CRISIS ASSIGNMENT
CMP XXXXXXXXXXCRISIS COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT
Restoring Organizational Image While Protecting Public Interests
Incident: “Thirty-five line employees at your mid-size company have been
demanding wage increases and benefit enhancements. They show up on
Tuesday morning not to work, but to picket. There’s news media everywhere.”
AUDIENCE:
Assume that you are an organization spokesperson responding to a specific organizational crisis.
Your audience consists of various television and other media representatives (newspaper, TV,
adio, etc.). Depending on the nature of your organization and the scope of the crisis, you can
assume they represent a mix of local, state, regional, national, and international media sources.
TOPIC:
Your goal is to create a
iefing informed by researching similar organizational crises. Conside
organizational crises such as those identified in the Crisis Communication chapter in your text,
or simply search for these kinds of situation online. Thoroughly consider what simila
organizations may have done or said in response to the crisis, and any critique or praise that
analysts may have made about the organization's actions.
Research will help you form the backbone of your crisis
iefing, but you are NOT to just pa
ot
what another organization said and did; you are to come up with something original and
BETTER than what somebody else did.
PRESENTATION:
Assume the role of a corporate representative for the organization you proposed in the
preceding assignment, and create a media
iefing that responds to the crisis using image
estoration strategies covered in Chapter 13. Select the strategies that are most appropriate fo
the circumstances you have discovered (primarily your understanding of audience perceptions)
in your research. This is a persuasive presentation. Your goal is to mitigate organizational image
damage while protecting affected publics. Therefore, it is vital that you model solid, unbiased
support from independent information sources for the image restoration strategies you use.
You may use only notes for your delivery, and you will be showing these notes as part of the
video following the presentation. Manuscripts may not be used.
STRUCTURE:
All crisis
iefings should conform to the N-A-R persuasive speaking structure. Because of the
nature of this speech, there is a probability that the refutation section will change into the form
of “preemptory statements” which will answer concerns likely to be raised by the media. If you
deny anything in your
iefing, though, clearly, you’ll need to do it in your refutation section!
Remember: your goal is to decrease uncertainty.
TIME LIMITS:
Your speech is to be 5 minutes in length. You should aim for 5, anyway – certainly not less than
4 and not more than say, 5:15 or 5:30. Effective time management will be considered in the
speech grade. Plan carefully and practice thoroughly.
WRITTEN SUBMISSION:
Compose a complete statement (in outline form) for submission to turnitin for the assignment.
You will use only notes for your delivery, and you will be recording those notes at the end of the
presentation; not doing so will lose one letter grade.
You can refer to the sample manuscript outline in Chapter 13, but the manuscript you upload to
turnitin.com must also include/illustrate the following:
● Use a standard, easily readable font size and style.
● Insert clear headings in the manuscript to designate the different sections of the speech
(i.e., Introduction, Na
ative, Arguments, Refutation, Conclusion).
● Double-space the entire document, and use standard one-inch margins all around.
● Identify each image restoration strategy used in the arguments section of the
manuscript. Do this by inserting IN RED the name of each strategy used in
ackets
immediately following the text representing that strategy. (This is so I can see that you
understand what strategies you are using.)
● Identify transitions between divisions and between main points.
● Identify all supporting material and source citations.
COVER PAGE: Create a cover page(s) to be included with the manuscript that includes the
following information:
1. Your name.
2. The name of the organization you are representing.
3. A concise single sentence statement identifying the crisis situation (provided by the
assignment.
4. The approximate date of the crisis itself and the hypothetical date the crisis
iefing
would ideally take place.
5. A thorough paragraph that clearly explains what strategies you will use and why you
chose them.
6. You also want to justify what you consider to be the two most important image
estoration strategies used in the
iefing.
Note:
Do not choose a hypothetical
iefing date that is too close to the actual crisis situation. You will
need to give yourself some “distance” from the event so that it will be possible to locate and
include various written sources as supporting material (see below). Responses immediately
following crisis events are almost-always limited to unsupported and unverified speculation.
However, don’t pick a date that is too far removed from the crisis. If you take too long to
espond, it will seem like you don’t care about the crisis or its victims.
SUPPORTING MATERIAL:
Use a small amount of supporting material (statistics, testimonies, examples) throughout you
written presentation to clarify, defend, and validate your points. This support must come from
three highly credible, independent sources. You will likely rely on reputable news outlets.
