Topic: A critical evaluation of managing a crisis situation in South West Airlines in 2016.
Crisis management is one of the most important operation processes in the organisation to mitigate the risk and to control the situation in an ethical manner. Public relation team needs to take most of the responsibilities through the process and that impact over the operation of the company in the right way to mitigate the process quickly. Public relations team has to intervene with the issue and make some quick decisions to implement the situation, rather get rid of the situation. There are many types of crisis and most of the times organisational potential damage or stakeholders of the company are being threatened. The industry may be different but the amount of threat will be there in the same way and that impact on the business in long-term cases. There are three major threats that are related to the crisis management like public safety and security, financial loss and reputation loss of the organisation. The situation impacts over the company in a radical way, as disrupting operation and loss of market share, emergency cost barring, employees’ harassment and unusual time management and sometimes loss of lives are the main issue for the management.
In this case, crisis situation of Southwest Airlines has been described and also evaluated is the situational problem faced by the airline. Public relation team had come upon that moment, but the situation was so drastic that they cannot operate a single step to get rid of the situation. Crisis management and their possible understanding evolved through the case and that determines the business reduction situation for that company.
The crisis situation has been found in 2016 when more than 1800 flights were cancelled due to the crisis situation. The situation continued for three days and all the stakeholders’ of Southwest airlines were on the suffering side (Utz, Schultz and Glocka 2013). A technical glitch happened and it persisted for three days long. The systematic worldwide cancellation had been made by the executives of the company and passengers are not getting their flight on time. Importance of social communication is so much important, as that helped understand the situation. PR team were not working properly nor they did have any clue to contact with all the passengers to inform about the situation, thus the work was challenging for them.
The situation faced by the Southwest airlines was drastic. At the time of fixing the problem, concerned executive body was forced to cancel 700 flights on the initial day, after that they tried to solve the solution, but after so many tough attempts the consequences were not good and the crisis continued. The airlines operated 3,900 daily flights in a year but the situation was so drastic that the company had not even moved their stagnant position and that is the reason passengers were suffering, and so was the employees (Usatoday.com 2016). After that disastrous day, on the next morning, 900 flights were cancelled again and the devastating situation had continued. Most of the disruption situation had been faced by the passengers on the very next of the situation. The day was Friday and officials of the Southwest executives declared on Thursday that they would solve the issue and all the flights were going on their scheduled time but the situation had been same for the day and customers had to miss their flight due to that incident. Organisation called their passengers for the rebooking of flights, and thousands of people gathered over there to take their tickets and the reservation line was enormous. This amount of rush was first noticed by this airline company and that was supposed to be considered regarding the crisis situation that happened in Southwest airlines (Usatoday.com 2016). Southwest also provided tickets for their customers with no cost and as they have been asked to change their plan as well. A full calculation of exploring the situation and the right way to mitigate the situation did not happen in that case and that public relation team and managers were mere spectators over there.
Social media had a big role in this incident. Through the social media, the news became viral and people knew about the situation the company were in. In other section, all the social networking sites were stopped and that is the reason people were unaware of timing and all the information related to the file (Grunig 2013). The platform of social media helped to mitigate the crisis as the situation occured in case of rendering huge portions of their computers that are inoperable for more than 12 hours. The duration of the time is very big as the airlines needed 24hours service assistance in case of social media involvement and that is the reason Southwest had faced this kind of situation.
The main issue in this matter is the massive technology failure that happened in Southwest airlines. Service professional fear is always there in case of involving in crisis situation. Through this crisis situation, the positional improvement does not happen and the same situation is persisting for the Southwest airlines (Seitel 2017). The passengers are in the adverse condition phase. The situation is not fruitful, and customers suffer the most in this situation. The internal technological failure is the liable situation for this issue. In case of the crisis situation, there are some evolving cases that have come and these impacted the business.
Site management and control is the first sequence of this crisis situation. Through the site management a controlling situation may be implemented by the organization. The next level of the business is an identification of problem; in that case, problem understanding and recommended process invention is the challenging way of positioning the crisis (Austin et al. 2012). Risk evaluation and measuring the hazard is the important situation of business and through the evaluation of process, a problem can be accessed. Implement response to objectives is another state that hampers the positional ground of business and through the incidents, these situations can be addressed. Resource co-ordination is another aspect that happens in case of crisis understanding and in most of the cases; the negative impact is imposed in the situation as well.
