Cameron Todd Gabriel

Lee, J., Woeste, J. H., & Heath, R. L. (2007). Getting ready for crisis: Strategic
excellence [Electronic version]. Public Relations Review, 33(3), 334-336.
Corporations benefit from crisis preparation. Among U.S. corporations, less than
50 percent actually practice crisis plans. Lack of crisis preparation leads to loss of profit
and credibility during crisis and post-crisis. Research was done to measure organizational
crisis preparation and to determine how much excellence can be attributed to
organizational crisis planning, training and preparation.
The impact of public relations practitioners in crisis management is also evaluated in the
research. Public relations practitioners develop crisis training for corporations and are
their spokespersons.
A national random sample of 122 organizations in diverse industries participated
in this research. A survey questionnaire was first developed based on items earlier studies
used to measure crisis management planning, training, and excellent communication
management practices (para. 4). Seventy-nine percent of companies said that they had a
crisis plan, 71 percent had a crisis management team and all but one reported to have at
least one company spokesperson. These findings show that corporations are attentive to
potential crisis although needed improvements exist.
Although organizations have crisis management teams they dont practice their
plans. Response to crisis will not be successful when an actual crisis hits if the team is
unprepared.
Increased numbers of corporations sanction crisis preparations and find a key to
success in doing so. Excellent practices are most strongly related to having a public

relations professional in a crisis management team (para. 13). Success is found in

involving public relations professionals to avoid, deal with and clean up after crisis hits.