Cris

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Prof. Dr. N. Makharashvili

PR Crisis and Credibility

Crises challenge organizations to live up to their reputations, and the way a crisis is handled determines the outcome, both in the court of public opinion and in terms of an organization’s credibility.

A global marker meltdown occurred in late 2001 and early 2002 with the dissolution of three corporate empires, WorldCom Inc., Enron and Arthur Andersen. The USA markets began a freefall that incited talk of another 1929 Great Depression. Many retirement portfolios based primarily on stock took a serious hit.

Anticipating a Crisis

There is some structure to anticipating and planning for a crisis. Issues management is a major factor in anticipating a crisis. The problem is deciding which issues are likely to engage publics or contain triggering events that will precipitate a full-blown crisis.

Public relations practitioners inform top management of issues and situations that could escalate. They recommend that some attention be given to those issues that might need action now, and that others only bear watching. The corporate culture and the attitude of management have a lot to do with how executives respond to these warnings. Time is also a factor for top executives.

Sometimes crises are not new, but recurring. Urban myths often resurrect old crises, as Proctor and Gamble discovered when the myth about satanic symbolism in a logo it has long since discontinued reappeared on the Internet. New events on old issues also revive crises, such as problems with mad cow disease, a problem in the UK since the 1980s, which presented difficulties for McDonald’s in 2001.

Crises come in many forms, but public relations people for the most part deal with public crises. These can be described, categorized and usually predicted.

Causes of crises are either physically violent or nonviolent. The physically violent ones come to mind...