Lecture 03 Communicating Risk

What is a Crisis? “the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization’s performance and generate negative outcomes” (Coombs, 2007, pp. 2-3).

Key Aspects of a Crisis Unpredictable: can anticipate but not predict when a crisis will hit. Crises violate how constituents expect an organization to act. Violating expectations creates angry constituents who will alter how they interact with an organization.

Key Aspects of a Crisis Crisis is a serious threat that can disrupt organizational operations and/or has the potential to create negative outcomes. Negative outcomes include deaths, injuries, property damage, negative publicity, reputation loss, financial loss, and environmental damage An organization is in a crisis if key constituents perceive a crisis.

Communication Channels Web sites should be used. Create dark sites Separate web site or linked from home page Intranets useful for employees. Mass notification systems help reach constituents.

Communication of Risk Very poor public grasp of risk and risk statistics Confusion between relative/absolute/reference/ attributable risk Variable perception/tolerance of different kinds of risk Fantasy of a ‘safe drug’

Perception of Risk Factors increasing intolerance: Involuntary - e.g. exposure to pollution rather than voluntary, such as smoking or playing dangerous sports Unfairly distributed - some benefit whilst other suffer Inescapable - cannot be avoided by one’s personal actions Unfamiliar - arising from a novel source Man-made - from other than natural sources continued…

Perception of Risk Factors increasing intolerance: Hidden/irreversible - e.g. effects damaging but concealed for years Affects posterity - threatens children, births or future generations Particularly dreadful - e.g. distressing symptoms or social rejection Victims identifiable - e.g. a particular blood type or social group Scientifically obscure - new or rare Contradicted - argued by responsible sources

Problematic issues in drug safety: Adverse effects Risk as a concept in medicine Benefit-harm Effectiveness-risk Public health versus profit Access to medicines continued...

Problematic issues in drug safety: Individual patient variation and susceptibility Polypharmacy Relationship of allopathic and traditional medicines Resistance Diagnostic errors Prescribing errors Compliance issues

Risk Factors for Government Officials Political expediency Culture of secrecy Accountability Bureaucracy and inertia Hierarchy Process versus performance Complexity Workload Corruption

Elements & Types of Crises

Elements of a Crisis Three elements are common to most definitions of crisis: a threat to the organization, the element of surprise, a short decision time, a need for change,

Crisis management Crisis management consists of: Methods used to respond to both the reality and perception of crises. Establishing metrics to define what scenarios constitute a crisis and should consequently trigger the necessary response mechanisms. Communication that occurs within the response phase of emergency management scenarios.

Crisis Management The credibility and reputation of organizations is heavily influenced by the perception of their responses during crisis situations.

Crisis Management * respond to a crisis in a timely fashion makes for a challenge in businesses. * must be open and consistent communication throughout the hierarchy to contribute to a successful crisis communication process.

Types of Crises Natural disasters Malevolence Technical breakdowns Human breakdowns Challenges Mega-damage Organizational misdeeds Workplace violence Rumors

Crisis Management Technological crises caused by human application of science and technology when technology becomes complex and coupled and something goes wrong in the system as a whole (Technological breakdowns)

Crisis Management Crises of organizational misdeeds - when management takes actions it knows will harm or place stakeholders at risk for harm without adequate precautions

Crisis Management Types of crises of organizational misdeeds: crises of skewed management values crises of deception crises of management misconduct.

Crisis Management Crisis management model - Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt 95 Successfully diffusing a crisis requires an understanding of how to handle a crisis – before it occurs issues management planning-prevention the crisis post-crisis

Contingency Planning Plan in advance Rehearse via simulation Stipulate who the spokesperson is Speed and efficiency in response to crisis Offer accurate information or it will backfire Plan offers info and guidance to help decision makers deal with long-term effects of decisions

Role of apologies in crisis management Controversial - for fear of legal outcomes Evidence says that a compensation and sympathy are effective True contrition includes sympathy for victims and offers of compensation to offset losses or suffering

Summary The nature of crisis Crisis management model Planning Risk assessment Crisis communications Learning from experience Elements of a Crisis

Thank You