- Email: [email protected]
National Extension Workshop Developing effective risk and crisis communication approaches in the poultry industry1
©2012 Poultry Science Association, Inc.
National Extension Workshop Developing effective risk and crisis communication approaches in the poultry industry1
Department of Speech Communication, 2801 South University Avenue, University of Arkansas, Little Rock 72204 Primary Audience: Poultry Producers, Production Managers, Extension Personnel, Researchers, Poultry Disease Experts, Veterinarians, Nutritionists SUMMARY The poultry industry, like every other industry, is susceptible to a wide variety of crises. In this paper, the Discourse of Renewal is presented as an empirically tested approach to help poultry organizations and the poultry industry prepare for, manage, and learn from crises. The key parts of the Discourse of Renewal provide poultry industry and organization leaders practical communication strategies for use in their preparation and management of crises. The theory also provides counterintuitive reasoning to help leaders build their knowledge and competencies in preparing for and managing crises. The Discourse of Renewal, then, is a normative theory that provides theoretically grounded guidelines for poultry industry leaders to prepare for, learn from, and communicate effectively during a crisis. This essay provides a clear understanding of the Discourse of Renewal and its applications to crisis planning, preparation, response, and learning from a crisis. This essay also provides poultry industry leaders and others the necessary background to develop guidelines for preparing to manage any type of crisis in the industry. Key words: crisis communication, food industry, poultry industry 2012 J. Appl. Poult. Res. 21:706–716 http://dx.doi.org/10.3382/japr.2011-00501
INTRODUCTION The US food industry has experienced a staggering number of crises in the past 15 yr. Restaurant chains, such as Jack in the Box and Chi-Chi’s, have experienced devastating foodborne illness crises. Food suppliers, such as ConAgra, Schwan’s, Odwalla, National Beef 1
Packing Company, Topps Meat Company, Whittier Farms Inc., and the Peanut Corporation of America, have also experienced crises with serious health consequences for their customers. The food industry is particularly vulnerable to bacteria such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria, and Salmonella, which can cause consumers infections from eating
Presented as part of the National Extension Workshop at the Poultry Science Association’s annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, July 16–19, 2011. 2 Corresponding author: [email protected]
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R. R. Ulmer2
Ulmer: NATIONAL EXTENSION WORKSHOP
THE POULTRY INDUSTRY AND CRISIS Every organization and industry should prepare for a crisis. The poultry industry is no different. Effective crisis preparation is a significant indicator of whether an organization or industry can enact effective crisis communication after a crisis. Members of the poultry industry currently must be aware of and prepare for at least 2 significant types of crises. First, its leaders must always be aware of foodborne illness crises, such as Salmonella. A foodborne illness outbreak can profoundly affect an industry and the confidence of the public in its products. However, as discussed later, with the case of the Schwan’s Salmonella outbreak, an effective response to a foodborne illness crisis can actually increase public sentiment and confidence in a company or industry. Second, globally, the poultry industry has experienced outbreaks of H5N1,
which is more commonly described as the bird flu or avian influenza. The H5N1 virus serves as another potential crisis for the poultry industry. It is important to note that currently, North America has experienced only low-pathogenic H5N1, which has much lower health concerns than the high-pathogenic H5N1 that caused recent public health concerns in Asia. However, because H5N1 has been a concern worldwide, it remains a potential health and industry risk in North America. After examining these 2 potential areas of crisis in the poultry industry, I provide a crisis communication model for preparing for and responding to these and other types of crises in the poultry industry. What follows is a description of this approach, called the Discourse of Renewal.
DISCOURSE OF RENEWAL The Discourse of Renewal theory encompasses a body of research that focuses on helping organizations, industries, and communities make crisis communication choices that will enable growth, learning, transformation, and renewal after a crisis. This theory-based and empirically tested approach involves developing solutions to the crisis along with open, honest, and transparent communication, rather than using defensive and counterproductive crisis communication strategies. Indeed, the focus of the Discourse of Renewal is on recognizing the threat of the crisis yet also seeing the opportunities to grow, learn, and prosper after the crisis [1]. This theory, then, suggests a mindful approach to crisis that involves recognizing both crisis threat and opportunity. In addition, the Discourse of Renewal focuses on understanding the communication choices that leaders use and socially construct before, during, and after a crisis. These choices have dramatic consequences for how the crisis will be resolved. For instance, the Discourse of Renewal suggests that organizations that focus on the opportunities during a crisis can actually grow, learn, and prosper after a crisis, rather than simply declining and suffering public ridicule. What follows are the 4 key components to developing a Discourse of Renewal approach to crisis communication, along with representative examples to better illustrate these concepts.
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meat, vegetable, fruit, and poultry products. Although persons of any age group can experience serious negative health effects from eating contaminated food products, children and the elderly are often the most severely affected. For this reason, food industry crises often have significant health and wellness consequences for society. Beyond the severe effects of these crises, the scope of these events can grow very quickly. For instance, once a food product is contaminated with bacteria, that product can be distributed throughout the United States very quickly through highly efficient food distribution models. A contaminated food product can be distributed throughout the United States and be consumed easily within a week. Clearly, food industry crises are some of the most complex and difficult to manage. This paper provides the poultry industry with a crisis communication approach, called the Discourse of Renewal, to use in managing these complex crises. First, what follows is a brief discussion of potential areas of crisis in the poultry industry. Second is a discussion of the Discourse of Renewal. Third, this paper provides implications for understanding how the communication choices of leaders in the poultry industry during a crisis can affect the response capacity and level of recovery of the industry.
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Ethical Communication Based on the Discourse of Renewal, rather than focusing on trying to control an organization’s image or reputation after a crisis, organizations should communicate ethically, openly, and honestly. One of the basic tenets of a crisis is that the event exposes the values of the organization or industry. Consider the reputation and image of Enron before its devastating crisis. The organization had a sterling image and reputation
on Wall Street and throughout the world. It was seen as a leader in energy and highly complex markets, such as Internet bandwidth and weather futures. However, once Sherron Watkins, company whistle blower, and others unveiled the financial mismanagement at Enron, we all saw the difference between its image and reputation and its character. The values of Enron were rotten to the core. However, without the crisis, those values and character traits were hidden from public view deep within Enron’s highly controlled image and reputation. In this case, crises did not build character, but rather exposed the character and values of the organization. For these reasons, critical to any effective crisis response is for an organization to establish and use strong positive value positions with its stakeholder groups. To accomplish this, organizations must develop strong positive value positions with stakeholders before a crisis. Consider Schwan’s Sales Enterprises 1994 Salmonella outbreak, which ultimately affected 224,000 customers. At the time of responding to the crisis, Alfred Schwan, CEO of the company, decided to make sure that his customers’ needs were the most important. Alfred Schwan’s ultimate value was placed on the needs of those most affected by the crisis, his customers. As a result, he made every effort to communicate and connect with his customers throughout the crisis. A more in-depth examination of this case appears at the end of the paper. However, what is important to note is that organizations should work to develop strong positive value positions with key stakeholders, including openness, honesty, transparency, responsiveness, and trustworthiness. Not only is this ethical and the right thing to do, but organizations that are able to develop these strong positive value positions with stakeholders over time are more trusted by stakeholders during a crisis. Stakeholder Relationships. A central part of ethical communication and business is developing strong positive stakeholder relationships [7–12]. Organizations that build and maintain equitable, positive, and amicable value positions with stakeholders are better able to enact these values after a crisis [13]. Central to this understanding is that because of the uncertainty after a crisis, organizations need support to recover from the event. Organizations that invest in and
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An organization that is going to emerge successfully from a crisis must learn from the event and communicate that learning to its stakeholders. In much of the research on managing organizational crises, it has been suggested that learning is a critical approach to effective crisis communication [2–6]. In addition, crises create opportunities for organizations to learn from their mistakes. Effective organizations or industries are able to illustrate to stakeholders what they learned from the crisis and how the organization will ensure that the crisis will not happen again. Consider the learning that Odwalla communicated after its E. coli outbreak in 1996, when the Washington Department of Health linked the company’s apple juice to several health problems. Odwalla immediately communicated to its customers a voluntary recall of all of its products containing apple juice. Ultimately, Odwalla also communicated to its customers that the company would use an approach called “flash pasteurization” that would protect its product from E. coli yet maintain the flavor and nutrients that customers desired. This type of communication about what Odwalla learned from the crisis was a critical part of customers’ regaining confidence in the company and its products. This communication also helped customers believe that actions were taken to correct the problem; hence, a similar crisis was not likely. These learning actions also had a dramatic effect on Odwalla’s industry because other beverage makers were eventually forced to take similar precautionary measures to prevent further crises in the industry. The second part of the Discourse of Renewal emphasizes the importance of ethical communication after a crisis.
