Measuring The Effect Of Viral Negative Sentiment

Discussion

Discuss About The Measuring Effect Viral Negative Sentiment?

Public relations and corporate social responsibility are two distinct reference points for the brand image and the communicational functions for the organizations within their operational area. Both these notions refer to the way of communication with the stakeholders of the company in its own way. Rangan, Chase. and Karim (2012) states that while the corporate social responsible policy refers to the intention of the company for meeting several societal issues that the community is facing and the way the company intends to help out the community, on the other hand, the public relations is associated with the idea of maintaining a brand image, popularity and reputation of the company in front of the stakeholders. Therefore, it can be understood that both the concepts refer to a kind of activity which can improve the reputation and image of the company which eventually improves the organization and its financial performance. However, there are many such organizations which do not bother about their social responsibility. According to the findings of Benn, Todd and Pendleton (2010), the public relation professionals should ensure that the company is adhering to its social responsibility and the corporate policies of any organization should be aligned to that. The public relation professionals should also understand the approach of the management and they have to behave according that. Otherwise, it usually considered to be a failure of the higher management. This can also be considered as the failure of leadership and organizational approach. This essay will trigger four recent scandals of the United Airlines which has hampered its image to a great extent. The scandal with the shortage of wine was a major failure of communication, whereas breaking the guitar and the dog death incident can be considered as a failure of leadership. Along with that, the recent scandal of throwing out the passenger is a major failure of leadership of United Airlines. As the recent incident in the United Airlines does not go with its social responsibility, this essay will critically analyze the entire situation.

Corporate social responsibility is now a significant part of any business activity which remains a resource for considerable skepticism. There are several international organizations which keep the environmental and human rights issues in accordance with the bigger environmental or societal objectives. Benn, Todd and Pendleton (2010) argue that the public relation professionals of any organization require to reflect on the practice and theory of public relations so that it operates along with the corporate policies of the organization. As stated by Ruiz-Mora, Lugo-Ocando and Castillo-Esparci (2016) the corporate social responsibility is a sustainable, integrated and systematic approach to the business activities which also acts as the significant component to the organizational structures and strategies. In addition to that, the public relations is the way which tend to enlighten the general population about the corporate policies of the company, along with ensuring that it improves the brand image by advertising the CSR achievements.

Leadership issues

However, the recent scandal that happened on April 9, 2017 at the O’Hire international Airport is devastating and it should not have been happening to any human being under any kind of circumstances. The airport police has violently threw out a passenger David Dao while he had refused to leave the airplane as the management of the airport asked him to. It  been said that it was done for accommodating some other passengers, however regardless of any kind of emergency, it was not justified, especially the way it was executed. The passenger was a 69 years old man, who was forcefully pulled out of his seat and threw out of the flight by the airport police. It was also said that he was actually unconscious while the security officers had pulled him out of the flight. The family members of Dao had claimed that he had suffered from a severe concussion, his sinuses were damaged, his nose was broken and he had also lost his two teeth from the front after he was taken out of the flight. After the video of the incident went viral online, a sheer outrage resulted from all over the world. Even the U.S president, Donald Trump condemned this act and called this treatment horrible. However, later on the next morning, the CEO of the company has issued a statement for justifying the act of removing the reluctant passenger from the flight and referred to the entire incident as ‘re-accommodating of the customers’.

Another scandal took place with United Airlines when a dog of a passengers’ family passed away during the flight. The airline already had bad records of pet deaths during their flights and this incident with the death of Houston family dog is now added to the list. The family had claimed their dog died when the flight was being hold in cargo. The company had released a statement post the incident saying that a thorough review would take place of the entire incident.  

In 2009, United Airlines has been accused of breaking guitar of the musician Dave Carroll and his band while travelling. When the band reached their destination they found out that their Taylor guitar worth $3500 was damaged severely. Later the brand created a song named ‘United breaks guitars’ which had around 16 million views on social media.

United Airlines has recently faced another scandal when they ran out of wine for international business class passengers. The management had released a memo to the flight attendants saying that the customers are consuming more wine on the flight which resulted into using 300 percent more than the estimated budget. Previously, the airline has introduced a first class luxurious class with features like multicourse meal and unlimited booze; however the management now wants to cut short the booze. This memo has been shared o n Twitter by one of the business partners of the airline, Brian Sumers.

