Current Events Crisis Analysis Essay

This paper should be written in an APA-Style format. Your paper will be evaluated on the following:

Content

Grammar

Structure and mechanics

Relevance to the topic(s)

Note: Each essay will be submitted through Canvas

Current Events Crisis Analysis:

This assignment requires students to identify and examine a current example of a crisis taken from the news. Students will analyze various elements for consideration and apply course concepts.

Students will critique the company/individual in terms of what was done well and what perhaps could have been orchestrated better and why.

Instructions:

Write about a company or industry that has faced or currently faces a crisis (or that is grappling with an issue that threatens to become a crisis.)

Include the following components:

1) analyze the underlying causation);

2) a stakeholder analysis;

3) review what the organization did in response, and

4) evaluate its effectiveness and determine whether other approaches might have been taken.

You should do analysis rather than a description. In addition, you should include documentation of source material.

Finally, whichever sort of topic you choose should be of real interest to you.

Length:

3-5 pages (it’s expected that you employ sources, attributions, and bibliography.)

Be sure to provide informed and thoughtful answers to all of the guideline suggestions/questions.

Style:

APA Format

Visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab for more help with APA formatting.

Guidelines:

Define the organization and its crisis / potential crisis.

Crises develop in four stages: Warning (detection, prevention, preparation), Point-of- no-return (containment), Cleanup (recovery), and Back-to-normal (learning). What stage(s) apply to this crisis?

Who do you think is in charge of managing the crisis?

What are their highest priorities?

What are the motives behind their decisions?

Attempt to define the stakeholders and their concerns.

What are the communication strategies?

What are the messages?

Are there any inconsistencies between early response and later response?

Did the organization utilize any intermediaries to help manage its relationships with stakeholders?

Evaluate the organization’s responses.

Restores trust? Damaging? Honest? Explanatory? Plain speech vs. technical speech? Deflects or invites the participation of those affected to seek solutions? Ignores, meets, or exceeds stakeholder expectations?

Were concerns dismissed? Was blame cast elsewhere? Were mistakes acknowledged? Sympathetic? Were public apologies made?

In your opinion, how well was the organization prepared for this crisis? Explain.

If an organization’s reputation has been damaged, how might it be restored?

Can you detect or predict any potential benefits from this crisis?

Written Submission Guidelines

Review the detailed written assignment instructions on how to submit your assignments and how to review the comments (feedback) from your professor.

All written assignments on Canvas will be run through Turnitin to check for plagiarism. Your submission should not exceed 25% in similarity.

Written assignment dropboxes will be available within the Assignments link of the course tools menu on the left-hand side of the page within Canvas, as well as in their respective modules as outlined in the syllabus.

Within one week after the assignment’s deadline has passed, you will receive written feedback on your assignment.

Late submissions will only be accepted for a maximum of 7 days past the due date.

For every day an assignment is late, 10% will be deducted from the original point value, with a maximum reduction of 50% on assignments submitted 7 days past the original due date.

Please refer to the “Acceptance of Late Assignments” section of the syllabus for more information.