"D E B U T"
An Integrated Symmetrical Model for Crisis-Communications
Management
Alfonso Gonz lez-Herrero
Assistant Account Executive
Risk Management and Crisis Communications Unit
Hill & Knowlton, Inc.
466 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 885-0497
Cornelius B. Pratt, Professor
Department of Advertising
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48821-1212
Tel.: (517) 353-3215
An Integrated Symmetrical Model for Crisis-Communications
Management
ABSTRACT
This paper presents an integrated four-step symmetrical model
for the effective management of human-provoked, organizationally
induced crises. Two widely known corporate crisesyyIntel's Pentium
flaw and MacDonald's hot coffee spillyyare used to illustrate the
model. The model is based on the emerging theoretical framework of
issues management (that is, an early identification of issues),
which incorporates both proactivity and symmetry. It has three
overarching principles: issues management, planning-prevention, and
implementation. To avert further development of an issue that
can undermine organizational objectives, a biological analogy is
used to suggest an early intervention in the crisis life cycle.
An Integrated Symmetrical Model for Crisis-Communications
Management
Management efforts to respond effectively to business crises
have intensified during the past several years. That increasing
intensity is partly a sequela of more U.S. companies perceiving
themselves as being more vulnerable to crises than they were in the
past (Pauchant & Mitroff, 1988). The purpose of this paper is to
present an integrated four-step symmetrical model that describes
how managements can respond effectively to human-provoked,
organizationally induced crises. It focuses on two corporate
examples: Intel's Pentium flaw and McDonald's hot coffee spill.
Previous research efforts (e.g., Barton, 1993; Berge, 1990;
Brewton, 1987; Carney & Jorden, 1993; Gottschalk, 1993; Johnson,
1993; Lagadec, 1993; Mindszenthy, Watson, & Koch, 1988; Pauchant &
Mitross, 1992) on crises-management guidelines were characterized
by at least one of three elements. First, they analyzed the
responsibilities of the crisis manager as if they were different
from those of the issues manager. Second, they identified a
checklist of actions for crisis management, but did not specify the
alternative actions to be taken in the event that a response was
not a good fit with items on a checklist. Third, they proposed a
diagnostic rather than a pragmatic, across-crises model for
managing crises.
However, the model proposed in this paper integrates issues
management, as a strategic planning activity, with crisis
management, which is not interpreted by communication managers as
a traditional part of issues management. The model is guided by
three overarching principles: issues management,
planning-prevention, and implementation. Inherent in each of these
principles are two assumptions: that every crisis has a life cycle,
which can be influenced; and that the best strategy for avoiding a
negative media coverageyyor its recurrenceyyis to engage in
symmetrical, reputation-enhancing, socially responsible activities.
Identifying key issues before they become issues is a necessary
prerequisite for averting reputation-threatening crises.
Business crises occur daily in the industrial countries. The
Intel Pentium snafu, the McDonald's hot coffee spill, the
Pepsi-Cola hoax, the Jack in the Box beef, the General Motors
side-impact truck issue, the USAir crashes, the Exxon Valdez oil
spill, and the AT&T African-monkey illustration in its internal
monthly publication (Focus) are a few recent examples.
Some others have become virtually synonymous with a specific
type of crisis. Johnson & Johnson's Tylenol, Nestle's infant
formula, Union Carbide's Bhopal, NASA's Challenger, and Perrier's
sparkling water are classic examples of crises that
public-relations managers commonly confront. Corporate response to
such crises will become more of a litmus test of corporate social
responsibility during the next millennium than is the case today.
Business crises put corporate reputations and survival to
test. But even though corporations are more vulnerable to crises
today than they were in the past, a majority of them are reluctant
to adopt integrated crisis-management plans (Fink, 1986; Pauchant
& Mitroff, 1988).
In fact, in a study by Fink (1986), 89% of the chief executive
officers of Fortune 500 companies reported that a business crisis
is almost inevitable; however, 50% admitted that they did not have
a crisis management plan. Yet 97% felt either very confident or
somewhat confident that they could respond adequately to a crisis.
This organizational nonchalance vis- -vis extant or impending
crises is played out in the board rooms of U.S. businesses, as
borne out by Intel's and MacDonald's recent fight for their
reputations.
A brief on what happened. In February 1992, Stella Liebeck,
an 81-year-old woman suffered third-degree burns when a cup of
McDonald's scalding coffee, placed between her legs, spilled on her
groin area. In August 1994, a New Mexico state court jury awarded
her $2.9 million in punitive and compensatory damages. The award
produced banner headlines nationwide. The judge later reduced that
award to $640,000. The woman and McDonald's settled the case for
an undisclosed figure.
