Development of a crisis management plan.

Assignment 2

Development of a crisis management plan

Assignment Due date Weighting

2. Crisis management plan and scenario 21/10/14 60.00%

Section A

Select a small organisation that you know well or have easy access to. Develop a crisis management plan for

this organisation that can cover any type of crisis, using your course materials as a guide. This crisis

management plan should be no more than 10-15 pages long but can include appendices in addition to the

plan. Appendices should contain supplementary information only, such as lists and forms – any information

critical to the plan should be included in the plan.

When it comes to stakeholders, you must:

List the key stakeholder groups, carefully segmenting the groups. For instance, you would NEVER say “the

general public”. This group would be broken down into a number of segments (with the general public, you

would have literally hundreds, so carefully select the most relevant).

Give one paragraph explanation of each.

Outline the best ways to communicate with them (this is VERY important). Communication methods need to

be relevant to the audience. For instance, you would not use a media release for people aged 18-25 who do

not read newspapers or watch much TV and you wouldn’t deal with older people solely via social media as

many won’t be on Facebook. If you were dealing with farmers, you would select the local farming

newspaper as a key communication channel for this group.

While it is accepted that in-company and key stakeholder lists will be difficult for you to develop, you MUST

develop a media contact list that is most relevant to your organisation. This can be undertaken using the

Margaret Gee’s online resource, available through the Library databases or by doing a Google search of media

in your area. It must include radio, television and newspapers, plus bloggers and specialist freelancers if you

can find them.

Section B

Then, referring to the list of crises that you included in your plan, select a particular crisis that figures highest

on the impact/probability scale and develop a specific scenario, complete with date and time and what

happened, plus the effects that would make this scenario a crisis. It must be a scenario that would be of

interest to the media.

You then need to build materials specific to this scenario, consulting your materials on how each of these tools

should look:

A. a profile of three of the most relevant stakeholder groups to this crisis, including the best means of

communication with these stakeholders (this does not have to be limited to one means). This profile must

detail demographic and psychographics features where relevant. Media for instance, will not have

pyschographic factors, but it WILL have readers who are of relvant demographic groups.

B. a holding statement for the initial impact while you gather information, presented in media release format.

Do extra research on what a holding statement should look like. This is a NOT a full media release

and should be some words that you can put out before you have much information available.

C. three to five key messages for those stakeholders that should recur throughout the organisation’s dealing

with the crisis. You may find that each stakeholder group needs a tailored set of messages. In some cases

you may find that one set will be suitable for all the stakeholder groups. You MUST use the key

messages format presented in the materials.

Spelling, typographical errors and grammatical mistakes will not be tolerated as this is a report that ostensibly

will be prepared for and presented to a client, with some components for stakeholder consumption.

Assignment 2 – Marking criteria

HD A B C F Mark

Section A

Background –

includes

definition of

disaster from

the

organisational

point of view,

goals of the

plan, objectives

of the crisis

management

process.

Exceptional.

Shows thorough

research on how

the plan ties in

with other

organizational

documents,

research on what

crises might affect

the organisation

and prioritisation

from most likely

to least likely.

Goals are sound

and objectives are

realistic and

obviously

developed from

research about

the organisation.

Uses the

impact/probability

scale to prioritise.

Good.

Treats each

component in

some depth and

demonstrates that

research on the

organisation and

its environment

has been

completed.

Includes some

prioritisation of

crises and the

goals and

objectives

developed reflect

the research done

on the

organisation. All

the elements are

included. Uses the

impact/probability

scale to prioritise.

Competent.

The majority of

the elements

are included

and most can

be linked to

some research

on the

organisation.

Some of the

linking prose is

copied from

the example.

Basic.

Many of the

elements are

included,

although more

depth in the

explanation of

each is

desirable.

Crises types

and stakeholder

groups are

listed, but the

list is not

comprehensive

or prioritised.

Much of the

linking

information is

copied from the

example.

Insufficient.

Leaves out

elements and

does not seem

to have used

research on the

organisation as

a basis for the

development

of goals and

objectives, or

the types of

crises that

might affect

the

organisation.

The

stakeholder list

is not fully

formed. Much

of the

assignment is

copied from

the example.

/10

Who is involved

– who is on the

crisis

management

Each section is

obviously

developed from

research on the

This section is

informed by

research and all

the elements

Competent. Passable.

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