...Clear and transparent communication efforts are critical in the strength of an organization. These efforts go beyond the internal walls of an organization and extend to their external customers. Effective and efficient communication is crucial to an organization on how consumers perceive the company and brand. There seemed to be a significant break-down across the lines of communication within Toyota, which resulted in a significant negative public perception of the organization and brand. Toyota Motor Corporation is in need of a communications overhaul across the entire organization to prevent future crisis’s and to retain market share, as well as capture additional market share. Implementing a communications improvement plan across the organization will cost approximately 11% of working capital, however, the opportunity cost of restoring and maintaining the reputable brand that has been known for reliability, durability and quality will be priceless. Operations Improvement Plan Implementation “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” – James Humes The purpose of this paper is to illustrate why Toyota is in need of a communications improvement plan overhaul. I have identified the root cause of the accelerator recall crisis as a lack of critical and pertinent information and data effectively communicated across all parties within the organization. The goal of implementing a communications improvement plan is to close the communication gaps across the organization...
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...Running Head: ANALYSIS, REFLECTION AND EVALUATION Organizational Communication Analysis Part V: Analysis, Reflection and Evaluation Analysis, Reflection and Evaluation Researching and exploring the many communication avenues throughout this process, there have been many discoveries. There is no business immune from experiencing a crisis or challenging event. It can happen at any given time without warning which can devastate any organization not prepared. A new approach to crisis management is emerging which progresses beyond a purely reactive response and creates fresh opportunities for improved organizational development. There will be discussion on the traditional event approach to crisis management, which focuses on preparing for and responding to a major adverse occurrence, and discusses the new process approach, which reshapes crisis management within a broader range of management activity. Crisis prevention instead of just crisis response necessitates moving responsibility from the operational to the executive level, and the discussion will explore how crisis management activities can be clustered together and integrated to optimize organizational effectiveness. Virtually nothing can damage organizational reputation and financial performance more rapidly and more deeply than the impact of a major crisis. Yet many organizations continue to delegate responsibility for crisis management to operational middle managers, while reputation management increasingly secures...
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...Management TOYOTA: THE ACCELERATOR CRISIS Study Case Report | | 1. What were the drivers of Toyota´s accelerators crisis? Why was Toyota facing a recall crisis? The drivers of Toyota crisis were Strategic, structural and cultural issues. At the strategic level, the cost reduction strategy added with the increasing of the output volume strategy caused a decrease in quality. Furthermore, the structure of Toyota (HQs in Japan and not in the U.S) impacted Toyota’s response to customer’s claims, taking a long time to address Toyota consumer’s concerns, and in fact was one of the most criticized issues during the crisis. In other words, the company took a considerable time before recalling units that meant life losses and significant economic impacts. At the cultural managerial level, there were difficulties driven by how Japanese address the situation vs. how Americans deal with the problems. The company lost its original philosophy due to different cultural orientations between Japanese headquarters and North American subsidiaries. The fact that Toyota was recovering from its last unit’s recall (due to motors leaking oil) plus the beginning of the global financial crisis, ended up yielding a deviation of the original long term plan to look after the U.S subsidiary´s financial performance, triggering a swap in the three main pillars of Toyota (Safety, Quality and Volume). 2. Michael Porter claims that “operational effectiveness” is not a strategy. Why was...
