Today's recap brings things into crisis mode, especially on the corporate level.
From Chapter 10
Public relations, among its many functions, also acts as a way of practicing the management of both conflict and competition in multiple settings. In playing this role, it falls under what is called the contingency theory, which calls for a dynamic, multifaceted method with settling a conflict. Within this, managing a conflict can fall into four phases of a cycle: the proactive, the strategic, the reactive, and finally the recovery phase. Each phase has its own variety of methods and means for carrying it out, ensuring a continuous cycle.
Another way to describe crisis management would also be 'issues management', a proactive, systemic means of anticipating and preventing any potential problems on the rise. In doing so, five steps need to be taken: identification, analysis, strategizing options, coming up with an action plan, and evaluating the results.
An approach to issue management on a public scale can be through risk communication, where a risk to public health, safety, or the environment is attempted to be addressed via dissemination of accurate information. Communicators have to preemptively figure out the concern at hand, ferret out hostility that may arise, respond to the media's needs, and all while maintaining a sense of honesty.
The very idea of crisis management is usually tested when an actual crisis is occurring, no matter which kind it is. Any lack of proper planning for this turns the ordeal into a "smoldering" crisis. On an organizational level, when it occurs within the corporate structure, this sort of planning takes the form of 'reputation management'. This shows how an organization deals with conflict both without and within. By relying on research to gauge reputation during and following a crisis, they minimize the damage to their reputation, and when this is verified, they can return to a proactive approach of preventing further 'catastrophes' (and improve their performance in the process).
From Chapter 17
If there are entities that are at the forefront of crisis management via PR, they are today's giant, globally-reaching corporations. The fact that they are of such a vast size causes mistrust to brew within the public, and the recent financial scandals didn't help their image either. To get back on the public's good side, they need to tell their side of the story, which is where corporate social responsibility comes into play. It is here that PR comes into great play, in three different facets.
In media relations, the corporations need to deal with the public perception of business (which originate from mass media--see films such as Network or Wall Street, for example). To get over this hurdle, corporations build relationships with business editors and reporters by trying to be more open and accessible about their policies, operations, and dealings.
In customer relations, customer service divisions are the most prominent example of corporate PR. By ensuring customer satisfaction, you ensure customer loyalty AND create an 'agent' that spreads word about the service or product to others. PR experts in a corporate setting work to make this happen as much as possible, to the point where they've been given rein to start up communication programs to serve customer bases much better--especially with the case of the increasingly diverse United States population. Keeping corporations in check also falls into the hands of special interest groups, activist groups, and the occasional consumer boycotts.
In employee relations, corporations seek to ensure that their company 'ambassadors' are high in morale, communicate effectively, and are good sources of information on the company. Layoffs and offshoring can often be detrimental to employee morale, though in the case of the former, companies do offer severance packages to ease the pain.
In investor relations, PR experts need to be knowledgeable in the fields of both communication and finance to deal with the other big constituency of corporations: the investors, both corporate and public. They also need to be aware and downright knowledgeable about government regulations, as government is one of a corporation's biggest investors.
To make all the above easier, PR, advertising, and marketing staffs work together to set up proper marketing communication between a company and the public, via product publicity, placement, partnerships with non-profits, and corporate sponsorships.
These days, environmental relations has become greatly important, as corporations have more dialogues with activist groups to deal with both environmental and human rights issues. As part of these efforts, corporate philanthropy often comes into play--every year, corporations give about $15 million dollars to different causes, mostly to those that complement their business and consumer profiles.
(I've got to do something about leaving drafts in the lurch...)
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