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After a crisis, stakeholders should receive essential information for decision making about how to protect themselves. Information provided to stakeholders should never be manipulated or distorted. Nilsen [15] suggests that companies meet the following 5 standards when engaging stakeholders in significant choice:
1. Stakeholders should be free from physical or mental coercion. 2. The choice should be made based on all the information that is available. 3. All reasonable alternatives should be included in the discussion. 4. Both short-term and long-term consequences should be disclosed and discussed. 5. Both senders and receivers of messages should be open about the personal motives they have that may influence their decision making.
These criteria provide a framework for better understanding how to avoid bias, manipulation, or the distortion of information between an organization and its stakeholders. The following are 3 key crisis communication approaches that can be used to meet the standards of significant choice:
1. Never over-reassure consumers about safety or minimize the impact of the crisis. 2. Communicate what you know, what you do not know, and what you are going to do to find out the information that you still need to know to make sense of the crisis. 3. Maintain regular communication with and listen to your stakeholders.
Prospective vs. Retrospective Vision A third feature of the Discourse of Renewal is communication that focuses on the future rather than the past. Stakeholders need support and a vision for moving forward after a crisis. Renewing responses provide a vision by focusing on how the organization and its stakeholders are going to move forward and resolve the
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create value with stakeholders before a crisis are better able to experience the support from these groups after a crisis. King Car, a Taiwanese food company, experienced incredible stakeholder support during the 2008 melamine crisis in Asia. After hearing from the Taiwan Health Department that their products were safe for consumption, King Car did its own further testing and discovered the contaminant melamine in their nondairy milk powder. Because of effective stakeholder relationships with retailers, the company was able to recall more than 95% of its product in 3 d. In addition, the company strengthened its relationships with consumers that were grateful King Car took the extra step of testing its own product. Effective stakeholder relationships often create a reservoir of goodwill for organizations or industries during a crisis. Provisional vs. Strategic Communication. Organizations that are able to create renewing responses typically operate more from instinctive positive values based on the well-established character of the leaders of the organizations. These provisional approaches are derived from long patterns of doing business and working with stakeholders in an ethical manner. Conversely, strategic communication is often designed to protect the image of the organization by employing “spin” to deflect blame away from the organization and typically onto other stakeholders. A provisional response to a crisis is often found in the virtues of a leader [14]. These virtues may include openness, honesty, reciprocity, consensus building, or transparency, to name a few. Conversely, strategic communication is more goal directed and emphasizes escaping issues of responsibility or directing blame to absolve the organization of responsibility for the event. To enact the more positive values during a crisis, it is important to give stakeholders the opportunity to create significant choice. Significant Choice. Significant choice is a set of communication-based criteria for communicating ethically with stakeholders. In communication research, Nilsen [15] is credited with developing the concepts surrounding significant choice. The central concepts of significant choice are that human dignity resides in the capacity for stakeholders to make rational decisions.
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Optimism The Discourse of Renewal is an inherently optimistic form of crisis communication. This optimism is designed to engage stakeholders and focus their resolve to move beyond the event. The optimism is also designed to help stakeholders consider some of the opportunities inherent in organizational crises. As Meyers and Holusha [16] explain, “Crises present opportunities as well as challenges, opportunities that are not available at any other time” (p. 45). Many different types of opportunities may arise, namely, that heroes are born, competitive advantages appear, early warning signs develop, people are changed, and new strategies develop. Recently, I presented a paper in New Orleans at the Freeman School of Business. After presenting my work on the Discourse of Renewal, several people talked about the opportunities that arose from Hurricane Katrina. The most salient example was the new charter schools that were developed after the hurricane. New Orleans went from having one of the worst school systems in the country to having one of the top 3 charter school systems in the United States after the crisis. Federal, state, and local
responses immediately after Hurricane Katrina would certainly not have qualified as meeting the criteria of the Discourse of Renewal; however, the opportunities in this crisis were still present. Organizations would do well to think mindfully about the opportunities inherent in crises [17]. Effective Organizational Rhetoric The Discourse of Renewal is grounded in a larger framework of effective organizational communication. Managing a crisis often involves working with stakeholders and building consensus during a time when differing perspectives and conflict often persist. In many ways, this approach involves socially constructing and building consensus for a vision for moving beyond the crisis. Leaders should work to inspire stakeholders and serve as models of optimism about and commitment to moving beyond the crisis. Establishing renewal involves leaders framing reality, making effective communication choices, and motivating stakeholders to stay with the organization through the crisis, as well as rebuilding the organization or industry better than it was before.
SUMMARY OF DISCOURSE OF RENEWAL The Discourse of Renewal provides a perspective that emphasizes focusing on the opportunities to communicate honestly and openly during a crisis over protecting the image or reputation of the organization or industry. Based on this theory, organizations should treat stakeholders fairly and equitably and should develop strong positive value positions with these groups before a crisis. This action is required because it is the right thing to do, makes good business sense, and also creates a reservoir of goodwill for the organization should it experience a crisis. Fundamental to the assumptions of this argument is that a company’s image and reputation are difficult, if not impossible, to control during a crisis. Conversely, ethical communication is well under the control of the organization or industry. Therefore, based on the Discourse of Renewal, organizations that wish to make the right choices during a crisis and respond effectively
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crisis. Conversely, organizations that emphasize the past, including by directing blame, fault, and responsibility, fail to provide stakeholders with the vision to move past the crisis. Issues such as blame and fault are important issues that are worked out after a crisis through investigations and legal proceedings. However, these issues are less important immediately after a crisis, when stakeholders need a vision for how the organization is going to respond and recover from the event. The earlier examples of Schwan’s, Odwalla, and King Car illustrate organizations that not only were able to communicate learning from the crisis, but also provided a vision for how the organization was going to recover from it. These organizations did not get bogged down in who was at fault. Rather, they communicated effectively with their customers and members of society based on learning, strong positive values, and well-established stakeholder relationships. In each case, these organizations had to be positive during very difficult times in their organizations.
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Ulmer: NATIONAL EXTENSION WORKSHOP should emphasize learning, ethical communication, and communication that is prospective in nature, along with effective organizational rhetoric.
