Crisis Communication Strategies and Management for Chickies Catering

This report provides an in-depth analysis of crisis communication and management within the context of Chickies Catering. It begins by defining crisis situations and the importance of effective communication. The report identifies three primary types of crises that can occur: financial, technological, and management crises, detailing how each can negatively impact the organization. It further examines the impact of mismanagement on key stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, and employees, highlighting the potential for reduced profitability, employee turnover, and damage to the company's reputation. The report then offers several recommendations for managing crises, emphasizing the importance of a team approach, effective communication, and proactive measures to address potential issues. These recommendations include the need for senior executive involvement, technical expertise, and clear communication channels to mitigate and resolve crises effectively. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and reiterating the importance of identifying, understanding, and proactively managing crises to ensure the long-term stability and success of Chickies Catering.

Running head: CRISIS COMMUNICATION
CRISIS COMMUNICATION
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Introduction
Crisis situation is an unplanned, unexpected situation that treats the stability of the
organization. Crisis communication and crisis management is a part of a decision making in the
organization. The crisis management communication is a managerial and decision making
process. It includes pre event planning, which implies planning for the crisis management,
identifying the potential impact of the crisis on the organization. For any effective
communication, understanding the perspective of the audience is a crucial part. Building positive
relationship is a continuous effort for interacting and communicating with the key public of the
organization (Fearn-Banks, 2016). The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the types of
crisis in the organization, and the impact on the stakeholders. It also recommends the steps to
prevent crisis in the organization and to effectively manage the crisis in the organization.
Discussion
Types of crisis that occur in Chickies Catering
Crisis situations occur in any type of organization and business units. Usually the crisis
proceeds with the signs of warning. Ineffective management of crisis negatively impacts the
smooth functioning Chickies Catering. The crisis is evolved in a very less time and impacts the
organization and most important publics of the company. Crisis management is a process by
which the organization tactfully manages and handles the negatives impacts on the management.
Crisis communication is an important aspect in the organization (Coombs, 2018). Prompt and
quick communication is a superior way of handling the crisis occurred in the organization. There
are various types of crisis that may occur in Chickies Catering. The three types of crisis are:

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Financial crisis: Financial crisis may occur in Chickies Catering. There is a lack of financial
sources or inefficient revenue in the company. It may happen during the situation when the
company may lack funds to continue its business operations. The situation may occur when the
Chickies Catering delays the payment such as payments, dividends, other interests and delays the
repayment of loans to the banks and financial institutes. The Chickies Catering is in a position
which may lead to huge amount of losses for a long period of time (Fearn-Banks, 2016). This
may occur in the company due to lack of accountability and therefore it tends to lose its potential
customers.
Technological crisis: Chickies Catering faces huge technological crisis. There is a breakdown in
the scientific tools or machinery. The technological breakdown negatively affects the functioning
and operations of the business. Sometimes the technology used in the organization gets too much
overloaded and therefore its lags down. The data and information of Chickies Catering is lost,
which affects the smooth running of the organization. The technological crisis in the company
includes failure of the software, backdated technology, various accidents (Griffin, 2014). The
effects of technological crisis, affects the public and people associated with the organization.
Management crisis: Management crisis occurs in the Chickies Catering. The inefficiency of the
managers hampers the smooth running of the company, this happens as there is mismanagement
in the organization. The managers and top level employees are inefficient to take prompt
decisions or the decisions taking by the top level managers are not effective to handle the
situation and mange the other activities in Chickies Catering (Griffin, 2014). The resources and
the potential talent of the organization are not fully utilized due to the mismanagement of the
organization.

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Mismanagement crisis and its impact on key stakeholders
Mismanagement in crisis can have a negative impact on the key stakeholders like
customers, shareholders and employees. It highly impacts the overall operations and activities of
Chickies Catering. Due to incompetent managers in the organization, the organization face
challenges regarding the staff members and keeping them motivated. Due to incompetent
managers the organization fails to carry out its operations effectively. Moreover, due to
inefficient managers the organization fails to manage the financial resources and other talents of
the organization. This leads to heavy looses and decrease the profitability of Chickies Catering
The crisis of ineffective management might lead to permanent failure of the business
organizations. Poor leadership in the organization leads to increase in the level of employee
turnover, the employees remain demotivated or their talents and potential is not fully utilized.
The cost of recruitment in the organization and training procedure becomes prohibitive (Fearn-
Banks, 2016). This affects the business’s ability to perform its functions and activities
effectively.
Due to ineffective management in the organization, the activities performed in the
organization are hampered; this reduces the quality of production in Chickies Catering. Due to
reduction in the quality of management, the customer dissatisfaction is increased. The customer
fails to receive the best quality service. Hence their trust in the organization is reduced. Customer
dissatisfaction impacts heavily on the company and might leads to heavy losses.
The employees of Chickies Catering are one of the main key stakeholders of the business.
Due to inefficiency in the mangers, the productivity of the employees is reducing. The
management fails to clearly define the expectations of their performance and inefficient follow
up leads to lower productivity. Failure of the management to provide them proper requirements

