A crisis communication strategy is a planned approach to the management of any situation that threatens to cause harm or negative effects to a group of people or business. The strategy has to outline the general steps on how the threat can be handled and should bring out reasonable measures and procedures of handling the situation. For example in the tourism sector in any nation, there may arise situations that may threaten the tourism industry such as security and increase in charges (Yu, 2016). In dealing with crisis situations, there is a need to have a crisis communication strategy that will enable the concerned parties to combat the threat.
IMPORTANCE OF AN EFFECTIVE CRISIS MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Crisis management strategy is of great importance in any business sector. The strategy aims at reducing the impact a situation can cause a business and enables the company to evade the consequences of a threatening event. The risk management strategy will allow a company to set out goals and prepare for the alternative solution in case the targets fail to work (Yu, 2016). Without a risk management strategy, it would be difficult for business firms to check and respond to the risks that are associated with the objectives and goals of the company, having a comprehensive risk management strategy will enable the relevant groups to carry out risks without possible failures. Besides, the risk management approach will allow a company actually to tackle the external and internal risks associated with its operation. The approaches to the external and internal risks have to be different and thus require a well-planned strategy and plan. Therefore, we can term a risk management approach to be the most crucial part in tackling the external risks as well as the internal risks that the company may be facing (Kuntzman & Drake, 2016).
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Introduction
An effective crisis management strategy must have qualities and properties that make it relevant to the application. These conditions make it necessary for a crisis management strategy to have the essential elements that make it appropriate and useful to risk management for any company. The key elements of a risk management and communication plan include but not limited to; the risk communication and management team, the action taken in response to the crisis, the key communication messages and the communication channels that will be involved (Hu & Pang, 2016). The company needs to set up a risk management strategy that embraces these policies for it to improve on the assessment and approaches to managing the crisis associated with the operations of the company. In this section of the paper, the four essential elements of crisis management are discussed in detail on how they can enable a firm to manage effectively the risks associated with the objectives and the operations of the company (Yu, 2016).
DISCUSSION
Risk management team
When a company has a crisis management and communication strategy, there is a need to come up with a risk management team that will be in charge of assessing and managing the crisis of the company. The team is one of the key elements of the management strategy that will determine how the company goes about a potential crisis. The team comprises of members versed with enterprise risk management role; this will include having experienced members of the company work together with the team to manage the business's activities. An effective crisis management team should comprise of a leadership body that directs the members to the activities of the group (Hu & Pang, 2016). Having a quality leadership in the risk management team will enable the team to assess and respond to the crises that are available to the operations of the company. For example, in a company like a tourism firm, several crises are associated with the business from the internal setting and the external environment of the enterprise. This situation will require a management team that is made up of external and internal crisis assessors who will manage the crisis from a different perspective (Hu & Pang, 2016).
Action taken in response to crisis
Another factor that is important for the crisis management strategy is the action that will be made in response to the identified crisis event. After assessment and identification of potential crisis that the company faces, there is a need to come up with alternative or complementary solutions to the crisis. The identification of a possible settlement of the crisis is a crucial role of the risk management plan, which explains why the team needs to have personnel experienced in measuring and assessing risk (Booth, 2015). The solution should not influence the company's performance in the market. For example in a tourism firm, the tourists may tend to stop using the services of the enterprise, this becomes a risk on the performance of the company, and thus, action has to be taken in response. The risk management strategy should outline a possible solution to probable risk by establishing a risk matrix. The management should gather all the facts and reasons to why such a crisis event has occurred and come up with an immediate response to the crisis at hand. Crisis management should provide an alternative solution that will ensure that the company's financial health maintains steady, and the clients are satisfied with the services that the firm is offerings (Booth, 2015).
Crisis communication messages
The crisis management team should come up with the messages transmittable to the team in case of an escalating event. The messages that provided should be in line with the risk event at hand and should carry all quintessential information regarding the crisis for purposes of easy managerial interpretations. In the case of a tourism firm, the crisis event may be the increased or hiked hotel charges that make tourists stop using a company's service. Such an event needs communication to the concerned parties in the tourism sector. The message has to package information in a manner that allows easy decoding and encoding for quality assessment. Once the evaluation procedures are complete, the message can be communicated to the members of the crisis management team/risk management committee for further actions. The messages communicated should be clear and structured for understanding and better assessment (Kuntzman & Drake, 2016). The simplicity and clarity of the messages will make it easier for actions to be taken to manage the crisis. Top managers need to be informed about the need to manage risk and participate in risk assessment and evaluation for purposes of establishing risk appetite, matrix and probabilities. The strategy should outline facts only in the messages transmitted to the company management and the employees. The defined facts will make it easier for the risk management strategy to work and reduce the crisis that may arise in the business (Kuntzman & Drake, 2016).
Communication channels
One of the most important elements in crisis management is the communication channels. The crisis has to be communicated throughout the company, and thus, there is a need for effective and well-structured communication channel when addressing a crisis. Besides, the crisis management requires passing across message between the team members and the firm, using proper communication channels. For example, when the management team has identified the crisis event within the enterprise, facts and causes should be collected from reliable sources and be kept together in a database or file. The collected facts can then be shared to the chief financial officers, auditors and risk assessment committee through effective communication channels instituted by the company (Coombs,2015). The channels for communication may include seminars, lectures and even through internal company memos. The communication channels should aim at effective delivery of messages to the responsible parties and promptly to address the crisis immediately. In essence, communication of an event should vary from employees, team members and the management of the firm. However, the effectiveness of the communication strategy has to be a two-tier process. In most firms, the flow of information is from top leadership to employees. Communication transmission utilizes the available channels of information that the company puts into use (Coombs,2015).The effectiveness of the risk management strategy is expandable to higher levels by putting in place effective communication channels.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, crisis management is very crucial to any business enterprise: this is because the escalating events occur in a business. Therefore, there is a need to have an effective crisis management strategy with the key elements discussed above to identify and solve the crisis events that may occur in a company setting. The above-discussed points are effective and helpful in the management and addressing of the crisis event and restoring the company's performance, positioning itself in competitive market and streamlining business operations (Claeys & Cauberghe, 2012). Businesses can take into practice the above highlights if they want to grow and maintain their market strength and performance. Besides, there should be improvements instituted on strategies to align company objectives with crisis risk management. Following the risk management strategy and having effective communication within the firm will improve the company’s capacity to attain goals and enable the business to attain objectives and goals (Claeys & Cauberghe, 2012).
REFERENCES
Ulmer, R. R., Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2013). Effective crisis communication:
Moving from crisis to opportunity. Sage Publications.
Claeys, A. S., & Cauberghe, V. (2012). Crisis response and crisis timing strategies, two sides
of the same coin. Public Relations Review, 38(1), 83-88.
Coombs, W. T. (2015). The value of communication during a crisis: Insights from strategic
communication research. Business Horizons, 58(2), 141-148.
Booth, S. A. (2015). Crisis management strategy: Competition and change in modern
enterprises. Routledge.
Hu, Y., & Pang, A. (2016). Public relations practitioners' perceptions of the use of crisis
response strategies in China. Public Relations Review.
Kuntzman, L. E., & Drake, J. L. (2016). Introduction: An Overview of Crisis
Communication. In Communicating Climate-Change and Natural Hazard Risk and
Cultivating Resilience. New York: Springer International Publishing.
Yu, R. (2016). Analyzing Concepts of Crisis Management, Crisis Public Relations, and Crisis
Communication Based on the Perspective of Management. In Proceedings of 2015
2nd International Conference on Industrial Economics System and Industrial Security
Engineering. Springer Singapore. 3(2), 465-468