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...framed (Depoe et al., 2004). Health Communication Health communication research on decision-making focuses on the communication that occurs between patient-provider, patient-family, and among health professionals in making decisions. This research focuses on how decisions are made regarding treatment and prevention options (Marks, Ok, Joung, & Allegrante, 2010; Quillin, Tracy, Ancker, Mustian, Ellington, Viswanath, Miller, 2009), donor decisions (Brown et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2010), and health risk communication (Ozanne, Wittenberg, Garber, Weeks, 2010). This research tends to be both descriptive and prescriptive in approach, as the potential health outcomes studied are crucial and linked to illnesses such as cancer (Marks et al., 2010). In these contexts, decision-making is usually shared, defined as “a process in which the patient and providers consider outcome probabilities and patients’ preferences and reach a health care decision based on mutual agreement” (Orchard, King, Khalili, & Bezzina, 2012, p. 60). Embedded in this is an emphasis on the active role of the patient and the process as being a patient-centered partnership (Butz, Walker, Pulsifer, & Winklestein, 2007; Thistlethwaite, Evans, Tie, & Heal, 2006). Crisis Communication In the context of crisis communication , researchers often examine how group decision-making can cause crises, how the process occurs during crises, and how decision making functions after the crisis occurs...
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...then stored on the company’s servers. In 2007, computer hackers launched a Denial of Service (DoS) attack on iPremiere’s website, temporarily shutting down the website and taunting iPremiere with emails. The possibility of hackers breaching its security firewall is extremely troubling because it puts customer financial information at risk and the loss of this public trust would be disastrous for iPremiere. The purpose of this paper is to assess why iPremiere was vulnerable to attack, examine their approach to both IT risk management and crisis communications and offer recommendations that foster customer trust and company profitability in the future. SWOT Analysis A brief SWOT analysis shows that iPremier’s strengths include good placement in the e-commerce marketplace and a highly experienced and productive team of managers and software developers dedicated to meeting company expectations. Weaknesses include weak IT security and outdated crisis management procedures. Opportunities revolve around maximizing its financial position in an e-commerce field focused on luxury, high-end retail items, while cyber hackers and potential lawsuits from other companies and customers pose considerable threats to iPremier’s future. Core Issues Technical Architecture – Most of...
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...subordinate must know how to distinguish right from wrong by using sound judgment. Likewise, the leader must to learn his own strengths and weaknesses at work as well as his personal life and seek new professional skills. Everybody has different opinions and attitudes towards values, lifestyles, and behaviors. Thus, an effective leader will use diversity at the workplace to combat the fierce competition in the market place. Cultural diversity within the organization will only add to the company’s growth. By valuing and respecting cultural differences at work, leaders may avoid the negative stereotypes that can affect the company’s success. Leaders need to address the importance of open communications within the organization. Active listening, questioning, and placing emphasis on verbal and written communications between management and...
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...THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN CRISIS PREPAREDNESS, RESPONSE AND RECOVERY By Jason Christopher Chan (RPO) Executive Summary In recent years, social media has exploded as a category of online discourse where people create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious rate. The five key characteristics of social media: collectivity; connectedness; completeness; clarity and collaboration lend itself to be used increasingly to support crisis management functions. This paper examines the various categories of social media tools to understand how they can be utilised to enhance analytical and response capabilities of organisations for crisis management. The paper identified four main social media functions: (1) information dissemination, (2) disaster planning and training, (3) collaborative problem solving and decision making, and (4) information gathering, which are then mapped onto the three crisis management phases of preparedness, response and recovery to describe how a range of social media tools may be used to enhance crisis communications. Case examples of international organisations and governments using social media for crisis management are shared. The paper proposes a framework to enhance government use of social media for crisis management that encompasses the need for a mandate, differentiated guidelines and three key capabilities to be developed. 1 Introduction 1. Crisis management is a critical organisational function that involves planning and dynamic...
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...Behavior and Communication Alexia Karavasilis BCOM/230 8/14/2011 Byron Johnson Behavior and Communication You’ve seen them on the news and read about them in the news paper, know that they help people in communities around the country and around the world every day. The American Red Cross is there whenever, wherever, they are needed. The American Red Cross’s Culture has been created by the paid and volunteers within the organization. The website for the American Red Cross (2011) includes their mission statement: “The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization, which is led my volunteers, that provides relief to victims of disaster and helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies.” The value of the American Red Cross is the foundation for the way they interact and hold themselves. The values of the American Red Cross are Accountability, Collaboration, Commitment to Results, Trustworthiness and Humanitarianism (American Red Cross, 2011). These Values create the culture of this organization. Communication within the American Red Cross is very important. The organization is committed to results within the organization. The American Red Cross uses the PIER System for communication. The PIER System is a leading provider of web-based communication management technology (Schafer, 2009). The American Red Cross use the PIER system for internal and external communications with employees, the public, investors, the media...
