CRISIS MANAGEMENT: A REFLECTION REPORT ON THE ROLE OF

EMOTIONS IN CRISIS RESPONSES

In my first paper I have introduced the topic of crisis management, its definition and

planning process, as well as discussing about the importance of having ‘the right heart’ when

dealing with crises (Mitroff 2005). In this paper I will further examine the importance of

emotions in crisis management featuring the discussions with my mentor, Mr. Nguyen Quoc

Bao - Director of Awareness ID.

About the Mentor

It is only proper to have a brief introduction about the man who helps me with this report and

his area of expertise before . Mr. Nguyen Quoc Bao is an experienced PR practitioner who

has been in the industry for 17 years. He is a successful Crisis/issue management consultant

for many multinational companies such as Vinamilk, GSK, United Pharma, etc. and he is

also a speaker on the topic of crisis management in Vietnam at Cancham Vietnam and BMG

– Brainmark (PROI 2012). Talking about crisis management in Vietnam, there isn’t a more

fitting person than him.

Crisis communication – A Vietnam context

There is virtually no academic article on this topic in Vietnam context, that is why it is

important to have insights provided by Mr. Bao as an experienced crisis/issue management

consultant.

Mr. Bao explained, as PR itself is relatively new to Vietnamese, crisis communication is still

a new concept for the majority of Vietnamese businesses. Only after the Chinsu and Knorr

crises, crisis communication became known to public at large. However, it is still something

that only multinational organizations and companies that were already struck by crises

actually care about, the majority of Vietnamese businesses still try to manage crises on their

own.

In accordance to Mr. Bao, Vietnam’s Competition Law is loose and full of loopholes, that is

why it is important not to rely on the ‘rational’ and ‘legal’ aspect of crises communication.

Vietnam context doesn’t allow business to follow any ‘step-by-step’ textbook strategy in

dealing with crisis as mention by Cowden & Sellnow in their study named Issues advertising

as crisis communication: northwest airlines’ use of image restoration strategies during the

1998 pilots’ strike in 2002, or Coombs (1998) and An Analytic framework for crisis

situations: better responses from a better understanding of the situation. There is only one

basic rule: sincerity. In Vietnam, businesses do not have the choice of denial or scapegoat,

they can, but it is most likely result in a PR tragedy. People want the organization to show

responsibilities, even if it’s not their fault, it shows that the organization is sincere and care

about the public. This is why, despite their knowledge on crisis communication,

multinational organizations such as Unilever also met difficulties when dealing with crises in

Vietnam: Multinational organizations seem to underestimate the power of capturing the

public emotion in Vietnamese business culture.

The importance of emotions in Vietnam crisis communication

‘Emotional’ (Pathos) and ‘ethical’ (Ethos) tends to have a greater persuasive power compare

to ‘rational’ (Logos) for Vietnamese. It is due to cultural traits that ‘emotional’ play a crucial

part for PR Practitioners in Asia in general and Vietnam in particular. ‘Emotional’ message

works well with Vietnamese public whether it is for PR or crisis communication because it is

the factor that lets the public understand the organization’s value better. Even if the message

may not be successful in the ‘rational’ aspect, the ‘emotional’ aspect, the sincerity of the

company/organization can still persuade the public.

Knowing the importance of ‘emotions’ in crisis communication, it is importance that the PR

practitioners is ‘emotional’ as well.

‘It is a common misconception that crisis management need to have a cool head and a cold

heart’, he added, ‘that may work in the West, but that won’t work in Asia, and certainly not

in Vietnam’

He explains that in order to create an appropriate message for the public, PR practitioners

need to understand the feeling of the public first and foremost, and for an ‘emotional’

message to be delivered successfully, the public have to be able to ‘feel’ it. The problem is

the message doesn’t always reach the public directly from the company but through many

other channels, and the only way to make sure these ‘emotional’ message is delivered

successfully is that the media has to ‘feel’ it too. That is why PR practitioners and the

company’s spokesperson need to be ‘emotional’ in order to deliver that same ‘emotion’ to

the media and then to the public.

The best way to explains the above statement is through real case studies in Vietnam: The

collapse of Can Tho Bridge. The collapse of Can Tho Bridge was a severe construction

accident in southern Vietnam with over 50 dead and almost 100 injured that occurred on

September 26, 2007 (Thanh Nien 2007). Despite the severity of the accident, thanks to the

sincerity and the willing to take responsibilities along with various crisis management

measures, Ministry of Transportation, Government leaders along with the Japanese

contractors have received the empathy of the society and lessen the pain and loss of the

victims’ families. This suggests that emotions play an extremely important role in crisis. It

influences the opinion and attitude of the people involved and reduced the negative

perception toward the crisis.