In early December 1994, International Business Machines
Corporation halted shipments of its Pentium-based computers
("intel inside"), following a serendipitous discovery that Intel's
flagship Pentium chip was error-prone during certain
complex mathematical procedures.
Could both of these crises have been avoided? Certainly a
crisis is, by definition, unwelcome and sudden; however, scanning
and paying attention to what happens internally and externally can
help management respond effectively to crises. Most crises have
early signals that indicate potential problems; and sensing
potential problems is the first step toward avoiding or resolving
them.
For example, in the McDonald's case, company documents
revealed that in the past decade the company had received at least
700 complaints of coffee burns, ranging from mild to third degree,
and that it had settled claims from scalding injuries for more than
$500,000 (Gerlin, 1994).
Similarly, Intel discovered the Pentium flaw in the summer
of 1994 but declined to issue a recall or to notify its customers
and the general public on time. The company kept marketing its
defective chips until "the leak" caught up with it. It was too
late for Intel to avoid a public-relations nightmare.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Much of the crisis manager's work is based on both
interpersonal and mediated communication. His or her activities
are intrinsically organizational and focus on the organization's
relations with its strategic publics. Consequently, the
theoretical foundation for a model of crisis-communications
management should be cognizant of both communication and
organizational perspectives.
Grunig and Hunt (1984), Grunig (1982, 1990, 1992), and Grunig
and Repper (1992) have proposed a situational theory that segments
publics according to three characteristics: problem recognition,
level of involvement, constraint recognition. Because active
publics, as opposed to latent or aware publics, are high in problem
recognition and involvement and low in constraint recognition, they
are more likely than others to seek and retain information about
and to take action in response to a business crisis. Thus,
situational theory is relevant to and crisis-communications
management in that it is useful in understanding public responses
to business crises.
According to Grunig (1992), "when conflict occurs, publics
'make an issue' out of the problem" (p. 13). If the organization
waits for these issues to occur before it manages its
communications with its publics, the organization will confront a
crisis and will be forced to invoke short-term crisis
communications. However, if the organization uses issues
management to identify and anticipate potential issues well before
they reach a threatening stage, then long-term symmetrical
communications can be planned and crises possibly avoided.
To achieve the latter outcome, Grunig (1992) identifies four
steps:
1. the identification of potential problems in the
relationship with the organization's stakeholders;
2. the segmentation of publics that respond differentially
to those problems;
3. the identification of objectives for communications
planning; and
4. the evaluation of the effects of those communication
programs.
Issues management undergirds each of these four steps. As
defined by Ewing (1987), issues management requires that
organizations look 12 to 36 months into the future.
Because issues-management tools that enable organizations
identify and respond to issues require further identification and
explication, the theoretical development of issues management
remains stunted (Coombs, 1992). Therefore, to the extent that
theory development in issues management is still largely in the
transitional or metaphysical state, a theoretical approach of this
paper is one that views issues management as still largely
evolutionary.
The situational theory of publics proposed by Grunig and Hunt
(1984) is particularly useful in the second and fourth steps.
According to this theory, and based on the work of social
scientists Dewey (1927) and Blumer (1966), Grunig and Hunt (1984)
defined a public as a group of people who face a similar problem,
for example, corporate disregard for customer safety or the use of
a defective micro-chip. Publics, however, differ in the degree to
which they are aware of the existence of a problem and organize to
do something about it.
The crisis-communications manager should be informed of the
state of the organization's different publics. Grunig and Repper
(1992) indicate how organizations can communicate more easily with
active publics.
A two-way symmetrical communication model, as defined by
Grunig (1989), has major implications for crisis management. As
our proposed crisis-communications model will show, a proactive
approach to crisis communications suggests openness to and
cooperation with the publics. When a company is clearly viewed as
proactive and as engaging in two-way symmetrical communication mode
with its constituencies, it can minimize the risk of getting
involved in a crisis and of being perceived as guilty, if a crisis
eventually occurs. As Burger (1984) puts it, the organization must
talk from the viewpoint of the public interest, not of the
company's. The reverse occurred in both the McDonald's and Intel
cases.
Grunig and Hunt's (1984) two-way symmetrical communication
model, therefore, provides us with the strategy for incorporating
"symmetry" into the crisis-communications process of an
organization. Grunig's two-way symmetrical model is what Cutlip
and Center (1985) describe as "open systems model" of
communication. Both models suggest that the communication process
must ensure that both the organization and its publics get more
correct pictures of one another. The desired effect is one that is
in the mutual interest of the organization and the public.
