Chapter 10 Conflict Management: Dealing with Issues, Risks, and Crises From: Public Relations Strategies and Tactics ninth ed. by: Dennis L. Wilcox and Glen T. Cameron
In this chapter the main topics discuss conflict management and how to deal with issues, risks, and crises.
Strategic conflict management uses public relations to influence the course of a conflict, and ultimately a crisis. Its key components are:
- Strategic- for the purpose of achieving particular objectives
- Management- planned, deliberate action
- Competition- striving for the same object, position, prize, as others
- Conflict- sharp disagreement or opposition resulting in a direct, overt threat of attack from another entity.
* A system for managing conflict
– A public relations professional or team must determine the stance its organization will take toward each public or stakeholder involved in the conflict situation. The stance taken toward publics “depends” on many factors, which cause the stance to change in response to changing circumstances.
* The conflict Management life cycle- includes numerous techniques that public relations people use to deal with conflict. It shows the “big picture” of how to manage a conflict. There are 4 phases of the cycle which are:
- Proactive Phase– includes activities and thought processes that can prevent a conflict from arising or from getting out of hand.
- Strategic Phase– An issue that has become an emerging conflict is identified as needing concerted action by the public relations professional.
- Reactive Phase– Once the issue or immediate conflict reaches a critical level of impact on the organization; the public relations professional must react to events in the external communication environment as they unfold.
- Recovery Phase– In the aftermath of a crisis or a high-profile, heated conflict with a public, the organization should employ strategies either to bolster or repair its reputation in the eyes of key publics.
Reputation management is defined as the collective representation of an organization’s past performance that describes the firm’s ability to deliver valued outcomes to multiple stakeholders.
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