From Stakeholder to StakeSholder Management in Crisis Episodes: A Case Study in a Public Transportation Company

Abstract

Stakeholder perspectives on crisis management provide a useful descriptive framework to analyse crises and to develop crisis narratives. However, their 'actionability' for crisis management, i.e. the possibility to use stakeholder management models in operational crisis management processes, remains an under-investigated research question. This article, built on a qualitative case study of successful crisis management in a public transportation company, discusses the operational value of stakeholder frameworks for crisis management. We investigate the actions set up by the crisis cell to manage internal and external stakeholders during the crisis. The successful management of the crisis involved: (1) good stakeholder diagnostic capabilities to design an appropriate corporate positioning; (2) an ability to identify and coherently manage emerging and heterogeneous issues involving stakeSholders, i.e. actors that are concerned with multiple issues of the crisis; and (3) the capacity to set up a tightly coupled ad hoc organization, articulating both crisis cell members and various 'anchorage points', i.e. actors previously involved in the project. Finally, we discuss the implications and potential value of stakeholder perspectives for crisis management.

Organizational culture effects on strategy and adaptability in crisis management

“…The few crisis management studies dealing with stakeholder theory tend to emphasize the fostering of relations before the crisis in question ( Ulmer, 2001 ;Alpaslan et al , 2009 ). However, as acknowledged by Ulmer and Sellnow (2000) and Acquier et al (2008) , crises tend to introduce a new set of stakeholders, which means that the processes of identifying stakeholders might differ extensively from everyday operations and thereby catch communicating actors off guard. It is a top managerial task to acknowledge new stakeholders and their expectations in times of crisis, not least because swift decision making is necessary owing to limited time available.…”

Business continuity management in UK higher education: a case study of crisis communication in the era of social media

“…(ISO 22301, 2012:s3.4) Whilst BCM is a key strategic tool (Herbane et al, 2004), protecting stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities, it is a concept that senior management often don't understand, engage with or take ownership of (Lindström et al, 2010 (Beggan, 2011). Some authors argue that employees from a private sector background are more aware of BCM concepts, methodology and terminology than their public sector counterparts (Lindström et al, 2010 (Alpaslan et al, 2009) and are increasingly complex and hard to control, complicated by growing numbers of stakeholders (Acquier et al, 2008). Organizations communicate during a crisis in an attempt to maintain their public image and to minimize reputational impact and may aim to inform, convince or motivate specific stakeholders to action (Stephens et al, 2005), both in the short term and longer term.…”

“…Despite practitioner literature and academic texts emphasizing the importance of identifying and prioritizing stakeholders, allowing the organization some degree of influence upon which stakeholders become engaged with a crisis (Acquier et al, 2008), only some institutions in the sample stated that they had done so. Instead most reflected what seemed a more complacent attitude to the issue, encapsulated by the view of one interviewee who when asked about stakeholders stated, "Oh, I think we know who they are.…”

Knowledge Management: The Key to Sustainability of Economic Crisis

“…Fast changes in the environment with unforeseen consequences call for a redirection of crisis management that has been traditionally focused on plans and procedures, the learning and development of flexible options for recovery in unforeseen crises (Acquier, Gand & Szpirglas, 2008). During a crisis the members of the organization must create new mental models in order to adapt themselves to a crisis situation and at the same time find new ways for the integration of their individual mental models that will allow coordinated activities (Roberts, Madsen & Desai, 2007).…”