MKT 4141 - Crisis Communication: Southwest Airlines 2016 Analysis

This essay critically evaluates Southwest Airlines' management of its 2016 crisis, triggered by a significant technical glitch that led to the cancellation of over 1800 flights. The analysis covers the identification and description of the crisis, highlighting the role of social media, the issues that evolved, and the airline's crisis communication plan. The essay examines the impact on stakeholders and the importance of effective public relations during such events, referencing academic literature and PR theory to identify and support the crisis management strategies employed (or not) by Southwest Airlines during the crisis.

Running head: PUBLIC RELATION AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION
PUBLIC RELATION AND CRISIS COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Topic: A critical evaluation of managing a crisis situation in South West Airlines in 2016.
Introduction
Crisis management is one of the most important operation processes in the organisation
to mitigate the risk and to control the situation in an ethical manner. Public relation team needs to
take most of the responsibilities through the process and that impact over the operation of the
company in the right way to mitigate the process quickly. Public relations team has to intervene
with the issue and make some quick decisions to implement the situation, rather get rid of the
situation. There are many types of crisis and most of the times organisational potential damage or
stakeholders of the company are being threatened. The industry may be different but the amount
of threat will be there in the same way and that impact on the business in long-term cases. There
are three major threats that are related to the crisis management like public safety and security,
financial loss and reputation loss of the organisation. The situation impacts over the company in
a radical way, as disrupting operation and loss of market share, emergency cost barring,
employees’ harassment and unusual time management and sometimes loss of lives are the main
issue for the management.
In this case, crisis situation of Southwest Airlines has been described and also evaluated
is the situational problem faced by the airline. Public relation team had come upon that moment,
but the situation was so drastic that they cannot operate a single step to get rid of the situation.
Crisis management and their possible understanding evolved through the case and that
determines the business reduction situation for that company.
Identification of the crisis

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The crisis situation has been found in 2016 when more than 1800 flights were cancelled
due to the crisis situation. The situation continued for three days and all the stakeholders' of
Southwest airlines were on the suffering side (Utz, Schultz and Glocka 2013). A technical glitch
happened and it persisted for three days long. The systematic worldwide cancellation had been
made by the executives of the company and passengers are not getting their flight on time.
Importance of social communication is so much important, as that helped understand the
situation. PR team were not working properly nor they did have any clue to contact with all the
passengers to inform about the situation, thus the work was challenging for them.
Description of the crisis
The situation faced by the Southwest airlines was drastic. At the time of fixing the
problem, concerned executive body was forced to cancel 700 flights on the initial day, after that
they tried to solve the solution, but after so many tough attempts the consequences were not good
and the crisis continued. The airlines operated 3,900 daily flights in a year but the situation was
so drastic that the company had not even moved their stagnant position and that is the reason
passengers were suffering, and so was the employees (Usatoday.com 2016). After that disastrous
day, on the next morning, 900 flights were cancelled again and the devastating situation had
continued. Most of the disruption situation had been faced by the passengers on the very next of
the situation. The day was Friday and officials of the Southwest executives declared on Thursday
that they would solve the issue and all the flights were going on their scheduled time but the
situation had been same for the day and customers had to miss their flight due to that incident.
Organisation called their passengers for the rebooking of flights, and thousands of people
gathered over there to take their tickets and the reservation line was enormous. This amount of
rush was first noticed by this airline company and that was supposed to be considered regarding

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the crisis situation that happened in Southwest airlines (Usatoday.com 2016). Southwest also
provided tickets for their customers with no cost and as they have been asked to change their
plan as well. A full calculation of exploring the situation and the right way to mitigate the
situation did not happen in that case and that public relation team and managers were mere
spectators over there.
Overview of the crisis in different social media platforms
Social media had a big role in this incident. Through the social media, the news became
viral and people knew about the situation the company were in. In other section, all the social
networking sites were stopped and that is the reason people were unaware of timing and all the
information related to the file (Grunig 2013). The platform of social media helped to mitigate the
crisis as the situation occured in case of rendering huge portions of their computers that are
inoperable for more than 12 hours. The duration of the time is very big as the airlines needed
24hours service assistance in case of social media involvement and that is the reason Southwest
had faced this kind of situation.
Issues evolve through the crisis
The main issue in this matter is the massive technology failure that happened in
Southwest airlines. Service professional fear is always there in case of involving in crisis
situation. Through this crisis situation, the positional improvement does not happen and the same
situation is persisting for the Southwest airlines (Seitel 2017). The passengers are in the adverse
condition phase. The situation is not fruitful, and customers suffer the most in this situation. The
internal technological failure is the liable situation for this issue. In case of the crisis situation,
there are some evolving cases that have come and these impacted the business.

