- Email: [email protected]
Survival of the fastest: information technology and corporate crises
PublicRelationsReview, 17(1):85-92 ISSN: 0363.8111
Linda Jo Calhvay
Copyright 0 1991 by JAI Press Inc. AU rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Survival of the Fastest: Information Technology And Corporate Crises ABSTRACT: This article discusses how public relations can exploit information technology to get critical information from clients and communicate with constituents prior to crises, during crises, and during the aftermath of crises. Information technology here refers to computers plus the telecommunications links that combine them, plus data resources, plus work stations that access them. The article focuses on the information and the information infrastructure that can easily be available to access, save, and communicate information. Fast responses to crises depend on having “just-in-time” information technologies working for public relations. The author is on the faculty in the Graduate School of Business Administration at Fordham University. This paper was originally presented as part of a forum at the International Communications Association in Dublin, June 1990.
INTRODUCTION: INFORMATION
JUST-IN-TIME TECHNOLOGY
In a world where international firms are managing their global operations as highly interdependent units, regardless of location or time zones, crisis management of equal complexity is inevitable and required. Previously unthinkable crisis situations are often now the “normal accidents” of business.’
Spring
1991
85
Public Relations Review
In this global context, Information the global organizations’ operations Identifjhg
technology (IT) already plays a key role in and management coordination. Just-in-Time Oppmtunities
If we accept the concept that crises are the normal accidents of business, then we need to address two issues: 1.
Where can Public Relations
lead in crisis management?
2.
Where are the unused sources of leverage that will assist Public Relations people to get their messages across?
We regard IT as an unexploited source of leverage for Public Relations, and also probably as a necessary resource. What surfaces from the Exxon Valdez press coverage is that the media had just-in-time technology and used it, and that the management of Exxon did not. For example, CNN and the networks are capable of responding to a crisis situation in minutes. The Public Relations people at Exxon were faced with seeing interviews and information presented on news broadcasts first, and then responding. What is ironic is that the media had the better just-in-time responses, even though Exxon has better just-in-time technology. Exxon has deployed this technology across the world for several decades to support its time-dependent operations. Planning a Just-in-Time Toolkit In the Exxon Valdez case and in Bhopal, the conclusion is that there was a mismatch around just-in-time tools for crisis management. What we are searching for is to determine what IT tools fit into the Public Relations briefcase that support a just-in-time response. Just-in-time is a phrase first used to describe business production based on frequently ordering goods and services so that they arrive just-in-time to be used, rather than arriving early and being placed into an inventory. The result is a shortened cycle between ordering and receiving raw materials. The concept of just-in-time production now applies to business in general. Just-in-time business activities depend on IT to deliver fast information. According to Alvin ToflIer, the nations of the world now face one inescapable rule: Survival of the fastest. Bar-coded world-wide Federal Express networks, Automatic Tellers, and instant global financial networks are all preliminary steps in the formation of a real-time economy.2 But in order to use just-in-time technologies a company needs an infrastructure. The infrastructures which are easily put in place include electronic mail. With electronic mail, the Public Relations people can locate any person or manager wherever they are, and can immediately construct information crisis bulletin boards electronically that can be accessed wherever they are. What emerges is an immediately available crisis forum. Crisis team members and other interested stakeholders can check their electronic mail as frequently as required. The key to electronic mail, or E-mail, is that messages are delivered to people wherever they are instead of to places. Fax machines and telephones do not contact people, they contact
86
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Sunivd of the Fastest: Infinnzaioon TechnologyAnd Corporate Crises
devices that are location-dependent. Electronic mail is well suited to a crisis where the need is to bring people together rapidly, wherever they are. Another valuable just-in-time tool is video conferencing. Video conferencing can notify engineers, Public Relations people, marketers, safety experts, and environmentalists from many different locations and pull them together in a moments notice. They can “meet” face-to-face five times a day if necessary.
USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DURING CIRSIS PLANNING Long before the onset of crisis, information technologies often play a key role in an organization’s preparations by simulating abnormal situations. Information Technology is used in flight simulators by airlines to train pilots, for example, and to assist managers by simulating crisis decision-making situations in decision laboratories such as those supported by the University of Arizona and IBM.3 At best, crisis planning should use the knowledge, expertise, information, and innovation available to the organization and its electronic partners, regardless of location or time zone. Crisis planning is therefore intertwined with the effective organization of global operations, and depends on the deployment of information and communications technologies that facilitate managing and coordinating globally. In the world of international just-in-time business, a crisis becomes global in hours or days, because of communications. Just as there are few if any large, purely domestic markets for business, so crisis is no longer a single-site phenomena -if it ever was. Everett Rogers cites the example of the director of an Egyptian management information system designed to help the national cabinet make wellinformed decisions. In Summer of 1988, the U.S. faced a serious drought in the midwest. The Egyptian director estimated that in a two week period the annual cost of food imports to Egypt jumped 30%, an extra $800 million over the usual $2.8 billion per year, thanks to the new information system.4 Information technology is integral to the fabric of today’s highly dispersed organizations. Classic information technology systems are used by organizations to manage transactions and routine operations such as payroll and accounting. More recently, IT began to play a key role in assisting managers to understand and manipulate information with tools for office automation and decision support. Spreadsheets, wordprocessors, electronic mail, production simulation, portfolio management, and personal database packages are common items in a personal computer software house. These glamourless packages can be redeployed for crisis planning. Production planning systems, as an example, can be used to simulate crisis situations by changing parameters such as market share or availability of raw materials and suppliers. It is relatively easy to predict how many doses of a drug would be required to service an epidemic of major proportions. It is equally simple to predict how one would fill a competitor’s market share if the competitor should encounter a crisis or a disastrous interruption in ability to produce the drug. Major pharmaceutical companies are anticipating crises that may never occur spring 1991
87
Public RelatiomsReview
by developing global databases on drug reactions. Instead of the United States knowing only about the 10 adverse reactions of a company’s drug in the U.S. and the Japanese knowing 30 in Japan, they have recognized that, should the question of drug safety be raised, the relevant data must be complete, and readily and immediately accessible. If the process followed by a crisis is understood, then information technology can accurately predict outcomes. However, crisis conception planning is often inadequate. The crisis contingency planning for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company was based on scenarios for routine spills and for worst case spills of a 200,000 bbi release over 10 hours. The Exxon Valdez spill released appro~mately 250,000 bbl in two to three hours.5 Regardless of the Alyeska contingency planning, most of the oil would have reached the beach under any scenario: Based on existing technology and experience in past oil spills, it is unreasonable to assume that in a major crude oil spill, more than 15 to 30 percent of the oil wilf be picked up mech~c~y, treated with dispersants, or burned. A significant portion of the oil will hit the beach.”
USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DURING CRISIS MANAGEMENT Once crisis strikes, however, IT plays a different role. Supporting dispersed organizations depends on communication, where the parties who communicate need not be in direct contact, but can be separated by time as well as location7x8 While some computer software simulations are inflexible and require prior understanding or prediction of crisis, other software such as databases to track key personnel and software that maps a crisis as it progresses (such as an oil spill) are easy to use. Thus, information can be made available to dispersed corporate units through computer mediated communications. Communications add organizational flexibility, and they are available and easy to use by non-technical people. Although firms with international information and communications infrastructures in place may have a distinct edge in supporting sophisticated crisis management methods, the simpler technologies available to non-technical people can be crucial in supporting crisis response. These information technologies allow the location-independent organization to deploy expertise and expert information to a work site or management headquarters rapidly, regardless of the location of the experts or the information they require. ~0 Ideally, a firm’s information technology is integrated with the business and organizational strategy. In fact, the infrastructure defines the flexible structures of the modern org~i~tion.“,‘~ Nevertheless, modest computerized database and communications software infrastructures can support the crisis management team by deploying information and expertise to the crisis location, by providing simple but often unavailable information, and by supporting decision-making. For example, a contact list on a crisis bulletin board with people’s calendars can be gold in a crisis. Most companies, and Exxon was one of them, depend on deploying crisis teams, which are meant to create a narrowed-down organization. Very often the only communication that is adequately supported is face-to-face communication 88
Vol. 17, No. 1
