MAR026-3 Crisis Management and Communication

On What Basis Would You Priorities The Various Stakeholder Groups?

Any crisis management event or an issue calls for the management of the different stakeholder groups. Generally, in the airline industry, and specifically when there is an issue of chaos, the stakeholders primarily involved are the customers and the passengers. It is very important to priorities the safety of the passengers. It has been discussed by Pedri and Ferri (2019), that in the airline sector, validity is intimately linked to, and is also based on, how the airline manages safety. When an airline is found to be at fault, issues about the airport's credibility arise, which must be addressed strategically. As a result, putting safety first and preventing mishaps is something that all airline companies strive to achieve on a regular basis.

Another feature of airline accidents is that they attract a great deal of media interest because they frequently make the breaking news around the world. The degree of exposure the airline receives from the journalists, the broader population, and government puts a lot of strain on the airline, which they must manage with at the same time as they manage with the actual situation. As a result, the airline's communications and activities during a situation following the accident are critical, as they influence how stakeholders perceive the company. The stakeholder groups thus be prioritized based on the urgency of the situation and on the exact outcome of the crisis. 1,600 passengers were removed from the airport, all planes that were supposed to enter as well as move out were cancelled, and police blocked down the central major highways to the airport. According to the statement of Benaben et.al (2016), a term that is very comparable to validity is reputation, which is derived from stakeholder perception and appraisal of the organization and can be considered a very important asset because of the impact it would have on the institution's capacity to acquire materials. Crises can have an impact on a company's productivity. Developing and maintaining a positive reputation can benefit a business in a variety of ways, including attracting new customers and shareholders and increasing business performance. It can result in improved customer loyalty, sales, and favorable word-of-mouth, and also a competitive edge (Bundy et.al 2017). When a crisis happens, businesses must act fast to limit the damage to stakeholders as a consequence of situational change, as well as the negative impact on the company's reputation and credibility.

Thus the priority should be given to the stakeholder, who can be the most affected victim in the crisis or the issue. In this case, of the bomb scare, in the London Luton Airport, the greatest threat was that to the customers and the passengers who would be availing the flights.  The evacuation of the place was the most important decision that could save the people.

What Crisis Response Strategies Would You Recommend And Why?

The most important strategy any company or industry sector is the communication of the entire crisis to the important stakeholders. What the organizations should be doing, is that there should be a proper crisis management team. It is always recommended that the companies or the industries which have aced issues and crisis, should not be arguing with the same. The public relations officer of the crisis management team is responsible to send the message across the market and the other stakeholders that the company has accepted the crisis, and has been apologetic for the inconvenience caused. Further, they should try to mitigate the crisis in a manner that could least affect and damage the stakeholder groups involved.

As per the discussion and suggestion of van der Meer et.al (2017), in this situation of the bomb scare in the aviation industry, there should be an emergency preparedness and response plan, by the emergency management system. Although there had been proper evacuation of the people and the passengers, but there had been issues and problems, where the passengers had been seen of complaining about the issue that they did know nothing, they were almost kept in the dark without even knowing the actual problem. This is a major issue of communication. There could be a proper communication network that could have circulated the news, and prevented the panic situation that had been created.

The mini explosion can on the very first hand, be mitigated and avoided. The secured camera and the CCTVs can be implanted in the airport to know who had been the person behind the sudden problem of the bomb scare. It was important to handle the situation and arrest the person who had actually been behind the act. The emergency evacuation planning had indeed been effective, but it also should have been seen and analyzed that the people who had been affected and frustrated with the evacuation decision, would be given alternative solution.

Being clear, transparent and properly communicative is one of the important strategies which help the crisis to be handled. As per the discussion and the statement of Sala (2020), what is important to note is the post crisis problems. The customers and the passengers who had their emergency commitments could be provided with an alternate solution amidst the crisis period. The complaint that had been from their end stated that the airport staff had been irresponsible in letting them know about the condition. They were just asked to stand still where they are and this had been more chaotic. It was from the Twitter that they had come to know about what had happened.