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Site management and control is the first sequence of this crisis situation. Through the site
management a controlling situation may be implemented by the organization. The next level of
the business is an identification of problem; in that case, problem understanding and
recommended process invention is the challenging way of positioning the crisis (Austin et al.
2012). Risk evaluation and measuring the hazard is the important situation of business and
through the evaluation of process, a problem can be accessed. Implement response to objectives
is another state that hampers the positional ground of business and through the incidents, these
situations can be addressed. Resource co-ordination is another aspect that happens in case of
crisis understanding and in most of the cases; the negative impact is imposed in the situation as
well.
Social media and crisis situation
Crisis situation impacts on the economic condition of the company and in that time
importance of social media have come up to the company. In other words, the news gets their
program through this process. The sharing knowledge and understanding of use in social media
have been implanted in this section. The situation that happened in Southwest airlines is drastic
so the management needs a concerned look over here to mitigate the situation (Johansen,
Aggerholm and Frandsen 2012). Through the television, radio, media news, audio, videos,
mobile phones, text messages, photographs, and all the technologies are used to send the report
of this disaster but the situation is not improved in a right manner.
In case of social media understanding, there are some online communication channel and
tools that are available and that impacted the possible characteristic of social media. Participation
is the first part of social media contribution and feedback from everyone helps the process to

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provide a decision. Open accumulation of sharing is another aspect that needs to be there so that
even people can take their part in an effective manner. Voting or choosing facility is also
available and that will direct to the right decision. In case of traditional broadcast and two ways
communication, content is an important matter of discussion and that will impact the crisis
situation as well. In some cases, where a company in crisis situation communication with people
and know their view is important for the development of business or to regain their position
(Hendrix, Hayes and Kumar 2012). The last part is the connectedness with sites, resources and
people. In this state, the organisation receives some news regarding the issue and they need to
connect with the concern people to get rid of the situation. This is a kind of precautionary
manner that related to the corporate ethics and understanding as well. The advancement of Real
Simple Syndication and allows media to determine the situation of the crisis, sometimes they
make some layers along with the situation and then presents to their viewer (Dozier, D.M.,
Grunig and Grunig 2013). In case of television customers, the situation will happen and that
impacted the viewer and their trust has finished.
The situation of crisis is an unexpected one and it impacted the reputation of the
company. Stakeholders do not trust the company policy and facilities that they provide
throughout the years. Sometimes crisis moment is created intentionally to become famous
through the social media. And these moments are so small in duration that it merely affects the
company and the genre of grandeur is big. The damage of reputational level is big and that
impacted a negative loss of reputational capital. The strongest post-crisis situation and nature of
stakeholder rejection is the most drastic setback for the organisation (Bridoux and Stoelhorst
2014). There are some risks associated with the crisis and in all cases; the organisation has to
suffer a lot. Crisis can be unintentionally or intentionally in some cases and that created by the

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external or internal factors of the organisation and sometimes it can be accessed from no relevant
sections. In case of accident situation, an organisation cannot perform well in case of operative
manner as the impact of the crisis is staged over there (Pang et al. 2012). There are some external
factors are also associated with the task and that impacted on the organisational change in
business. In case of terrorism or attack from external troupes are concerned, there are several
reasons organisation changes their position and change their aim and objective also in case of
some selected countries.
Crisis communication plan
For making an intact situation in an organisation crisis management plan is important and
it helps emerge the situation of the organisation from the vital situation of crisis. Crafting an
organisation communication plan has made a successful implementation where organisation
focuses on the mitigation process (Ki and Nekmat 2014). In case of implementing these plans,
there are no such panaceas of guarantee in those processes that it will definitely strike and
mitigate all the crisis that hampers the company is facing the time. However, there is a limitation
in that case as the organisation will not ready for every occasion they will be faced in near future.
An assumption is the one, they must try and that will impact the crisis planning situation of the
organisation. The channel of communication needs to be structured so that in the period of crisis
situation will be handled in a proper way. In case of single crisis sense, an organisation may
manage the situation as they have to inform their internal or external stakeholder in that case. But
in case of big crisis situation badly operation process is there and that impacts over the different
stages in business and communicate with the stakeholders for the development of their business
(Crandall, Parnell and Spillan 2013). Financial loss, reputational loss, loss of resources is the
different crisis situations that will make an impact on the organisation.

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In case of Southwest airlines, technological failure is the main reason for this entire
situation. The impact of a situation is impulsive and was not spotted or determined at the initial
stage. After the initial jerk, when the situation was defined by the management then it will be
easy for the management to do the process in an effective manner (French and Holden 2012).
Crisis response situation is not effective in that case so as the PR system as the entire data was on
the computer and all the computers were not working on that stage. The situation is drastic as the
alternative planning was not there. Elasticity in the organisation may change some situation
especially in the crisis situation but in case of no such planning, differentiation is there and that
makes the change in the resource planning for the organisation.
The pre-crisis situation is the first assumption of crisis communication and through
listening, monitoring and scanning from the early stages, the crisis can be managing the
situation. In that case, listening to a conversation through social media bring up some questions
about the company and their situation (He 2012). Traditional media platforms sometimes make
some additional colour with the incident so the people can feel the situation that happened in that
place. Communication of the executives or officials in that part is essential and their intervention
is also important for the development of the business. As they have to state their justification for
that incident and if they are not clear enough to their customers then it will be a challenge for the
management to retain their customers for future. So, a preparation is needed in that case. Engage
is the last pre-crisis mode in business and as the strategies are implemented by the organization,
they try to make an engagement with their existing customers after having this kind of crisis
situation (Alexander 2013). The general response to the crisis is quick as much time is not there
and crisis management team needs take care of that situation as they have to protect the company
from his situation. The respond should be open and needs to be accurate in most of the cases.

