Ndlela (2019). Introduction to Crisis Communication
Chapter 1 Introduction
Abstract
The main argument advanced in this chapter is that organizations should be guided by a
stakeholder-oriented culture that values the involvement of stakeholders in most of the
activities throughout the crisis management cycle.
In the Era of Crisis
• Crises have become an inevitable and permanent feature of modern society.
- New communication technologies (such as social media) →
o Enables disgruntled stakeholders to air their grievances against an
organization. (ontevredenheid uiten)
o Crisis news travels faster than ever before, making breaking news in
international media channels, and viral feeds on social media platforms.
o Make the world smaller and closer, and this enhances the visibility of
many crises. There is no doubt that we live in a society characterized by
high risk and vulnerability.
• Awareness is the beginning of the journey in crisis prevention, preparedness and
eventual management. Communication is a central component of this journey.
Defining Organizational Crisis
‘Crisis’ → denote different events or circumstances that are deemed to have negative
impacts on individuals, organizations or society.
• No clear boundaries as to what constitutes a crisis or not.
• Some organizations will insist that they are not in a crisis but just experiencing some
difficulties.
• Bland argues that it is best to have a low threshold when defining crisis, and take
even small episodes as potential big threats and at least be prepared for an incident
to escalate into a crisis. Neglecting minor issues can lead to a crisis later. All
organizational crises inevitably affect stakeholder groups.
• Freeman defines a stakeholder as → “any group or individual who is affected by or
can affect the achievement of an organization’s objective”.
Describing a crisis:
• Fink (1986): a situation that can potentially escalate in intensity, fall under close
government or media scrutiny, jeopardize the current positive public image of an
organization or interfere with normal business operations.
• Pearson and Mitroff (1993): an incident or event that poses a threat to an
organization’s reputation and viability.
• Coombs (2015): a crisis is perceptual, that is, it is the perceptions of stakeholders that
help to define an event as a crisis. → as long as some sections of the stakeholders
think that an organization is in a crisis, the organization is in a crisis. In other words,
some crises are more about how stakeholders view the situation. Stakeholders are
therefore central to the understanding and definition of some crises.
Characteristics of Organizational Crisis
In definitions of crisis, researchers have also focused on the characteristics that separate
crises from other situations. Charles F. Hermann (1963) identifies three characteristics
separating crises from other unpleasant situations:
1. Threat—threatens the high-priority values of an organization
2. Surprise—is unexpected or unanticipated
3. Short response time—presents a restricted time in which to respond
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,Expounding on these characteristics, Lerbinger (1997) identifies three characteristics of
crisis:
1. Suddenness → it appears to arise suddenly, even though the antecedent signs are
almost always present.
2. Uncertainty → Organizational crises involve high levels of uncertainty and this
uncertainty revolves around the questions of cause, blame, response, public
perception, resolution and consequences.
3. Time compression → creates enormous challenges as decisions must be made
under stress.
For Pearson and Mitroff (1993), organizational crises have the following dimensions: they are
highly visible, contain an element of surprise, require action and are outside an
organization’s complete control.
Crisis Typologies
Besides attempts to define crisis, there have been numerous attempts to classify or
categorize them.
Crises can also be categorized according to the tempo of progression, as sudden and
smouldering crises.
• Sudden crises are situations that occur suddenly, without warning and go beyond an
organization’s control. These include accidents—that is, unplanned, unexpected and
undersigned (not purposefully caused) events that occur suddenly and cause injury or
loss, a decrease in the value of resources or an increase in liabilities.
• Smouldering crises are those crises that are slow-moving and not clearly visible.
These include situations such as government regulation actions, consumer activism,
rumours, bribery, mismanagement, whistle-blowing and so on.
In situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), Coombs (2015) divides organizational
crises into three clusters:
• The victim cluster: relates to those crisis types where an organization has not caused
the crisis but is itself also a victim. An organization can be affected by natural
disasters, such as earthquakes or floods, or acts of malevolence.
• The accidental cluster: covers those crises where organizational actions leading to
the crisis were unintentional, for example technical breakdowns or failures.
• The preventable cluster: covers those crises where an organization’s inappropriate
actions led to the crisis. These include human errors and misconduct on the part of
an organization.
The assumption in Coombs’ SCCT is that crises in the same cluster will have underlying
similarities, which allows crisis managers to have one crisis plan that can be applied to a
group of crises.
Table 1.2 illustrates crisis types by crisis clusters. In managing crisis, it is important to
classify what kind of crisis it is, as different crises have different characteristics and
progression processes. It should be noted, however, that one crisis can have elements
cutting across categories.
