Applied Crisis Communication and Crisis Management

Cases and Exercises

Timothy Coombs

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781483321608
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Langues et linguistique
• Subtopic: Études sur la communication

Designed to give students and public relations professionals the knowledge and skills they need to become successful crisis managers, this practical book includes a wide range of cases that explore crisis communication and management in action. In the first two chapters, the author introduces key theories and principles in crisis communication, which students apply by analyzing 17 cases drawn from recent headlines. Cases are explored from pre-crisis, mid-crisis, and post-crisis communication perspectives, and include a range of predominant crisis scenarios from product recalls to lawsuits to environmental disasters

Chapter 1 A Short Introduction to the Case Study Method

The term case study can have different meanings. For instance, Yin (1984) has a well-known book that explains the case study as a research method. That book details how case studies can be used to collect data and answer research questions. This is not a research methods book, it is a book designed for courses in crisis communication and crisis management. In this book, the term case study refers to a type of educational tool, the case study method to be more precise. The case study method has students learn by analyzing real-life situations. This book utilizes crisis cases as a focal point for analysis. Learning occurs as students apply theories and principles to analyze events in the case. Based upon that analysis, students evaluate the actions taken in the crisis case and recommend what they believe would be the best course of action to take in the case. The evaluations and recommendations are grounded in the theories and principles used to analyze the crisis case.

Case studies have applications beyond the classroom. Corporate trainers find case studies to be engaging tools for developing critical thinking skills. In addition, some consulting firms use case studies to evaluate potential job candidates. This first chapter is a short introduction to the case study method for students and a review of the concept for instructors. This introduction includes a history of the case study method, steps that can be used to conduct a case study, and an overview to the structure of the book.

Origins of Case Studies

In professional education, a case is a description of a real-life event. A case study is the systematic analysis of a case. The person reading the case applies some analytic tools to explain what has happened in the case and/or what actions should be taken in the case. Public relations has followed in the tradition of business by adopting the case study method as part of professional education. In the United States, the case study method originated in the Harvard Law School. Cases allowed students to draw their own conclusions about a case instead of just memorization and recall of existing law cases. Christopher Columbus Langdell is the name associated with introducing the case study methods at the Harvard Law School in the 1850s (Garvin, 2003).

Wallace P. Donham graduated from Harvard Law School, and his practice drew him into the business world. He eventually began to teach courses in corporate finance. Donham began to see a parallel between law and business. These connections led him to believe that future managers could benefit from the case study method. Donham observed that managers had to make and implement decisions. However, those decisions were often made in ambiguous situations—not all the facts would be known when it was time to act. Donham believed students should practice making decisions by analyzing real-life situations—cases. Students could practice using the theories and analytic tools of business to analyze the cases and to justify their recommended decisions. Donham convinced other faculty to write and use business cases in the early 1920s, making the Harvard Business School the birthplace of business case studies (Garvin, 2003). Case studies have since been adopted in a variety of professional disciplines as a pedagogical tool. Crisis communication is one of the professional disciplines that values the case study method for teaching the practice.

Purpose of the Casebook

Following the Harvard Business School model, this casebook places students in the shoes of the crisis managers. The casebook contains what are called library cases. Library cases are composed of public records about the case, not interviews with the people involved in the case. Students take the role of the crisis managers in the case. Based upon information in the case, students evaluate the crisis communication effort and make suggestions about what other actions they would recommend. A key component of the analysis is the application of theories and principles from crisis communication. Students need to explain how they reached their evaluation of the actions and why they would recommend additional actions. The analysis of the case is based upon principles and theories (analytic tools), not just opinion. Crisis communication is an applied field, meaning its principles and theories are supposed to solve real-world problems. The ultimate goal of the case analysis is to demonstrate how the various principles and theories can be used in actual crises and to provide practice in making decisions about crisis communication.

How to Work with a Case

Students are to provide an analysis and recommendations for the case or what we can call case solutions for short. Students execute a number of steps when developing their case solutions. This section outlines the process used to create case solutions and follows a process outlined by the Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication (O'Rourke, 2000).