Crisis situation impacts on the economic condition of the company and in that time importance of social media have come up to the company. In other words, the news gets their program through this process. The sharing knowledge and understanding of use in social media have been implanted in this section. The situation that happened in Southwest airlines is drastic so the management needs a concerned look over here to mitigate the situation (Johansen, Aggerholm and Frandsen 2012). Through the television, radio, media news, audio, videos, mobile phones, text messages, photographs, and all the technologies are used to send the report of this disaster but the situation is not improved in a right manner.
In case of social media understanding, there are some online communication channel and tools that are available and that impacted the possible characteristic of social media. Participation is the first part of social media contribution and feedback from everyone helps the process to provide a decision. Open accumulation of sharing is another aspect that needs to be there so that even people can take their part in an effective manner. Voting or choosing facility is also available and that will direct to the right decision. In case of traditional broadcast and two ways communication, content is an important matter of discussion and that will impact the crisis situation as well. In some cases, where a company in crisis situation communication with people and know their view is important for the development of business or to regain their position (Hendrix, Hayes and Kumar 2012). The last part is the connectedness with sites, resources and people. In this state, the organisation receives some news regarding the issue and they need to connect with the concern people to get rid of the situation. This is a kind of precautionary manner that related to the corporate ethics and understanding as well. The advancement of Real Simple Syndication and allows media to determine the situation of the crisis, sometimes they make some layers along with the situation and then presents to their viewer (Dozier, D.M., Grunig and Grunig 2013). In case of television customers, the situation will happen and that impacted the viewer and their trust has finished.
The situation of crisis is an unexpected one and it impacted the reputation of the company. Stakeholders do not trust the company policy and facilities that they provide throughout the years. Sometimes crisis moment is created intentionally to become famous through the social media. And these moments are so small in duration that it merely affects the company and the genre of grandeur is big. The damage of reputational level is big and that impacted a negative loss of reputational capital. The strongest post-crisis situation and nature of stakeholder rejection is the most drastic setback for the organisation (Bridoux and Stoelhorst 2014). There are some risks associated with the crisis and in all cases; the organisation has to suffer a lot. Crisis can be unintentionally or intentionally in some cases and that created by the external or internal factors of the organisation and sometimes it can be accessed from no relevant sections. In case of accident situation, an organisation cannot perform well in case of operative manner as the impact of the crisis is staged over there (Pang et al. 2012). There are some external factors are also associated with the task and that impacted on the organisational change in business. In case of terrorism or attack from external troupes are concerned, there are several reasons organisation changes their position and change their aim and objective also in case of some selected countries.
For making an intact situation in an organisation crisis management plan is important and it helps emerge the situation of the organisation from the vital situation of crisis. Crafting an organisation communication plan has made a successful implementation where organisation focuses on the mitigation process (Ki and Nekmat 2014). In case of implementing these plans, there are no such panaceas of guarantee in those processes that it will definitely strike and mitigate all the crisis that hampers the company is facing the time. However, there is a limitation in that case as the organisation will not ready for every occasion they will be faced in near future. An assumption is the one, they must try and that will impact the crisis planning situation of the organisation. The channel of communication needs to be structured so that in the period of crisis situation will be handled in a proper way. In case of single crisis sense, an organisation may manage the situation as they have to inform their internal or external stakeholder in that case. But in case of big crisis situation badly operation process is there and that impacts over the different stages in business and communicate with the stakeholders for the development of their business (Crandall, Parnell and Spillan 2013). Financial loss, reputational loss, loss of resources is the different crisis situations that will make an impact on the organisation.
In case of Southwest airlines, technological failure is the main reason for this entire situation. The impact of a situation is impulsive and was not spotted or determined at the initial stage. After the initial jerk, when the situation was defined by the management then it will be easy for the management to do the process in an effective manner (French and Holden 2012). Crisis response situation is not effective in that case so as the PR system as the entire data was on the computer and all the computers were not working on that stage. The situation is drastic as the alternative planning was not there. Elasticity in the organisation may change some situation especially in the crisis situation but in case of no such planning, differentiation is there and that makes the change in the resource planning for the organisation.
The pre-crisis situation is the first assumption of crisis communication and through listening, monitoring and scanning from the early stages, the crisis can be managing the situation. In that case, listening to a conversation through social media bring up some questions about the company and their situation (He 2012). Traditional media platforms sometimes make some additional colour with the incident so the people can feel the situation that happened in that place. Communication of the executives or officials in that part is essential and their intervention is also important for the development of the business. As they have to state their justification for that incident and if they are not clear enough to their customers then it will be a challenge for the management to retain their customers for future. So, a preparation is needed in that case. Engage is the last pre-crisis mode in business and as the strategies are implemented by the organization, they try to make an engagement with their existing customers after having this kind of crisis situation (Alexander 2013). The general response to the crisis is quick as much time is not there and crisis management team needs take care of that situation as they have to protect the company from his situation. The respond should be open and needs to be accurate in most of the cases. The open response allows everyone to participate in the organisation and the process is effective to get reach of the final destination of decision making. The multimodal facility is also needed for that case as the concern idea of transportation is related to this fact. Use of external data format is also important for the development of public relation team (Schwarz 2012). They have to communicate with all passengers who have boarding date on that very day. But as the system is not working and they have no alternative data registered with names, phone numbers, emails or other social messaging sites they have to the setback for the situation.