CRISIS COMMUNICATION IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY
Organizational Learning Effective learning is critical to crisis preparation and, ultimately, the crisis response. Effective organizational learning can take many forms. Two common types of learning are vicarious and experiential learning. Vicarious learning involves learning from organizations or industries that have experienced crises. Experi-
ential learning involves going through a crisis. For instance, in 1994, Schwan’s Sales Enterprises experienced the largest foodborne illness outbreak linked to a single source in US history [1, 18]. The Salmonella outbreak was linked to Schwan’s trademark vanilla ice cream and ultimately infected 224,000 people in 35 states. Schwan’s is an outstanding case study for vicarious learning. Few companies have responded as effectively as Schwan’s to a foodborne illness crisis of the size and scope of this event. The following are some of the highlights for learning from this case study: • To respond to the crisis, the CEO of Schwan’s, Alfred Schwan, used the guiding philosophy, “If you were a Schwan’s customer, what would you expect the company to do”? This guiding philosophy helped the company respond to the crisis and focus on a positive, rather than a defensive, stance. • Because Schwan’s delivers its product door to door, the company had established face-to-face contact with its customers. The company used these relationships to maintain consistent contact with customers and to recall their product. • All questions about the crisis were directed to a hotline. All calls were handled in person. • Schwan’s maintained regular communication with its stakeholders throughout the crisis because of its well-established relationships with its customers. • Schwan’s paid for medical tests for those stakeholders affected by the crisis. • Schwan’s helped its customers make legal choices by providing information and guidance about the class action lawsuits that followed the crisis. • Schwan’s was able to recover fully from the crisis, and it had incredible goodwill from stakeholders concerning its response and crisis communication approach to the event. The Schwan’s case study provides an outstanding example of an organization that was able to learn effectively from and manage a foodborne illness crisis. The company suc-
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The Discourse of Renewal provides a communication-based approach to conceptualizing organizational, industry, and community crises differently. In this theory, crises contain both threat and opportunity, depending on the communication choices of the organization or industry leadership. In this case, one can consider that the communication choices leaders make about how to prepare for, respond to, and learn from crises have consequences. Furthermore, the choices that leaders make in each stage will have an impact on the trajectory of the crisis. For instance, if a leader chooses to ignore the warning signs of a crisis, not prepare, or deny that a crisis could hit his or her industry, the uncertainty when a crisis hits will be heightened. It stands to reason that a lack of preparation and experience will make one less confident during a crisis. Conversely, leaders that pay close attention to potential areas of risk, prepare for a crises through training and simulations, and learn from case studies are likely to be better prepared to manage the inherent uncertainty of the crisis, make more informed choices that help stakeholders make sense of the crisis, and even produce outcomes that may help the organization or industry renew, grow, and prosper. What follows is a description of how the Discourse of Renewal can be used to prepare the poultry industry for managing a crisis effectively. I examine the components of the Discourse of Renewal through a short case study of the Salmonella outbreak in Schwan’s Sales Enterprises.
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Ethical Communication
Prospective vs. Retrospective Vision
This case study includes several important ethical considerations for responding to a foodborne illness crisis. First, the company used a guiding vision to help its leaders make the right choices during the crisis. This guiding philosophy also set the trajectory of the crisis. Schwan’s could have chosen to deny responsibility for the crisis. The crisis was actually caused by a trucking company with which Schwan’s had subcontracted to carry its product to its Marshall, Minnesota, headquarters. The trucking company had carried raw eggs and failed to power wash the truck before carrying the Schwan’s ice cream product. As a result, the cross-contamination of product served as the impetus for the crisis. Had Schwan’s chosen to deny responsibility for the crisis, protect its image, and used a defensive response to the crisis, the trajectory of the crisis would likely have been quite different for its stakeholders, the company, and the overall response. In other words, Schwan’s would then have made communication choices to direct its energy toward placing blame on the trucking company and defending and protecting its image, including minimizing the company’s role in the crisis. Conversely, Schwan’s made a very different communication choice in the wake of the crisis. First, the company chose a set of values that helped the organization make the “right” choices throughout the crisis. First, it developed a set of values that emphasized supporting the needs of its stakeholders. This took the company in the direction of constructing communication choices that would protect stakeholders. These needs were very costly during a time when the organization was experiencing a crisis. However, the company still chose to make the expenditures and maintain a positive stance in its crisis communication. In many ways, this approach to managing a crisis is contrary to current business practices, which most often protect the bottom line at any cost. However, the contrarian choices that Schwan’s used provided an incredible
Schwan’s approach to the crisis had a pronounced prospective vision. In responding to the crisis, the company made clear choices about whether it wanted to determine responsibility for the crisis or whether it wanted to create solutions for protecting its customers. The choice to take care of its customers then led the organization to meet regularly through their truck drivers to maintain communication about the crisis. Schwan’s also paid for medical tests, helped its customers make choices about their legal rights, and worked to ensure the crisis would not happen again by creating a repasteurization plant on the premises. This prospective vision emphasized Schwan’s taking action to ensure that the stakeholders were protected and that the crisis would not happen again. Consider the alternative approach of a retrospective vision. Schwan’s could have put its energy toward protecting its image and escaping blame for the crisis. Ultimately, it was determined that the cause of the crisis was a subcontracted trucking firm that had carried raw eggs and failed to power wash the truck, thereby contaminating the Schwan’s ice cream mix the firm was carrying next. Schwan’s could have made the choice of focusing on a retrospective vision of determining responsibility, escaping blame, and not providing solutions. However, the response would not have had nearly the impact on its customers’ safety, the organization’s learning, or the growth and renewal of the company after the crisis. Effective Organizational Rhetoric By choosing ethical crisis communication and a prospective vision, Schwan’s was able to socially construct a reality of learning, change, growth, and renewal during the crisis. Alfred Schwan was able to maintain a positive vision for his customers and employees that the company was making the “right” choices and was going to overcome the crisis. In doing so, Schwan’s was able to maintain goodwill with
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ceeded because it made the right communication choices in responding to the crisis. What follows is a discussion of the company’s ethical approach to its crisis communication.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR RISK AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY In this paper, I examine the potential for crisis in the poultry industry and provide the Discourse of Renewal as a theory to help the industry prepare for and respond to any type of crisis. Any industry is susceptible to a crisis. The example of the Salmonella outbreak at Schwan’s Sales Enterprises was used to illustrate how the Discourse of Renewal works in practice. What follows are implications for preparing for and responding to a crisis in the poultry industry. The first implication examines the importance of understanding that crisis preparation is essential to any effective crisis response. Second, a discussion of having open communication with stakeholders is provided. Third, a discussion is provided of how important good choices are when responding to any type of organizational or industry-wide crisis. Fourth, some direction is provided for understanding how organizations socially construct their crisis response by the communication choices they make. Understanding the Precrisis–Crisis–Postcrisis Relationship to an Effective Crisis Response Any effective response to a crisis should take into context that crisis communication has 3 stages. The first stage, the precrisis stage, is when organizational learning takes place. This learning may involve discussing and determining values to guide the crisis response. The orga-
nization or industry can examine case studies of past crises to learn from these examples as well. Furthermore, the organization or industry can use these case studies to see how it would respond and can test a newly developed approach to managing the crisis. The crisis stage is when the organization actually uses its approach to crisis management. At this point, learning can occur only through experiencing the event. The organization or industry must now respond to the crisis. This is where the implementation of the plan or intent is achieved. Following are some questions that should guide crisis preparation: • Are you able to focus on opportunities and solutions to resolving the crisis? • Are you providing accurate and regular information to stakeholders? • Are you using all that you learned in preparing for the crisis? • How do you plan on communicating openly with your stakeholders? • Are you maintaining your ethical standards for communicating during the crisis? The crisis stage is the time during the actual crisis when the organization or industry must determine whether it has the understanding, courage, and determination to enact the crisis philosophy it established in the precrisis stage. The postcrisis stage is when the organization or industry evaluates whether it met the standards it set in the precrisis stage. The postcrisis stage is also when the organization or industry learns from its crisis response. This learning approach may take the form of an internal or external evaluation process. I recommend an external evaluation that involves focused interviews or focus groups by all those involved in the crisis response. In addition, this final stage should involve organizational stakeholders—in this case, those the organization communicated with during the crisis. This is a good time to learn how your messages were received and how they could be improved the next time. The results of this learning should be distributed throughout your organization and throughout the industry. It is only through this type of learning that your
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the media, its customers, and its employees. In fact, when it was time to carry out the lawsuits for the crisis, the plaintiff lawyers asked to move the trial to Minneapolis from Marshall because of the extraordinary goodwill toward the company. Consider for a moment a company having goodwill after going through a crisis that affected the health of more than 200,000 people. The goodwill was in direct relationship to the communication choices that Schwan’s made during the crisis. What follows are 4 implications for preparing for and managing crises in any industry.
