Strategic Communication in Crisis Management

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Strategic Communication in Crisis Management Lessons from the Airline Industry

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Sally J. Ray

ISBN: 1-56720-153-9

ISBN-13: 978-1-56720-153-6

DOI:

272 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 4/30/1999

List Price: $119.95 (UK Sterling Price: £82.95)

Availability: Print on demand

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Description: Communicating successfully is crucial if an organization is to survive and recover from a crisis. Focusing on the airline industry and some of the most recent headline-making disasters, Dr. Ray looks at organizational crises, the communications strategies employed by organizations when responding to crises, and the factors that influence the effectiveness of this strategic communication. She maintains that our understanding of crisis and the implications for strategic crisis communications in all industries can be based on two valid assumptions. First, crises may be viewed in terms of phases. Second, they are best understood from a system perspective. This is particularly important when we realize that how stakeholders see crises and how professional communicators see them may be entirely different, and that their viewpoints will vary at various crisis stages.

Dr. Ray begins with an introduction that reviews the U.S. airline industry's safety system, followed by a chapter on organizational crises and crisis communications. The remaining chapters are divided into sections reflecting Dr. Ray's simplified model of crisis stages: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. Here she explores conditions which lead to major aviation disasters and other crises, contingency planning, crisis management, crisis communication, and post-crisis investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Seven chapters provide case studies of major airline disasters, analyzed according to her three-stage model, and an illuminating of the major issues associated with airline disasters. The cases also examine, analyze, and evaluate communication strategies used by airlines when responding to these issues and give readers important lessons to ponder, which she synthesizes in a conclusion. Corporate communications specialists at all levels, in the public and private sectors both, as well as executives with other management responsibilities will find Dr. Ray's book informative, useful, and fascinating reading.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Context for Crisis: The Airline Industry
Organizational Crisis and Communication
Existing in a Perpetual Pre-Crisis Phase
Preparing for the Worst: Contingency Planning
Northwest Airlines Flight 255
American Airlines Flight 191
Disaster Strikes! Confronting Crisis
Delta Airlines Flight 191
Trans World Airlines Flight 800
Post-Crisis Investigation: The National Transportation Safety Board
Pan American World Airways Flight 103
USAir Flight 427
ValuJet Flight 592
Lessons from the Airline Industry
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the Author: SALLY J. RAY is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Broadcasting, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green./e She is the author of various journal articles, a contributor to several books, and has spoken before public and private organizations on topics related to the airline industry and strategic communication in general.

LCC Class: 658


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