Proactive planning is defined as taking the initiative of coming up with a plan at an early stage, schedule crucial events and get prepared for success. In proactive planning, desired future is designed earlier enough. Ways through which the set goal can be achieved is then invented. Unlike in the reactive planning where crisis happen and then efforts are put to correct, proactive focuses more on action and result based activities (Eagle, Dahl, Czarnecka, & Lloyd, 2014). Identification of opportunities and looking for the best way to exploit that opportunity is what proactive plan is all about. It involves taking preemptory action on any possible problem and threats. It, therefore, means that the first step in proactive planning begins by thinking about the future. When an organization comes up with an objective anticipation of its future needs and possible threats, it will be more equipped to design a strategy that will ensure optimum performance and best ways to deal with problems (Bernstein, 2011). Proactive is of great benefit as compared to active planning. An organization that is capable of planning ahead always has much control of what its future holds. It is also possible for the company that uses proactive planning to optimize its efficiency within the primary business activities.
Feedback Mechanism
Successful communication is achieved when feedback is received. It is from feedback that an organization can know its success or failures. Feedback helps in making necessary adjustments needed to remain on course. It usually comes from customers, employees, competitors, and even shareholders (Bernstein, 2011). With the advanced technology and increased level of people using the internet, one best mechanism through which feedback can be received is the use of website blogs. Customers are known to give negative feedback to the company website blogs and other social networks such as Facebook and Tweeter. It is always important to find out what the organization is doing wrong that would warrant the negative feedback (Eagle et al., 2014). Most organizations consider the use of hotline for their employees to give feedback. General meetings can also be called, and employees are given the opportunity to give their opinion on the progress of the project. There is a need for a face to face talk with all stakeholders at different sessions where every group is given the opportunity to air their views. The other feedback mechanism is getting sentiments made by stock market investors. A public relation is concerned at portraying the organization positively. Therefore getting such information would greatly help in designing the best strategy to go over the negative publicity (Eagle et al., 2014). Some of the most effective ways of correcting negative or positive publicity are the use of media channels to give the company a positive coverage over the negative issues raised and to thank those with positive feedback.
Ineffectual Deployment Plan
The ineffectual way of deploying any given plan is by sitting on the feedback received and not doing anything about it completely. Numerous organizations receive both negative and positive feedback from various groups. They, however, ignore everything as though they are not important (Bernstein, 2011). Failing to take action or come to the public to explain the position of the organization on the issues raised may be considered being arrogant and confirms that allegations are true. The choice to comment publicly on the issue at hand does not out rightly make it effectual. Ineffectual deployment plan occurs when everyone goes out to explain what has happened without a single spokesperson. Immediately after receiving the feedback, there is a need to put up crisis management and media relation plan (Eagle et al., 2014). Ineffectual deployment plan comes in when an organization knows it is in crisis following the feedback received but still fails to come up with crisis management team. There are those organizations that consider going for media relation plan and lie about the incident. It is ineffectual to be dishonest when handling the crisis. It will not be possible to hide under lies forever. The day the organization’s lies get exposed; the situation will even be worse and may be too costly to manage. There are genuine attempts that can be made by an organization such as going to the media to give an honest explanation of the situation (Bernstein, 2011). Without properly understanding every aspect of the problem before hand, such as getting the legal perspective, may make the story be out of touch. That will equally make deployment plan very ineffectual even though the attempts are honest and truthful.
Proactive Crisis Management Plan
Every organization needs proactive crisis management plan. It is through crisis management plan that the organization can be highly prepared to handle issues raised by the public, staffs, and or even investors. It is much better to plan for a possible future crisis and design ways to go over them instead of waiting for the crisis to take place and that start looking for the solution (Eagle et al., 2014). Companies with proactive crisis management plan always settle their issues so first and reduce the magnitude of the damage caused by the crisis. With effective proactive crisis management plan, organizations are capable of recovering from the damage so fast unlike those that do not have it (Bernstein, 2011).
Reactive Crisis Management Plan
Organizations used reactive crisis management when there was no earlier plan for the crisis. When the crisis finds an organization unexpectedly, public relations are usually called to help protect the image of the company. There are several roles public relations play in the reactive crisis management the same way it is in the proactive. It is because they are ones responsible for the management of company’s communication (Eagle et al., 2014). Management of communication within the organization and outside the company is the role of public relation department. The other role is dealing with media and the public in an honest and ethical way when in a crisis. They have to ensure that public and media perception is properly managed. Public relations are expected to relay company messages and make the effort of solving the existing conflict in the most appropriate way to all persons of interest. This department is known to be equipped with specialist and experts that are capable of effectively addressing any crisis that occurs and was not planned (Bernstein, 2011). They think so first and work hard to find the best way to contain the damage that the crisis can cause to the company. Communication over the crisis varies from one group to another. Public relations are expected to ensure that communication to relevant authorities is done in the most appropriate way. It is the public relations role to decide on the next cause of action about the crisis the company is facing. Their choice of strategy, as well as communication, should be respected by the organization. It is from those strategies and combination of communication tools that the success of the company over the crisis can be realized (Eagle et al., 2014). Public relations are important in both the proactive and reactive crisis management. However reactive crisis management finds them unprepared and they are to do much to contain the situation.
References
Bernstein, J. (2011). Manager's Guide to Crisis Management. McGraw-Hill.
Eagle, L., Dahl, S., Czarnecka, B., & Lloyd, J. (2014). Marketing communications. Routledge.
