1. Lecture 03 Communicating Risk

2. 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).

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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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’

7. 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
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8. 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

9. Problematic issues in drug safety:
Adverse effects
Risk as a concept in medicine
Benefit-harm
Effectiveness-risk
Public health versus profit
Access to medicines
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10. Problematic issues in drug safety:
Individual patient variation and susceptibility
Polypharmacy
Relationship of allopathic and traditional medicines
Resistance
Diagnostic errors
Prescribing errors
Compliance issues

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

12. Elements & Types of Crises

13. 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,

14. 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.

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

16. 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.

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

18. 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)

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

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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

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

25. Thank You