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Your Communication Choices Matter in a Crisis The Discourse of Renewal approach is based on the idea that through communication, we can socially construct reality for our organization, industry, and stakeholders. The values that you select to guide your response, the communication values that you select to use during your
response, and the relationships that you establish with your stakeholders all matter. Consider 2 organizations that are responding to a Salmonella outbreak and reflect on their distinct choices in the following case. Organization 1 is not prepared, focuses on its image and reputation throughout the crisis, and fails to learn from the event. Organization 2 is well prepared for the crisis, focuses on the Discourse of Renewal, and retains its learning from the crisis for future events. Organization 1. When organization 1 experiences a crisis, it is in shock! The organization never even considered that it could experience a crisis. Now it is in the throes of having a significant number of its customers ill with Salmonella. The organization’s leadership is experiencing significant conflict about what to do. Questions range from “What should we say?” to “Who should say it?” The organization’s legal team is telling the company’s leadership to say nothing until the facts are known. The leaders of the organization have not said anything to the media or its stakeholders for 3 d. The media reports suggest that the company is stonewalling, and the media are printing accounts to the like in the newspaper and online every day. Outrage by the public is high and people want answers. The leaders decide to take a defensive approach and emphasize that the source of the crisis is not yet confirmed, so they deny that their organization is at fault. Meanwhile, government regulators are doing their investigation of the organization and are finding evidence to the contrary. Not only has the organization failed to act and communicate with its various publics, but the threat of the crisis has also increased and, ironically, the reputation or image of the organization is tarnished as well. Now let’s consider another approach to making crisis communication choices. Organization 2. Organization 2 has significant preparation for a wide variety of potential crises that it may experience. The company has trained its leadership and employees in effective crisis communication principles. The organization has done several crisis simulations and has developed strong value positions for its crisis responses. The organization’s leaders believe that openness and honesty must prevail in a crisis situation. They also strongly support connect-
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Much of the current thinking in research and practice on crisis communication emphasizes protecting the image or reputation of the organization or industry through strategic communication and “spin.” In this case, the organization deflects blame, minimizes the crisis, and uses legal or defensive strategies to try to resolve the crisis. This approach only makes the crisis worse and more intense. Any organization that refuses to be open and honest during a crisis is destined to fail. Defensive communication under the stress and uncertainty of a crisis is certainly an intuitive response to a crisis, but it not effective. I often explain that defensive communication is often a natural response similar to yelling at someone in an interpersonal conflict after the person has yelled at you. It feels right at the moment but ultimately makes the conflict worse by intensifying the emotions of the event while doing nothing to resolve the actual disagreement. Defensive communication in a crisis may feel right. Worrying about defending the image or reputation of your organization or industry in a crisis may feel like it is important, but it is not. The important, yet counterintuitive, aspect of any crisis is making sure to take action to resolve the crisis, making sure those most affected by the crisis have regular communication and are protected, and communicating learning so that the crisis will not happen again. Any thoughts about “spinning” the information about the source of the crisis or who is responsible are not recommended. For this reason, the communication choices during a crisis matter.
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Ulmer: NATIONAL EXTENSION WORKSHOP The Social Construction of an Effective Crisis Response
A common story goes like this: “Three umpires disagreed about the task of calling balls and strikes. The first one said, ‘I calls them as they is.’ The second one said, ‘I calls them as I sees them.’ The third one, and the cleverest umpire, said, ‘They ain’t nothin’ till I calls them’” [19, p. 29]. Leaders of organizations or industries must understand that they play a large role in creating their social environments during crises. The communication choices we make in the precrisis and crisis stages have a profound effect on the trajectory and impact of the crisis. Whether the leaders of an organization or industry focus on the threat or opportunity during a crisis has major implications for how the crisis will ultimately be resolved. The question I would have leaders ask precrisis is, “What do we want to create through our crisis communication?” In the precrisis stage, leaders of the poultry industry need to consider fully how they would like to communicate, the values they will use to guide their communication, and how those choices will affect the future of their industry. The Discourse of Renewal is a normative theory that asks how we can communicate more effectively during organizational crises. Based on the Discourse of Renewal theory, we have choices about how to respond during an organizational or industry-wide crisis. During crises, we often believe instinctively that the only choice we have is to withdraw and respond defensively. However, more mindful responses to crises exist that include considering the opportunities the crises present. We need to develop new ways to understand and communicate in these difficult communication contexts if we want to improve our crisis communication. Precrisis planning can help. In addition, we want to have crisis communication that creates more opportunities for good things to happen during the crisis. Some patterns of communication, such as the Discourse of Renewal, simply create better opportunities to engage the complexity and chaos of crisis contexts. Future research should continue to examine positive and effective responses to crisis. We all need to become experts in how organizations can make good choices, socially construct positive crisis communica-
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ing with the company’s stakeholders quickly and openly. As a result, when the crisis hits, they are surprised but also ready! They quickly connect with the stakeholders via multiple outlets and communicate that they are aware of a possible connection between the organization and a recent Salmonella outbreak. They also explain that they will be providing information about the crisis every day at a specific time. The leaders understand that acting and finding solutions to the crisis are critical. The leaders do not minimize the scope or impact of the crisis. In fact, they take all precautions to make sure that those who are potentially affected by the crisis are informed and protected. For this reason, they explain to their customers that they should stop eating certain products, and they conduct a recall of those products that may be implicated in the crisis. The leaders know that they would rather protect their customers and the customers’ well being than watch their bottom line too closely and hurt their customers. Leaders of the organization also make sure to protect those most affected by the crisis, and they work to connect with those individuals. In this case, the organization acted quickly under very difficult circumstances and was guided by principles that had been developed together over time. Although there was incredible uncertainty surrounding this crisis, the organization knew exactly what to do and how to do it—not by a checklist or a flowchart, but rather from building a capacity to engage in crisis contexts through skills built through examining case studies and conducting simulations. The choices this organization initially made during the precrisis and crisis stages took this organization down a much different path in terms of making the right choices and managing the uncertainty of the event. The crisis was still difficult for organization 2; however, it will not be criticized for failing to make the right choices during the crisis, for not focusing on the concerns of its stakeholders, or for not learning from the event. It is exactly these types of communication choices that can create renewal, growth, opportunity, and transformation in an organization or industry. What follows is implication 4, which addresses how communication choices socially construct different crisis realities for the organization and all those affected by the crisis.
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CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
1. Effective risk and crisis communication is first about conceptualizing crises as opportunities to communicate effectively with the public and to learn from the event. 2. Effective precrisis planning should involve vicarious learning of case studies on foodborne illness outbreaks, establishing core values to guide the crisis response, developing and maintaining stakeholder relationships, and practice in applying the renewal concepts through simulations and training. 3. Effective crisis communication during a crisis involves communicating learning, communicating ethically, using effective organizational rhetoric, and developing a prospective vision. 4. Effective postcrisis communication involves communicating about learning, growth, transformation, optimism, and renewal after the crisis. 5. Effective risk and crisis communication is about resisting our natural inclinations during a crisis and taking a counterintuitive approach to managing the event.
REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. Ulmer, R. R., T. L. Sellnow, and M. W. Seeger. 2011. Effective Crisis Communication: Moving from Crisis to Opportunity. 2nd ed. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
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In this paper, the Discourse of Renewal was proposed as a theory to guide the poultry industry in preparing for and responding to an organizational or industry-wide crisis. Provided here are the applications for poultry organizations and the poultry industry to develop effective responses to a crisis:
2. Elliott, D., D. Smith, and M. McGuinness. 2000. Exploring the failure to learn: Crises and the barriers to learning. Rev. Bus. 21:17–24. 3. Kovoor-Misra, S., and M. Nathan. 2000. Timing is everything: The optimal time to learn from crises. Rev. Bus. 21:31–36. 4. Mittelstaedt, R. E. 2005. Will Your Next Mistake Be Fatal? Avoiding the Chain of Mistakes That Can Destroy. Wharton, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 5. Roux-Doufort, C. 2000. Why organizations don’t learn from crises: The perverse power of normalization. Rev. Bus. 21:25–30. 6. Simon, L., and T. C. Pauchant. 2000. Developing the three levels of learning in crisis management: A case study of the Hagersville tire fire. Rev. Bus. 21:6–11. 7. Clarkson, M. B. E. 1995. A stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. Acad. Manage. Rev. 20:92–117. 8. Donaldson, T., and L. E. Preston. 1995. The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Acad. Manage. Rev. 20:65–91. 9. Freeman, R. E., and D. R. Gilbert. 1987. Managing stakeholder interests. Pages 379–422 in Business and Soc.: Dimensions of Conflict and Cooperation. S. P. Sethi and C. M. Fable, ed. Lexington Books, Lexington, MA. 10. Harrison, J., and R. E. Freeman. 1998. Stakeholders, social responsibility, and performance. Acad. Manage. J. 42:479–485. 11. Freeman, R. E., J. S. Harrison, A. C. Wicks, B. L. Parmar, and S. De Colle. 2010. Stakeholder Theory: The State of the Art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA. 12. Jones, T. M. 1995. Instrumental stakeholder theory: A synthesis of ethics and economics. Acad. Manage. Rev. 20:404–437. 13. Ulmer, R. R. 2001. Effective crisis management through established stakeholder relationships: Malden Mills as a case study. Manage. Commun. Q. 14:590–615. 14. Seeger, M. W., and R. R. Ulmer. 2001. Virtuous responses to organizational crisis: Aaron Feuerstein and Milt Cole. J. Bus. Ethics 31:369–376. 15. Nilsen, T. R. 1974. Ethics of Speech Communication. 2nd ed. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, IN. 16. Meyers, G. C., and J. Holusha. 1986. When It Hits the Fan: Managing the Nine Crises of Business. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. 17. Langer, E. J. 1989. Mindfulness. Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA. 18. Sellnow, T. L., R. R. Ulmer, and M. Snider. 1998. The compatibility of corrective action in organizational crisis communication. Commun. Q. 46:60–74. 19. Simons, H. A. 1976. Persuasion. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
National Extension Workshop Developing effective risk and crisis communication approaches in the poultry industry1
Department of Speech Communication, 2801 South University Avenue, University of Arkansas, Little Rock 72204 Primary Audience: Poultry Producers, Production Managers, Extension Personnel, Researchers, Poultry Disease Experts, Veterinarians, Nutritionists SUMMARY The poultry industry, like every other industry, is susceptible to a wide variety of crises. In this paper, the Discourse of Renewal is presented as an empirically tested approach to help poultry organizations and the poultry industry prepare for, manage, and learn from crises. The key parts of the Discourse of Renewal provide poultry industry and organization leaders practical communication strategies for use in their preparation and management of crises. The theory also provides counterintuitive reasoning to help leaders build their knowledge and competencies in preparing for and managing crises. The Discourse of Renewal, then, is a normative theory that provides theoretically grounded guidelines for poultry industry leaders to prepare for, learn from, and communicate effectively during a crisis. This essay provides a clear understanding of the Discourse of Renewal and its applications to crisis planning, preparation, response, and learning from a crisis. This essay also provides poultry industry leaders and others the necessary background to develop guidelines for preparing to manage any type of crisis in the industry. Key words: crisis communication, food industry, poultry industry 2012 J. Appl. Poult. Res. 21:706–716 http://dx.doi.org/10.3382/japr.2011-00501
INTRODUCTION The US food industry has experienced a staggering number of crises in the past 15 yr. Restaurant chains, such as Jack in the Box and Chi-Chi’s, have experienced devastating foodborne illness crises. Food suppliers, such as ConAgra, Schwan’s, Odwalla, National Beef 1
Packing Company, Topps Meat Company, Whittier Farms Inc., and the Peanut Corporation of America, have also experienced crises with serious health consequences for their customers. The food industry is particularly vulnerable to bacteria such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria, and Salmonella, which can cause consumers infections from eating
Presented as part of the National Extension Workshop at the Poultry Science Association’s annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, July 16–19, 2011. 2 Corresponding author: [email protected]
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R. R. Ulmer2
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THE POULTRY INDUSTRY AND CRISIS Every organization and industry should prepare for a crisis. The poultry industry is no different. Effective crisis preparation is a significant indicator of whether an organization or industry can enact effective crisis communication after a crisis. Members of the poultry industry currently must be aware of and prepare for at least 2 significant types of crises. First, its leaders must always be aware of foodborne illness crises, such as Salmonella. A foodborne illness outbreak can profoundly affect an industry and the confidence of the public in its products. However, as discussed later, with the case of the Schwan’s Salmonella outbreak, an effective response to a foodborne illness crisis can actually increase public sentiment and confidence in a company or industry. Second, globally, the poultry industry has experienced outbreaks of H5N1,
which is more commonly described as the bird flu or avian influenza. The H5N1 virus serves as another potential crisis for the poultry industry. It is important to note that currently, North America has experienced only low-pathogenic H5N1, which has much lower health concerns than the high-pathogenic H5N1 that caused recent public health concerns in Asia. However, because H5N1 has been a concern worldwide, it remains a potential health and industry risk in North America. After examining these 2 potential areas of crisis in the poultry industry, I provide a crisis communication model for preparing for and responding to these and other types of crises in the poultry industry. What follows is a description of this approach, called the Discourse of Renewal.
DISCOURSE OF RENEWAL The Discourse of Renewal theory encompasses a body of research that focuses on helping organizations, industries, and communities make crisis communication choices that will enable growth, learning, transformation, and renewal after a crisis. This theory-based and empirically tested approach involves developing solutions to the crisis along with open, honest, and transparent communication, rather than using defensive and counterproductive crisis communication strategies. Indeed, the focus of the Discourse of Renewal is on recognizing the threat of the crisis yet also seeing the opportunities to grow, learn, and prosper after the crisis [1]. This theory, then, suggests a mindful approach to crisis that involves recognizing both crisis threat and opportunity. In addition, the Discourse of Renewal focuses on understanding the communication choices that leaders use and socially construct before, during, and after a crisis. These choices have dramatic consequences for how the crisis will be resolved. For instance, the Discourse of Renewal suggests that organizations that focus on the opportunities during a crisis can actually grow, learn, and prosper after a crisis, rather than simply declining and suffering public ridicule. What follows are the 4 key components to developing a Discourse of Renewal approach to crisis communication, along with representative examples to better illustrate these concepts.
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meat, vegetable, fruit, and poultry products. Although persons of any age group can experience serious negative health effects from eating contaminated food products, children and the elderly are often the most severely affected. For this reason, food industry crises often have significant health and wellness consequences for society. Beyond the severe effects of these crises, the scope of these events can grow very quickly. For instance, once a food product is contaminated with bacteria, that product can be distributed throughout the United States very quickly through highly efficient food distribution models. A contaminated food product can be distributed throughout the United States and be consumed easily within a week. Clearly, food industry crises are some of the most complex and difficult to manage. This paper provides the poultry industry with a crisis communication approach, called the Discourse of Renewal, to use in managing these complex crises. First, what follows is a brief discussion of potential areas of crisis in the poultry industry. Second is a discussion of the Discourse of Renewal. Third, this paper provides implications for understanding how the communication choices of leaders in the poultry industry during a crisis can affect the response capacity and level of recovery of the industry.