For example, when representing a school district in the wake of an active shooter situation, one
might try to differentiate the crisis by stating that “the mean reported age of shooters is 17”
(chds.us, 2018), and in this rare case the shooter’s age was 11. Or, you may submit that mass
shootings have become increasingly common and “more than half of mass shootings [57%]
have occu
ed in the past ten years” (Nat’l. Crime Victim Rights Bulletin, 2018).
Information originating from your own organization (comments from members of you
organization, information on your organizational web site, etc.) do not count as independent
support. Sources of support material must be clearly and thoroughly cited orally for you
audience in the speech. Prepare a separate reference page of support sources (only those
sources specifically cited in the speech) using APA style format, and include it with you
manuscript.
PRESENTATIONAL STYLE:
Deliver the
iefing in an extemporaneous “press conference” presentation. Speakers must
“own” their material, establish sustained eye contact, incorporate gestures, and develop a
natural sounding vocal quality.
Again -- assume this is a presentation to a media audience (including television media). In such
cases, the “target” audience is composed of media and – thus -- media viewers.
Sample of Crisis Briefing for guidance.docx
Crisis Briefing
SAMPLE OF CRISIS OUTLINE (To be used as a guide DO NOT COPY)
Company name: IC&Co.
There has been an incident of racial discrimination and profiling in our company.
Crisis date: Monday, April 28th, 2020
Briefing date: Friday, May 8th, 2020.
For this presentation, I will be using three image restoration strategies. They are Mortification;
This is a strategy where an organization admits their fault and begs forgiveness and if the
audience finds the apology sincere, they can forgive that organization. I chose this because, with
the case that I am dealing with which is racism, I believe that the best way to approach it initially
is to accept that we are at fault and apologize. The key here is to give the audience our sincerity
ather than trying to prove our innocence. Bolstering: This strategy involves relating positive
attributes of the organization that might mitigate the negative consequences of the crisis. I used
this because I want my audience to know that we do take our company values seriously. This will
likely release uncertainty about how we train our staff and how well we value our company’s
purpose. Co
ective Action: Vow to restore the situation to the state it was before the crisis or to
prevent the recu
ence of the crisis. I chose to use this strategy because the case that I am
addressing is an internal affair in the company, therefore, then I should give my audience proof
of what I am doing to make sure that the incident will not repeat itself from our end.
The two most important image restoration strategies are Mortification and Co
ective Action.
This is because of the case that I am dealing with involves a racial minority. The fact that there
was evidence that proved that it was my company, I ought to apologize to my audience and the
affected party. Also, I have to take actions that will co
ect and prevent the problem.
Introduction
1
Crisis Briefing
I. Gain attention: We are now a couple of days into the incident involving one of ou
company staff and a client and we have been discussing measures to help us deal with it
and prevent further incidents.
II. Establish credibility: My name is Thelma and I am the corporate representative for the
organization overseeing the cu
ent incident.
A. I have been working on the case for the past two weeks; investigating and
gathering evidence.
B. In order to handle this case, there have been discussions among my team members
and the management team of the company to address this problem,
(transition): After discussing with the team, we have made some decisions and taken a few
measures to prevent a similar case in the future and protect our clients.
Na
ative
Recently, a case of racial profiling in our company has been
ought to light. It was
etween our employees and the client. There has been a lot of media involvement in the case. We
are dedicated to ensuring that our clients are offered the best services and we have a
zero-tolerance to discrimination of any kind. We understand that there is uncertainty among ou
customers and shareholders about our company’s values and this has not only cost us custome
trust but the company image as well. I am ashamed that this incident occu
ed at all and we are
working hard to get to the bottom of this incident to set things straight.
On Monday, April 28, we learned of an incident where one of our employees made
acially offensive comments to a client. From what we have gathered from witnesses and othe
evidence, we will take full responsibility and we are moving on to investigate this case within the
company and will provide details and results as needed.
(Transition) : Now, that I have given you a background on the situation, I will go into detail on
how we are dealing with the situation.
2
Crisis Briefing
Arguments
I. (Mortification) I would like to begin by apologizing to all our clients for causing this
uncertainty.
A. I am regretful to our clients that trusted and believed in our company’s mission
statement and values.
B. I understand that there is no excuse to justify this behavior.
C. It is our responsibility as the management of the company to thoroughly screen
employees and I am so
y that we defaulted in that aspect.
(Transition) : Despite my deep regret, I believe strongly in our values and we