Designed to give students and public relations professionals the knowledge and skills they need to become successful crisis managers, Applied Crisis Communication and Crisis Management: Cases and Exercises by W. Timothy Coombs, includes a wide range of cases that explore crisis communication and management in action using a practical approach. 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.
Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, Managing, and Responding provides an integrated approach to crisis communication that spans the entire crisis management process and crosses various disciplines. Drawing on firsthand experience in crisis management, author W. Timothy Coombs introduces a three-staged approach to crisis management—pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. A truly integrative and comprehensive text, this book explains how crisis management can prevent or reduce the threats of a crisis, providing guidelines for how best to act and react in an emergency situation. The Fifth Edition includes new coverage of social media, social networking sites, and terrorist threats and includes expanded discussions of internal crisis communication and intuition in decision making. Visit the author′s blog at https://coombscrisiscommunication.wordpress.com.
The Definitive Guide to Communicating in Any Crisis “When facing an already difficult crisis, the last thing a company needs is to make it worse through its own communications – or lack thereof. As one who has lived through a number of [business] crises and served as an independent investigator of the crises of others, I consider Steven Fink’s book to be an excellent guide to avoiding collecting scar tissue of your own by learning from the scar tissue painfully collected by others.”—Norman R. Augustine, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin There are few guarantees in business today. Unfortunately, one of them is the inevitability of a crisis having a potentially major effect on your business and your reputation. When your company finds itself in the midst of a crisis, the ripple effects can disrupt lives and business for the foreseeable future if public opinion is not properly shaped and managed. Skillfully managing the perception of the crisis determines the difference between a company’s life or death. Because in the pitched battle between perception and reality, perception always wins. Fortunately, there is a solution. Crisis communications and crisis management legend Steven Fink gives you everything you need to prepare for the inevitable—whether it’s in the form of human error, industrial accidents, criminal behavior, or natural disasters. In this groundbreaking guide, Fink provides a complete toolkit for ensuring smooth communications and lasting business success through any crisis. Crisis Communications offers proactive and preventive methods for preempting potential crises. The book reveals proven strategies for recognizing and averting damaging crisis communications issues before it’s too late. The book also offers ways to deal with mainstream and social media, use them to your advantage, and neutralize and turn around a hostile media environment Steven Fink uses his decades of expertise and experience in crisis communications to help you: UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLIC PERCEPTION AND REALITY CHOOSE THE BEST SPOKESPERSON FOR THE CRISIS PROTECT YOUR BRAND AND REPUTATION THROUGH CRISES LARGE AND SMALL MAKE WISE, VIGILANT, AND DEFENSIBLE DECISIONS UNDER EXTREME CRISIS-INDUCED STRESS TELL THE TRUTH NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING IT MAY BE TO MISLEAD USE SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS TO COMMUNICATE DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT A CRISIS The explosion of the Internet and, especially, social media, has added a new layer to the business leader’s skill set: the ability to handle a crisis quickly and professionally within moments of its occurrence. Livelihoods depend upon it. With in-depth case studies of Toyota, BP, and Penn State, Crisis Communications provides everything you need to successfully lead your company through today’s rocky landscape of business—where crises large and small loom around every corner, and the lives of businesses and management teams hang in the balance. PRAISE FOR STEVEN FINK’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT “Every major executive in America ought to read at least one book on crisis management. In this way, he or she might be better prepared to deal with the disasters striking organizations at an ever-increasing rate ... The question is: ‘Is Steven Fink’s book one that busy executives ought to read?’ The answer is a resounding yes.”—LOS ANGELES TIMES, FRONT PAGE SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW
In this fully updated Second Edition, three of today’s most respected crisis/risk communication scholars provide the latest theory, practice, and innovative approaches for handling crisis. This acclaimed book presents the discourse of renewal as a theory to manage crises effectively. The book provides 15 in-depth case studies that highlight successes and failures in dealing with core issues of crisis leadership, managing uncertainty, communicating effectively, understanding risk, promoting communication ethics, enabling organizational learning, and producing renewing responses to crisis. Unlike other crisis communication texts, this book answers the question, “What now?” and explains how organizations can and should emerge from crisis.
