7CTA2074 Corporate Communications Assignment Brief This assignment is worth 40% of the module grade.
You work as a PR consultant and have been hired to offer public relations advice to a cleaning services company involved in a crisis. Sunshine Cleaning Ltd., a local company in Bedfordshire with 10 employees has become enmeshed in an employees legal problem. One of the employees was accused of assaulting a young woman in a night club. The owner of Sunshine Cleaning is a boss who treats his employees like family. He didnt think twice about putting up bail to get his employee out of jail. Unfortunately, the media got wind of the circumstances and it made the front page of the next morning`s newspaper: “Sunshine Cleaning to Free Alleged Attacker”.
The owner calls you, angry at the way the newspaper presented the case and afraid he will lose customers. He doesnt know what to do: should be call the media and fight back? Take out an ad and plead his case? He believes in his employee and would pay the bail again if he had to. Maybe, thought, he wouldnt have talked so freely with the reporter. The case will be going to court in about a month. The employee, in the meantime, is coming to work.
Already, however, the company is receiving calls from irate members of the community complaining about his actions. He`s afraid of what this might do to his business. Two scheduled clients have called to cancel. It may get worse when his employee goes to court- especially of the media continues to follow the story. To whom does he need to communicate?
Write a 3,000 word report on the crisis management for the company. In your report, ensure you include the following.
- In your Introduction, provide an opening statement to the CEO. Explain the purpose of the report and summarise your key recommendations.
- You must classify this crisis using an appropriate framework (e.g Coombs SCCT categories.) Was this preventable, faux pas, trangression and victim crisis. Provide justification for your classification.
- Present recommendations on what the owner should do about the media? you are to advise the CEO on how to deal with the media. Address the following questions
Should he respond? If he does, what are the possible outcomes? If he doesn`t, how else can he communicate his message? What are the risks associated with each option. Your recommendations must be justified using at least one theory in class – SCCT, Image Repair Theory, Apologia or Renewal Theory. 4. Write a media statement on behalf of Sunshine Cleaning. This should be a holding statement, not a full narrative and must
acknowledge the situation Show empathy and reponsibity Reflect an appropriate tone Communicate key facts clearly 4. Conclusion
By submitting you are declaring that your submission is entirely your own work. If you have cited from other sources or in any way included material that was not produced by yourself, those sources must be acknowledged. Failure to acknowledge where work is not your own may result in an allegation of academic misconduct. For more information, see Assessment Offences and Academic MisconductLinks to an external site. on Ask Herts, together with the following guidance from Library SkillUP”
Referencing: Why do it? Introduction
Academic Integrity
Why bother to acknowledge the work of others?
Test your knowledge: Understanding plagiarism
Ethics
The Ethics Committee must approve all coursework that involves ‘human participants’ (such as interviews, questionnaires or surveys). Applications should be made to the committee at least two weeks before the start of a project. Approved applications will receive a protocol number and this should be submitted as part of the module submission. If students undertake work that involves human subjects without the prior approval of the ethics committee they may incur an academic penalty. Guidance on how to make an application is contained in the School`s Student Handbook hereLinks to an external site..
Risk Assessment
A risk assessment is not required for this assignment