‘Emotional’ doesn’t mean one let the ‘emotions’ dominate their thinking ability but rather

the opposite: it is important to be able to ‘think’ calmly during the time of crisis. As Loomis

(2008) suggests, PR practitioners need to be able to manage emotion and use them for a more

productive outcome. But it is easier said than done as one should always keep in mind that

once crisis hit, ‘anxiety’ is the ‘default’ emotion for everybody (Jin 2009; Jin et al 2007). To

overcome ‘anxiety’, Mr. Bao suggests PR practitioner, the company as well as their

spokesperson need to understand that what done is done, there is no point on dwelling on

past, what matter is to minimize the impact of the crisis. It is impossible for a PR practitioner

to help the company and their spokesperson to stay calm in such situation if they don’t

understand that the company cannot revert what had happened.

Crisis management – Things to avoid

Failing to shows concerns, sincerity, responsibility during crisis even though it is not the

company’s fault is one of the most popular mistake, and one of the deadliest mistake too.

There is a well-known case of crisis management failure in India that happened to Pepsi and

Coca-Cola back in 2006 (Bernstein 2006). Late 2006, India’s Center of Science &

Environment reported that Coca-Cola & Pepsi products contains toxins exceeding the

regulated level. Immediately, Pepsi & Coca-Cola voiced fierce reaction ensuring their

product are safe and even filling a litigation claim. Though in the end, Coca-Cola & Pepsi

won the case, both products were boycotted by Indian citizen as they lost faith in these two

brands.

Slow response and inconsistency of information are the other deadly factors in crisis

communication. In this era, information travel very fast due to the vast variety of multimedia

channel and thus, news of crisis can spread nationwide in the matter of minutes. The first

factor that kill a company in crisis is the inability to response in a timely manner. News

spread fast, even more so for crisis, and that is why company cannot afford to waste any

seconds. Crisis often caught a lot of people attention too so if the information is inconsistent,

chance is the public will not believe in anything the company said. This can be best

demonstrated though Vedan Vietnam case study. Using silent treatment toward the press,

slow in handling the situation, making inconsistent statements in the public and even deny

responsibilities all lead to the boycott of Vedan in Vietnam market.

There is also a trend of using intentional scandal as a mean to increase media coverage in

Vietnam, especially for celebrities. According to Mr. Bao, it is a doubled edge sword and

cannot be abuse in such a way as it can lead to a big crisis. Its positive side is that it has a

quick and instant effect on media, you can quickly get the audience attention even from those

who don’t normally interested in the celebrities. However, its negative impact can be long

lasting and often offset the media coverage benefits, not to mention it would be fatal if

discovered. The event where Thuy Tien shows the public her 4 billion wristwatch is a prime

example where scandal became crisis. This is why PR practitioners need to take into account

both the positive and negative aspect of using scandals for PR purpose and fully evaluated

the pros and cons of it because quite often the cost can outweighs the benefits.

Crisis management consultant – a long journey

This brings me to the end of my reflection report. In my paper, I have provide an overview of

crisis communication in Vietnam context and discussed about the importance of emotion in

crisis communication in Vietnam as well as going through certain things to avoid in crisis

communication. My long term aims is to become a crisis/issue management consultant but I

am well aware that it is impossible for a fresh graduate to take part in crisis management

cases, especially in Vietnam where there is a shortage of course and lecture on this area of

expertise. To become a crisis/issue management consultant in Vietnam, fresh graduates need

to indulge in media relation first and foremost because the core of crisis management is none

other than media relation. When matured in media relation, strategic PR planning is the next

destination and then finally crisis management. Normally, the journey would take 10 years,

that’s why it’s required a high level of dedication and patient to success.

List of Reference

Bernstein, J. 2006, ‘Coke & Pepsi's India Adventures’, Bernstein Crisis Management Inc.,

viewed as at 12 May 2012,

<http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/nl/crisismgr061201.html>

Coombs, W.T. 1998, ‘An analytic framework for crisis situations: better responses from a

better understanding of the situation’, Journal of Public Relations Research, 10(3), p177-191

Cowden & Sellnow, K. & T.L. 2002, ‘Issues Advertising as Crisis Communication:

Northwest Airlines' Use of Image Restoration Strategies During the 1998 Pilot's Strike’,

Journal of Business Communication, 39(2), p. 193 - 219

Jin, Y. 2009, ‘The effects of public’s cognitive appraisal of emotions in crises on crisis

coping strategy assessment’, Public Relations Review, 35, p310-313

Jin & Cameron, Y. & G.T. 2007, ‘The effect of threat type and duration on public relations

practitioner’s cognitive, affective, and conative responses in crisis situations’, Journal of

Public Relations Research, 19(3), 255-281

Loomis, LM 2008, 'Managing emotions: The missing steps in crisis communications

planning', Public Relations Tactics, 15, 3, p. 13

Mittroff, I. 2005, ‘Why some companies emerge stronger and better from a crisis’,

AMACOM, USA

PROI, 2012, ‘Awareness ID’, Public Relation organization International, viewed as at 12

May 2012 <http://www.proi.com/Public/find-a-proi-partner/profile?profile_id=88>

Thanh Nien, 2007, ‘Thảm hoạ đổ sập lớn nhất trong lịch sử xây dựng Việt Nam’, Thanh

Nien Online, viewed as at 13 May 2012,

<http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/news/pages/200739/210287.aspx>