Our mission as Pasta Amore is to “provide a warm atmosphere where we can share the traditional cuisines of Italy. Our food will always be fun, fresh, and filled with love.” This mission should hold no matter the situation. According to Lando (2014), crises are inevitable. It is not a matter of if, but when, it will happen. There is a need for a clear communication plan to be included in a crisis management plan. Lando (2014) believes that organizations with a crisis communication plan are better situated to handle a crisis and return to normalcy in a short time compared to those that do not have one. As Lando (2014) defines, a problem is an occurrence that has adverse effects on an organization. A clear crisis communication plan (CCP) helps to know what information should be released and when. It also spells out who and how the information should be released. Lando (2014) believes that a CCP helps avoid the provision of conflicting messages, double talk, and uncertainty about the matter at hand. She (Lando, 2014) notes that a CCP helps lessen the negative impact of a crisis.
Being in the hospitality industry, we impact our clients directly. We should take a page from what happened at Ella’s Salmon and prepare ourselves. We should be able to communicate with our stakeholders as quickly and accurately as possible. Different stakeholders have different interests, and we will require to provide necessary information according to their desires. According to Reynolds et al. (2002), the audience judges the message's content, the messenger, and the method used during communication. Reynolds et al. (2002) hold that to communicate effectively during a crisis; we should consider the demography, psychology, and audience's relationship to the incident. In our case, we have to deal with the community, our employees, and our customers. The community members would want to be assured of our restaurant's sustainability: will the restaurant remain open? Will they be able to continue supplying us with ingredients? Will they get their regular payments? The customers will be more concerned about personal and family safety: Is the food safe? Does this happen often? What are we doing to avoid future incidents? Our employees will be more concerned about their jobs: Will the restaurant remain open? Will we need to go through the validation process because of the incident? Do we have to take responsibility for the incident?
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According to Mukii (2016), communicating to stakeholders during a crisis helps identify risks, mitigate risks, and coordinate support towards recovery. The interests of the community will be better addressed through a letter. The sample message would read, “We suffered a setback on March 18 th due to a salmonella outbreak. We immediately stopped delivering our services upon learning of it. Investigations have already started and we are working to ensure the restaurant is not closed down. We take our work seriously and we are doing everything possible to deal with the problem. We will provide updates when more information is available.” The social media platforms will be favorable for our customers. We will inform them that “ We suffered a salmonella outbreak on March 18th and stopped offering services immediately. We want to assure you that it was a genuine mistake and that the administration of Pasta Amor is handling the issue as well as possible. Food served at Pasta Amor is safe and secure for human consumption. We welcome ideas to avoid such incidences in the future.” Lastly, emails will be a suitable mode of communication with our employees. We will inform them that "Due to the complication that we suffered on March 18th, the restaurant may or may not be opened. However, we are doing our best to ensure that it remains open. We hope to continue with our normal operations as soon as possible. The restaurant management will take full responsibility for the incident.”
According to Gunawan (2019), a command center helps manage information and coordinate disaster responses. A chain of command outlines responsibilities. The command center can be lead by the owner serving as the senior leader (key decision-maker), the coordinator, incident manager, resolution manager, infrastructure representative, and the applications Applications SMEs. A park could serve as our alternative meeting point in case our restaurant is closed down.
A slow response has profound effects. First, meaning-making becomes a challenge. According to Hart (2014), meaning-making involves persuading the stakeholders of what is going on, dealing with accountability, and increasing safety. Another challenge arises from adaptation. This involves looking beyond the crisis and learning from it. Even though Pasta Amor may respond to the crisis, the damage has already been done. The first challenge is that the restaurant may lose some of its customers. It may also be challenging to repair the image of the restaurant after the incident.
This CCP can be used in other crisis incidents. This one offers a general outline of how a CCP should look like. In other instances, we would only require to adjust a few ideas or responsibilities. A CCP for a specific incident helps us to start the plan right away without adjustments. An organization needs to make legal consultations, especially in times of a crisis. We need to know how to deal with the victims of the crisis. While communicating during a crisis, we should uphold honesty. I believe in the idealogy that "truth sets one free", mainly since nothing stays hidden forever under the sun.
Legal considerations are essential during any crisis. Lawsuits have become common these days, and we need to understand the gravity of the issue according to the law. A lawyer will help us identify if there are any sources of a legal obligation such as negligence (Dunlop, 2004). We also need to understand legislation about health and safety. Regarding ethical considerations, protecting stakeholders from harm should be a priority. Those who have been affected should receive medical care. Information about the progress of the investigation should be revealed. However, it will not be wise to blame the employees for the crisis. It will, therefore, not be of any good to show the source or who committed the mistake. This will help avoid ethical conflicts (Aung et al., 2017).
References
Aung, K. T., Rahman, N., Nurumal, M. S., & Ahayalimudin, N. (2017). Ethical disaster or natural disaster? Importance of ethical issue in disaster management. Journal of Nursing and Health Science , 6 (2), 90-93.
Dunlop, C. (2004). Legal issues in Emergency Management: Lessons from the last decade. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, The , 19 (1), 26-33.
Gunawan, A. (2019). Design of Disaster Crisis Center Function Based on Crisis Management Concept. Indonesian Institute of Sciences. Retrieves on March 18th 2021 from www.researchnet.net
Lando, A. L. (2014). The critical role of crisis communication plan in corporations’ crises preparedness and management. Global Media Journal , 7 (1), 5-19.
Mukii, M. (2016). The Role Of Communication In Crisis Management In Institutions Of Higher Learning In Kenya: A Case Study Of The University Of Nairobi (Doctoral dissertation, University Of Nairobi).
Hart, P. (2014). Managing crises long term: The challenges of preparedness and response.
Reynolds, B., Galdo, J. H., Sokler, L., & Freimuth, V. S. (2002). Crisis and emergency risk communication.
