An Issues-Crisis Perspective & Reputation Management: A Driving Force For Action

Part 1: An Issues-Crisis Perspective

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As Howell (2009, pp. 275) has defined issues management, "it is a specific type of management function that allows identification of potential, emerging or actual trends, concerns, or issues likely to affect an organisation and its key publics. Once this issue is identified, the organisation will develop a coordinate response to best manage and influence its progression".

Crises on the other hand as mentioned by Howell (2009, pp. 276), are said "to be highly uncertain events in which the cause and effects are unknown. A crisis is a major occurrence with a potentially negative outcomes that affect the organisation, company, or industry, as well as its publics, products and services, and its reputation. Crises interrupt normal business operations and can threaten the existence of the organisation".

Upon inference, the two factors both uses a similar word meaning. In English, an issue or crisis could associate to a form of incident. However, in PR, it has a completely different meaning to it. An issue is deemed to be a setback or a void that requires the attention of the company to solve it. As compared to crisis, it is an incident whereby it could potentially destroy a company's reputation and it may require a complete makeover or liquidation.

Just to sidetrack from the textbook, in Singapore we've encountered many of such cases. For example, the Prima Deli food poisoning case which affected businesses. Their crisis management was to provide widespread publicity of an enquiry line to answer to the public. They also stopped similar and affected products to determine the problem. In addition, they provided full cooperation to health authorities to determine the cause of the problem. This transparency as we have seen is a credible part of Prima Deli to admit to their mistakes and to take into account the public's impression.

In another example, is the case of the Geylang Serai Rojak food poisoning case. Not only was the stall affected, businesses of the other stalls were compromised. Firstly, people who visited the particular rojak stall (it was famous) stopped visiting the food court entirely. Secondly, it was suspected that other food stalls could possibly be dirty as well. It was not an easy task to restore the reputation of Geylang Serai market. It took a 40-month makeover as a restart to the businesses. The particular affected stall "Geylang Serai Rojak" was restored under the original owner's wife's name. The incident was labelled as a cause of mishandling seafood. However, the stall's reputation somewhat saved the situation as patrons were able to put the incident behind them. Fans also setup a countdown for the reopening of the stall.

Although the crises may seem impossible to overturn, sometimes, like an individual, one must live up to the mistake and admit to it. By showing full transparency and cooperation to an investigation as well as taking account the public's views, it could very well show the responsiveness to take responsibilities for the organisation's actions. Upholding a good reputation can also help the situation. However, in a crisis, it takes tremendous amount of time and resource to overturn the situation, like the Geylang case, it took time and money to revamp the entire image of the market. Hence, prevention is always better than a cure.

Part 2: Reputation Management: A Driving Force For Action

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Establishing a name/reputation as well as maintaining it, is perhaps one of the most difficult and messy task for a PR practitioner. In today's society, we see that organisations are at a new age of sponsorship compared to the past where it was fairly distant and profit-making. As mentioned before, more companies facing with scandals and the possibility of it because of their opaque view on their operations. In order to change this 'tainted' image, organisations are looking to sponsor and affiliate with cause-related organisations as well as incorporating a heavy list of code of ethics and quality management.

To put my own experience into account, while I was serving my National Service in an Ammunition depot, my unit is no different from an organisation. Our daily task and work was to be justified and revamped to suit with quality, resource and time management. It was in line with one of our objectives, to obtain the highest standard of quality; the International Organisation for Standardisation certification. Why bother obtaining such a qualification you might ask? It is simply put, to have a better impression on the public and something to show to Singaporeans that our ammunition to our soldiers are up to standard and probably, up to the world's standard.

At times, it is not as easy as achieving a standard or certification to restore or build up reputation and image. Ms. Tanya has shared a very inspiring case study of the Phillips Live Earth concerts. Phillips sponsored an event called Live Earth which featured famous bands to raise awareness for the importance of living green and saving our planet. However, the event was scrutinised about leaving the amount of refuse and rubbish at the scene of the concerts as well as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from flying the singers to various locations to conduct the concerts.

In every PR campaign, there will always be such instances of backfire and it requires amount of awareness to be alert on such instances of 'counter' and setbacks.