Reading Summary Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Conflict Management: Dealing with Issues, Risks, and Crises

• Crisis communication: PR influences the course of conflicts to the benefit of the organization and when possible to the benefit of the organizations many constituents 
• Strategic Conflict Management
• Strategic: purpose of achieving particular objectives
• Management: planned, deliberate action
• Competition: striving for the same object, position, or prize as others
• Conflict: sharp disagreements or opposition resulting in a direct, overt threat of attack from another entity 
• Sense of mission and conviction that:
• your organization’s behavior is honorable and defensible 
• your organization is ethical
• your organization’s mission is worthy
• your advocacy of the organization has integrity 
• your organization works at creating mutual benefits whenever possible 
• PR’s role is reducing conflict or crisis management 
• Stance approach determines the strategy 
• Threat appraisal- assess the seriousness of the threat and the resources needed to combat it 
• Organizational: Do you have the knowledge, time ,finances, and management commitment to combat the threat?
• Situational: How do you assess the severity of the danger to the organization? What effort is required by you?
• It depends approach
• First principle: many factors determine the stance or position of an organization when it comes to dealing with conflict and perceived threats against the organization 
• Second principle: public relations stance for dealing with a particular audience or public is dynamic, changes as events unfold. 
• These form the contingency theory: factors and forces can influence the stance 
• Factors: external threats, industry specific environment, general political/social environment, external public’s characteristics, issue under consideration, general corporate/ organizational characteristics, characteristics of the public relations department, top management characteristics, internal threats, personality characteristics of internal and involved persons, relationship characteristics
• Contingency continuum: possible variables that influence an organization;s response is helpful in understanding inputs into the complex decision-making process 
• pure advocacy: hard nosed stance completely disagreeing with arguments or claims 
• pure accommodation: agrees with its critics, changes its policies, makes restitution and makes a full apology for its actions 
• Conflict management life cycle
• Proactive phase: includes activities and thought processes that can prevent a conflict from arising or getting out of hand
• Environmental scanning- constant reading, listening, and watching of current affairs with an eye to interests
• Issues tracking: more focus and systematic through processes such as daily clipping of news stories
• Issues management: organization makes behavioral changes or creates strategic plans in ways that address emerging issue 
• Crisis planning: preparing for the worst 
• Strategic Phase
• Risk communication: danger or threats to people are conveyed through personal injuries, health problems or environmental damage
• Conflict-positioning: enable organization to position itself favorably in anticipation of actions
• Crisis management plan: a plan that reduces risk communication efforts
• Reactive Phase
• Crisis communication: implementation of crisis management plan or 24/7 efforts to meet the needs of publics 
• Conflict resolution: techniques used to bring heated conflict to favorable resolution 
• Litigation PR: communication strategies and publicity efforts in support of legal actions or trials 
• Recovery Phase
• Reputation management: systematic research to learn the state or the organization’s reputation and takes steps to improve it 
• Image restoration: damage is extreme, strategies try to change image of organization