputational landscape, p. 6 Cf. Money, K., Gardiner, L. (2005) Reputation management: ignore at your own peril, p. 46 Money, K., Gardiner, L. (2005) Reputation management: ignore at your own peril, p. 43
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Nakumatt
47 missing Riot police Locked doors No apology No problem
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Crises can come from many directions
Service failure Contamination (accidental or
deliberate) Natural disaster Health/safety issues Blackmail Terrorism
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Crises can come from many directions
Scandals Harassment Discrimination Lawsuits
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www.
Tell Shell - Tells Hell Blogging Domino Pizza Capitalism and corporations are
under more pressure now than at any time since the Great depression - John and Thompson (2003:1)
Estonia
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Coca Cola Coca Cola famously took an entirely different
approach when, in November 2008, they were contacted by Facebook to tell them that an unofficial page created by two fans of the brand had grown to become the second biggest page on the network with 3.3 million ‘likes’ (Klaassen, 2009).
By giving up a little bit of control, Coca Cola benefitted from the advocacy of the page owners and improved the company’s reputation. As Grunig and White suggest: “Organisations get more of what they want when they give up some of what they want,” (1992:39).
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Trust
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It can happen to… types of crisis prone organisations
Destructive - exploitative, uncaring ‘little to be done’
Tragic - understand the need to change but just don’t seem to be able to - culturally or in resource terms
Ian Mitroff quoted in Risk Issues and Crisis Management, Regester and Larkin, Kogan Page 1997
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Terminal 5
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Terminal 5 Planned for 20 years at a cost of £4.3bn Should not have happened Tens of thousands of BA customers were
affected by the chaos, many of whom have vowed never to use the airline again.
BA's shares fell 3% on T5 opening day, wiping £90m off BA's value
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On the operational side, there were technical errors, mechanical failures, and little system testing.
On the management side, there was arrogance, complacency, poor communication, and a refusal to listen to staff and technical experts.
Staff were poorly trained, morale was low, and goodwill had long evaporated.
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Nowhere to park Staff two hours late
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When BA and BAA executives finally emerged, they misjudged the mood badly by mentioning "teething problems" associated with a "bedding-down period". Eventually, a full day after the fiasco, BA's CEO admitted, the opening was "Not our finest hour." He offered a "promise to do better" and disappeared.
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Whatever….
“How people react to crises provides one of the most powerful windows, if not the most powerful windows, into the souls of people and their institutions.”
Ian Mitroff quoted in Risk Issues and Crisis Management, Regester and Larkin, Kogan Page 1997
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Some underlying causes
Low morale Poor housekeeping Staff quality (Training) Cost cutting Arrogance Rapid change Complexity Bland in Strategic Public Relations, MacMillan
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What do you do if it happens?
Having sorted out your approach with the lawyers and insurers…..
Apologise Inform Never speculate, argue or make
defensive excuses But do not shrink from standing up
for your organisation
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It will be back!
On Anniversaries During any resulting inquests or legal
cases When reports are published If anything like it ever happens elsewhere When ever your organisation is
mentioned you run the risk of being “the company who……”
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Take control
Tell it all Tell the Truth Tell it quickly Michael Regester
And keep listening
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People want to talk
And people will talk to almost anyone!
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How does it feel?
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Levels
1. International interest, Royals/VIPs, two weeks+
2. National interest, VIPs, two weeks3. National interest, VIPs, few days4. National interest, one day5. Local interest, few days
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Preparedness - The plan!
Stop or continue? Send half the staff home? News media, VIPs Who needs to know? Testing, testing Leave money until later
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Preparedness - The plan!
Audit The Team People - map under groupings (policy
areas, publics) Environment Senior decision makers - include and
involve them and their ideas, make them feel part of the plans
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People revert to what they know - police, health staff etc and communication often not included
Be confident and build partnerships with the publics
Meticulous attention to detail at every stage
Ask the children - if they matter
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Workshop
Whose crisis? Three publics Main problem for each public One short message
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Two plane crashes
Only one chairman
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Next Session
The next session for this diploma is on 24th April 2015.
We look forward to seeing you all there.