that requires the crisis team to occupy a single location in a single time. But this narrowed-down crisis team, even in a single-location organization where the crisis occurs on-site, leaves most of the people and units out of the crisis management info~ation picture. If the company operates world-wide, then the prospect of assembling the people with the appropriate expertise to deal with any crisis in a short time is unrealistic. According to Small, the Wall Street Jourmd indicates that Exxon’s public relations office for U.S. operations was one man and an answering machine in Houston.13 In line with their face-to-face and single-site management strategy, the Houston oflice referred people to public relations o&es in Alaska, which were unable to handle the calls because the telephone circuits were overloaded.i4 Examples like Exxon Valdez show clearly why a crisis team in a dispersed organization should be location-independent, with appropriate information and communications support. Supporting a location-independent emergency ad-hoc crisis team requires communications. Satellite stations that support voice and data co~~ications now fit into a small suitcase, and complete broadcast facilities with highspeed data, voice, and video transmission can be installed in hours. There are some compelling reasons as well for including the entire organization in crisis communication, not simpIy the crisis management team. The existence of a public relations “window of opportunity” has been well-documented.15 For example, one aspect of crisis management that is seldom discussed is the usual role of the news media as an information “gatekeeper.” This role is not wefl- formed during the early stages of crisis .i6 In a crisis with world-wide implications, local media people will immediately attempt to contact local representatives or employees of your company, and there will be no news media gatekeeper to effectiveIy monitor or filter the information. This window provides public relations with an opportunity only if their own communications channels are in place and operating. Financial markets and news org~izations have co~unications infrast~ctures in-place over most of the world, and they operate instantaneously to spread whatever words are available, regardless of any public relations viewpoint. With appropriate organization-wide communications in place, the public relations people have an equal opportunity to get their own messages across early. Unfortunately, according to the Wall Street Jownd, Exxon executives were depending on the wire services for their info~ation, not the other way around, and the spokespeople were telling the press it was Valdez or nothing.i7
IDENTIFYING USEFUL THAT INFORMATION CAN DELIVER
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Problems during crisis are often amplified by the lack of simple information that ought to be available but is not. Some seemingly simple information and data that can be made available electronically during crisis are electronic maps, telephone books, the crisis handbook, and a history log of the crisis. Analysis indicates that the Exxon Valdez crisis m~agement Public Relations people suffered from an information bottleneck and a communication bottleneck (see Small, 1990). Better electronic communications can be used to open these spring 1991
89
Public Rtdztiuss Review
channels. Once these channels are functioning, attention becomes the chief bottleneck in organizational activity. l8 It probably behooves the Public Relations people to select what information they believe will be useful and deliver it quickly and electronically. Of course, Public Relations cannot control or coordinate reactions electronically unless the mechanisms that are in place are also used. FordEurope has an electronic mail system with 15,000 users in Europe and the U.S. But the information technology people had not considered using it as a crisis management tool. This is in contrast to Ford-Europe’s video links, which they effectively used to respond to auto-emission pollution legislation in Germany the same day it was passed.r9 After Chernobyl, the prime minister of West Germany asked the IT community to build him a system to support the management of crises. What he wanted was a map that could be manipulated on-line; to track fallout, for example, and an on-line telephone book that listed experts and where experts offering assistance could list themselves.20 These same abilities would have assisted the management of the crises at Union Carbide and Exxon. Exxon had these abilities within their organization, but they were not used early at Exxon Valdez?’ The crisis handbook should be on-line so that it can be easily accessed and easily changed for flexible responses to new situations during crisis. Part of the on-line handbook should be a dictionary that can translate between technical vocabularies and those of laypeople hearing reports on the media. Different groups of stakeholders use words differen~y, and different cultures use different languages. The on-line dictionary acts as a translator. A simple example is the use of the word ‘Laccident.” Accident was traditionally used by safety engineers to mean an unwanted and unexpected release of energy. 22 However, some hazards are now associated with exposures and genetics and do not release energy. Responding to these new issues, safety engineers define the word “mishap” to mean an unplanned event or series of events that result in death, injury, occupational illness, damage to or loss of equipment or property, or environmental harm.23 Webster calls a mishap an unfortunate accident, and most laypeople might not think that the term was serious enough to describe a dangerous crisis. Raw1 reportedly said on CBS Tt’isMming that his job did not involve knowing the details of a highly technical cleanup plan. However, if these plans were considered too technical by Rawl, then they were undoubtedly difficult for the general public to understand. Had Raw1 been provided a dictionary with appropriate and understandable language, he might have been better prepared.
