Crisis management is defined as the diverse set of strategies that assist an organization to deal with a sudden and significant negative event. Several large and small corporations understand the importance of crisis management, especially in the modern business environment where technology outreach and dominance has made the onset of crisis highly unpredictable with a robust impact on the reputation, productivity and profitability of an organization or business (Camillo 2015).
The following assignment provides an insight into the role of business communication in crisis management as many experts and leaders point out communication to be a vital aspect in crisis management. The discussion has been specially restricted to the crisis originating from the online world in the form of cybercrimes such as data theft and reputation hacking, which have become two of the most common crisis forms for companies and organizations across the world in the current digital era, affecting both large and small scale organizations across the world (Fischer, Posegga & Fischbach 2016).
A crisis is said to occur as a result of an unforeseeable consequence of some event and is considered to be a potential risk to a companies or organization’s objectives, profitability and reputation. Crisis management practices are inevitable in several circumstances where conventional management practices are inadequate and ineffective.
A crisis is almost always of an unpredictable and unplanned nature which is why the “command and control” method of management fails in controlling it. A crisis situation brings with it several attributes that test the competency of an organization. During a crisis, the staffs are bound to be in a state of confusion, pressure and stress, especially in cases where the senior management is unavailable for guidance and decision making (Jin, Meng & Berger 2017). This is where communication comes into play. Lack of clear information among employees, the damage it presents to stakeholders, the time that is required to identify the scale of impact and its rectification along with managing the increasing pressure from shareholders & Stakeholders can all be dealt with an affective and well-structured communication form.
Several businesses and organizations in the current era have reported most of the crisis situation to be of an online nature. The vast online presence of businesses thus makes them highly vulnerable to crisis situations. Both large and small business corporations of the current era are prone to this kind of cyber crisis, with data theft and hacking into reputation being the most common forms of crisis in the 21stcentury (Lachlan, et.al 2016).
Fortunately, technology itself offers an effective approach in managing such large scale crisis through communication technology. Platforms such as face book twitter and robust internal communication tools have made it easily possible to reach a wide range of audience and communicate the ongoing situation to every individual that is bound to be affected by the crisis directly or indirectly (Smari, Clemente & Lalande 2014). Owing to the global outreach and robust communication capabilities of these tools, industries and organizations strongly support the use of these platforms for communication in crisis management.
Communication Plan During Crisis
Having a communication plan specifically designed for crisis management is an effective approach in minimizing or controlling the impact of the crisis. According to Painter & Martins 2017 having a well-structured plan to communicate with the concerned individuals and authorities in time of crisis is a common practice among organizations that are highly vulnerable to crisis. He recommends having a diverse set of approach in communicating the crisis with special emphasis on who should be informed and to what extent. This is further supported by Jin, Liu & Austin 2014, who believe that communication during crisis should be well monitored, especially during sensitive cases where it can have a deep impact on the reputation and credibility of an organization, and when the crisis is controllable.
Careful planning is the key to initiate crisis control which should be taken up by well experienced and intellectual team who are well aware of the implications or actions that would be taken for crisis control. A team could be well engaged in maintaining a constant communication with stakeholders to provide constant interaction and updates on how the crisis is being dealt with and the scope of damage that it might have caused. It is highly necessary to keep all the concerned individuals and authorities concerned well aware of how they can play a key part in controlling the crisis (Kádárová, et.al 2015). Having period mock drills for crisis management is another important factor that a lot of experts and experienced individual emphasize on. It is crucial to keep employees and resources motivated through effective communication to avoid confusion and stress among them with the higher authorities taking up the responsibility during crisis management. Care should be taken to avoid discouraging employees and spreading negativity, which is why positive communication is encouraged in terms of professional ethics (Jin, Liu & Austin 2014).
It is necessary to evaluate the planning and execution of communication plan during a crisis situation. The first step is to identify the risk and their direct impact on the business or organization activities. Both conventional and modern communication methods can be used to communicate the details of crisis to the concerned authorities. However, it is further necessary to plan how the crisis would be managed without it escalating to further major issue later (Coombs 2015). This is especially a concern in tech companies that store a large amount of personal data who put in best efforts to contain and manage crisis situations internally. This has often been highlighted as un ethical, however it is an effective method to save the concerned company’s business in terms of credibility and reputation.
Communication is defined as the act of imparting information by speaking, writing or any other medium. However, maintaining an effective communication in a crisis situation is a growing challenge in the current era that several organizations face more often in the current business environment. Online dependency of wide range of business processes and operations have further made most of the content vulnerable cyber risks, which have been the most common form of crisis for both large scale and small scale industries. Maintaining a constant internal and external communication of those concerned has thus become absolutely necessary (Takahashi, Tandoc & Pizzaro 2017).
