The class text addresses five theories of crisis communication as well as four variations of the fifth theory, the Excellence Theory. To fully understand how each model of the Excellence Theory is expressed, each model needs to be looked at from a real world perspective, as evidenced in the provided scenario.
Excellence Theory Scenario
Scenario: Robert’s Responders, a 501(c) 3 volunteer organization, has responded to an EF-4 tornado in the rural village of Incorpria, Illinois. When the Incident Management Team for Robert’s Responders arrives to the scene, 24 hours after the tornado hit, they attend the morning briefing, meeting with the County OEM, Local Incident Commander and the other participating agencies whom already arrived on scene. Robert’s Responders is a relatively new organization, has a low volunteer base and the organization does not have the name recognition that is seen with Red Cross, Salvation Army and Samaritan’s Purse. Because the team is relatively unknown, the local officials are hesitant to allow the responders in the impact area.
Model 1 is a style of the Excellence Theory of communication that relies on a publicity agent. The communication is unregulated and can contain information that is truthful, a half-truth, …show more content…
These claims are made despite the organization only having ten responding volunteers, no structure demolition experience or equipment and only having food and water to supply their team for three days. The approach to the community leaders and Incident Command team is aggressive, telling the community leaders in charge why Robert’s Responders need to be allowed to