Communicating Organizational Value through Crisis Management

1
Communicating Organizational Value through Crisis
Management

• Lisa Patterson Phillips, PhD
• Director, Office of Diversity
• Otterbein College

2
What is a Crisis?

• Definition
• A crisis is any unpredictable event that has the
  potential to damage an organization and in
  extreme cases to threaten its survival.

3
Anatomy of a Crisis

• Researchers believe that crises generally fall
  into 11 categories.
• 1. Criminal Attacks
• 2. Economic Attacks
• 3. Loss of Proprietary Information
• 4. Industrial Disasters
• 5. Natural Disasters
• 6. Breaks in Equipment and Plants
• 7. Legal
• 8. Reputational/Perceptual
• 9. Human Resources/ Occupational
• 10. Health
• 11. Regulatory

4
Stephen Fink Divides A Crisis into 4 Stages

• Prodromal/ Warning Stage
• Warning signs that something is wrong
• The Acute Crisis Stage
• Shifts the focus from prevention to damage
  control
• Looked at as the point of no return
• The Chronic Crisis Stage
• The period in which an organization deals with
  long term consequences produced by the crisis
• This stage can linger indefinitely
• The Crisis Resolution Stage
• When the organization is back to normal

5
Crisis Management Tools

• Leadership needs to develop emergency tool kits
  to deal with crises before they happen.
• These crisis management kits include
• Vigilant Problem-Solving Strategies
• Action Plans
• Crisis Management Teams
• Designated Spokespersons
• Cooperative Media Strategies
• Honesty and Compassion
• Image Insurance

6
What do our actions Reveal?

• Culture and Climate
• Understanding the Culture that we create
• Edgar Scheins Model of Organizational culture
• Artifacts
• Values
• Basic Assumptions

Values
Basic Assumptions
Artifacts
7
Applying this Model to Crisis Management

• CASE STUDY AND DISCUSSION

8
Summary and Closing
9
Resources

• Hackman, M. Z. Johnson, C. E. (2004).
  Leadership A Communication Perspective.
  Prospects Heights, IL Waveland Press.