CRISIS COMMUICATION

CRISIS : According to Wikipedia a crisis may occur on personal or societal level. It may be a traumatic or stressful change in a person's life, or an unstable and dangerous social situation, in political, social, economic, military affairs, , or a large-scale environmental event, especially one involving an impending abrupt change. More loosely, it is a term meaning 'a testing time' or 'emergency event'. The word crisis is derived from the Greek word called krisis which meaning a decision. A crisis is any situation in political, social and economical that threatens the image or the reputation of a company, usually that ends in adverse or negative media attention. A crisis is when an unexpected event occurs. Furthermore, a crisis can be caused by humans (oil spills, genetic engineering, etc.) or it can be caused by nature (Katrina, tsunami, etc.). A crisis always comes as a shock. Natural disasters cannot be avoided but there are many crises (human error, negligence, malicious intent) that planning could have prevented in the first place. Human-induced crises include cases in which the company is at fault and cases in which the company becomes a victim.

The four distinct characteristics of crisis communication are, firstly is the element of surprise, secondly insufficient information, thirdly the quick pace of the event and finally the intense scrutiny.

The meaning of crisis communication according to Wikipedia is, a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. These challenges may come in the form of an investigation from a government agency, a criminal allegation, a media inquiry, a shareholders lawsuit, a violation of environmental regulations, or any of a number of other scenarios involving the legal, ethical, or financial standing of the entity. And it’s also considered a sub-specialty of the Business Continuity area of modern business. The aim of crisis communications in this context is to assist organizations to achieve continuity of critical business processes and information flows under crisis, disaster or event driven circumstances.

According to our text book the steps taken to communicate during crisis are,

1. Get control of the situation
2. Gather as much information as is possible
3. Set up a centralized management structure
4. Communicate early and often
5. Understand the media's mission during a crisis
6. Communicate directly with the affected constituents
7. Keep in mind that Business must continue
8. Make plans to avoid another crisis Immediately

Personal experience: I had two of the worst personal experiences with crisis. The first one was in 2004 when I went with my parents to Srilank for a holiday and actually experience the tsunami. The second one was when I was in the 8th standard; I was attending a NCC (national cadet cope) camp in the remote part of Bangalore. During this time a very famous Kannada actor was kidnapped and the entire state was in panic and there was a state bandh. And we stuck in the camp without food and kind of communication with the rest of the city or state.

References: http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/crisis.html
http://www.e911.com/monos/A001.html
http://www.wku.edu/ur/crisis.html