Proactive action may be the most valuable element of the
open-systems model of public relations. Steps are taken to reduce
both the amount of effort required and the trauma associated with
crisis-oriented reactive public relations (Cutlip & Center, 1985).
Grunig and Hunt's (1984) ideas have, however, also been
criticized. As Grunig and White (1992) note, the two-way
symmetrical model presupposes that the organization has an interest
in reciprocity. Because the two corporations on which this paper
focuses demonstrated little regard for the public interest, the
two-way symmetrical model seems inapplicable to them.
THE CRISIS LIFE CYCLE
An analysis of the different crises suggests some
correspondence with the biological model in which an organism
passes sequentially through phases of birth, growth, maturity,
and decline (death). The crisis life cycle can be used to
anticipate expected outcomes in each stage of the cycle.
Under timely management intervention, however, a crisis
might not reach its growth and maturity stages. In fact, it may
even be unborn. Management can avoid crises even before they are
born. Following a biological analogy, we label this possibility
crisis abortion.
Consequently, the complete pattern of a crisis being born,
growing, reaching maturity, and declining corresponds to those
cases in which management did not handle the crisis until it
threatened the firm's interests. This, obviously, was the case in
both McDonald's and Intel.
McDonald's knew that its coffee was among the hottestyyif
not the hottestyyin the industry. It seemed the fast-food chain
also knew its coffee sometimes caused serious burns; however, it
didn't consult experts about the issue. Both these issues were
seemingly overlooked.
Intel also overlooked every early warning it received and
dismissed its Pentium flaw as a small problem, even as its
customers filed complaints. Intel possibly forgot a key
principle of modern corporate communications: image is perceptual
reality.
Both organizations missed the early signals of their
respective crisis, rejected the opportunity to engage in a
symmetrical dialogue with their stakeholders, and pitted themselves
as running afoul of their responsibilities to their key publics.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
As stated in a preceding paragraph corporate response to
crises will be an increasing test of corporate social
responsibility, particularly in the next millennium. Sethi (1979)
notes that corporate social responsibility, as a concept, combines
two dimensions: social responsibility and social responsiveness.
While social responsibility describes the extent to which
organizational outcomes are consistent with social expectations,
social responsiveness is the extent to which corporate processes
anticipate and adjust in ways that are consistent with societal
expectations (Miles, 1987). Thus, corporate social responsibility
can be defined as the ability of business to respond effectively to
challenges (Salbu, 1975), for example, crises. Arguing that
"responsiveness" requires proactive efforts that go beyond avoiding
conflicts with consumers, some researchers prefer the term
"responsiveness" to "responsibility" (e.g., Buchholz, Evans, &
Wagley, 1985).
Lerner and Fryxell (1988) argue that corporate social
responsibility indicates a firm's openness to its publics, its
ability to adapt to them, and its choices regarding
decision-making. In 1983, for example, Anheuser-Busch, the world's
largest brewing company, began its "Know-When-to-Say-When"
educational campaign. A Roper Poll found that 81% of adult
respondents said that the campaign was effective in addressing
drunken driving and that they would like to see more such
advertising from brewers (Roper Organization, 1989).
Should Intel have proactively withdrawn its flawed chip from
the market? Should Intel have satisfactorily responded to the
Pentium flaw before IBM halted shipments in early December 1994,
the issue wouldn't have reached the national media and would
probably have been limited to a scientific discussion on Internet.
Public opinion was on McDonald's side: U.S. consumers like
their coffee hot. Really hot. However, the fast-food giant
misunderstood the real issue on trial in Albuquerque. The trial
wasn't about coffee temperature; it was about corporate concern
and responsibility for customers' safety. The multinational
giant acted arrogantly and seemed to disregard patrons' safety.
McDonald's had no option other than to implement a short-term,
reactive crisis-communications plan.
Short-term crisis communications should, if possible, be
avoided. Long-term crisis communications should be in their
place. Short-term crisis communications deal almost exclusively
with publics that are vigorously active on or involved in a
specific issue. Long-term crisis-communication strategies deal
with publics in a less volatile environment and attract little or
no negative media coverage.
Obviously, not every crisis can be avoided. Some accidents
or natural disasters are impossible to avert and the media will
cover them in depth. Nonetheless, data indicate how operational
crises (e.g., chemical spill and product tampering) are down 4%
since 1989, while mismanagement-related crises (e.g., sexual
harassment or government investigations) are up 55% during the
same period (Institute for Crisis, 1994).
AN INTEGRATED FOUR-STEP SYMMETRICAL MODEL
The four boxes of our model represent the main four steps
that should characterize a proactive, symmetrical crisis-management
process (Figure 1).
