Crisis Communications

Here are some sources that may guide an organization through the process of communicating during and after a public relations crisis.

The Handbook of Crisis Communication . Edited by W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. Hollady. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Library Call No: HD 49 H35 2012.

Publisher’s Description: “Written as a tool for both researchers and communication managers, the Handbook of Crisis Communication is a comprehensive examination of the latest research, methods, and critical issues in crisis communication”.

Reputation management: the key to successful public relations and corporate communication by John Doorley and Helio Fred Garcia. (Routledge, 2011). Library Call No: HD 59 d66 2011.

Publisher’s Description: “This book is a how-to guide for professionals and students in public relations and corporate communication, as well as for CEOs and other leaders. It rests on the premise that reputation can be measured, monitored, and managed. Organized by corporate communication units (media relations, employee communication, government relations, and investor relations, for example), the book provides a field-tested guide to corporate reputation problems such as leaked memos, unfair treatment by the press, and negative rumors – and it is this rare book that focuses on practical solutions”.

Effective apology: mending fences, building bridges, and restoring trust by John Kador. (Berrett-Koehler, 2009).  Library Call No: HD 59.2 K34 2009.

Publisher’s Description: “Effective Apology challenges you to think about the fundamental value and importance of apology as it delivers detailed advice for making an apology that truly heals and renews….Identifies the five building blocks of effective apology as well as concrete steps for accepting or rejecting apologies, ten apology do’s and don’ts, and a quiz to test your Apology Quotient”.

 

See also the resources cited on a previous post Friday Focus on… The Corporate Apology. 

 

Friday Focus on … The Corporate Apology

The Corporate Apology is a public relations damage control action. The most recent corporate apology of note comes to us from one of the co-CEOs of Research In Motion following the “BlackBerry service outages” which caused many customers to go into withdrawal. [full disclosure: I do not have a Blackberry device].

Other notable corporate apologies (good and bad) that come to mind are:

• BP’s CEO Tony Hayward after the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
• Tepco’s CEO Masatako Shimizu after the Japan nuclear disaster
• Sony’s CEO Howard Stringer after the PlayStation Network was hacked

What makes a good apology? There are, of course, a plethora of books, articles, and public relations consultants with their own ideas.

The Corpen Group is a consulting firm that specializes in crisis and risk communications. They have created an interesting info-graphic titled “Anatomy of a Corporate Apology“.

John Kador, author of a book titled “The effective apology” has a blog where he comments on and evaluates apologies on the following factors: recognition, responsibility, regret, restitution, and repetition.

 Here are some sources available in the Brock University Library Collection:

• Crisis management by apology: corporate responses to allegations of wrongdoing / by Keith Michael Hearit. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. Call No: HD 95.2 H43 2006 (9th floor)
• Effective crisis communication: moving from crisis to opportunity / by Robert R. Ulmer et al. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2007. Call No: HD 49 U44 2007 (9th floor).
• The AMA handbook of public relations / by Robert Dilenschneider. New York: AMACOM, 2010. Call No: HD 59 D558 2010 (9th floor)
• The IABC handbook of organizational communication: a guide to internal communication, public relations, marketing, and leadership, 2nd edition / Tamara L. Gillis, editor. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Call No: HD 30.36 U5 I23 2011 (9th floor).