Organization Suffers Image Impacts

January 18, 2012

Organization Suffers Image Impact

In the past few weeks the news has been filled with countless articles on the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster. This comes at a time when cruise lines were experiencing profits industry-wide. Since the passenger cruise ship tragically ran aground on Friday, January 13, 2012, a number of negative impacts have resulted and can be attributed to the Costa Concordia disaster off the coast of Italy. Timing of the disaster could not come at a worst time as this is the start of the peek booking season. In this case, the action of the ship’s captain single-handedly raised safety concerns for travelers while simultaneously impacting an industry’s financial stability and thousands of jobs.

Concordia’s parent company is Miami-based Carnival Corp. which operates 101 ships. [1]The European cruise operator said the accident occurred as a result of an "inexplicable" error by the captain and distanced itself from the actions of their employee.

There are a number of immediate issues that have arisen from this disaster including Carnival’s initial decision to not respond to the press; publically blaming captain’s ship prior to a comprehensive investigation, and growing concerns for maritime passenger safety. Additional concerns include a possible short-term industry slump, monstrous insurance claims, drop in stocks, environmental impacts; the loss of hundreds if not thousands of jobs and industry image and recovery.

How has the organization responded?

Carnival’s decision to initially avoid the media is probably not a good practice in that when the media is avoided, speculations of guilt circulate causing organizations to commit significant amount of resources to image recovery. In this case, Carnival’s decision to immediately throw blame at the ship’s captain prior to conducting a thorough investigation could backfire as the company remains directly affiliated with the individual similar to...