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...Introduction In the 24th of December in 2015, a fire started in one of public hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The hospital is called Jazan General Hospital, in Jazan city located in the southwestern region. It is a governmental hospital that belongs to the ministry of health of Saudi Arabia. The fire was tragic, caused the death of 25 people and 127 injuries. The crisis grabbed media attention and different official entities in Saudi Arabia. This report will describe the situation and analyze the communication management of this crisis, how the ministry handled it, the communication effectiveness and some ethical issues. In addition, the report will provide some recommendations to handle such crisis. Situation Description Crisis Situation Overview The hospital in which the fire happened is located in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia. That region has a low population number. The fire started early morning on Thursday, the 24th of December 2015. The tragedy is high, as 25 people died and 127 were injured. The numbers are big and that caused the incident to be considered as a national disaster. People in social media such as Tiwtter and Facebook started talking about the fire. Videos and pictures were spread around and people shared them. Some citizens volunteered to rescue people from the fire and help in evacuation. Initial response from the ministry was to acknowledge the fire incident. It stated also that the evacuation of children was successful and all children...
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...* * How and why is it important for businesses to engage with the media during a crisis? What strategies are successful in external communications for business during such times? Compare & contrast two news stories which centre on a crisis for different businesses giving detailed analysis of each communications strategy. This Essay will begin by reviewing crisis definitions and message strategies. Next it will explore translation strategies used by organisations involved in a crisis to communicate with stakeholders. The essay will then consider Ford–Firestone’s tire failure crisis of 2000 as an example of poor crisis management, and contrast toy maker Mattel’s recall crisis of 2007 as an example of successful crisis management. It will first lie out the rhetorical context of each case before embarking on a detailed analysis equating the effectiveness of both firms’ external communications, and in the case of Ford-Firestone, how these might have been alternatively approached in order to avoid detrimental reputational damage. * Fink (1986, from King, 2000) defines an organisational crisis as ‘a situation that can potentially escalate in intensity, fall under close government or media scrutiny, jeopardize the current public image of the organisation or interfere with normal business operations.’ Pearson and Mitroff support this in their ‘five dimensions of a crisis’, explaining that the situation will be ‘highly visible, require immediate attention, have a surprise...
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...BP OIL SPILL (2010) BP Oil Spill (2010) kemy Emesih Southern New Hampshire University Abstract In researching this topic, the organizational roles, structures and behaviors at various levels of employee hierarchy and how they played into one of the biggest crisis in the United States – BP oil spill 2010 was examined. Also looked at, was the dysfunction within the organization and if the cleanup had led to a better organizational structure, culture, communication, leadership and behavior. What are irredeemably forsaken are reputation and trust that can lead to a company folding up if it is not built on a good Organizational structure, culture, personality, communication, decision making and ethics. Some research questions were asked and used to answer some of these issues. What were the behavioral approach as it pertained to leadership? How did leadership influence, change or manage people? Did it inspire a vision, put people first and act decisively when there were issues? Etc. As stated above, this research paper specifically looks at BP Organizational structure and communication, culture, leadership and behavior as a whole and provides some solutions that could better help, prevent or avoid future crisis. BP Oil Spill 2010 Introduction In every company or organization, there is a structure and there are rules and regulations that guide the...
