What is the Difference Between Issues Management and Crisis Management?
In the corporate world, it is very common to see people make reference to issues management when the situation at hand requires crisis management. In the communication and public relations fields, issues differ from crises. Issues are more common in businesses and they occur frequently. Issues can be propelled by things that happen within the organizations, between the organization and the environment, etc. but an issue only becomes a crisis when a brand’s reputation is at stake and even when the license to operate is affected.
Issues management and crisis management are very important aspect of communications, this is why it becomes important that every public relations specialist, business owner and leaders of organizations learn the strategies that help handle issues and crises before they occur. Issues management differs from crisis management in terms of scope, impact and risk. While issues threaten a particular segment of the operations or activities of a business, a crisis on the other hand is identified when the existence and continuity of the entire business, brand or operation as a whole is threatened.
Issues can be propelled with things that happen within the organizations i.e between the organization and the environment, etc. But a crisis occurs when a brand reputation is at stake or when the license to operate is negatively impacted. In other words, the society is no longer supportive of the brand’s operations or there is opposition to the continuation of business or activities by that entity.
One way of understanding the difference between issues management and crisis management is to use the acronym PEARLS. The business or brand has an issue to handle when the incident affects People, Environments or Assets (PEA) but a crisis is an incident that affects Reputation, License to operate and Stakeholders (RLS). Once an incident becomes a crisis, it requires that it is managed differently from how issues are managed. Managing a crisis like an issue only escalates the crisis in the public domain. The core objective of crisis communication is to respond and ethically de-escalate the situation.
In issues management, the focus is on restoring normalcy of operations while in crisis management, it is about protecting reputation and managing stakeholder relationships as well. In a crisis, the priority is more on reputation and on stakeholders while ensuring that the overall business is not affected by negative sentiment or action from stakeholders like government, regulators, investors and the general public. This is the fundamental difference between crisis management and issues management.
Source: instituteforpr.org
For individuals and public figures, you can identify a crisis when stakeholders are getting more interested and involved in the situation. In such situations, the person involved gets a lot of phone calls from people making enquiries on the matter. This is described as a personal crisis.
“In crisis communication and management, most of the time, the problem is more around the narrative and negative sentiment that is unfolding against the brand, business or individual. In every crisis, the sentiment should not be ignored. In such situations, it is a mistake to focus on facts and legal standing because crisis management is not necessarily about a logical response. It is about an effective one that speaks to the hearts and the minds of the narrative and sentiment around the crisis.“ Sola Abulu.
Communication fails when a press statement or response to a crisis does not calm the noise in the media. Read about some communication mistakes and learn how to avoid them here. An example of a crisis was when a Nigerian school was in the news because one of its students died in an unfortunate situation. There was so much conversation online about it. Not only did the blogs carry the story across social media platforms but it drew the attention of members of the National Assembly and the then Nigerian President who spoke on the issue. When major external stakeholders start to get involved, then it is an indication that your business is in a crisis. However, in an issue, the conversation is typically between the business or brand and those directly involved alone. Other non-impacted individuals or entity do not get involved.
In crisis management, the outcome is not determined by the severity of the crisis itself but more by the effectiveness of the response of the crisis leaders to the unfolding situation and the ability to regain the trust of stakeholders. The most important thing to note is that apart from natural disasters or pandemics, etc. most crisis that originate in a business, political or personal level do not happen overnight. There would be have been indications from incidents or issues that were either overlooked or poorly managed. When such issues are not properly handled, they escalate to become crises.
Watch this recorded webinar by Sola Abulu on Managing Crisis Communication: Knowing how to Communicate in a Crisis