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,Crisis Management: A Strategic Process
There are four major phases in crisis management, with each
building around a cluster of activities:
1. Crisis preparedness
2. Crisis prevention
➔ Precrisis
3. Crisis incident management
4. Post-crisis management
A stakeholder-oriented culture in the centre encourages crisis
managers to continuously be responsive to general stakeholder
interests and concerns (Fig. 1.1).
Crisis Communication
Stakeholders in a crisis can be defined as individuals, groups, communities or
organizations, who may affect, be affected by or perceive themselves to be affected by
the crisis. Stakeholder communication involves various communication practices, processes
and actions that crisis managers can apply to engage with stakeholders, with the objective of
securing their involvement, commitment and understanding of an organization’s decisions
and actions. Identifying and fulfilling stakeholder expectations, needs and concerns is
essential for effective crisis management.
Conclusion
Crises are an inevitable part of modern society with ramifications not only for organizations
but also for diverse stakeholders that constitute part of an organization’s environment.
Communication, particularly stakeholder communication, is an integral part of the crisis
management cycle. Organizations should be guided by a stakeholder-oriented culture that
values the involvement of stakeholders in most of the activities throughout the crisis
management cycle.
Chapter 2 Stakeholder Approaches in Crisis Management
Abstract
By adopting a stakeholder approach, organizations can optimize their crisis management
efforts.
Introduction
The aim of crisis management is to find the best ways in which to avoid crisis, be well
prepared for any eventualities and cope with the crisis. Adopting a stakeholder approach and
understanding stakeholder constellations and characteristics would undoubtedly boost an
organization’s communication efforts throughout the crisis management cycle.
Stakeholder Theories and Crisis Management
The central idea in stakeholder theory is that “an organization’s success is dependent on
how well it manages the relationships with key groups such as customers, employees,
suppliers, communities, financiers and others that can affect the realization of its purpose”
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,These stakeholders are located both internally and externally to an organization. There is a
genre of stakeholder theories:
• Normative theory: deals with how managers and stakeholders should act based on
some ethical principles. The normative stakeholder theory emphasizes the
importance of investing in relationships with those who have a stake in the firm. (most
important approach in stakeholder theory)
• Descriptive stakeholder theory: aims at understanding how managers and
stakeholders actually behave. The theory deals with how managers should act if they
want to flavour and work for their interests.
• Instrumental realm: is concerned with what happens if managers treat stakeholders
in a certain way. An instrumental theory would show that organizations who consider
their stakeholders devise successful strategies and hence will be successful in the
long run.
Examine crisis communication from both organization-centred and stakeholder-centred
perspectives → ‘stakeholder thinking’ and ‘stakeholder orientation’ throughout the entire
crisis management cycle. All crises have a context and each context has a unique set of
stakeholders. Adopting a stakeholder mindset can boost an organization’s crisis
management efforts.
Stakeholder Mapping
The stakeholder model provides a framework for
identifying, analysing and prioritizing stakeholders,
understanding their characteristics, interests and
communication skills. Stakeholder mapping is aimed at
providing a picture of where the stakeholders are
placed in relation to an organization in general or
around specific issues or incidents. Depending on an
organization’s function and objectives, stakeholders can
be placed in different categories depicting various
characteristics, such as their role in relation to the
organization, their linkages, their power to influence the
organization, the purpose of their relation to the organization, and their intentions and
attitudes towards the organization (or issues). The following diagram depicts the four key
stages in working with stakeholders: identifying, analysing, planning and engagement
(Fig. 2.1).
Identifying Stakeholders
Identification is a relational concept. It can be in relation to an issue raised about an
organization and the organization wants to know who is involved (or likely to be involved) and
how. It can be about risk identified through risk and vulnerability analyses and the
organization wants to know who is more exposed to the risk and how the risk can be
minimized. Identifying stakeholders, their interests and their relationships with the
organization or crisis is essential for effective crisis communication.
Raupp (2011) noted that there are fundamentally two questions in stakeholder theory:
1. How to define and identify stakeholders
- Identifying those individuals or groups who are likely to be affected by the
organization as well as those who can affect it.
- During the crisis, the key questions shift to the identification of those individuals or
groups directly or indirectly affected by the crisis, those who are likely to
exacerbate or alleviate the crisis and those who are likely to get involved in the
crisis. The crisis context, content and perception define who the stakeholders are
in relation to the ongoing crisis
2. How to manage the relationship with various stakeholder groups
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,Analysing Stakeholders
A stakeholder analysis is a technique used to identify and assess the influence and
importance of key people, groups of people or organizations that may significantly
impact on the success of your activity or project. Stakeholder analysis enables an
organization to identify a target audience (stakeholders) and decide which messages to
communicate to them. A stakeholder analysis hence should be carried out continuously in
order to provide an accurate picture of the stakeholder positions, attitudes and roles. Having
the right message for the right target group at the right moment is dependent on a good
stakeholder map that clearly identifies specific target groups. Tailoring the message to the
intended recipients and sending it timely through relevant communication channels has an
impact on crisis resolution and public perceptions of the organization’s efforts.
