SCCA 2073 PUBLIC RELATIONS GROUP B

SECOND SEMESTER SESSION 2017/2018 (A172)

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT II

PREPARED FOR
DR. MOHAMAD NOOR SALEHHUDDIN BIN SHARIPUDIN

PREPARED BY
NUR SYAHIRAH BINTI PANUT (238529)

Submission date:
18th APRIL 2018
SCHOOL OF MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY & COMMUNICATION
COLLEGE OF ART AND SCIENCE
UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA
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Overview

Organizational crisis can be defined as a specific, unexpected event or series of events that create
high levels of uncertainty and threat or perceived threat to an organization's high priority goals. A
crisis happened in an organization is something that can be evaded because it is something that
related to each other. The crisis happened in an organization may cause by internal or external
factor and there is a significant relationship between this to variables and it may help the
organization recognizable by others.

There is a few organization in Malaysia that encounter a crisis in the organization and one of them
is a big company which is Petronas. Petronas also was known as Petroleum Nasional Berhad is an
oil and gas company based in Malaysia. Petronas was founded on 17 August 1974 and wholly
owned by the government of Malaysia. The headquarter of this company at Petronas Tower which
was officially opened on Malaysia’s National Day, 31 August 1999 on the corporation’s 24th
Anniversary day.

Issue

A few months ago, Petronas have faced a crisis that was caused by the organization itself where
the organization designs a white ‘ang pow’ that give a negative meaning in the belief of Chinese
community. According to Petronas, it was not their attention to overlook the sensitivity of Chinese
culture. In Chinese culture the white colored background is considered discouraging, traditionally
in China when a person passed away, his family would dress in white. It is not sad meaning, but a
new starting to a new life (Kommonen, 2008). The issues of white ‘ang pow’ by Petronas were
spread on social media and get angered by many netizens and criticizing Petronas on both
Facebook and Twitter for white design ‘ang pow’, saying that it is insulting to the Chinese society
as the white color symbolize death and is only used for funerals.

However, Petronas has issued an apology to the public regarding the Chinese New Year packet
design and have produced a new red design for their pocket money (Tham, 2018). Although the
distribution of the white ‘ang pow’ among the staff member it raises the anger among the Chinese
community and this situation can be related with community relations as Petronas involves in
dealing and communicating the issue with the Chinese citizens within an organization’s

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geographic operating area. As referred to community relation, an organization must have good and
effective community relations plans in order to be recognized as good corporate citizens.

Critical Analysis

According to the article by New Straits Times and The Malaysian Insight regarding the white ‘ang
pow issue, it is an error that should not be done by a multinational company such as Petronas. It is
rude to use white colored ‘ang pow’ during Chinese New Year or any celebrations in Chinese
custom, as it usually is used for giving donations to funerals only (Ng, 2018). However, the
apology attempt by Petronas towards Chinese community should be praised, as they take an
immediate action to resolve the problem regarding the white ‘ang pow’ issue. The apology made
by Petronas should be able to calm the anger of the netizens as Petronas has produced a new design
of ‘ang pow’. Petronas resolve the crisis as soon as possible, as this provides the damage control
and protect their reputation because if the crisis is left unattended, it will disrupt their daily business
operations. Petronas should learn from their mistakes, as they promise not to repeat the same
mistake again, it will help the organization revise their crisis management plan to better prepare
for the future.

There are several roles that could be done in public relations perspective, ideally, it involved in
three different stages which are a pre-crisis phase, during the crisis and post-crisis phase. As for
this issue, currently, it is in the third stage which is post-crisis phase because the issue regarding
the white ‘ang pow’ happened a few months ago. In this phase, the crisis is no longer become the
attention of the society but still, it requires some attention (Alzahrani, 2016). The crisis response
is what management does and says after the crisis arise and public relations plays an important
role by helping to develop the messages that are sent to various publics. During the post-crisis
phase, ongoing communication is required with the key groups regarding the organization’s
activities. It is compulsory for public relation department to update on the recovery process,
corrective actions that need to be done to repair the reputation of the organization.

Other than that, Petronas can organize a news conference and invite the media to make an apology
to the Chinese community as it will show that the organization is deeply sorry for the issue arise.
A news conference is an event that is used to acquire publicity for a certain individual or an
organization. In a news conference, one or more speakers may make a statement, which may be

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followed a question from reporters. Petronas may use this tools in other to maintain the
organization’s reputation. The uses of news conference are the organization may control the flow
of information and they can set the agenda by reading out a prepared statement.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the issue regarding white ‘ang pow’ may arise the anger among the Chinese
community and may lead to the bad reputation. However, with the existence of the public relation,
Petronas is able to avoid the crisis from become extremely bad. Petronas may use the suggestion
given, which are do some corrective action in post-crisis phase and organize a news conference as
it is the best way to show that the organization is deeply sorry regarding the issue to arise.

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References
Alzahrani, F. (2016). The Role of Public Relations in Organizational Crisis Management.
International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 7(1), 1085-1086.

Kommonen, K. (2008). Narratives on Chinese colour culture in business contexts .

Ng, W. (2018, February 15). Places and Foods. Retrieved from Places and Foods:
http://www.placesandfoods.com/2018/02/petronas-white-angpow-2018-controversy.html

Tham, J. V. (2018, Feb 15). Says. Retrieved from Says: http://says.com/my/news/petronas-

recalled-its-ang