1. Read the case carefully. Focus on finding the relevant details in the case such as key stakeholders, actions taken by various actors in the case, and the effects of the crisis on the organization and its stakeholders. As students read the case, they should take notes on these key factors as a memory aid.
2. Identify the central crisis communication concerns. Crisis management involves a myriad of communication concerns. Students need to determine what crisis communication concerns are the most pertinent to the case. Chapter 2 provides a more detailed discussion of the various crisis communication concerns. Crises are complex, and the challenge for any crisis manager is to determine what needs their attention at a particular time. Students should isolate the most important crisis communication concerns in the case. Before managers can implement a solution, managers need to understand the problem. There may be a number of different problems. When there are multiple problems, managers need to prioritize them in order of importance—in other words, which problem is addressed first, second, and so on. Students assume the role of managers in identifying and prioritizing problems.
3. Decide on the objectives of the crisis communication effort. Crisis communication is strategic because it is designed to achieve certain outcomes. Students should determine what the objective or objectives should be for the crisis team. In other words, “What does the crisis team hope to achieve through crisis communication?” Objectives are critical to evaluating the success or failure of a crisis communication effort. Specifying what the crisis team hopes to achieve will provide a standard for evaluating its results.
4. Develop a list of solutions. For each problem, students should list a number of different crisis communication solutions. The solutions should be guided by the principles and theories of crisis communication. Research is used to develop and to test the theories and principles of crisis communication. Past research should give managers and students confidence about what theories and principles should work in this case. Should is an important qualifier. Crisis communication is a social science that involves how people react to situations. Social scientists, including many crisis communication researchers, can make predictions about human behavior, but people frequently act in ways that defy logic and theory. There are recommended actions in crisis communication that should work, but there are no guarantees the recommendations will work. Students will end this section with a draft of their crisis communication message and a rationale for that message or set of messages.
5. Evaluate, select, and implement a solution. Students select the one, best option from their list options. Consider the benefits and liabilities of each option before selecting the final solution. Again, theory and principles can help students to determine which solution is the best. A solution has to be implemented. Explain what actions need to be taken to implement the chosen crisis communication solution. This explanation should include identifying the stakeholders that will receive the message and the channel or channels used to reach the stakeholders. Table 1.1 provides a summary of the basic steps in a case study analysis.

These five steps are not the only way to conduct a case study analysis. The steps are offered as a starting point for discussing the case analysis process. Instructors will bring their own ideas to the case study method and develop their own custom guidelines for case analysis. What will remain constant in the case analysis is the use of theories and principles to analyze the cases and to justify the actions recommended for crisis managers. Exhibit 1.1 provides a generic outline for a sample case analysis.

Exhibit 1.1: Outline for a Case Study

1. Introduction
   1. Orient the reader to the case
   2. Provide a preview of the key points in the analysis
2. Explanation of the Case
   1. Provide a summary of the case
   2. Specify the key actors in the case including their stake in the case
   3. Identify the crisis communication concerns in the case
   4. Specify the objective or objectives for the crisis team
3. Analysis of the Case
   1. Explain the analytic tools to be applied in the case—the theories and/or principles that will be applied to the case
   2. Develop and explain a list of potential solutions you developed using the analytic tools
4. Final Solution and Discussion
   1. Justify the selection of your preferred solution using the analytic tools
   2. Describe how the solution should be implemented
   3. Review the lessons learned from the case

Structure of the Book

The previous section suggests students need two key ingredients to conduct a case study: (a) cases and (b) theories and principles they can apply to the cases. Chapter 2 provides summaries of key theories and principles from crisis communication that can be used as analytic tools. Students should not limit themselves to just these analytic devices and the information each capsule provides about the tools. Students and instructors are encouraged to explore the crisis communication literature to find additional analytic tools and to expand on the information provided in the capsules.

Chapters 3 through 19 provide case studies derived from actual crises. There are four groupings of crisis cases: (a) crises emphasizing element of the precrisis phase, (b) crises emphasizing the crisis response phase, (c) crises emphasizing the postcrisis phase, and (d) classic crisis cases. Each crisis case details what happened in the crisis. As in any case study analysis, the case provides the basics, and students are encouraged to gather additional information about the case. The first three sets of crises reflect the three phases of crisis management: (a) precrisis, (b) crisis response, and (c) postcrisis. It is important to study crises that emphasize various stages of crisis management because the crisis communication demands vary among the different crisis stages. Each case chapter includes a reading guide, additional information resources, and discussion questions. The reading guide highlights key points in each case while additional information resources provide links for gathering additional data. The discussion questions raise concerns that confront the crisis managers and stakeholders in the case. Students can utilize both the reading guides and discussion questions when preparing to discuss the case or to prepare a formal case solution.

Though the first three sections emphasize different crisis phases, students and instructors will need to decide what theories and principles to apply to each case. The goal is for students to learn how to make and to evaluate decisions about crisis communication, not simply to read what other people have done or said. The case study method has value because it helps students to develop critical thinking skills. Critical thinking requires students to understand a set of analytic tools (e.g., theories and principles) and the ability to apply them to analyze cases.

References

Garvin D.A. (2003, September/October). Making the case: Professional education for the world of practice. Harvard Magazine, 106(2), 56–65, 107.

O'Rourke J. S. (2000). Analyzing a case study. Retrieved from http://www.awpagesociety.com/images/uploads/Study_Analysis.pdf

Yin R. (1984). Case study research: Design and methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Chapter 2 Crisis Capsules

This chapter provides crisis capsules that summarize the key points from various theories and principles of crisis communication. The crisis capsules provide t...