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...bee_and_tom@hotmail.com Download Date | 9/16/12 10:06 AM Responding in Crises: A Comparative Analysis of Disaster Responses between Mainland China and Taiwan Chun-Chieh MA Abstract The management of crisis events involves activity at the organizational and governmental jurisdiction levels and is comprised of an integrated system of practice and structure. However, because there are two systems involved in crisis response, namely centralization and decentralization of disaster management, there are differences in governmental actions in response to crisis events. This article analyzes and compares the actions of disaster responses undertaken by mainland China and Taiwan when faced with major natural disasters in order to demonstrate the different response results and defects of centralized and decentralized crisis response systems, respectively. The results showed that the efficiency of decentralized response systems is higher than that of centralized systems, as respondents in a decentralized system have the ability to make independent judgments and respond to crisis situations flexibly. However, there are also restrictions on the successful operation of decentralized response systems, including problems concerning the organizational command and control model, military operations, and communication and coordination...
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...Lauren Volosin 4/29/13 PR Crisis Com. Research Paper Toyota Recall Crisis Toyota Motor Company has been known to be one of the greatest automobile manufacturers in the United States due to their durability and good quality. Toyota had a great reputation for many years until August 28, 2009 was the day that began the start of a crisis that led the company to turmoil. On this day, four people were killed in a fatal crash due to a gas pedal being stuck and they no longer had control of their car’s speed (Autoevolution). This became a public relations crisis communication catastrophe as soon as this story got out into the public. Toyota made several PR mistakes before and after this event but they did a few things right as well and managed to overcome this issue with success. Evaluating the effectiveness of the response to this crisis and analyzing the communication, there are many things in which a PR practitioner can learn from. To properly analysis the Toyota Recall Crisis, I have researched the organization, situation, and nature of the crisis as well as reviewing three particular artifacts from the company’s response to the crisis. The organization of the crisis was Toyota Motor Company which was made up by its image on quality guarantee and dependability. According to a study conducted by global research group Millward Brown, Toyota was voted seventh most trusted consumer brand in the United States. It was seen as one of the strongest corporate brand names around...
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...Prime Financial Credit Union’s Robbery Crisis Management Strategy Submitted by: Stephanie Koenig, Amy Seipp, Michael Hill, John Holmes Jr., & Charles Tate Introduction Crisis management is a complex process that requires competencies of individuals throughout and beyond the organization. When asked about their preparedness in the event of a crisis, banks will often point to plans prepared by operations officers, data processing managers and human resources supervisors. In the case of an uneventfully unplanned bank robbery at your local federal bank, being able to react quickly, efficiently and in an organized manner may result in defusing an unpleasant situation quickly, or at least in mitigating the overall adverse publicity received by your organization. If you are not organized and not cognizant that a crisis will arise at your institution, then your first reaction will be to panic. Banks and thrifts are tested in the marketplace by adverse circumstances. Those institutions with crisis management task forces in place can react in a manner that will mitigate the adverse circumstances facing the organization. Potential Crises Bank robberies are relatively uncommon: only about 2 of every 100 robberies are of a bank. Although violence is rare, employees and customers are at some risk of injury. If nothing else, being victimized can be terrifying. In addition, bank robberies can invoke fear in the community at large, as most are well-covered by the media...
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...Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Dr. Lu Leadership and Organizational behavior- BUS520 November 7, 2011 Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact organizational performance In order for any company to succeed, there needs to be an effective leader to lead the organization in the right direction. The leader must be someone who not only knows about the company and where it needs to go but also how to take its resources (its employees, its equipment) and put it together to come up with a winning formula. The role of leadership is very important and the goals that a company wants to meet will not be attainable without an effective leader. A leader needs to be able to motivate and influence its employees. This is especially true in today’s down economy and highly competitive environment. The organization must look upon its employees to assess the playing field, formulate strategies, and unite organizational managers to work towards the common goals of staying in business, making a profit, and continuously improve market share. In essence, the primary role of a leader in an organization is to draw the road map for the organization to execute – often, this may involve some changes to the way it ran its business in the past. Therefore, the leader is the critical actor in drama of organization change to achieve the goals (Schneider, 1994). To initiate change, an effective leader, manager, director will need...
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