Communication issue

Social responsibility is the recent dimension of the corporate social responsibility of the corporate social responsibility of the companies which refers to the active participation of the company to the contemporary social issues and the other affairs within the community. Therefore, the primary target of such social responsibility is the stakeholders of the company. This responsibility also includes the consumers who are availing the service and buying the products of the company (Drongelen et al. 2014). Along with that, the concept of offering satisfaction and necessary respect to the customers was included, even though it was not very new to the organizations. However, the concept of being responsible towards the consumers was added to the social responsibility which may create a profound influence on the profitability of the organization. However, in the considered situation, the company did not act responsible towards the customers and acted inhumanly for their own profitability. They broke their instruments when those were under their surveillance. In fact they were also unable to ensure the safety of the passengers’ dog.

Considering the responsibility of the organization towards the customers, it can be said that the company is obliged more to the customers comparing to the other stakeholders. This can also be considered as giving the good value of their money as well. Primarily the customers have an expectation towards the company that they are going to offer a good service and steady supply of the promised services and products (Amankwah-Amoah, Ottosson and Sjögre 2017). Therefore, it is the primary duty of the companies to deliver the right services with the enviable quality as well. The companies are also expected to deliver the services at the right place, at right time and within a fair price. Within the contemporary business scenario, the business companies are mostly considered as the social institutions as they are different from the other financial entities for two distinct reasons. Firstly, the business organizations have to consider the fact that they operate and exist within a social structure; therefore they have to be socially accepted for surviving in the industry. Secondly, they should also become socially responsible as they may have a huge influence for the life style of the society. The companies not only exist within the community for earning profits, but they also need to satisfy the requirements of the customers and the other social requirements. These social needs have a huge responsibility towards their clients as they are the primary stakeholders of any company. However, in this case, the organization did not treat its primary stakeholders in a right way for meeting their own requirements (Lee and Gin 2017). The employees of the organization had treated the customer in a violent way and harmed him physically for an unethical cause for accommodating all their own employees who were required later on. They had cut short the wine budget even if it was promised before. The published memo has indicated as the customers are consuming more alcohol, they cannot be offered unlimited quantity. This can definitely be considered as an unfair decision. These incidents indicate to an unethical and unfair treatment of the customers while travelling.

Analysis of the incidents

The aviation sector is an industry which is associated with several tremors as it is entirely dependent on the employee welfare dynamics. There are several airline services which were considered to be unethical towards the employees. The United Airlines has been no exception to that. Providing adequate respect to the customers is considered to be their primary responsibility whereas they did not adhere to their responsibility; rather they treated the customer ruthlessly and harmed him physically (Kline and Hutchins 2017). The entire business service within the aviation sector is dependent on the value and trust of the customers. The fundamental basis of the customers is based on the idea of the customers as well. Any company should adhere to ethical behavior and maintain their services regardless of any kind of business. However, the relationship between the customer and the company is mostly subjective (Sagers 2017). The customers always perceive the organizations on the basis of their own bias and beliefs. Therefore it is necessary for the companies to comprehend the requirements of the customers and treat them in a right way. Considering the incidents, it can be seen that the airline did not offer any respect to the customers and their pets and luggage. They have been irresponsible and did not take care of those. Ethical behavior and social responsibility of the company also includes treating the customers and their luggage in a right way. However, United Airlines had failed miserably at this part. It should always be noted that the relationship between the customer and company is always a two way path, therefore the company not only requires providing productive, appropriate and honest information to the customers, they also require to treat them with respect (Wahba 2017).. However, they had taken the money and in return the customer received a violent and unethical behavior.

Conclusion:

hile the customers deal with any organization, they pre-perceive a set of expectations consisting of maintaining ethical standard for behaving properly with the customers and offering them everything that have been promised before the service. If the ethical expectations of the customers are met and reinforced during the service, they are most likely to have a negative experience of the brand. Therefore the organization should have a transparent business communication and follow the model of customer oriented communication. The researchers have indicates that the model is mostly based on the communication procedure between the customer and company should be widely discussed and should not have any false information. Here United Airlines should have maintained the communication clear regarding offering wine in the flights therefore it could have not led to the present scenario. The continuous scandalous incidents with the airline also indicate a poor leadership as well. The leaders of any organization should maintain the organizational structure and keep the communication process within the organization transparent. However, it can be indicated that the higher management and the employees of the organization were not working with the same aligned ethics and moral. This can also be considered as a failure of poor human resource management that they have recruited people who are not well aware of the ethical concerns and the mission, vision of the organization. Therefore the organization should ensure that functions of HR management are focused on getting suitable people onboard at the same time.

References

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Communication issue