USING INFO~~ON TO HELP IN FUTURE
TECHNOLOGY CRISES
Electronic media can be used as a crisis log. A technology related crisis is most often caused by multiple factors, and the relative contribution of each factor is usually not clear (see Pinsdorf, 1990; Schrage, 1990, and Leveson, 1987). Wsing IT as an on-line crisis log might help to mitigate future crises. The pharmaceutical companies drug reaction databases are exactly this type of anticipa-
90
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tory log. Every instance of an adverse reaction is added to the database, just in case the database needs to be accessed just-in-time. During airline disasters, the cockpit voice recorder is often recovered and can be used in future sedations and training. United Airlines, for example, requires all its pilots to attend a training session where they re-enact the 1978 airline crash outside Portland, Oregon, where a United DC-S carrying 189 people ran out of fitelF They use the recovered cockpit tape and a visual simulation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SETTING THE PUBLIC RELATIONS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGENDA The agenda for the Public Relations people and their clients is to determine whether or not they have the tools for getting and ~stributing ~fo~ation. With Electronic-mail available, organizational structure need not impede the flow or information during crisis. Think of the communications infrastructure in the same way that one thinks of fire and foam trucks at Kennedy Airport, where accidents and crisis are institutionalized. Nobody complains if the firetruck is not needed in a given year. If it is not available when it is needed then everyone complains. Should your cfient companies require communication drills? How many of your clients have crisis simulations? How should information move through the system in a crisis? Are you able to take advantage of the window of opportunity during a crisis when the gateway roles of the press are opened? How many general managers, top management teams, chemical engineers, and environmentalists can you reach world-wide in three hours if you had a crisis that required their input? Will the infrastructure support frequent on-line business meetings? Does your company need a worldwide electronic mail system? Is your E-mail address on your business card? In a world of just-in-time information technology with CNN, FAX, mobile full-broadcast satellite systems that can be operational in three hours, video conferencing, and mundane technologies like E-mail, it seems necessary to ask whether Public Relations people are ~der-leverag~g their own productivi~. A Public Relations organization without enough telephones is handcuffed. Yet in today’s networked world, a Public Relations organization without laptop computers, E-mail, and a video down-link from headquarters may also be a public relations organization that is handcuffed and handicapped. Good communications is no guarantee of good public relations. Poor communication is a certain guarantee of poor public relations.
REFERENCES 1. 2.
Perrow, C. ~~~~~ts: Lipiag with H&h Risk Systm. New York: Basic Books, 1984. Tof?ler, Alvin. ‘TofIler’s Next Shock,” W&d Monitor 3(11). (November 1990). 34-44.
spring 1991
91
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3.
4. 5.
6. 7. 8.
9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
14. 15. 16.
17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.
92
&view
Nunarnaker, Jay F., Jr., Weber, E. Sue and Chen, Minder. “Organizational Crisis Management Systems: Planning for Intelligent Action.” Journal ofManagementInfmmation Systems 5(4) (Spring 1989). Rogers, Everett. “Science Communication about Risk.” 1988 Symposium on Science Communication: Environmental andHeahh Research, Los Angeles. December 1988. HarraId, John R., Marcus, Henry S., and Wallace, William A. ‘The EXXON Valdez: An Assessment of Crisis Prevention and Management Systems,” Interfaces 20(5): 14-30 (September-October 1990). Ibid., 23. Keen, Peter G.W. Shaping the Future: Business Design Through Infomurtion Technology. Harvard Business School Press, 1991. Johansen, Robert. “Human Resource Issues for the Team-Based Era.” International Center for Information Technology, Washington, D.C. Research Repoti #3101, 1990. Keen, Peter G.W. Competing in Time: Using Telecommunications fm Competitive Advantage. Cambridge, Mass: Ballinger, 1988. Johansen, op. cit. Keen, 1990, op. cit. Konsinski, Berm R. and McFarlan, F. Warren. “Information Partnerships-Shared Data, Shared Scale,“Harva~dBusinessReview, September-October, 1990,114-120. Small, William J.; Galloway, Linda Jo; Egelhoff, William; Sen, Falguni and Pinsdorf, Marion. Communications in Crisis: Planning and Responding When a Company Is Under Siege. Papers presented at the International Communications Association, Dublin, Ireland. June, 1990. Ibid., 4. Pinsdorfin, Small, op. cit. Quarantelli, E.L. “Lessons Learned From Research on Disasters.” 1988 Symposium on Science Communication: Environmental and Health Research, Los Angeles. December 1988. Small, op. cit. Simon, Herbert A. “Applying Information Technology to Organization Design.” Public Administration Review, May/June, 1973, 268-278. Keen, Peter G.W., personal communication: December, 1990. Jarke, Matthias, University of Passau, personal communication: 1985. Harrald, op. cit. Leveson, Nancy G. “Software Safety: Why, What, and How.” ACM Computing Surveys 18(2): 124-163 (June 1986). Ibid. Schrage, Michael. Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration. Random House, New York. 1990.