Planning Stakeholder Communications
Developing a stakeholder engagement plan during a crisis can also help in guiding an
organization. It is therefore essential for an organization to plan how it is going to
communicate, relate and engage with stakeholders before and during the crisis. Living
in an information age requires organizations to constantly communicate their activities and
intentions to the different stakeholder constituencies. Moreover, the volatility of the
environment of many organizations necessitates the presence of a strong communication
component. Findings from stakeholder analysis should inform the development of
stakeholder communication strategies and plans. The following processes should be taken
into consideration during the development of plans.
• Include key stakeholders in the development of plans
• Outline information requirements of each stakeholder
• The frequency of communication with each stakeholder
• The channels of communication for each stakeholder
• Enable two-way communications
Engaging Stakeholders
Stakeholder engagement takes different dimensions, before and during the crisis. It involves
various forms of communication. The objective of stakeholder engagement is to inform,
consult, involve, collaborate, notify and share. It can also be aimed at improving trust.
Criteria for Stakeholder Mapping
Primary and Secondary Stakeholders
• Primary stakeholders (i.e. customers, employees,
suppliers, financers and communities): those who constitute
the inner circle. Those who are directly, significantly or
potentially affected by the activities of the organization. This
can also mean those who are directly, significantly and
potentially affected by the crisis. It may include those
responsible for resolving the crisis through the contribution of
various inputs.
• Secondary stakeholders (i.e. government, competitors,
consumer groups, special interest groups and media): those
who constitute the outer circle. Those indirectly affected or for whom the impact is not
that direct, such as the media, special interest groups and authorities.
Internal and External Stakeholders
• Internal stakeholders: are directly affected and they take part in the organization’s
decision-making. Those who are directly involved in the organization’s operations—
owners, management and employees.
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, • External stakeholders: are those who do not engage directly with the organization
but have a relationship with the organization’s activity or event. Those who are not
involved in the organization’s operations—customers, suppliers and authorities.
Organizational Linkage Model
Grunig and Hunt’s model identifies four types of linkages groups can have with the
organization: enabling, functional, diffused and normative stakeholders.
• Enabling. From a crisis management perspective, especially for organizations with
primary responsibilities to handle crisis (i.e. police, fire, ambulance), enabling
stakeholders can be defined as those with some control and authority to define the
parameters of the organization’s crisis management work through legislation,
regulations, mandates and financing. These include government departments, local
authorities and community leaders.
• Functional. Functional stakeholders are those groups that are essential for the
organization’s crisis management efforts by providing input—labour and resources,
for example employees. These include all those whose inputs are required in the
management of crisis such as the fire and ambulance services, as well as other
public security organs.
• Normative. Normative stakeholders are those groups with which the organizations
have common interests. These linkages are with organizations that face similar
problems or share similar values.
• Diffusive. Diffused stakeholders include groups or publics who have infrequent
interaction with the organization. These stakeholders often arise during a crisis, and
these include victims of the crisis, the media, community and activists. When a crisis
arises, it is essential for an organization to quickly identify and prioritize these new
groups. It is also important for an organization to reach out to the media with
information.
➔ Communication strategies will differentiate the modes of communication with those
stakeholders defined within the enabling linkages categories (authorities), functional
linkages (input [employees] or output [consumers]), diffused linkages (e.g. media)
and normative linkages (e.g. competitors). These stakeholders have different
information needs.
Stakeholder Influence and the Matrix Model
A stakeholder matrix approach recognizes that stakeholders
are not equal in relation to the organization or issues
concerned. Stakeholders differ in terms of their power and
interest in the issue: power and interest.
A. High power but less interest—stakeholders in this
category can have immense influence on an issue in question
if they decide to use their power. These include stakeholders
who are in the meantime on the edges of the issue. The usual management strategy for this
category is to keep them informed.
B. High power and high interest—this category consists of key stakeholders in relation to
the actual problem/issue. This group is usually involved. Maximum effort is required for
managing these stakeholders.
C. Low power and low interest—stakeholders in this category have neither power nor
interest and hence minimum effort is required. Stakeholders can change their positions on
the map, and therefore it is important to keep an eye on this group.
D. High interest but low power—many stakeholders usually fall into this category. They are
directly affected by the organization’s actions or issues (or they just have a high interest in
the issue), but have little influence. This group of stakeholders should be kept informed and
their concerns addressed.
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