Organizational crisis response analysis

Organizational crisis response analysis

Introduction

Sports organizations face numerous crises just as faced by other corporate organizations. A crisis is an unusual disruption of standard operations threat pose a threat to the safety, reputation, and prosperity of an organization or individual. An organization should, therefore, seek to employ proper crisis management and image restoration techniques. This thesis will examine how three sports organizations have responded to crises in the past.

Roger Goodell and the NFL

In 2014, the NFL experienced a major PR failure which threatened to ruin its reputation and that of the Baltimore Ravens club (Macur, 2018). This was after a case of domestic violence by its player, Ray Rice. The controversy escalated when a video of Rice punching his fiancée, Janay Palmer, in a hotel elevator emerged. It was reported that the NFL officials had had access to the footage. Roger Goodell, after hesitating and remaining silent, sentenced Ray Rice to a two-match suspension (Macur, 2018). There were several public outcries and conflagration by people who believed that the suspension was lenient as compared to the lengthy suspension given by Goodell’s office. Goodell bowed to the public-pressure and imposed an indefinite suspension to Rice. These events were closely followed by Adrian Patterson’s case on child abuse. Adrian, who was a Minnesota Vikings running back, was accused of allegedly using a switch to spank his 4-year old son who was spending the summer with him. His arrest warrant was issued and the Vikings were forced to deactivate him for the game. Goodell’s office sentenced Adrian Patterson to suspension for the rest of the season (Macur, 2018). His decision against the two players was inappropriate following the ruling by Barbara S. Jones. She said Goodell’s ruling was unfair since he had punished Ray Rice twice for the same mistake. She also pointed out that Roger Goodell had abused his discretion. He had bowed to the outcry of the public and imposed a rather severe punishment to the players, seemingly without getting the facts right (Macur, 2018).

Most sports organizations when facing accusations of unethical and inappropriate behaviors tend to respond to the public through press conferences (Caramela, 2018). So as to protect and repair the public image of the NFL during the scandals, Roger Goodell, after a long period of silence, came out to restore the public image to the team. He had hesitated and declined to take a pro-active position in the scandal. His decision also portrayed his inconsistency as a leader. This was one of the mistakes in Public relations which took a toll on the NFL’s reputation and public image (Macur, 2018).

In the future, it is recommended that sports organizations put in place public relations crisis team (Benoit, 2018). The team would be responsible for advising the organizations on what to do and what not to do in the event of a crisis (Caramela, 2018). It is also important that the organization reacts fast and handles the crisis situation swiftly and cautiously. According to Benoit (2018), Sports organizations should learn from previous public relations failures so as to prevent the occurrence of the same in the future.

Penn State and the Jerry Sandusky scandal

Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach of Pennsylvania State University football team, was convicted for over 52 counts of sexually molesting young boys (Library, 2018). Sandusky faced grand jury charges for molesting the boys he met separately through, The Second Mile, a charity he found. The cases of molestation date back to 1999, when Sandusky was reported to have showered with an 11-year-old boy (Library, 2018). Though there was no sign of sexual abuse, psychologist Alycia Chambers advised Penn’s State law enforcement officers that Sandusky had acted similarly to a pedophile. The district attorney recommended no charges should be filled and the charges were dropped by the chief of University police. Even after his retirement in 1999, Sandusky could easily access the campus including its football facilities.

In 2000, Sandusky was involved with a boy in the Lasch Building showers. The university officials failed to report this incident to the law enforcement. Roughly 4 years later, Sandusky befriended another boy from Second Mile. This case would be the start of the jury investigation on the conduct of Sandusky (Library, 2018). The child’s mother reported about her son’s sexual assault to the school’s principal who reported the matter to the law enforcement. The principal then stopped Sandusky from accessing the campus. On November 4, 2011, the Jury report was released and Sandusky was arraigned in court on 40 criminal counts and was released by a $100,000 bail (Library, 2018). This was followed by the charging of director Curley and Vice President Schultz with counts of felony and not reporting the abuse allegations against Sandusky. Though he maintained his innocence on the counts, his arrest and fallout damaged the reputation of Pennsylvania State University. It is alleged that he molested the boys for a 15-year period. The scandal resulted in the firing and prosecution of coach, Joe Paterno, and President Graham Spanier for alleged cover-up (Library, 2018).