Vol. 17, No. 1
Linda Jo Calhvay
Copyright 0 1991 by JAI Press Inc. AU rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Survival of the Fastest: Information Technology And Corporate Crises ABSTRACT: This article discusses how public relations can exploit information technology to get critical information from clients and communicate with constituents prior to crises, during crises, and during the aftermath of crises. Information technology here refers to computers plus the telecommunications links that combine them, plus data resources, plus work stations that access them. The article focuses on the information and the information infrastructure that can easily be available to access, save, and communicate information. Fast responses to crises depend on having “just-in-time” information technologies working for public relations. The author is on the faculty in the Graduate School of Business Administration at Fordham University. This paper was originally presented as part of a forum at the International Communications Association in Dublin, June 1990.
INTRODUCTION: INFORMATION
JUST-IN-TIME TECHNOLOGY
In a world where international firms are managing their global operations as highly interdependent units, regardless of location or time zones, crisis management of equal complexity is inevitable and required. Previously unthinkable crisis situations are often now the “normal accidents” of business.’
Spring
1991
85
Public Relations Review
In this global context, Information the global organizations’ operations Identifjhg
technology (IT) already plays a key role in and management coordination. Just-in-Time Oppmtunities
If we accept the concept that crises are the normal accidents of business, then we need to address two issues: 1.
Where can Public Relations
lead in crisis management?
2.
Where are the unused sources of leverage that will assist Public Relations people to get their messages across?
We regard IT as an unexploited source of leverage for Public Relations, and also probably as a necessary resource. What surfaces from the Exxon Valdez press coverage is that the media had just-in-time technology and used it, and that the management of Exxon did not. For example, CNN and the networks are capable of responding to a crisis situation in minutes. The Public Relations people at Exxon were faced with seeing interviews and information presented on news broadcasts first, and then responding. What is ironic is that the media had the better just-in-time responses, even though Exxon has better just-in-time technology. Exxon has deployed this technology across the world for several decades to support its time-dependent operations. Planning a Just-in-Time Toolkit In the Exxon Valdez case and in Bhopal, the conclusion is that there was a mismatch around just-in-time tools for crisis management. What we are searching for is to determine what IT tools fit into the Public Relations briefcase that support a just-in-time response. Just-in-time is a phrase first used to describe business production based on frequently ordering goods and services so that they arrive just-in-time to be used, rather than arriving early and being placed into an inventory. The result is a shortened cycle between ordering and receiving raw materials. The concept of just-in-time production now applies to business in general. Just-in-time business activities depend on IT to deliver fast information. According to Alvin ToflIer, the nations of the world now face one inescapable rule: Survival of the fastest. Bar-coded world-wide Federal Express networks, Automatic Tellers, and instant global financial networks are all preliminary steps in the formation of a real-time economy.2 But in order to use just-in-time technologies a company needs an infrastructure. The infrastructures which are easily put in place include electronic mail. With electronic mail, the Public Relations people can locate any person or manager wherever they are, and can immediately construct information crisis bulletin boards electronically that can be accessed wherever they are. What emerges is an immediately available crisis forum. Crisis team members and other interested stakeholders can check their electronic mail as frequently as required. The key to electronic mail, or E-mail, is that messages are delivered to people wherever they are instead of to places. Fax machines and telephones do not contact people, they contact
86
Vol. 17, No. 1
Sunivd of the Fastest: Infinnzaioon TechnologyAnd Corporate Crises
devices that are location-dependent. Electronic mail is well suited to a crisis where the need is to bring people together rapidly, wherever they are. Another valuable just-in-time tool is video conferencing. Video conferencing can notify engineers, Public Relations people, marketers, safety experts, and environmentalists from many different locations and pull them together in a moments notice. They can “meet” face-to-face five times a day if necessary.
USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DURING CIRSIS PLANNING Long before the onset of crisis, information technologies often play a key role in an organization’s preparations by simulating abnormal situations. Information Technology is used in flight simulators by airlines to train pilots, for example, and to assist managers by simulating crisis decision-making situations in decision laboratories such as those supported by the University of Arizona and IBM.3 At best, crisis planning should use the knowledge, expertise, information, and innovation available to the organization and its electronic partners, regardless of location or time zone. Crisis planning is therefore intertwined with the effective organization of global operations, and depends on the deployment of information and communications technologies that facilitate managing and coordinating globally. In the world of international just-in-time business, a crisis becomes global in hours or days, because of communications. Just as there are few if any large, purely domestic markets for business, so crisis is no longer a single-site phenomena -if it ever was. Everett Rogers cites the example of the director of an Egyptian management information system designed to help the national cabinet make wellinformed decisions. In Summer of 1988, the U.S. faced a serious drought in the midwest. The Egyptian director estimated that in a two week period the annual cost of food imports to Egypt jumped 30%, an extra $800 million over the usual $2.8 billion per year, thanks to the new information system.4 Information technology is integral to the fabric of today’s highly dispersed organizations. Classic information technology systems are used by organizations to manage transactions and routine operations such as payroll and accounting. More recently, IT began to play a key role in assisting managers to understand and manipulate information with tools for office automation and decision support. Spreadsheets, wordprocessors, electronic mail, production simulation, portfolio management, and personal database packages are common items in a personal computer software house. These glamourless packages can be redeployed for crisis planning. Production planning systems, as an example, can be used to simulate crisis situations by changing parameters such as market share or availability of raw materials and suppliers. It is relatively easy to predict how many doses of a drug would be required to service an epidemic of major proportions. It is equally simple to predict how one would fill a competitor’s market share if the competitor should encounter a crisis or a disastrous interruption in ability to produce the drug. Major pharmaceutical companies are anticipating crises that may never occur spring 1991
87
Public RelatiomsReview
by developing global databases on drug reactions. Instead of the United States knowing only about the 10 adverse reactions of a company’s drug in the U.S. and the Japanese knowing 30 in Japan, they have recognized that, should the question of drug safety be raised, the relevant data must be complete, and readily and immediately accessible. If the process followed by a crisis is understood, then information technology can accurately predict outcomes. However, crisis conception planning is often inadequate. The crisis contingency planning for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company was based on scenarios for routine spills and for worst case spills of a 200,000 bbi release over 10 hours. The Exxon Valdez spill released appro~mately 250,000 bbl in two to three hours.5 Regardless of the Alyeska contingency planning, most of the oil would have reached the beach under any scenario: Based on existing technology and experience in past oil spills, it is unreasonable to assume that in a major crude oil spill, more than 15 to 30 percent of the oil wilf be picked up mech~c~y, treated with dispersants, or burned. A significant portion of the oil will hit the beach.”
USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DURING CRISIS MANAGEMENT Once crisis strikes, however, IT plays a different role. Supporting dispersed organizations depends on communication, where the parties who communicate need not be in direct contact, but can be separated by time as well as location7x8 While some computer software simulations are inflexible and require prior understanding or prediction of crisis, other software such as databases to track key personnel and software that maps a crisis as it progresses (such as an oil spill) are easy to use. Thus, information can be made available to dispersed corporate units through computer mediated communications. Communications add organizational flexibility, and they are available and easy to use by non-technical people. Although firms with international information and communications infrastructures in place may have a distinct edge in supporting sophisticated crisis management methods, the simpler technologies available to non-technical people can be crucial in supporting crisis response. These information technologies allow the location-independent organization to deploy expertise and expert information to a work site or management headquarters rapidly, regardless of the location of the experts or the information they require. ~0 Ideally, a firm’s information technology is integrated with the business and organizational strategy. In fact, the infrastructure defines the flexible structures of the modern org~i~tion.“,‘~ Nevertheless, modest computerized database and communications software infrastructures can support the crisis management team by deploying information and expertise to the crisis location, by providing simple but often unavailable information, and by supporting decision-making. For example, a contact list on a crisis bulletin board with people’s calendars can be gold in a crisis. Most companies, and Exxon was one of them, depend on deploying crisis teams, which are meant to create a narrowed-down organization. Very often the only communication that is adequately supported is face-to-face communication 88
Vol. 17, No. 1
