Communication Crisis

Crisis

"Crisis: Any situation that is threatening or could threaten to harm people or property, seriously interrupt business, damage reputation or negatively impact share value" (Bernstein, 1996, para. 1).

Communication Crisis Plan

In a crisis situation, an organization must have a detailed communication plan with a communication crisis team in place. When an organization has these tools in place it is able to respond to a crisis quickly, perform the immediate steps to control the issue, and regain the public's trust successfully (Roos, 2012).

Communication Plan

Chief components needed for a good crisis communication plan:

 A crisis communication team

 An internal communications plan

 A strategy for dealing with media

 A list of self-assessment items - listing weakness and how to correct them.

 Updated information on the organization itself and its programs (Roos, 2012).

Crisis Communication Team

 The CEO

 The head of public relations - possible spoke person for communication team.

 Vice presidents and key managers of departments

 The safety or security officer

 Company lawyers (Roos, 2012).

The spokesperson will be the primary contact for all media inquiries. This could be your public relations person if they are trained to handle crisis, or may be the CEO of the organization. Having a list of potential spokespeople will help in a time of crisis, meaning there might be a list of four individuals who can be the spoke person. This will allow for a select number of people to be chosen when a crisis occurs (Bernstein, 1996). This spokesperson could be put in all forms of communication from on-camera interviews, employee meetings, public meetings, these type of communications can be internal or external (Bernstein, 1996).

Internal Communications Plan

Another role that is important during a crisis is the internal communication manager. "This person is responsible for looking after the safety of all employees and constituents which could include clients, vendors, neighbors and community leaders" (Roos, 2012, p. 1). This leader is the one who would implement an emergency notification system if their organization had one available. This form of notification can be by phone wide system, email addresses, Instant messengers, faxes, the possibility is endless with the technology now available. It is absolutely essential though to make sure the form of communication for a crisis is set prior to a crisis happening (Bernstein, 1996).

Media Strategy

Now comes the time to make sure that someone from the crisis communication team is maintain and establishing a relationship with the media, before a crisis occurs. This might possibly be the public relations personnel on staff. Keeping a good report with the media will allow the organization to control the media frenzy if a crisis occurs.

List of Potential Weaknesses

It is recommended that