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Ethical Communication Based on the Discourse of Renewal, rather than focusing on trying to control an organization’s image or reputation after a crisis, organizations should communicate ethically, openly, and honestly. One of the basic tenets of a crisis is that the event exposes the values of the organization or industry. Consider the reputation and image of Enron before its devastating crisis. The organization had a sterling image and reputation
on Wall Street and throughout the world. It was seen as a leader in energy and highly complex markets, such as Internet bandwidth and weather futures. However, once Sherron Watkins, company whistle blower, and others unveiled the financial mismanagement at Enron, we all saw the difference between its image and reputation and its character. The values of Enron were rotten to the core. However, without the crisis, those values and character traits were hidden from public view deep within Enron’s highly controlled image and reputation. In this case, crises did not build character, but rather exposed the character and values of the organization. For these reasons, critical to any effective crisis response is for an organization to establish and use strong positive value positions with its stakeholder groups. To accomplish this, organizations must develop strong positive value positions with stakeholders before a crisis. Consider Schwan’s Sales Enterprises 1994 Salmonella outbreak, which ultimately affected 224,000 customers. At the time of responding to the crisis, Alfred Schwan, CEO of the company, decided to make sure that his customers’ needs were the most important. Alfred Schwan’s ultimate value was placed on the needs of those most affected by the crisis, his customers. As a result, he made every effort to communicate and connect with his customers throughout the crisis. A more in-depth examination of this case appears at the end of the paper. However, what is important to note is that organizations should work to develop strong positive value positions with key stakeholders, including openness, honesty, transparency, responsiveness, and trustworthiness. Not only is this ethical and the right thing to do, but organizations that are able to develop these strong positive value positions with stakeholders over time are more trusted by stakeholders during a crisis. Stakeholder Relationships. A central part of ethical communication and business is developing strong positive stakeholder relationships [7–12]. Organizations that build and maintain equitable, positive, and amicable value positions with stakeholders are better able to enact these values after a crisis [13]. Central to this understanding is that because of the uncertainty after a crisis, organizations need support to recover from the event. Organizations that invest in and
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An organization that is going to emerge successfully from a crisis must learn from the event and communicate that learning to its stakeholders. In much of the research on managing organizational crises, it has been suggested that learning is a critical approach to effective crisis communication [2–6]. In addition, crises create opportunities for organizations to learn from their mistakes. Effective organizations or industries are able to illustrate to stakeholders what they learned from the crisis and how the organization will ensure that the crisis will not happen again. Consider the learning that Odwalla communicated after its E. coli outbreak in 1996, when the Washington Department of Health linked the company’s apple juice to several health problems. Odwalla immediately communicated to its customers a voluntary recall of all of its products containing apple juice. Ultimately, Odwalla also communicated to its customers that the company would use an approach called “flash pasteurization” that would protect its product from E. coli yet maintain the flavor and nutrients that customers desired. This type of communication about what Odwalla learned from the crisis was a critical part of customers’ regaining confidence in the company and its products. This communication also helped customers believe that actions were taken to correct the problem; hence, a similar crisis was not likely. These learning actions also had a dramatic effect on Odwalla’s industry because other beverage makers were eventually forced to take similar precautionary measures to prevent further crises in the industry. The second part of the Discourse of Renewal emphasizes the importance of ethical communication after a crisis.
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After a crisis, stakeholders should receive essential information for decision making about how to protect themselves. Information provided to stakeholders should never be manipulated or distorted. Nilsen [15] suggests that companies meet the following 5 standards when engaging stakeholders in significant choice:
1. Stakeholders should be free from physical or mental coercion. 2. The choice should be made based on all the information that is available. 3. All reasonable alternatives should be included in the discussion. 4. Both short-term and long-term consequences should be disclosed and discussed. 5. Both senders and receivers of messages should be open about the personal motives they have that may influence their decision making.
These criteria provide a framework for better understanding how to avoid bias, manipulation, or the distortion of information between an organization and its stakeholders. The following are 3 key crisis communication approaches that can be used to meet the standards of significant choice:
1. Never over-reassure consumers about safety or minimize the impact of the crisis. 2. Communicate what you know, what you do not know, and what you are going to do to find out the information that you still need to know to make sense of the crisis. 3. Maintain regular communication with and listen to your stakeholders.
Prospective vs. Retrospective Vision A third feature of the Discourse of Renewal is communication that focuses on the future rather than the past. Stakeholders need support and a vision for moving forward after a crisis. Renewing responses provide a vision by focusing on how the organization and its stakeholders are going to move forward and resolve the
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create value with stakeholders before a crisis are better able to experience the support from these groups after a crisis. King Car, a Taiwanese food company, experienced incredible stakeholder support during the 2008 melamine crisis in Asia. After hearing from the Taiwan Health Department that their products were safe for consumption, King Car did its own further testing and discovered the contaminant melamine in their nondairy milk powder. Because of effective stakeholder relationships with retailers, the company was able to recall more than 95% of its product in 3 d. In addition, the company strengthened its relationships with consumers that were grateful King Car took the extra step of testing its own product. Effective stakeholder relationships often create a reservoir of goodwill for organizations or industries during a crisis. Provisional vs. Strategic Communication. Organizations that are able to create renewing responses typically operate more from instinctive positive values based on the well-established character of the leaders of the organizations. These provisional approaches are derived from long patterns of doing business and working with stakeholders in an ethical manner. Conversely, strategic communication is often designed to protect the image of the organization by employing “spin” to deflect blame away from the organization and typically onto other stakeholders. A provisional response to a crisis is often found in the virtues of a leader [14]. These virtues may include openness, honesty, reciprocity, consensus building, or transparency, to name a few. Conversely, strategic communication is more goal directed and emphasizes escaping issues of responsibility or directing blame to absolve the organization of responsibility for the event. To enact the more positive values during a crisis, it is important to give stakeholders the opportunity to create significant choice. Significant Choice. Significant choice is a set of communication-based criteria for communicating ethically with stakeholders. In communication research, Nilsen [15] is credited with developing the concepts surrounding significant choice. The central concepts of significant choice are that human dignity resides in the capacity for stakeholders to make rational decisions.
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Optimism The Discourse of Renewal is an inherently optimistic form of crisis communication. This optimism is designed to engage stakeholders and focus their resolve to move beyond the event. The optimism is also designed to help stakeholders consider some of the opportunities inherent in organizational crises. As Meyers and Holusha [16] explain, “Crises present opportunities as well as challenges, opportunities that are not available at any other time” (p. 45). Many different types of opportunities may arise, namely, that heroes are born, competitive advantages appear, early warning signs develop, people are changed, and new strategies develop. Recently, I presented a paper in New Orleans at the Freeman School of Business. After presenting my work on the Discourse of Renewal, several people talked about the opportunities that arose from Hurricane Katrina. The most salient example was the new charter schools that were developed after the hurricane. New Orleans went from having one of the worst school systems in the country to having one of the top 3 charter school systems in the United States after the crisis. Federal, state, and local
responses immediately after Hurricane Katrina would certainly not have qualified as meeting the criteria of the Discourse of Renewal; however, the opportunities in this crisis were still present. Organizations would do well to think mindfully about the opportunities inherent in crises [17]. Effective Organizational Rhetoric The Discourse of Renewal is grounded in a larger framework of effective organizational communication. Managing a crisis often involves working with stakeholders and building consensus during a time when differing perspectives and conflict often persist. In many ways, this approach involves socially constructing and building consensus for a vision for moving beyond the crisis. Leaders should work to inspire stakeholders and serve as models of optimism about and commitment to moving beyond the crisis. Establishing renewal involves leaders framing reality, making effective communication choices, and motivating stakeholders to stay with the organization through the crisis, as well as rebuilding the organization or industry better than it was before.
SUMMARY OF DISCOURSE OF RENEWAL The Discourse of Renewal provides a perspective that emphasizes focusing on the opportunities to communicate honestly and openly during a crisis over protecting the image or reputation of the organization or industry. Based on this theory, organizations should treat stakeholders fairly and equitably and should develop strong positive value positions with these groups before a crisis. This action is required because it is the right thing to do, makes good business sense, and also creates a reservoir of goodwill for the organization should it experience a crisis. Fundamental to the assumptions of this argument is that a company’s image and reputation are difficult, if not impossible, to control during a crisis. Conversely, ethical communication is well under the control of the organization or industry. Therefore, based on the Discourse of Renewal, organizations that wish to make the right choices during a crisis and respond effectively
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crisis. Conversely, organizations that emphasize the past, including by directing blame, fault, and responsibility, fail to provide stakeholders with the vision to move past the crisis. Issues such as blame and fault are important issues that are worked out after a crisis through investigations and legal proceedings. However, these issues are less important immediately after a crisis, when stakeholders need a vision for how the organization is going to respond and recover from the event. The earlier examples of Schwan’s, Odwalla, and King Car illustrate organizations that not only were able to communicate learning from the crisis, but also provided a vision for how the organization was going to recover from it. These organizations did not get bogged down in who was at fault. Rather, they communicated effectively with their customers and members of society based on learning, strong positive values, and well-established stakeholder relationships. In each case, these organizations had to be positive during very difficult times in their organizations.
