Crisis Management

After going through this week chapter on the topic of crisis management, I realised that unlike what most people think, crisis management is not to merely react to the situation. By this I mean that the PR practitioners not only need to react to the crisis only when it had happened. A crisis had to be planned for.

There are a lot of different crisis that can happen, man-made disaster like terrorism or Mother Nature unleashing her wrath. Situation like having to recall defective products or changes to the leadership can also be a crisis.

As I had mentioned earlier, a crisis had to be planned for, having a plan in advance make it easier for the PR practitioner to deal with the crisis. You can respond to the crisis faster and not waste too much time thinking of what to do.

An important element in handling a crisis, in my opinion, is the need for an organisation to be transparent with the way that they are dealing with the crisis at hand. The organisation need to be open and honest with the stakeholders involved in the crisis. If not, it will lead to the stakeholders losing all their faith in the organisation.

In the chapter on PR and the Third sector, we learned that NGOs also need to make smart use of the power of PR to help them achieve their goals. These kinds of organisation are often different from others, in that they are not driven by profits, but instead fighting for a cause. A NGO does not want to sell you anything, they want you to listen to them and help them in their cause. They are trying to push a message across. In this age, PR can be used effectively to help improve the image of NGOs to the public.