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The open response allows everyone to participate in the organisation and the process is
effective to get reach of the final destination of decision making. The multimodal facility is also
needed for that case as the concern idea of transportation is related to this fact. Use of external
data format is also important for the development of public relation team (Schwarz 2012). They
have to communicate with all passengers who have boarding date on that very day. But as the
system is not working and they have no alternative data registered with names, phone numbers,
emails or other social messaging sites they have to the setback for the situation.
Theories of crisis management
Situational Crisis Communication Theory is the most effective theory in this case as
the theory is related to the crisis management strategies and also public relation administration.
There are five factors and all these factors are creating a huge effect on the organisation. Crisis
history and an organisational prior relationship is the concern matter of the business and in case
if addressing crisis situation at the initial stage then they might implement some strategy that
used in past. Prior relationship with customers also helps the organization as in case of crisis
situation when new customers are mistrusting the organisation in that case existing customers
will stay with the company and if the relationship is not present in that case organisation will
suffer (Timothy Coombs and Jean Holladay 2014). Crisis response and strategies is another
section that enacted over the situation of crisis. Crisis responsibility is directly related to
strategies as the better effect can be gained in this manner. In other sections, behavioural
intention is also dragged from the organization reputation. The better result can be done in the
case where management understands their mistake and take the entire responsibility and promise
for the better system.

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Diffusion of Innovation theory is the process where sharing of information is needed in
case of emergency situation. The situation is quite effective as some out of the box solution or
approach has come in this prospect. This is basically used in an alternative plan. In case of tough
times, when innovative strategic planning is needed, this alternative planning has been
implemented through the course and most effectively employees' involvement is addressed
through the process (Palttala and Vos 2012). The effective communication plan is necessary for
this theory and essential pass of ideas and information are derived from the section. Diffusion
signifies that the influenced of commercial understanding and decision making strategies are
coming from the ideas that employees views.
Public relation involvement
Public relation involvement is essential for the general development of the business. In
case of different mission strategies, they are the only one who is liable for taking care of the
adverse situation in the organisation. In case of a crisis situation, establishment and
implementation of policies are important in that case and that also impacted over the
management and media related shares and promotion. Though in case of crisis management all
negative influences are coming from the situation or the massacre that has taken place on that
situation and public relations manager come on that event and state the required approaches for
the development (Avraham and Ketter 2012). Communication needs to be good so as the writing
skill for a PR manager. Situational decision making and resource management qualities need to
be there with the person so that in case of proper decision-making statement is important for the
management. Managing different skill is important in that case and that impacts over employee
engagement and professional image of the management.

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In case of Southwest airline, the technological failure is so big that it impacted the
company for three days. All the social media are blocked rather crushed at the time and no flights
were available at that time. Almost 250,000 passengers are irritated in that process and they
blame the organisation as they do not inform about the situation but in case of entire scenario, all
the computer systems are not working it would have been a difficult task for the PR team to
contact with all the passenger. There work is to take care of the customers in any organisation
but in that case, the situation is not on their hand, and rather the situation becomes drastic when
situation continues for three more days.
Faster mitigation process
The effective innovative approach of humanisation is needed to be there for the faster
mitigation process. The crisis situation evolved due to the technological failure, so strong
technological support needs to be there so the effective mitigation process happens. Recruitment
of effective employees and or training them effectively is the thinking over that time and that
will need be enacted as the faster mitigation process. Multi-channel crisis communication
process needs to be implemented so that effective changes needs to be done in a suitable manner.
There are lots of information that discussed in between the employees and not coming out due to
some reason. In that case, these discussions will come so that innovative process will come and
affects the scenario for the better development of the organisation. In case of Southwest, the
social media response was fast at that time; through Facebook, Twitter and other online channels
the news spread out. Global response has come from all the nations and trust and relationship has
got a huge threat from this incidents. Irritated passengers have made more complexity in their
case. The involvement of the social media is so effective that 40% of the social media news
spread this news out within 60 minutes. The response is so productive and swift that impacted

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the company. Nonexistence strategies include clarification, attack, denial, and intimidation are
also used in this genre and that impacted over the no crisis cases. Ingratiation strategy always
wants public attention and in that case, positive aspect from the crisis has derived and that
impacted over the organisation image and understanding.
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that crisis management and communication is important
for the development of the organisation. The real world case of Southwest airlines is important in
that case and technological failure in the main reason and that is way three days haphazard
situation is imposed over the organisation. Crisis situation strategy and mitigation process are
important in that case, an organisation needs to improve their situation in terms of crisis
mitigation so that this kind of situation will not happen again. The situation was drastic and the
company overcome the situation after three days. Social media understanding and ethical issues
are also discussed in this essay. Public relation is also important in that case and effective
communication of the public relation manager is important in this case.