Situational Crisis Communication Theory is the most effective theory in this case as the theory is related to the crisis management strategies and also public relation administration. There are five factors and all these factors are creating a huge effect on the organisation. Crisis history and an organisational prior relationship is the concern matter of the business and in case if addressing crisis situation at the initial stage then they might implement some strategy that used in past. Prior relationship with customers also helps the organization as in case of crisis situation when new customers are mistrusting the organisation in that case existing customers will stay with the company and if the relationship is not present in that case organisation will suffer (Timothy Coombs and Jean Holladay 2014). Crisis response and strategies is another section that enacted over the situation of crisis. Crisis responsibility is directly related to strategies as the better effect can be gained in this manner. In other sections, behavioural intention is also dragged from the organization reputation. The better result can be done in the case where management understands their mistake and take the entire responsibility and promise for the better system.
Diffusion of Innovation theory is the process where sharing of information is needed in case of emergency situation. The situation is quite effective as some out of the box solution or approach has come in this prospect. This is basically used in an alternative plan. In case of tough times, when innovative strategic planning is needed, this alternative planning has been implemented through the course and most effectively employees’ involvement is addressed through the process (Palttala and Vos 2012). The effective communication plan is necessary for this theory and essential pass of ideas and information are derived from the section. Diffusion signifies that the influenced of commercial understanding and decision making strategies are coming from the ideas that employees views.
Public relation involvement is essential for the general development of the business. In case of different mission strategies, they are the only one who is liable for taking care of the adverse situation in the organisation. In case of a crisis situation, establishment and implementation of policies are important in that case and that also impacted over the management and media related shares and promotion. Though in case of crisis management all negative influences are coming from the situation or the massacre that has taken place on that situation and public relations manager come on that event and state the required approaches for the development (Avraham and Ketter 2012). Communication needs to be good so as the writing skill for a PR manager. Situational decision making and resource management qualities need to be there with the person so that in case of proper decision-making statement is important for the management. Managing different skill is important in that case and that impacts over employee engagement and professional image of the management.
In case of Southwest airline, the technological failure is so big that it impacted the company for three days. All the social media are blocked rather crushed at the time and no flights were available at that time. Almost 250,000 passengers are irritated in that process and they blame the organisation as they do not inform about the situation but in case of entire scenario, all the computer systems are not working it would have been a difficult task for the PR team to contact with all the passenger. There work is to take care of the customers in any organisation but in that case, the situation is not on their hand, and rather the situation becomes drastic when situation continues for three more days.
The effective innovative approach of humanisation is needed to be there for the faster mitigation process. The crisis situation evolved due to the technological failure, so strong technological support needs to be there so the effective mitigation process happens. Recruitment of effective employees and or training them effectively is the thinking over that time and that will need be enacted as the faster mitigation process. Multi-channel crisis communication process needs to be implemented so that effective changes needs to be done in a suitable manner. There are lots of information that discussed in between the employees and not coming out due to some reason. In that case, these discussions will come so that innovative process will come and affects the scenario for the better development of the organisation. In case of Southwest, the social media response was fast at that time; through Facebook, Twitter and other online channels the news spread out. Global response has come from all the nations and trust and relationship has got a huge threat from this incidents. Irritated passengers have made more complexity in their case. The involvement of the social media is so effective that 40% of the social media news spread this news out within 60 minutes. The response is so productive and swift that impacted the company. Nonexistence strategies include clarification, attack, denial, and intimidation are also used in this genre and that impacted over the no crisis cases. Ingratiation strategy always wants public attention and in that case, positive aspect from the crisis has derived and that impacted over the organisation image and understanding.
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that crisis management and communication is important for the development of the organisation. The real world case of Southwest airlines is important in that case and technological failure in the main reason and that is way three days haphazard situation is imposed over the organisation. Crisis situation strategy and mitigation process are important in that case, an organisation needs to improve their situation in terms of crisis mitigation so that this kind of situation will not happen again. The situation was drastic and the company overcome the situation after three days. Social media understanding and ethical issues are also discussed in this essay. Public relation is also important in that case and effective communication of the public relation manager is important in this case.
References
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