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makes the employee uninterested. Without proper standards of performance, rewards and
appreciation, there might be heavy employee turnover in Chickies Catering (Griffin, 2014).
Due to dissatisfaction of the employees and customers of the company, the profitability
of the company is hampered. Ineffective management leads to decrease in profitability and
employee turnover, the company might face heavy looses. This negatively impacts the
shareholders and financial providers of Chickies Catering. The reputation of the business goes
down. Moreover, due to bad reputation the financial lenders and shareholders might lose their
trust on the organization (Steelman, & McCaffrey, 2013). If not taken proper measures, it might
lead to permanent closure of Chickies Catering
Recommendations to manage crisis in Chickies Catering
To manage the smooth functioning of Chickies Catering, there needs to be a team
approach to crisis management. Working as a team under an efficient leader will help to elevate
much of the crisis in the organization. The senior executives of the organizations in the crisis
team needs to identify the crisis, as a first step to effectively handle the situation. The technical
operations managers need to provide in-depth knowledge in the organization. The public
relations manager of the organization needs to handle and oversee the relation between the senior
level mangers and the employees as well as the external audience of the organization (Olsson,
2014). There must be an active participation of the human resource management team and the
efforts of the mangers will help the Chickies Catering to handle the crisis effectively.
The crisis of mismanagement can be eliminated if the crisis is identified and properly
managed. Failing to meet the requirements of Chickies Catering will cause frustrations,
criticisms in Chickies Catering, if the crisis is not managed well the crisis will be magnified. One
of the underlying principles to overcome the management crisis in the organization is

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communication. By communicating with the stakeholders of the company with compassion,
concern and empathy, it will be able to build up its reputation and integrity. The management of
Chickies Catering needs to take immediate step to enhance the decision making of process and
managerial process of the company (Olsson, 2014). There needs to be team work among the
senior management authorities to access and proceed with an effective strategy. A proper crisis
management communication must be initiated by the senior management rather than just staff
implementation program.
The role of human resource has a huge responsibility to develop and implement proper
workplace environment to reduce conflicts with the management and the employees. They must
implement programs and procedures to resolve the conflicts and crisis occurring in Chickies
Catering. The human resource department must take initiates communication with the employee
to reduce the conflicts and track the metrics of the organization. There must be initiates to
receive crisis resolution training. Further, the employees of the company are advised to treat
conflicts and crisis efficiently and seek to address them proactively (Griffin, 2014).
Mismanagement generally occurs due to wrong management styles implemented in the
organization (Griffin, 2014). In order to resolve the conflicts and solve the crisis of
mismanagement in the organization, it is also necessary to have competent managers in the
organization. The managers of the organization should have the ability to perform the managerial
roles and perform satisfactorily.
Effective communication is essential to overcome the crisis in Chickies Catering.
Relevant information needs to flow all across the departments of the company.
Miscommunication and misunderstanding needs to be avoided (Steelman, & McCaffrey, 2013).

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The employees of Chickies Catering must be provided access to communicate with the senior
managers to discuss critical issues, demand and requirements of them and seek suggestions from
them. Certain roles and responsibilities must be delegated to the employees. The managers must
be competent enough to take quick and prompt decisions during any critical situation.
Implementing these suggestions will help Chickies Catering to reduce the crisis and
mismanagement in the company.
Conclusion
Therefore from the above analysis it can be concluded that the crisis occurring in the
organization needs to be identified first in order to remove any crisis faced by Chickies Catering.
There are financial crisis, technological crisis and management crisis faced by the company. The
crisis occurring in Chickies Catering if not acknowledged will lead to permanent closure of the
company. Therefore the organization facing crisis, need to identify the crisis and its impact on
the organization before eliminating them. The crisis of mismanagement in the Chickies Catering
has been discussed and its impact on the key stakeholders. Several recommendations are
provided to overcome the crisis of the company

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