Communication Objectives For Potential Crisis
Affective communication is of prime importance in crisis management. According to Watson, Finn & Wadhwa (2017) communication during crisis can have a significant impact in its management and competency, which is a key parameter in judging the management capability of the organization. Tech organizations like google, Dell & Amazon have often highlighted crisis management to test robustness and stability of an organization. Communication thus aims at assisting in the proper interaction between individuals and team members to properly plan evaluate and execute in favour of minimizing crisis impact to the stakeholders, company reputation, productivity and profitability of the concerned organization.
It is vital to choose the appropriate communication channel among the organization,stakeholders, staff, employees and anyone who is bound to be affected by the crisis directly or indirectly. Advancement in technology has provided the modern workforce with several tools to communicate crisis situation and updates to stakeholders affectively (Coombs 2015). Web applications, social media, telephone and internet are few of the diverse options that can extensively be used in notifying the concerned authorities and individuals affected to remain in constant communication with them.
Communication during a crisis should be clear, honest and transparent. After analysing and choosing the best available resources in communication, it is vital to take prompt steps as quickly as possible. Assessing the seriousness of the issue and responding to stakeholders affected by the crisis is of prime importance (Camillo 2015).
It is absolutely necessary to ensure that both conventional and modern resources are made extensive use of in an effective manner to respond to the intensity created by question, request and complaints of stakeholders. This step can be considered to be a deal breaker, projecting a concern and action to the crisis.
It is also necessary to be genuine and adopt a human approach to show commitment to solve stakeholder problems in case of issues such as data theft and reputation hacking, using experts and specialist who can understand the crisis and are intellectually well equipped and experienced in sensitive situation could prove to be highly helpful (Smari, Clemente & Lalande 2014). Oracle- a database technology company, for instance has a team of crisis management professionals who are in constant touch with stakeholders during crisis situation, providing them constant updates on how the crisis is being managed. This professional approach has been observed to be highly effective – thus highlighting the role of communication in crisis management.
Conclusion
Communication during crisis can thus be concluded to be a powerful tool in crisis management. Both conventional and modern communication methodologies emphasize on the careful planning and execution of communication practices depending on factors like the type of crisis, concerned authorities and the channel of communication being used.
References
Camillo, AA 2015, ‘Strategic management and crisis communication interdependence in the global context: A preliminary investigation’, Emerging economy studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp.37-49.
Coombs, WT 2015, ‘The value of communication during a crisis: Insights from strategic communication research’, Business Horizons, vol. 58, no. 2, pp.141-148.
Fischer, D, Posegga, O & Fischbach, K 2016, ‘Communication Barriers in Crisis Management: a literature Review’, In ECIS (p. ResearchPaper168).
Jin, Y, Liu, BF & Austin, LL, 2014, ‘Examining the role of social media in effective crisis management: The effects of crisis origin, information form, and source on publics’ crisis responses’, Communication research, vol. 41, no.1, pp.74-94.
Jin, Y, Meng, J & Berger, B 2017, ‘The Influence of Communication Leadership Qualities on Effective Crisis Preparedness Strategy Implementation: Insights from a Global Study’, Communication Management Review, vol. 2, no.01, pp.8-29.
Kádárová, J, Mihal?ová, B, Kádár, G & Vida, M 2015, ‘Strategy map for the crisis communication’, Procedia economics and finance, vol. 23, pp.1119-1124.
Lachlan, KA, Spence, PR, Lin, X, Najarian, K & Del Greco, M 2016, ‘Social media and crisis management: CERC, search strategies, and Twitter content’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 54, pp.647-652.
Painter, C & Martins, JT 2017,’Organisational communication management during the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal: A hermeneutic study in attribution, crisis management, and information orientation’, Knowledge and Process Management, vol. 24, no.3, pp.204-218.
Smari, WW, Clemente, P & Lalande, JF 2014, ‘An extended attribute based access control model with trust and privacy: Application to a collaborative crisis management system’, Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 31, pp.147-168.
Takahashi, B, Tandoc, E & Pizzaro, YN 2017, ‘Barriers on communication During crisis situations&58; lessons from Three studies about the Haiyan Typhoon in Philippines’, Disertaciones, vol. 10, no. 2, pp.104-119.
Watson, H, Finn, RL & Wadhwa, K, 2017, ‘Organizational and societal impacts of big data in crisis management.Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, vol. 25, no. 1, pp.15-22.
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