that requires the crisis team to occupy a single location in a single time. But this narrowed-down crisis team, even in a single-location organization where the crisis occurs on-site, leaves most of the people and units out of the crisis management info~ation picture. If the company operates world-wide, then the prospect of assembling the people with the appropriate expertise to deal with any crisis in a short time is unrealistic. According to Small, the Wall Street Jourmd indicates that Exxon’s public relations office for U.S. operations was one man and an answering machine in Houston.13 In line with their face-to-face and single-site management strategy, the Houston oflice referred people to public relations o&es in Alaska, which were unable to handle the calls because the telephone circuits were overloaded.i4 Examples like Exxon Valdez show clearly why a crisis team in a dispersed organization should be location-independent, with appropriate information and communications support. Supporting a location-independent emergency ad-hoc crisis team requires communications. Satellite stations that support voice and data co~~ications now fit into a small suitcase, and complete broadcast facilities with highspeed data, voice, and video transmission can be installed in hours. There are some compelling reasons as well for including the entire organization in crisis communication, not simpIy the crisis management team. The existence of a public relations “window of opportunity” has been well-documented.15 For example, one aspect of crisis management that is seldom discussed is the usual role of the news media as an information “gatekeeper.” This role is not wefl- formed during the early stages of crisis .i6 In a crisis with world-wide implications, local media people will immediately attempt to contact local representatives or employees of your company, and there will be no news media gatekeeper to effectiveIy monitor or filter the information. This window provides public relations with an opportunity only if their own communications channels are in place and operating. Financial markets and news org~izations have co~unications infrast~ctures in-place over most of the world, and they operate instantaneously to spread whatever words are available, regardless of any public relations viewpoint. With appropriate organization-wide communications in place, the public relations people have an equal opportunity to get their own messages across early. Unfortunately, according to the Wall Street Jownd, Exxon executives were depending on the wire services for their info~ation, not the other way around, and the spokespeople were telling the press it was Valdez or nothing.i7
IDENTIFYING USEFUL THAT INFORMATION CAN DELIVER
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Problems during crisis are often amplified by the lack of simple information that ought to be available but is not. Some seemingly simple information and data that can be made available electronically during crisis are electronic maps, telephone books, the crisis handbook, and a history log of the crisis. Analysis indicates that the Exxon Valdez crisis m~agement Public Relations people suffered from an information bottleneck and a communication bottleneck (see Small, 1990). Better electronic communications can be used to open these spring 1991
89
Public Rtdztiuss Review
channels. Once these channels are functioning, attention becomes the chief bottleneck in organizational activity. l8 It probably behooves the Public Relations people to select what information they believe will be useful and deliver it quickly and electronically. Of course, Public Relations cannot control or coordinate reactions electronically unless the mechanisms that are in place are also used. FordEurope has an electronic mail system with 15,000 users in Europe and the U.S. But the information technology people had not considered using it as a crisis management tool. This is in contrast to Ford-Europe’s video links, which they effectively used to respond to auto-emission pollution legislation in Germany the same day it was passed.r9 After Chernobyl, the prime minister of West Germany asked the IT community to build him a system to support the management of crises. What he wanted was a map that could be manipulated on-line; to track fallout, for example, and an on-line telephone book that listed experts and where experts offering assistance could list themselves.20 These same abilities would have assisted the management of the crises at Union Carbide and Exxon. Exxon had these abilities within their organization, but they were not used early at Exxon Valdez?’ The crisis handbook should be on-line so that it can be easily accessed and easily changed for flexible responses to new situations during crisis. Part of the on-line handbook should be a dictionary that can translate between technical vocabularies and those of laypeople hearing reports on the media. Different groups of stakeholders use words differen~y, and different cultures use different languages. The on-line dictionary acts as a translator. A simple example is the use of the word ‘Laccident.” Accident was traditionally used by safety engineers to mean an unwanted and unexpected release of energy. 22 However, some hazards are now associated with exposures and genetics and do not release energy. Responding to these new issues, safety engineers define the word “mishap” to mean an unplanned event or series of events that result in death, injury, occupational illness, damage to or loss of equipment or property, or environmental harm.23 Webster calls a mishap an unfortunate accident, and most laypeople might not think that the term was serious enough to describe a dangerous crisis. Raw1 reportedly said on CBS Tt’isMming that his job did not involve knowing the details of a highly technical cleanup plan. However, if these plans were considered too technical by Rawl, then they were undoubtedly difficult for the general public to understand. Had Raw1 been provided a dictionary with appropriate and understandable language, he might have been better prepared.