It has been stated by Brooks, et,al (2019), that these strategies can be recommended, because, it is very important for an industry or a company to remain clear on their part towards their stakeholders. this is important for the brand loyalty and also for the customer retention.

Press Release

(The press release is for the passengers and the customers of the aviation sector).

There had been a bomb scare incident on Sept 8^th, Monday, at the Luton Airport in London. On Monday, bomb squad specialists detonated a staged blast at Luton airport, the very first warning message because the threat of terrorism was upgraded to extreme the previous month. Following the discovery of a mistrustful package in the airport search space, authorities were summoned, causing hundreds of people to be evicted and inbound aircraft to be redirected. The explosion happened around 17:15, according to Bedfordshire Police. Immediately after, the runway resumed. At 1.36 p.m., police were dispatched to the departing gate after security screening expressed concerns about an object that had passed a routine inspection in accordance with the airport authority regulations and guidelines. As a measure, ordinary citizens were removed from the terminal building, and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team was called in to conduct the similar investigation. At 5.15 p.m., a controlled explosion was performed, and it was verified that the item eliminated, while suspicious, did not pose a larger threat.

The information has been received through the interviews of the aviation authorities and also the newspapers, and BBC News. In one of the interviews, the airport staff had mentioned that the building at the end, at London Luton Airport had been abandoned after a dangerous object was discovered in the security evacuation zone. To guarantee the protection and reliability of customers and personnel, the choice was made in consultation with the authorities. Although the passengers were frustrated, it was ensured that they were allowed to wait, and were also given food and drink so that they could calm themselves down. Not only were the passengers evacuated, there were more than 41 flights that were cancelled that day, at the Luton Airport, EasyJet had beneknwon to divert its six flights for that day. Further, the airport has said, “We are working closely with the police to ensure passengers are not inconvenienced unnecessarily but we must ensure that the safety and security of all our passengers and staff remains our top priority” (www.BBC.com 2014).

One of the passengers, named Paul Green had explained the then emotional condition of the situation, he said “"pretty calm" once passengers were evacuated but complained that they had been given no information by airport staff. If it wasn't for Twitter we wouldn't know anything." ((Halliday and Vekaria, 2014). He also said : “ I was going through security and the queue suddenly disappeared behind me – this was about 20 minutes before the alarm sounded. It took about 10 minutes to evacuate everyone. There was a woman running around telling the x-ray operators something and I asked them what was happening but they didn't know” (Halliday and Vekaria, 2014).

The public relations executive and the airport staffs had been apologetic for the crisis that had taken place and they accept all the problems that the people and the common passengers had to face.

References:

Bénaben, F., Lauras, M., Truptil, S. and Salatgé, N., 2016, January. A metamodel for knowledge management in crisis management. In 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (pp. 126-135). IEEE.

Bénaben, F., Lauras, M., Truptil, S. and Salatgé, N., 2016, January. A metamodel for knowledge management in crisis management. In 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (pp. 126-135). IEEE.

Brooks, B., Curnin, S., Owen, C. and Boldeman, J., 2019. New human capabilities in emergency and crisis management: From non-technical skills to creativity. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, The, 34(4), pp.23-30.

Halliday, J. and Vekaria, N., 2014. Luton airport bomb scare: disposal experts carry out controlled explosion. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/08/london-luton-airport-evacuated-suspicious-item-found> [Accessed 17 May 2021].

Pedrini, M. and Ferri, L.M., 2019. Stakeholder management: a systematic literature review. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society.

Sala, A., 2020. Analysis and evaluation of aviation sector crisis management solutions in Europe.

van der Meer, T.G., Verhoeven, P., Beentjes, H.W. and Vliegenthart, R., 2017. Communication in times of crisis: The stakeholder relationship under pressure. Public Relations Review, 43(2), pp.426-440.

www.bbc.com, 2014. Luton Airport suspect package destroyed in controlled explosion. [online] BBC News. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-29111954> [Accessed 17 May 2021].

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