The two articles we were assigned to read in preparation for this assignment mainly dealt with crisis communication and effective ways to handle the crisis. The first article Crisis Communication: Lessons from 9/11, written by Paul Argenti looks at the aftermath of 9/11 and how various organizations and their leaders dealt with crisis. The author goes on to show how effective communication during the crisis impacted how these organizations and their leaders were perceived by the public and their employees during and after the crisis. In the article he lists five steps of crisis management in order to handle a crisis effectively. The second article Managing the Crisis That You Tried to Prevent by Norman Augustine gives examples of different businesses across different sectors, and how their management effectively or ineffectively handled the crisis at hand. The author also lists all the experiences he has had working at various organizations during times of crisis and how those experiences have led to his expertise in the subject matter. In his article he lists six stages of crisis management and gives us recommendations on how to deal with each stage.
Argenti starts of his article telling us about three people and what they were doing when the 9/11 attacks occurred. He goes on to tell the reader each person’s job responsibilities and how they were impacted by the crisis at hand. Argenti (2002) argues that during an extreme crisis “internal communications take precedence. Before any constructive action can take place-whether it’s serving customers or reassuring investors-the morale of employees must be rebuilt” (p.104). He lists five steps that were effective in handling the crisis and its aftermath; getting on the scene, choosing your channels effectively, staying focused on the business, having a plan in place and improvising from a strong foundation.
One of the lasting images we have etched in our minds is of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani arriving on the...