www.cipr.co.uk / @cipr_uk issues and crisis management sue wolstenholme fcipr cipr chartered...

www.cipr.co.uk / @CIPR_UKwww.cipr.co.uk / @CIPR_UK

Issues and Crisis Management

Sue Wolstenholme FCIPRCIPR Chartered Practitioner

Crisis (Response) Communication Diploma

10th April 2015


Today

The course and the project Some background Issues Management Crisis


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


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


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


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).


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


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).


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)


Publics share

Problems Pleasures Concerns Issues


Publics

Latent

Aware Active


But not necessarily

Age Gender Race Ethnicity Religion Employer Location


Who are your priority publics? Are any of them are listening? Do you have anything to say? What could you say/do?


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


Interview

The publics next door


News for Parrots


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


Aristotle’s 3 Pillars

The sharing of pleasures Being useful to one another Being committed to a common good


Life cycle

Emerges Public Debate Codification Legislation


Workshop

Identify publics!


Public Relations

Truth Concern for the publics’ best

interests Dialogue


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


Duck or lead?


Your Team

Cross section of internal publics In touch with external publics Using all channels Communication linchpins Gossips Rumour mongers


African Proverb

If lions had written histories the tales of hunters would be differently told.


Wei Jii


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


Nakumatt

47 missing Riot police Locked doors No apology No problem


Crises can come from many directions

Service failure Contamination (accidental or

deliberate) Natural disaster Health/safety issues Blackmail Terrorism


Crises can come from many directions

Scandals Harassment Discrimination Lawsuits


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


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).


Trust


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


Terminal 5


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


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.

www.cipr.co.uk / @CIPR_UKwww.cipr.co.uk / @CIPR_UK No training

Nowhere to park Staff two hours late


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.


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


Some underlying causes

Low morale Poor housekeeping Staff quality (Training) Cost cutting Arrogance Rapid change Complexity Bland in Strategic Public Relations, MacMillan


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


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……”


Take control

Tell it all Tell the Truth Tell it quickly Michael Regester

And keep listening


People want to talk

And people will talk to almost anyone!


How does it feel?


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


Preparedness - The plan!

Stop or continue? Send half the staff home? News media, VIPs Who needs to know? Testing, testing Leave money until later


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


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


Workshop

Whose crisis? Three publics Main problem for each public One short message


Two plane crashes

Only one chairman


Next Session

The next session for this diploma is on 24th April 2015.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

www.cipr.co.uk / @cipr_uk issues and crisis management sue wolstenholme fcipr cipr chartered...

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