Introduction
Management communication is the process that an organization uses to communicate to the outside world. These are usually well-established institutions in any reputable organization. This is the department charged with the responsibility of communicating the company’s policies to the outside world. Without this kind of department, an organization will find itself in a precarious situation since any small misinformation about the organization can lead to its demise.
It’s therefore of paramount importance that any organization has in place a department to deal with such kinds of situations as they arise. This is also the kind of department that deals with crisis management. Though it may not be entirely responsible for the management of the crisis it’s usually instrumental in communicating the strategies laid down to deal with the crisis and especially to the media. (New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business, 2009)
I had been called aboard by the Coast General Hospital to chair its committee on management crisis. My responsibility involved communicating to the media the strategies we had put in place to deal with a crisis that had arisen. As I have stated above, the media forms a very important tool of communication to the outside world. There have been numerous cases of giant companies going under simply because they did not know the right way of communicating to the media.
What the outside world hears about you from the media is what they will believe in the long run. It is therefore important that in a case where a crisis arises the organization put up a strong statement to the media since this is what will be transferred to the outside world. To be able to understand how to deal with the media in a time of crisis it is first important to understand what is classified as a crisis. (Walinskas, 2009)
What is a crisis?
This is an occurrence in one personal life/or an organization that its happening had not been foreseen. The media tends to cash in on such kinds of occurrences to make news at the expense of the organization. Since crises are unpredictable it is always advisable to put measures in place to deal with such kinds of occurrences before they even happen. It’s these kinds of measures that help an organization in times of crisis. Most organizations have full pledged arms of governance to deal with the crisis before they occur. This helps one to be prepared in any eventuality. (Free Management Library, 1997)
Types of crisis and their solutions
To understand better how to deal with a crisis and how to deal with the media it is important to look at different types of crises and how to deal with each one of them. The first important type of crisis to look at is the technological crisis. This is a crisis occasioned by the breakdown of softwares in an organization. The breakdown of things like computers in an organization can lead to a big problem especially where the affected system is connected to the whole institution. (High Beam, 2002)
Natural crises: These are crises brought about by acts that are not man-made. These are things like earth tremors or the avian flu that is causing havoc all over the world. Such kind of crisis is something that you can be able to project its happening since it’s an act of God. One of the measures to deal with such kind of crisis is to have funds set aside to deal with such kind of eventuality. The other types of crisis are the ones occasioned by a confrontation, the place of work chaos, misdeeds in the place of work, and those occasioned by rumor mongers. (Coombs, 2007)
As I stated earlier I had been called on board by the management of Coast General Hospital to chair its panel on crisis management. During my tenure there arose a crisis that had been occasioned by several things all occurring at the same time. In the following chapters, I am going to be discussing the nature of the crisis and what our response was to the outside world and especially to the media. (Jonathan, 1996)
The nature of the crisis had been multiple in that there had been different kinds of crises all happening at the same time. The first major thing that had happened was the outbreak of cholera in our area. Since cholera is highly contagious and the staff was lacking adequate gear to protect themselves from the epidemic some of them had gone on strike to protest. Then there had been a breakdown of communication lines connecting us to the outside world.
This had been occasioned by heavy rains that had pounded the area for two consecutive days hence making it impossible to summon outside help. When the local community had heard about our staff striking they had gone on the offensive destroying hospital equipment in an act of revenge. The worst had happened when rumors spread that thousands of people had died on the hospital’s compound after they were turned away. Only two people had died but this did not stop the media from coming around asking for questions. (Ulmer, Sellnow & Seeger, 2006)
Dealing with the media
The management of the hospital knew that any negative publicity would hurt the hospital and thus I was tasked with the responsibility of dealing with the media. In response, I prepared a brief statement that highlighted the situation we were in and how we planned on succeeding. Below is an excerpt of the brief I presented to the media. (Mitroff, 2003)
“Brothers and sisters of the press, today is a sad day for this hospital and the whole medical fraternity as a whole. A few days ago, there was an outbreak of cholera in this city. Being the nearest hospital around we were called upon to take fast measures to prevent the disaster from getting out of hand. As the pillar of our society, we chose to act with speed and manage the situation. At first, the work was too much for the staff. This led to a few disgruntled doctors who had been seeking higher salaries for some time now to leave citing poor working conditions to leave. This was a case of negligence, selfishness, and sabotage.
Owing to the high rainfall it was hard summoning help from outside due to a communication breakdown but we managed with the minimum resources we had. Contrary to rumors going around about the number of deaths that occurred only two people succumbed to the disease and hospital records will confirm that. Lastly, some malicious people decided to destroy hospital property. This is a case for the police and I believe they will take the necessary action. I believe that all of you will applaud the swift action that we took and believe that you will report only the facts and not the rumors. Thank you for your co-operation”. (Mitroff, Ian & Gus Anagnos, 2000)
In preparing the above there are factors that we considered. As I have pointed out repeatedly, bad publicity from the media can irrevocably hurt an organization. About the outbreak of cholera, we had to show that we had no control over it apart from responding swiftly. The theory about the disgruntled doctors boycotting work in the middle of a crisis was arrived at after failure to reach an alternative. This earned us some sympathy from the media and the public as well.
The rumor about the people dying all around was easy to dispel since all we needed to do was to take the media through all the documented deaths. This showed the cause of every death in the last two days hence settling every doubt. (Mitroff, 2003)
About the broken communication lines we could not entirely be blamed since it was not the only one of us who had been affected by the breakdown in communication. The case of the public attacking us was a little bit tricky since these were the same people who were forming the backbone of our business. After our appeal to the media, the people changed their perception of us. What was a scandal threatening to put us out of business turned out to be blessings in disguise after the media put up a spirited fight in our defense. This was helped further by the fact that we had a few friends in the media.
These were people who helped further our cause. Knowing also who was to address the media helped a lot since one could not just say what came to mind. This kind of arrangement prevented different people from giving conflicting views to the media. (Mitroff, Ian & Gus Anagnos, 2000)
Conclusion
As we have seen the media can cause the basis of collapse for a business empire or an individual. Therefore when a crisis occurs it is important to deal with the media wisely. It helps to have a special organ of communication to the outside world to avoid the risk of misinformation. This can be achieved by putting up policies that bar employees from commenting on the affairs of the company other than the designated people. Lastly, as much as a crisis is hurting an organization we should always expect it and put up strategies in place to deal with the unexpected occurrences in our personal and corporate worlds.
List of References
Coombs, T.W. (2007). Crisis Management and Communications. Web.
Free Management Library. (1997). Crisis Management. Web.
High Beam. (2002). Crisis Management Important for Staff Maintaining Technology Infrastructure. Web.
Jonathan, B. (1996). Steps of Crisis Communications. Web.
Mitroff, I. (2003). Crisis Leadership: Planning for the Unthinkable. New York: John Wiley.
Mitroff, Ian I.; Gus Anagnos (2000). Managing Crises Before They Happen: What Every Executive Needs to Know Aboutcrisis Management. New York: AMACOM
New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business. (2009).Management Communication. Web.
Ulmer, R. R.; Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2006). Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Walinskas, K. (2009). Three Basic Rules for Management Communication. Web.