CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION

A crisis is any event or activity that can bring harm and danger to organizations and its people. Crisis can be anticipated, prevented, controlled and turn into an advantage. An organization must attend and take specific actions at each stage. All these actions are tied into a crisis management process.

These processes have four steps as follows. 1. Determining the crises potential 2. Developing appropriate crisis team 3. Developing a crisis management plan 4. Developing a communication strategy. While each is important, developing the crisis management plan and communication strategy is critical.

When a crisis hits a company, proper communication to be done at the earliest which usually not taking place. The crisis management plan should designate, who will take charge of the communication process. Usually public relations department takes care the communication process and C.E.O. will be the spokes persons Information should be communicated quickly and in a positive manner. Organization should talk only truth and never lie. This does not mean that they have to reveal confidential and competitive information.

CROSS CULTUREAL COMMUNICATION

BUSINESSES ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY GLOBAL IN THEIR OPERATIONS. Being able to communicate across cultural is necessary in their operations. Specifically, it helps in gaining additional business, in hiring good people and generally in understanding and satisfying the needs of customers.

CULTURE MAY BE DEFINED AS THE WAY OF LIFE OF A GROUP OF PEOPLE. Cultures differ. People tend to view the practices of their culture as right and those of other cultures as peculiar or wrong. These views cause miscommunication.

VARIATIONS IN HOW PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT CULTURES USE BODY POSITIONS AND BODY MOVEMENTS ARE A CAUSE OF MISCOMMUNICATION. How people walk, gesture, smile, and such varies from culture to culture. When people from different cultures attempt to communicate, each may not understand the others body movement

PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT CULTURES DIFFER IN THEIR WAYS OF RELATING TO PEOPLE. Specifically they differ in their practices and thinking concerning time, space, frankness relationships, values and social behavior. We should not use our cultures practices as standards for determining meaning. Instead, we should try to understand the other culture.

LANGUAGE EQUIVALANCY PROBLEMS ARE ANOTHER MAJOR CAUSE OF MISCOMMUNICATION IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION. About 3000 languages are used on earth. They differ greatly in grammar Like English, most have words with multiple meaning. As a result equivalency in translation is difficult.

OVERCOMING THE LANGUAGE EQUIVALENCY PROBLEMS INVOLVES HARD AND TEDIOUS WORK. You should be aware of the problems caused by language differences. Ask questions carefully to make sure you are understood. Check the accuracy of the communication with written summaries.

A MANAGER AND A LEADER

A person emerges as leader whereas a manager is always put into his position by appointment. A leader always has some personal power ( ie. Ability to influence) that enables him to lead. He may or may not have positional powers.( ie. Right to command) A manager always has some positional power. If he has also personal power then he will be that much effective as a manager.

LEADERSHIP STYLES AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION There are three types of leadership styles. They are AUTOCRATIC LEADER,DEMOCRATIC LEADER AND FREE REIN LEADER. In autocratic leadership, leader determines policies. In democratic leaderships, the entire group is involved in decision making. In free rein leaderships, leader provides information and assistance to the subordinates to take decision. So naturally the communication made by different leaders is of different types.

AUTOCRATIC LEADERS The leader alone determine policies and makes plan. The leader is taking only information from the subordinates and not suggestions. He tells others what to do and how to do it. The formula used by him is do what I say or else which means that an employee will punished if he does not follow orders. The leader makes the decision and announces it The leader who is an authoritarian type tells people what his decision is and demanding unquestioning obedience.

He does not give any consideration to what others will think or feel about his decisions. The whole operation of the organization depends upon the leader. Communication will be comparatively less especially upward communication. Autocratic leadership is appropriate and can increase efficiency, save time and get quick results in a crisis period or emergency situation. Chain of command and division of work (who is supposed to do what) are clear and fully understood by all.

DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP

This is also known as participative leadership or person oriented leadership. As the decisions are forming after taking the feedback from the subordinates communication are plenty. Here the leaders task is to encourage and reinforce constructive inter relationship among members and reduce group conflict and tensions. Upward and downward communications are taking place with out any fear as they have their own place in taking decision.

FREE REIN LEADERSHIP

Here leader is not taking decision whereas group subordinates are taking decision Leader is providing all sorts of information and assistance to take proper decision. Upward and downward communications are taking place without any fear. The leader defines the problem and limits of action and allowing the group to take the decision. The leader defines the problem to be solved and the boundaries with in which the decision must be made. The leader permits the group to make decision within limits defined by the situation.