Crisis communication is high stakes work. For communications managers and PR professionals, it's likely to be the most stressful time of their working life. Crisis Communication Strategies is a must-have handbook which covers the whole span of the crisis from preparing and laying the groundwork before it occurs, during the incident, and the aftermath, including the move to recovery. It guides readers through each phase, providing details of what to consider, what should be done, and tips and checklists for improved responses. Crisis Communication Strategies equips readers to deal with any kind of crisis - whether caused by internal error, customer action, natural disasters, terrorism or political upheaval. Supported by case studies and examples from responses to events including the 2011 Norway terror attacks, the 2018 British Airways data breach, the 2017 Pepsi advert and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina New Orleans floods, the book explores the role of leadership in a crisis and developing a crisis communication response that has people at the heart of it. Crisis Communication Strategies is the essential guide for PR and communication professionals to protecting your company and building true, long-term resilience.
Equip your students with a strong understanding of the essential role that communicators play in moments of crisis and the tools they need to conduct ethically sound crisis management.
Although recent global disasters have clearly demonstrated the power of social media to communicate critical information in real-time, its true potential has yet to be unleashed. Social Media, Crisis Communication, and Emergency Management: Leveraging Web 2.0 Technologies teaches emergency management professionals how to use social media to improve emergency planning, preparedness, and response capabilities. It provides a set of guidelines and safe practices for using social media effectively across a range of emergency management applications. Explaining how emergency management agencies can take advantage of the extended reach these technologies offer, the book supplies cutting-edge methods for leveraging these technologies to manage information more efficiently, reduce information overload, inform the public, and ultimately save lives. Filled with real-world examples and case studies, it is an ideal self-study resource. Its easy-to-navigate structure and numerous exercises also make it suitable for courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. From crowdsourcing and digital volunteers to mapping and collective intelligence, Social Media, Crisis Communication, and Emergency Management: Leveraging Web 2.0 Technologies facilitates a clear understanding of the essential principles of social media. Each chapter includes an example of a local-level practitioner, organization, or agency using social media that demonstrates the transformative power of social media in the real world. The book also includes numerous exercises that supply readers with models for building their own social media sites and groups—making it a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the communication and information structures supported by social media. Visit the author’s homepage: http://sites.google.com/site/conniemwhite/Home
Senior management and leaders within companies embroiled in crisis, have learned the hard way what happens when the unthinkable becomes a reality - an accident results in death or injury; a failed company takeover causes share prices to plummet; or toxic food, medicines and drinks leads to mass hysteria. All attention focuses on the guilty parties - and the media can be expected to make this crisis headline news within a matter of hours. No company or organisation is immune to crisis. Everyday, organisations run the risk of being affected. However, a crisis does not necessarily have to turn into a disaster for the business or organisation involved. Crisis Communication provides readers with advice on how to limit damage effectively by acting quickly and positively. Moreover, it explains how to turn a crisis into an opportunity by communicating efficiently, through the use of successful public relations strategies. Providing information on accountability; crisis communication planning; building your corporate image; natural disasters; accidents; financial crises; legal issues; corporate re-organisation; food crises; dealing with negative press; media training; and risk managers, Crisis Communication is a thorough guide to help prepare your organisation for any future calamities. Including international case studies, crisis communication checklists and sample crisis preparation documents, this book ensures that you are fully prepared for the absolute necessity of proactive crisis communication and proper planning, should you be confronted with a crisis.
This book explores the management of information in crises, particularly the interconnectedness of information, people, and technologies during crises. Natural disasters, such as the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11 and human-made crises, such as the recent political disruption in North Africa and the Middle East, have demonstrated that there is a great need to understand how individuals, government, and non-government agencies create, access, organize, communicate, and disseminate information within communities during crisis situations. This edited book brings together papers written by researchers and practitioners from a variety of information perspectives in crisis preparedness, response and recovery. - Edited by the author who coined the term crisis informatics - Provides new technological insights into crisis management information - Contributors are from information science, information management, applied information technology, informatics, computer science, telecommunications, and libraries
Crises happen. When they do, organizations must learn to effectively communicate with their internal and external stakeholders, as well as the public, in order to salvage their reputation and achieve long-term positive effects. Ineffective communication during times of crisis can indelibly stain an organization's reputation in the eyes of both the public and the members of the organization. The subject of crisis communication has evolved from a public relations paradigm of reactive image control to an examination of both internal and external communication, which requires proactive as well as reactive planning. There are many challenges in this text, for crisis communication involves more than case analysis; students must examine theories and then apply these principles. This text prepares students by: Providing a theoretical framework for understanding crisis communication Examining the recommendations of academics and practitioners Reviewing cases that required efficient communication during crises Describing the steps and stages for crisis communication planning Crisis Communication is a highly readable blend of theory and practice that provides students with a solid foundation for effective crisis communication.