1. Issues management
The first task a crisis-communications manager must
undertake is the one that falls under the "issues management"
label. At this stage, as detailed in Figure 2, the company must
scan the environment, looking for public trends (or single
issues) that may affect it in the near future.
collect data on potentially troublesome issues and
evaluate them.
develop a communications strategy and concentrate its
efforts on preventing an occurrence of a crisis or
redirecting its course.
In the Pentium case, Intel failed to detect or recognize the
importance of the message posted on a Compuserve forum by
Lynchburg College professor of mathematics, Thomas Nicely, the
first person to make the bug public.
On the positive side, the Specialty Coffee Association of
America put coffee safety on its agenda for its quarterly board
meeting; it is monitoring the coffee "environment" on the heels
of the McDonald's verdict. Other companies like Starbucks Coffee
Company and Dunkin' Donuts reported publicly that they were
evaluating how they served their coffee and announced that they
were providing warnings on their cups for customer's safety.
Noting that the McDonald's case had been a wake-up call for the
entire industry, some, like Wendy's, even temporarily suspended the
sale of hot chocolate. These actions by McDonald's competitors are
intended obviously to enable them avoid similar crises or, even in
the long run, to offset the possibility of government regulation on
the matter. Learning from others' mistakes is an effective
principle of crisis management.
Effective issues management allows organizations to avoid
the crisis stage identified in Figure 2. At this point, it is
unnecessary to implement any specific contingency plan because of
the high odds for reaching a "no-crisis" situation.
2. Planning-prevention
To search for further warning, the box labeled
"planning-prevention" shares environment monitoring with the
issues management stage. It also uses information, warning, and
internal communications systems.
However, in the issues management stage the company's
resources are aimed at identifying any threatening issue and
influencing its course. In the planning-prevention stage a third
elementyypreventionyyis added.
In the previous phase, the issue had been detected and
actions taken to influence its development. For example, Intel
and IBM experts had technical discussions on the Pentium
controversy and tried to solve the conflict. IBM and Intel,
however, had major disagreements over the methods used to test
the chip, resulting in IBM's decision to halt the sale of
Pentium-based PCs. This occurred almost six weeks after
Professor Nicely announced that a flaw existed. Intel not only
failed to prevent the development of the issue, but failed to put
into place an effective crisis plan. On Internet, which reaches
more than 20 million users worldwide, the company downplayed and
trivialized the concerns of its customers instead of offering a
symmetrical, balanced solution. It said, "No chip is ever
perfect."
Strategic planning is the bedrock of crisis management. The
idea at this point is to show that, when an issue is perceived to
have passed the limits of issues management, when it is recognized
that a crisis is imminent (e.g., McDonald's), or when an issue
might change quickly in intensity (e.g., Intel), the organization
should use its information-gathering and warning systems to monitor
it carefully. At the same time, the company should brace itself
for an imminent crisis, just in case one hits.
In addition, the planning-prevention stage is the starting
point in the crisis-management process in those situations (for
example, fires, explosions, tornadoes, floods) where surprises
are inevitable. At this phase, it is time to
set a proactive policy on the issue.
reanalyze the organization's links with its multiple
constituencies.
prepare general or specific contingency plans.
designate the potential members of the crisis-management
team.
identify the likely company representative to handle
media relations.
determine the message, target, and media outlets that
would be used in implementing the crisis-communications
plan.
It is also at this stage that management must assess the
dimensions of the problem.
degree of control the organization has over the
situation.
options the company can choose from in developing a
specific crisis plan.
Research plays an important role in every facet of crisis
management. As shown by Grunig and Hunt's (1984) situational
theory, an organization must ensure that its plans demonstrate
cognizance of public attitudes. Subsequently, this feedback will
allow the company to acquire new knowledge about its constituencies
and about itself. Such knowledge will, in turn, serve to improve
the quality of the crisis plan or bring it up to date in accordance
with the expectations of the different constituencies. Besides,
research evaluates the situation
because an assessment of the characteristics of a potential
crisis must be done repeatedly.
If the company manages the issues effectively at this stage,
it is likely to avoid running into a full-blown crisis and to
reach a non-crisis point. At the very least, effective issues
management minimizes the impact of negative consequences.
3. The crisis
At this point, the company might have lost all proactive
initiatives. Should a crisis-response plan not exist or should
the situation have been mishandled, the organization's response
will have to be limited to reacting to the events and to using
contingency measures that may reduce any damage cause by its active
publics.
It was at this point that McDonald's publicly reacted and
declared, "Safety is always our first concern" (Howard, 1994).