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CRISIS COMMUNICATION IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY
Organizational Learning Effective learning is critical to crisis preparation and, ultimately, the crisis response. Effective organizational learning can take many forms. Two common types of learning are vicarious and experiential learning. Vicarious learning involves learning from organizations or industries that have experienced crises. Experi-
ential learning involves going through a crisis. For instance, in 1994, Schwan’s Sales Enterprises experienced the largest foodborne illness outbreak linked to a single source in US history [1, 18]. The Salmonella outbreak was linked to Schwan’s trademark vanilla ice cream and ultimately infected 224,000 people in 35 states. Schwan’s is an outstanding case study for vicarious learning. Few companies have responded as effectively as Schwan’s to a foodborne illness crisis of the size and scope of this event. The following are some of the highlights for learning from this case study: • To respond to the crisis, the CEO of Schwan’s, Alfred Schwan, used the guiding philosophy, “If you were a Schwan’s customer, what would you expect the company to do”? This guiding philosophy helped the company respond to the crisis and focus on a positive, rather than a defensive, stance. • Because Schwan’s delivers its product door to door, the company had established face-to-face contact with its customers. The company used these relationships to maintain consistent contact with customers and to recall their product. • All questions about the crisis were directed to a hotline. All calls were handled in person. • Schwan’s maintained regular communication with its stakeholders throughout the crisis because of its well-established relationships with its customers. • Schwan’s paid for medical tests for those stakeholders affected by the crisis. • Schwan’s helped its customers make legal choices by providing information and guidance about the class action lawsuits that followed the crisis. • Schwan’s was able to recover fully from the crisis, and it had incredible goodwill from stakeholders concerning its response and crisis communication approach to the event. The Schwan’s case study provides an outstanding example of an organization that was able to learn effectively from and manage a foodborne illness crisis. The company suc-
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The Discourse of Renewal provides a communication-based approach to conceptualizing organizational, industry, and community crises differently. In this theory, crises contain both threat and opportunity, depending on the communication choices of the organization or industry leadership. In this case, one can consider that the communication choices leaders make about how to prepare for, respond to, and learn from crises have consequences. Furthermore, the choices that leaders make in each stage will have an impact on the trajectory of the crisis. For instance, if a leader chooses to ignore the warning signs of a crisis, not prepare, or deny that a crisis could hit his or her industry, the uncertainty when a crisis hits will be heightened. It stands to reason that a lack of preparation and experience will make one less confident during a crisis. Conversely, leaders that pay close attention to potential areas of risk, prepare for a crises through training and simulations, and learn from case studies are likely to be better prepared to manage the inherent uncertainty of the crisis, make more informed choices that help stakeholders make sense of the crisis, and even produce outcomes that may help the organization or industry renew, grow, and prosper. What follows is a description of how the Discourse of Renewal can be used to prepare the poultry industry for managing a crisis effectively. I examine the components of the Discourse of Renewal through a short case study of the Salmonella outbreak in Schwan’s Sales Enterprises.
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Ethical Communication
Prospective vs. Retrospective Vision
This case study includes several important ethical considerations for responding to a foodborne illness crisis. First, the company used a guiding vision to help its leaders make the right choices during the crisis. This guiding philosophy also set the trajectory of the crisis. Schwan’s could have chosen to deny responsibility for the crisis. The crisis was actually caused by a trucking company with which Schwan’s had subcontracted to carry its product to its Marshall, Minnesota, headquarters. The trucking company had carried raw eggs and failed to power wash the truck before carrying the Schwan’s ice cream product. As a result, the cross-contamination of product served as the impetus for the crisis. Had Schwan’s chosen to deny responsibility for the crisis, protect its image, and used a defensive response to the crisis, the trajectory of the crisis would likely have been quite different for its stakeholders, the company, and the overall response. In other words, Schwan’s would then have made communication choices to direct its energy toward placing blame on the trucking company and defending and protecting its image, including minimizing the company’s role in the crisis. Conversely, Schwan’s made a very different communication choice in the wake of the crisis. First, the company chose a set of values that helped the organization make the “right” choices throughout the crisis. First, it developed a set of values that emphasized supporting the needs of its stakeholders. This took the company in the direction of constructing communication choices that would protect stakeholders. These needs were very costly during a time when the organization was experiencing a crisis. However, the company still chose to make the expenditures and maintain a positive stance in its crisis communication. In many ways, this approach to managing a crisis is contrary to current business practices, which most often protect the bottom line at any cost. However, the contrarian choices that Schwan’s used provided an incredible
Schwan’s approach to the crisis had a pronounced prospective vision. In responding to the crisis, the company made clear choices about whether it wanted to determine responsibility for the crisis or whether it wanted to create solutions for protecting its customers. The choice to take care of its customers then led the organization to meet regularly through their truck drivers to maintain communication about the crisis. Schwan’s also paid for medical tests, helped its customers make choices about their legal rights, and worked to ensure the crisis would not happen again by creating a repasteurization plant on the premises. This prospective vision emphasized Schwan’s taking action to ensure that the stakeholders were protected and that the crisis would not happen again. Consider the alternative approach of a retrospective vision. Schwan’s could have put its energy toward protecting its image and escaping blame for the crisis. Ultimately, it was determined that the cause of the crisis was a subcontracted trucking firm that had carried raw eggs and failed to power wash the truck, thereby contaminating the Schwan’s ice cream mix the firm was carrying next. Schwan’s could have made the choice of focusing on a retrospective vision of determining responsibility, escaping blame, and not providing solutions. However, the response would not have had nearly the impact on its customers’ safety, the organization’s learning, or the growth and renewal of the company after the crisis. Effective Organizational Rhetoric By choosing ethical crisis communication and a prospective vision, Schwan’s was able to socially construct a reality of learning, change, growth, and renewal during the crisis. Alfred Schwan was able to maintain a positive vision for his customers and employees that the company was making the “right” choices and was going to overcome the crisis. In doing so, Schwan’s was able to maintain goodwill with
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ceeded because it made the right communication choices in responding to the crisis. What follows is a discussion of the company’s ethical approach to its crisis communication.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR RISK AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY In this paper, I examine the potential for crisis in the poultry industry and provide the Discourse of Renewal as a theory to help the industry prepare for and respond to any type of crisis. Any industry is susceptible to a crisis. The example of the Salmonella outbreak at Schwan’s Sales Enterprises was used to illustrate how the Discourse of Renewal works in practice. What follows are implications for preparing for and responding to a crisis in the poultry industry. The first implication examines the importance of understanding that crisis preparation is essential to any effective crisis response. Second, a discussion of having open communication with stakeholders is provided. Third, a discussion is provided of how important good choices are when responding to any type of organizational or industry-wide crisis. Fourth, some direction is provided for understanding how organizations socially construct their crisis response by the communication choices they make. Understanding the Precrisis–Crisis–Postcrisis Relationship to an Effective Crisis Response Any effective response to a crisis should take into context that crisis communication has 3 stages. The first stage, the precrisis stage, is when organizational learning takes place. This learning may involve discussing and determining values to guide the crisis response. The orga-
nization or industry can examine case studies of past crises to learn from these examples as well. Furthermore, the organization or industry can use these case studies to see how it would respond and can test a newly developed approach to managing the crisis. The crisis stage is when the organization actually uses its approach to crisis management. At this point, learning can occur only through experiencing the event. The organization or industry must now respond to the crisis. This is where the implementation of the plan or intent is achieved. Following are some questions that should guide crisis preparation: • Are you able to focus on opportunities and solutions to resolving the crisis? • Are you providing accurate and regular information to stakeholders? • Are you using all that you learned in preparing for the crisis? • How do you plan on communicating openly with your stakeholders? • Are you maintaining your ethical standards for communicating during the crisis? The crisis stage is the time during the actual crisis when the organization or industry must determine whether it has the understanding, courage, and determination to enact the crisis philosophy it established in the precrisis stage. The postcrisis stage is when the organization or industry evaluates whether it met the standards it set in the precrisis stage. The postcrisis stage is also when the organization or industry learns from its crisis response. This learning approach may take the form of an internal or external evaluation process. I recommend an external evaluation that involves focused interviews or focus groups by all those involved in the crisis response. In addition, this final stage should involve organizational stakeholders—in this case, those the organization communicated with during the crisis. This is a good time to learn how your messages were received and how they could be improved the next time. The results of this learning should be distributed throughout your organization and throughout the industry. It is only through this type of learning that your
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the media, its customers, and its employees. In fact, when it was time to carry out the lawsuits for the crisis, the plaintiff lawyers asked to move the trial to Minneapolis from Marshall because of the extraordinary goodwill toward the company. Consider for a moment a company having goodwill after going through a crisis that affected the health of more than 200,000 people. The goodwill was in direct relationship to the communication choices that Schwan’s made during the crisis. What follows are 4 implications for preparing for and managing crises in any industry.