USING INFO~~ON TO HELP IN FUTURE
TECHNOLOGY CRISES
Electronic media can be used as a crisis log. A technology related crisis is most often caused by multiple factors, and the relative contribution of each factor is usually not clear (see Pinsdorf, 1990; Schrage, 1990, and Leveson, 1987). Wsing IT as an on-line crisis log might help to mitigate future crises. The pharmaceutical companies drug reaction databases are exactly this type of anticipa-
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tory log. Every instance of an adverse reaction is added to the database, just in case the database needs to be accessed just-in-time. During airline disasters, the cockpit voice recorder is often recovered and can be used in future sedations and training. United Airlines, for example, requires all its pilots to attend a training session where they re-enact the 1978 airline crash outside Portland, Oregon, where a United DC-S carrying 189 people ran out of fitelF They use the recovered cockpit tape and a visual simulation.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SETTING THE PUBLIC RELATIONS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AGENDA The agenda for the Public Relations people and their clients is to determine whether or not they have the tools for getting and ~stributing ~fo~ation. With Electronic-mail available, organizational structure need not impede the flow or information during crisis. Think of the communications infrastructure in the same way that one thinks of fire and foam trucks at Kennedy Airport, where accidents and crisis are institutionalized. Nobody complains if the firetruck is not needed in a given year. If it is not available when it is needed then everyone complains. Should your cfient companies require communication drills? How many of your clients have crisis simulations? How should information move through the system in a crisis? Are you able to take advantage of the window of opportunity during a crisis when the gateway roles of the press are opened? How many general managers, top management teams, chemical engineers, and environmentalists can you reach world-wide in three hours if you had a crisis that required their input? Will the infrastructure support frequent on-line business meetings? Does your company need a worldwide electronic mail system? Is your E-mail address on your business card? In a world of just-in-time information technology with CNN, FAX, mobile full-broadcast satellite systems that can be operational in three hours, video conferencing, and mundane technologies like E-mail, it seems necessary to ask whether Public Relations people are ~der-leverag~g their own productivi~. A Public Relations organization without enough telephones is handcuffed. Yet in today’s networked world, a Public Relations organization without laptop computers, E-mail, and a video down-link from headquarters may also be a public relations organization that is handcuffed and handicapped. Good communications is no guarantee of good public relations. Poor communication is a certain guarantee of poor public relations.
REFERENCES 1. 2.
Perrow, C. ~~~~~ts: Lipiag with H&h Risk Systm. New York: Basic Books, 1984. Tof?ler, Alvin. ‘TofIler’s Next Shock,” W&d Monitor 3(11). (November 1990). 34-44.
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3.
4. 5.
6. 7. 8.
9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
14. 15. 16.
17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.
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Nunarnaker, Jay F., Jr., Weber, E. Sue and Chen, Minder. “Organizational Crisis Management Systems: Planning for Intelligent Action.” Journal ofManagementInfmmation Systems 5(4) (Spring 1989). Rogers, Everett. “Science Communication about Risk.” 1988 Symposium on Science Communication: Environmental andHeahh Research, Los Angeles. December 1988. HarraId, John R., Marcus, Henry S., and Wallace, William A. ‘The EXXON Valdez: An Assessment of Crisis Prevention and Management Systems,” Interfaces 20(5): 14-30 (September-October 1990). Ibid., 23. Keen, Peter G.W. Shaping the Future: Business Design Through Infomurtion Technology. Harvard Business School Press, 1991. Johansen, Robert. “Human Resource Issues for the Team-Based Era.” International Center for Information Technology, Washington, D.C. Research Repoti #3101, 1990. Keen, Peter G.W. Competing in Time: Using Telecommunications fm Competitive Advantage. Cambridge, Mass: Ballinger, 1988. Johansen, op. cit. Keen, 1990, op. cit. Konsinski, Berm R. and McFarlan, F. Warren. “Information Partnerships-Shared Data, Shared Scale,“Harva~dBusinessReview, September-October, 1990,114-120. Small, William J.; Galloway, Linda Jo; Egelhoff, William; Sen, Falguni and Pinsdorf, Marion. Communications in Crisis: Planning and Responding When a Company Is Under Siege. Papers presented at the International Communications Association, Dublin, Ireland. June, 1990. Ibid., 4. Pinsdorfin, Small, op. cit. Quarantelli, E.L. “Lessons Learned From Research on Disasters.” 1988 Symposium on Science Communication: Environmental and Health Research, Los Angeles. December 1988. Small, op. cit. Simon, Herbert A. “Applying Information Technology to Organization Design.” Public Administration Review, May/June, 1973, 268-278. Keen, Peter G.W., personal communication: December, 1990. Jarke, Matthias, University of Passau, personal communication: 1985. Harrald, op. cit. Leveson, Nancy G. “Software Safety: Why, What, and How.” ACM Computing Surveys 18(2): 124-163 (June 1986). Ibid. Schrage, Michael. Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration. Random House, New York. 1990.
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