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Communication and Management Crisis

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Communication to Manage Crisis
HCS/320
Communication to Manage Crisis

Those who work in hospitals have to face crisis. It may happen in the emergency room or even in the manager’s office. Hospital employees need to be ready for such events. Coombs 1999 states that no organization can guarantee that they will not have any crisis. According to Reynolds 2006, crisis may occur internally or externally for the organization but when it occurs people’s lives may be at stake and at the same time the reputation of the company may get jeopardized. During crisis communication as well as improper communication can play a great role. For lack of communication right things may not be done and crisis may occur. Even a rumor may spread and crisis may happen.

Communication methods to be adopted during a crisis have been talked about a lot but defining crisis is not so easy. According to Heath 2006, before defining the crisis, the risks need to be identified. According to him a risk may have both negative and positive influences of different levels. If anything happens to people, communication with them can tell us a lot and it can be understood whether crisis can be overcome. Whether reputation can be left intact needs to be understood.

I am acting as the director of the Regional Emergency Office and I got reports about the public water that had been infected with something fatal. The pollutant is a biological element that has life threatening effect. We know that biological agents may create allergies or even very harmful effects threatening life. As the problem is very grave I need to take actions. I need to ensure that the information is not simple rumor.

The first thing to ensure is that all employees are okay. It is never a good sign to let the media speak of the event first. As a leader I need to be in control. The websites or radios should not be the first to talk about the event. Also I should ensure that the true picture is being passed to all patients and their relatives. A crisis plan should be adopted fast as such events need immediate response. I have to ensure that panic does not spread inside the organization. My response should be quite quick to accommodate every positive move in time. As the director I have to have control over the information flow to the public. What information is being passed outside should be monitored well so that no false news gets published. The media should know who to contact for information and they have to spread the news of what we are doing inside to tackle the crisis. During the whole process all the stakeholders including the media, employees, patients, relatives and shareholders should be kept calm. If needed, we may have to take people to another safe place. Evacuation plan should be ready. This can take some time and outside help from supporters and well-wishers. A strategic plan for what actions to be taken will direct us to the right direction to handle the crisis. All departments need to be trained in communication strategies so that they can respond accordingly during crisis. All the departments have to be active to prevent any harm to patients and employees. When there is a plan for any probable crisis, we are always reminding ourselves of risks to avoid. M.W.Seeger suggests that this can help employees stay conscious with checkpoint for putting off crisis. This also fosters mindfulness. We can make use of different crisis communication planning templates available such as FEMA, CDS’s Crisis and Emergency Risk communication outline, and Coombs’ Crisis Communication Planning template. These templates can offer great beginning to have customized plans. These can tell what to think of and what elements to include in the crisis plan and how the progress can be monitored. Team members should be assigned different responsibilities; information release process can be outlined with right verification system; how other agencies would coordinate with the organization should be planned; and communication channels need to be identified beforehand. According to Penrose (2000), large organizations can survive a crisis even without detailed crisis plan but most of the small scale organizations (about 80% of them) fail to cope up without such plans. For the smaller companies it takes only two years after the major crisis to finish off as a company.

I want to establish an approach of crisis management that uses communication as a tool. Crisis communication may have different facets of it and these may not be matching with one another in some cases but the goal should be to minimize harm of all levels. I will not hesitate to call all the different departments so that all types of risks can be assessed and defended. At first I should call MDCH or Michigan health community department as the concern is health related. I think they will come with American Biological Safety Association as the main issue is biological pollutant. It may be a difficult task to decide when to call external authorities for help and so I want to have a clear cut plan for crisis situation. I may need to take help form public relations office to have control over the organization image. For this reason I now have close rapport with an agency that I can use in crisis period.

Probable challenges that may come with communication occurring inside and outside the organization, with private and public sector people for crisis management are of great importance. Understanding these will let me formulate effective communication channels that can help me during crisis. I need to see the effects of sharing through networks so that I can make use of the experience. Then I can incorporate the findings in the crisis management plan.

The general public need to know the risks and this is their rights to information. So information should be made available for the public and it should be based on scientific assessment. Being the director of the center I will have to make sure that no inappropriate and incorrect information reaches the media or media cannot broadcast false news. Information gateway would be under my monitoring. Crises are affecting people all over the globe now. As communication technology has developed people from around the world can watch the disastrous events. That is why people are now more conscious and they expect a lot from organization to handle crisis effectively. Weiner 2006 paper gas delineated how media presence affects crisis management. It may also happen that the company authority reached the scene later than the camera crews. In some case organizations fail to react at all or in time. The media is there for live telecast. Moreover, with the skills of social media the people who are found on the premises can become journalists themselves. They can transmit a lot using just a cell phone.

When new technological tools are being used to manage crisis events, messages should be communicated through alerts targeted for limited audience. This way messages can reach the target audience. Gonzales-Herrero and Smith 2008 states that companies need to identify different categories of audience and then it needs to be ensured that those people have access to internet. If they have the inclination to entering these media for crisis communication, the organization can effectively mange crisis. When stakeholders are users of traditional as well as new communication tools, crisis management is easy. Surveys should be made to identify these before crisis occurs. According to Gonzales Herrero and Smith, when crisis has been faced, the online strategies have to be analyzed to come up with effective strategies for the future. New methods can be adopted to restore company reputation. People who came forward to help be sent thank-you notes and regular updates from blogs and social media should be followed and monitored to learn from them.

Use of past and present technology makes people choose old or new methods of communication tools. During crisis people can use in accordance with their abilities. Hughes, Palen, Sutton, Liu and Vieweg 2008 paper states that more people can respond to crisis communication as they can use all these different technological tools ignoring time and locations.

At present we now have different technological tools like video, photos and different sharing tools. In the past, people did not have all these resources. Now you can use websites for easy broadcast, digital camera for easy photos and different photo/video sharing networks to reach many people at one time. Then there are cameras in cell phones. Different types of peer-peer communication tools can spread news to all levels. During hurricane attacks by Katrina or Rita and shooting at Virginia all these resources and methods were used.

Through the job duties I have learned a lot about effective communication that I was not familiar with earlier. I did not understand the extent of communication effects. How far workplace can be affected with communication is one great issue. In this paper I have talked about crisis communication while touching upon the varieties and different theories, techniques, models and operations. I have tried to discuss all aspects of communication during crisis for a workplace. These can be applied to emergency room, physician’s office, outpatient room, management room or the hospital. In any place you need to be ready to manage the crisis.

References

 Journal of Public Policy & Marketing; Spring94, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p115-132, 18p, 1 Diagram, 3 Maps
 Journal of Applied Communication Research, Vol. 34, No. 3, August 2006, pp. 232_244
 Gonzales-Herrero, A., & Smith, S. (2008). Crisis communications management on the web: How Internet-based technologies are changing the way public relations professionals handle business crises. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 16(3), 143-163.
 EBOOK COLLECTION: du Pré, A. (2005). Communicating about health: Current issues and perspectives (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

 EBOOK COLLECTION: Hicks, N. J. & Nicols, C. M. (2012). Health industry communication: New media, new methods, new message. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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