Crisis Communication Plan Paper

Communicate Effectively: The crisis management team should communicate with the employees, stakeholders, and the press about the crisis. Employees must get all the information about the crisis and how the organization is planning to face it. This relieves stress and makes employees ambassadors during a crisis (Coombs, 2014). Also, the crisis management team should choose a spokesperson to be the source of honest and consistent information (deloitteeditor, 2015).

Both the planning and implementation elements of a rigorous crisis communication plan focus on the development of the Crisis Management Team ( CMT ), the flexible execution of tactics, and the critical need to be linked strategically to the executive table.The key to ensuring flexibility, and to ensuring that a crisis communication plan will survive intact, rests with the

“The communication from Toyota to its dealerships was nonexistent in the sense that we were learning things as we read about them in the press.” (Brooks, 2010). To fully understand how this disconnect can occur, you have to look at the organizational structure of Toyota. Such as most family owned big corporations, Toyota has a hierarchy of power. Toyota’s board of directors is composed of 29 Japanese men, all of whom are Toyota insiders. As a result of its centralized power structure, authority is not generally delegated within the company; all U.S. executives are assigned a Japanese boss to mentor them, and no Toyota executive in the United States is authorized to issue a recall.” (Toyota Struggles With Organizational Structure, n.d.). This makes communication one-sided as information flows up and decisions are made with no information coming back down. Often times people are reluctant to send the bad news up for fear of the consequences or the lack of response. As you can see, non-communication affects the people on the bottom of the hierarchy directly and then ultimately the higher level management. Toyota saw first hand that not responding to the people who had the most contact with consumers (The dealers) quickly can cost you billions in the long run. This may be a cultural issue so changing this process may take longer than it should. After a plan is drawn up, it should

Over the past couple of years public safety agencies have discovered the importance of crisis communication; meaning that communication is key in crisis situations, whether it be the use of social media or building strong rapport with the public. Understanding that viewing the public as an asset instead of a burden can greatly improve the overall response in a crisis situation and lessen the burden on public safety professionals.

The purpose of this Communication Crisis Plan is to serve as a crisis communications guide that can prepare and empower all Stroke Awareness staff to effectively and best manage communications around a crisis. In light of the highly regulatory environment in which we operate, there are certain responsibilities and limitations that we must keep in mind as we engage with one another and the public at large. This plan will assist staff to respond in a unified, professional manner, communicating the right message at the right time to the right people. (Anthonissen, 2008)

Furthermore, through the way “Collins immediately set up a seven-member crisis team” (p.93), it meant that strong directives were established where clear directions such as the “team’s first task was to find out what sickness it was actually facing. Then it would determine how to go about the healing process” (p.93). Furthermore, this clear leadership was assigned to this team as they were further tasked with “handling decisions in the area of communications and was in charge of all strategies and tactics”. Through this initial response, this crisis management was effective in that it was very proactive in dealing with an unknown risk factor to limit the negative effects. Through this team function, the leadership’s integration with the crisis management procedure meant the team was prepared and had the backing of senior leadership to make the necessary adjustments and actions to resolve the situation.

“I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been to quick. I would like to point out here that Toyota’s priority has traditionally been the following: First, Safety; Second, Quality and Third, Volume. These priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as we were able to before, and our basic stance to listen to customers’ voices to make better products has weakened somewhat. We pursued growth over the speed at which were able to develop our people and our organization, and we should sincerely be mindful of that. I regret that this has resulted in the safety issues described in the recalls we face today, and I am deeply sorry for any accidents that Toyota drivers have experienced.” (Greto, M., Schotter, A., & TeaGarden, M., 2010)

The first set of crisis communication best practices, pre-crisis, focuses on prevention—the act of “seeking to reduce known risks that could lead to a crisis”—and preparation—the act of creating training, and testing a crisis management plan and crisis management team (Coombs, 2007). Crisis management plans (CMP) are reference tools (i.e. key contacts information, crisis step reminders, forms, etc.) that save crisis management teams (CMT)—pre-selected members of an organization—time during a crisis. Once created, CMPs enable an organization to react quicker and more efficiently to a crisis. Common members of an organization’s CMT include, but are not limited to: an organization’s CEO, Chief of Public Relations, Vice President, Social Media Manager, legal counsel and Senior Manager in charge of the area involved in the crisis. Collectively, these members will work together to enact the organization’s crisis management plan “in order to facilitate an effective organizational response” (Coombs, 2007a). The members will be charged with gathering facts; identifying specific key publics; preparing and creating key messages (including self-efficacy messages if necessary), preparing and creating media statements and media contact logs; designating and training spokesperson(s); selecting and designating proper channels of

A brief overview of the current writings on the issue exposes the need of crisis management planning to be “quick, be consistent, and be open” (Coombs, 2006, p. 172). First of all, a consistent message should be delivered by either one or more spokespersons, so that the information vacuum does not get filled with incorrect information. This step, done with maximum speed, will help to support believability (Coombs, 2006). Further, the emphasis should be on truthfulness as well as openness, especially in cases when an organization has erred. For example, Fearn-Banks (1996) argues that if some organization has erred, it had better revealed its mistakes immediately, apologize, and also make necessary amends. Fearn-Banks explains this by the fact that cover-ups will only lead to persistence of the crisis (Fearn-Banks, 1996, p. 65).

Crisis management, by definition, is the management of a situational occurrence that involves specific roles, processes and responsibilities that will efficiently handle the situation. Crisis management responses involve a variety of areas notably; crisis assessment, crisis prevention, crisis handling and termination. Proper understanding of the processes will result to efficient mitigation of crises. It is important to note that any organization or society has to be prepared for crises and respond rapidly in the event of one (Booth 56).

The communication given when there is a crisis can make or break an organization and there spokesperson career, and result in a loss of trust for the organization.

As we all know that Toyota’s have an adding up to 8.5 million vehicles in recalls and their down fall was not listening or their organization skills was not up to par, to say the least. Toyota is now finally getting a clue, that the recall system exists and most every consumer-product company get hit. One thing about Toyota they were not discreet, they we in denial, from engine sludge problems way back in the 2002. They even had the nerve to blame it on the drivers that they need some serious organization skills to put them back on the map. Toyota everyone within the organization from upper managers to the floor workers is a challenged to use their initiative and creativity to experiment and learn. They are now selecting the best of the best that includes sales people, engineering service, accounting and human resources. Toyota, has spent a lot of money and time to become the model for true learning organization.

Toyota’s technology has helped develop state of the art facilities, raise the barrier of entry, increase customer relations, and expand training programs. Technology doesn’t have many downsides for an organization of this size except for the cost of implementing new systems, correcting defective computer parts in sold cars, and disclosing company information. For example, unless a potential customer were to look online at Toyota’s website, they would not know Toyota had another recall August 26, 2010 involving approximately

3. Explain the stages of a crisis and the requirements for appropriate crisis communication during each stage.

This report outlines the current crisis situation and provides a range of crisis communication strategies and methodologies that are suggested for use immediately.