Five Stages of a Crisis Management Reaction Paper (Reaction Paper Sample)

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Question 1: Five Stages of a Crisis
Crisis refers to a significant occurrence with a possibly damaging consequence affecting an organization, company, or industry, alongside publics, services, products, or good name. The evolutionary levels of a crisis present a life cycle of five stages and the duration of each is contingent to the efficiency of the management in handling the catastrophe.
Pre-Crisis Stage
In this stage, the conditions for a crisis to prevail rest on a minute error, so that the calamity can step in. The seed that begins to grow in this stage may result from negligence or ignorance of the proper process of decision-making. The first stage of crisis stems from risky operations or a complete deficiency of crisis planning.
Warning
The warning stage remains one of the most significant cycles of a crisis, if not the most important. In this phase, the organization first recognizes a problem, and can either solve it or end forever, or it can enlarge and lead the way to total devastation. Crisis can emanate after this second life cycle easily, subject to the facing storm or the problem by overlooking it. Assertively, the overall report in this cycle is shock, complacency, or denial.
Acute Crisis
At this step, the crisis begins to occur, and the public together with the press starts to learn about the problem. An acute crisis requires a diligent approach in handling the situation, rather than avoiding it. At this stage, some damage had occurred, and the degree of further damage rests on decision makers. It insinuates a time where the documents as well as modules eliminating and putting in effect in a bid to combat the crises.
Clean Up
This references the repossession stage and individual, organizational analysis. In this stage, a detailed analysis is important in determining the cause of the crisis, coupled with the ways and approaches to evade future predicaments.
Post-crisis
In this last stage, the remedial processes take center stage to win back the lost trust and work to normality. Suppose the organization wins back the confidence of the public and work to normalcy, then the crisis has formally ended.
Question 2: Advantages of Knowing the About Crisis Before the News Media
The explosion of crisis into the mainstream media, including the Internet and the traditional media comes with consequences related to the negative remarks about the organization on the spotlight as prompted by the crisis. It is important for an organization to learn about its crisis before the media to avoid unnecessary negative feedbacks from the public. In addition to that, it will avoid cases of questioning the competence of the company’s staff attached to crisis management. Crisis spreading through the media will bring the organization’s reputation under threat within minutes, yet a negative news story over the media can make its way across the globe. Learning a crisis before the media would also serve to mitigate the crisis within the shortest time possible. Having bad news on the news media, especially social media would mean that the stories putting the organization’s reputation in doubt would stay around for a longer period.
A story that spread within minutes can exist in the news media forever, compared to when the company goes public on itself. In this situation, the company can regulate the information to makes its way to the media; hence, avoid the spread of confidential information. It is also worth noticing that the negative comments that would stem from the news media before the company makes a comment on the crisis would make it difficult for it to get out of the problem. A conscious output of information into the news media would further assist the organization take note of negative comments and employ a strategic course of action in the situation the crisis is getting out of hand. Overall, learning the crisis before the media is important in controlling the output, which remains an essential part of effective crisis management.
Question 3: Exxon and Valdez Oil Spill Crisis
Exxon faced a crisis on March 24, 1989, when it leaked oil amounting to 11 million gallons into Prince William Sound of Alaska using the Exxon Valdez oil freighter. The spillage led to significant impact on the species, with the likes of harbor seals and brown bear suffering a react loss in their population. Meanwhile, Alaska’s fisheries, beaches, national parks, and forests suffered significant influence, in the event affecting the tourism sector. The incidence happened when one of the crew fell short of maneuvering ideas due to fatigue accruing from overworking. Further, the master of the crew appeared to be have consumed alcohol, thus was unable to offer concise directions to his crew. Even though the faults took place on board, the company’s mistake referenced its unsatisfactory supply of competent crewmembers alongside the scarcity of equipment on the ship.
Further, the letdown of the United States Coast Guard to deliver an operative and well-organized vessel traffic arrangement and deficiency of operative pilot as well as guide services further instigated the crisis. In what appeared as a reaction to the situation, Exxon delayed for a longer time, coming public late to the spill of oil alongside dispatching an incompetent aid to the region. For instance, the company runs an advert in the media after ten days of oil spillage. The company’s chair, Lawrence G. Rawl, failed to make appearance to Alaska, up to two weeks following the occurrence of the crisis. In its place, he sent an incompetent team to help manage the crisis, hence showing the community that Exxon never considered the spill a true ecological challenge. Overall, the company failed to assume the responsibility for their unsuitable actions and proved to the people of Alaska that the milieu was never the main concern.
Question 4: Use of Social Media During Crisis
In the present times, the social media has blasted as an online classification discourse where individuals establish content, bookmark, segment, and network at a remarkable speed. Certainly, social media platforms provide for collectivity, connectedness, completeness, collaboration, and clarity making it an important element of crisis management. Harnessing social media tools provide an organization with the capacity to establish pliability in crisis response. In detail, social media allows for establishing avenues for collaboration to assist in the construction of robust communication for a given period. For instance, crisis managers can use social webs as well as blogs to help validate the rigor...