COM 6605 Strategic Communication Theories
Expectations for Case Study Assignment
Write a case study of an organizational crisis that occurred within the past two years and that was reported on by news media. You may choose to write about a product recall, business failure, political scandal, accident, attack, illegal act, a crisis in a not-for-profit organization or in any type of organization, as long as it occurred within the past two years and received news coverage. Your case study is expected to be at least 2,000 words long.
In your case study, you are expected to explain how the crisis was disruptive to the organization and who the stakeholders were. You are also expected to demonstrate concepts discussed in our readings for this course. Your analysis should focus on communication by the organization and your analysis of how effective it was. Provide support for claims that you make.
Questions to consider include the following.
What led to the crisis? What financial or reputational threat did the crisis pose to the organization? Was the crisis internal or external? Was it intentional or unintentional? Did it begin as a latent issue that developed into a crisis?
Which of the models of public relations appears to have been applied – the publicity model, public information, asymmetry, or symmetry? (Note that more than one model may have been used.) How did the crisis affect stakeholders? Identify whether various stakeholders were problematic, antagonistic, low priority, or supporter stakeholders.
What theories can be applied to the situation? Pay particular attention to media theories such as spiral of silence, group and organizational theories such as groupthink and organizational culture, and rhetorical theories such as the narrative paradigm and the rhetoric of Aristotle and how they may be applied to explain whether attempts at persuasion were successful.
Identify and outline crisis communication strategies used in response to the crisis. What sorts of claims were made? What sorts of tactics were used? How did the organization disseminate information to the media, and how did it address the concerns of those affected by the crisis? For guidance, look at the case study in the Crisis Communication chapter about Tata’s handling of the