But it was too late. Its publics had already passed from a passive
to an active status. Public opinion had already been formed on how
the company knew about the potential hazards of its hot coffee but
declared that there were more serious hazards in a
restaurant. Again, it was too late. Further, public opinion had
already been formed regarding experts' testimonies in behalf of
McDonald's: that burns from hot coffee were statistically
insignificant in comparison with the billion cups of coffee the
company sold annually (Gerlin, 1994).
IBM's decision not to use Pentium-based PCs resulted in a
fall in the value of Intel shares. Thereupon, Intel sought the
advice of technical and scientific users, big companies, and
computer retailers. It issued press releases and held telephone
conferences with Wall Street analysts (Mossberg, 1994). It
judged selectively who deserved to obtain a replacement,
establishing an obvious asymmetrical relationship with its
constituencies. Furthermore, the company did not seem to make any
great efforts to address the problem by, for example, publicizing
extensively the toll-free number it set up for its customers.
According to our model, this third stage involves
pre-empting negative publicity and communicating to the
organization's constituencies the actions being taken
to solve the problem.
targeting the company's message to the appropriate
audiences, obtaining third-party support from an expert,
and implementing an internal communications program.
4. The post-crisis
In every crisis there is a "post-crisis" phase, where a
company yearns for bygone glorious days. In the McDonald's
coffee-spill case, the crisis is not over. The issue is still in
the news, even though its zenith of negative media publicity may
be history. The fallout from the case appears as Congressional
debates that call for legislative reform and as radio ads and
newspaper analyses that are critical of a legal system that
awards preposterous punitive damages.
McDonald's and some of its competitors are relearning how to
respond to the upsurge in copycats. In December 1994, a woman
who fell in the bathroom of a McDonald's franchise sued the
company. In January 1995 a California woman, claiming she was
seriously injured by hot coffee, sued Starbucks Coffee Company.
In that same month, a British man sued McDonald's in London for
"severe burns" caused by a hot apple pie.
Meanwhile, Intel is using a solution less expensive than a
total recall: patches. Intel recovered its financially
threatened position weeks after the crisis; however, analysts
concede that this case has damaged the company's reputation as a
quality-driven manufacturer. It has been observed that the
crisis will have a lasting effect on the design, validation and
testing of microprocessors in the entire industry (Ziegler &
Clark, 1994). Communication strategies are at play to rebuild
the company's reputation.
At the post-crisis stage, the organization must
continue to pay attention to its multiple publics.
continue to monitor the issue until its intensity is
reduced.
continue to inform the media of its actions, if necessary.
evaluate how the crisis plan, if one existed, worked and
how management and employees responded to the situation.
incorporate this feedback into the crisis plan, improve
it, and prevent future crises.
develop a long-term symmetrical communications strategy to
reduce the damages caused by the crisis.
The end of one crisis is usually the beginning of another.
The process starts again and the issues-management and
planning-prevention systems should be activated to prevent the
onset of crises.
Decades ago, Bernays (1961) asserted in Crystallizing Public
Opinion that corporations could no longer deny the existence of
public opinion and that the responsibility of a corporation was to
understand the pulse of its constituencies in preparation for
crisis and public recrimination. This statement, still valid
today, constituted the beginning of the emergence of a new group of
ethical and socially responsible public relations practitioners.
Bernays's (1961) blueprint for scientific public relations
helped develop the professionalism of the practice in and
contributions to modern society. For many years, persuasion has
been distinquished from public relations and mutual understanding,
reaction from proaction, and two-way asymmetrical communication
from two-way symmetrical communication. The relatively new
subspecialty of issues management, applied to the crisis-management
process, provides the best preparation for organizations because of
its characteristics of anticipation, proaction, and monitoring of
issues that could affect the company's future. Today, corporate
social responsibility has increasing implications for every facet
of business activities. This is in contradistinction to the
earlier era of classical economical corporate responsibility by
which organizations were more than ever interested in avoiding
conflicts with publics.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented an integrated four-step
symmetrical model for managing crisis communications effectively.
Even though a number of U.S. organizations say they know the
ramifications of business crises, evidence indicates that only a
small number of them have integrated crisis-management plans. It
was the purpose of this paper to detail a model for one such plan.
The model is anchored on Grunig and Hunt (1984), Grunig (1992), and
Grunig and Repper (1992) situational theory of publics and on the
emerging theory of issues management.
The integrated four-step communication model focuses on issues
management, planning-prevention, the crisis, and the post-crisis.
Two overarching principles of this model are proactivity and
symmetry. Their presence, according to the model, has the
potential to get an organization out of crises; their absence, on
the other hand, has the potential to get an organization mired in
crises.
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