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Your Communication Choices Matter in a Crisis The Discourse of Renewal approach is based on the idea that through communication, we can socially construct reality for our organization, industry, and stakeholders. The values that you select to guide your response, the communication values that you select to use during your
response, and the relationships that you establish with your stakeholders all matter. Consider 2 organizations that are responding to a Salmonella outbreak and reflect on their distinct choices in the following case. Organization 1 is not prepared, focuses on its image and reputation throughout the crisis, and fails to learn from the event. Organization 2 is well prepared for the crisis, focuses on the Discourse of Renewal, and retains its learning from the crisis for future events. Organization 1. When organization 1 experiences a crisis, it is in shock! The organization never even considered that it could experience a crisis. Now it is in the throes of having a significant number of its customers ill with Salmonella. The organization’s leadership is experiencing significant conflict about what to do. Questions range from “What should we say?” to “Who should say it?” The organization’s legal team is telling the company’s leadership to say nothing until the facts are known. The leaders of the organization have not said anything to the media or its stakeholders for 3 d. The media reports suggest that the company is stonewalling, and the media are printing accounts to the like in the newspaper and online every day. Outrage by the public is high and people want answers. The leaders decide to take a defensive approach and emphasize that the source of the crisis is not yet confirmed, so they deny that their organization is at fault. Meanwhile, government regulators are doing their investigation of the organization and are finding evidence to the contrary. Not only has the organization failed to act and communicate with its various publics, but the threat of the crisis has also increased and, ironically, the reputation or image of the organization is tarnished as well. Now let’s consider another approach to making crisis communication choices. Organization 2. Organization 2 has significant preparation for a wide variety of potential crises that it may experience. The company has trained its leadership and employees in effective crisis communication principles. The organization has done several crisis simulations and has developed strong value positions for its crisis responses. The organization’s leaders believe that openness and honesty must prevail in a crisis situation. They also strongly support connect-
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Much of the current thinking in research and practice on crisis communication emphasizes protecting the image or reputation of the organization or industry through strategic communication and “spin.” In this case, the organization deflects blame, minimizes the crisis, and uses legal or defensive strategies to try to resolve the crisis. This approach only makes the crisis worse and more intense. Any organization that refuses to be open and honest during a crisis is destined to fail. Defensive communication under the stress and uncertainty of a crisis is certainly an intuitive response to a crisis, but it not effective. I often explain that defensive communication is often a natural response similar to yelling at someone in an interpersonal conflict after the person has yelled at you. It feels right at the moment but ultimately makes the conflict worse by intensifying the emotions of the event while doing nothing to resolve the actual disagreement. Defensive communication in a crisis may feel right. Worrying about defending the image or reputation of your organization or industry in a crisis may feel like it is important, but it is not. The important, yet counterintuitive, aspect of any crisis is making sure to take action to resolve the crisis, making sure those most affected by the crisis have regular communication and are protected, and communicating learning so that the crisis will not happen again. Any thoughts about “spinning” the information about the source of the crisis or who is responsible are not recommended. For this reason, the communication choices during a crisis matter.
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Ulmer: NATIONAL EXTENSION WORKSHOP The Social Construction of an Effective Crisis Response
A common story goes like this: “Three umpires disagreed about the task of calling balls and strikes. The first one said, ‘I calls them as they is.’ The second one said, ‘I calls them as I sees them.’ The third one, and the cleverest umpire, said, ‘They ain’t nothin’ till I calls them’” [19, p. 29]. Leaders of organizations or industries must understand that they play a large role in creating their social environments during crises. The communication choices we make in the precrisis and crisis stages have a profound effect on the trajectory and impact of the crisis. Whether the leaders of an organization or industry focus on the threat or opportunity during a crisis has major implications for how the crisis will ultimately be resolved. The question I would have leaders ask precrisis is, “What do we want to create through our crisis communication?” In the precrisis stage, leaders of the poultry industry need to consider fully how they would like to communicate, the values they will use to guide their communication, and how those choices will affect the future of their industry. The Discourse of Renewal is a normative theory that asks how we can communicate more effectively during organizational crises. Based on the Discourse of Renewal theory, we have choices about how to respond during an organizational or industry-wide crisis. During crises, we often believe instinctively that the only choice we have is to withdraw and respond defensively. However, more mindful responses to crises exist that include considering the opportunities the crises present. We need to develop new ways to understand and communicate in these difficult communication contexts if we want to improve our crisis communication. Precrisis planning can help. In addition, we want to have crisis communication that creates more opportunities for good things to happen during the crisis. Some patterns of communication, such as the Discourse of Renewal, simply create better opportunities to engage the complexity and chaos of crisis contexts. Future research should continue to examine positive and effective responses to crisis. We all need to become experts in how organizations can make good choices, socially construct positive crisis communica-
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ing with the company’s stakeholders quickly and openly. As a result, when the crisis hits, they are surprised but also ready! They quickly connect with the stakeholders via multiple outlets and communicate that they are aware of a possible connection between the organization and a recent Salmonella outbreak. They also explain that they will be providing information about the crisis every day at a specific time. The leaders understand that acting and finding solutions to the crisis are critical. The leaders do not minimize the scope or impact of the crisis. In fact, they take all precautions to make sure that those who are potentially affected by the crisis are informed and protected. For this reason, they explain to their customers that they should stop eating certain products, and they conduct a recall of those products that may be implicated in the crisis. The leaders know that they would rather protect their customers and the customers’ well being than watch their bottom line too closely and hurt their customers. Leaders of the organization also make sure to protect those most affected by the crisis, and they work to connect with those individuals. In this case, the organization acted quickly under very difficult circumstances and was guided by principles that had been developed together over time. Although there was incredible uncertainty surrounding this crisis, the organization knew exactly what to do and how to do it—not by a checklist or a flowchart, but rather from building a capacity to engage in crisis contexts through skills built through examining case studies and conducting simulations. The choices this organization initially made during the precrisis and crisis stages took this organization down a much different path in terms of making the right choices and managing the uncertainty of the event. The crisis was still difficult for organization 2; however, it will not be criticized for failing to make the right choices during the crisis, for not focusing on the concerns of its stakeholders, or for not learning from the event. It is exactly these types of communication choices that can create renewal, growth, opportunity, and transformation in an organization or industry. What follows is implication 4, which addresses how communication choices socially construct different crisis realities for the organization and all those affected by the crisis.
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716 tion, and then export these ideas through organizations and industries.
CONCLUSIONS AND APPLICATIONS
1. Effective risk and crisis communication is first about conceptualizing crises as opportunities to communicate effectively with the public and to learn from the event. 2. Effective precrisis planning should involve vicarious learning of case studies on foodborne illness outbreaks, establishing core values to guide the crisis response, developing and maintaining stakeholder relationships, and practice in applying the renewal concepts through simulations and training. 3. Effective crisis communication during a crisis involves communicating learning, communicating ethically, using effective organizational rhetoric, and developing a prospective vision. 4. Effective postcrisis communication involves communicating about learning, growth, transformation, optimism, and renewal after the crisis. 5. Effective risk and crisis communication is about resisting our natural inclinations during a crisis and taking a counterintuitive approach to managing the event.
REFERENCES AND NOTES 1. Ulmer, R. R., T. L. Sellnow, and M. W. Seeger. 2011. Effective Crisis Communication: Moving from Crisis to Opportunity. 2nd ed. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
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In this paper, the Discourse of Renewal was proposed as a theory to guide the poultry industry in preparing for and responding to an organizational or industry-wide crisis. Provided here are the applications for poultry organizations and the poultry industry to develop effective responses to a crisis:
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