Despite the university’s knowledge of the scandal being about to blow up,  it remained silent. It finally decided to hire Ketchum, a public relations firm, to clean up the mess and restore its public image. These efforts were fruitless since nothing was able to stop the spread of bad publicity that had grown over the years (Caramela, 2018). The choice of the university to remain silent over the matter was a bad show and ruined its public reputation since it provided room for criticism and public speculation (Benoit, 2018). The public got a feeling that the university was involved in a cover-up. However, the choice to hire a public relations firm was vital in restoring its image.

Sports organizations should avoid delaying their response time because handling a public relation crisis involves proper timing so as to avoid public speculation (Benoit, 2018). It is recommended that Pennsylvania State University conducts a post action review so as to learn from the crisis. It is also important that it focuses on recovering its credibility by shifting the conversation to positive news from the university.

Tiger woods infidelity scandal

In 2009, Tiger Woods was involved in one of the famous sex scandals in history. He was considered one of the best golfers in history having won 96 golf tournaments. Reports of his infidelity with waitress named Racheal Uchitel surfaced from a National Enquirer magazine (Mahoney, 2018). Two days later, he was involved in a car accident where he smashed his car into a neighbor’s tree a few meters away from his mansion. Days later he released a statement on his website taking the blame for the accident. Over the several weeks, 10 other women admitted to having had affairs with Tiger Woods. According to a report by New York Daily, it revealed that there were 120 cases of infidelity (Mahoney, 2018).

Due to his bad reputation, some of his sponsors like Gillette, Accenture, AT & T, General Motors, Tag Heuer and Gatorade ended their sponsorship with him. They believed he was no longer a good representative of the values of their organizations (Mahoney, 2018). He enrolled in a sex rehabilitation facility and was forced to withdraw from Players championship because of a neck injury. This crisis not on only threatened his reputation but also exposed him to a risk of financial loss as most of his sponsors decided to end their sponsorship deals with Tiger Woods. Two days after the first story about his infidelity broke; Woods was unwilling to answer questions from the police and the media about the accident. He avoided questions of infidelity therefore when the stories came out to be true; it brought suspicion to his credibility. On his second interview, Woods took responsibility for his infidelity. This happened 15 days from the date the news first came out (Mahoney, 2018). He hesitated and chose to remain silent. This worsened the crisis because it gave the public a chance for speculation and criticism (Benoit, 2018). He also announced that he would take a break from professional golf. On 19 February, 2010, he spoke to reporters and apologized to his family and fans. He then continued granting interviews with the media and started clearing his reputation. Social media conversations slowly returned to talking about his golfing career (Mahoney, 2018). Tiger began the crisis resolution stage when he played at the PGA tour in Bay Hill on March 26, 2012. He went on to win the championship which showed a sign of restored confidence which would in turn result in positive media coverage.

Conclusion

In future, athletes should put in place crisis management teams. These teams would consist of in-house professionals and external experts who are able to see the situation from a journalistic perspective. It would be advisable to have athletes crafting their messages and avoid using mortification strategies and denial when responding to a crisis.

References

Benoit, W. (2018). Image repair discourse and crisis communication.

Caramela, S. (2018). PR Crisis? 6 Steps to Help Navigate the Storm. Retrieved from             https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8935-recover-from-pr-crisis.html

Library, C. (2018). Penn State Scandal Fast Facts. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/us/penn-state-scandal-fast-facts/index.html

Mahoney, J. (2018). Chronology of the Tiger Woods scandal. Retrieved from             https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/chronology-of-the-tiger-woods-   scandal/article4313560/

Macur, J. (2018). Ray Rice Ruling Highlights Roger Goodell’s Missteps. Retrieved from             https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/29/sports/football/ray-rice-ruling-highlights-roger-         goodells-missteps.html