Managing Organizational Crisis and Brand Trauma (eBook)

Dennis Tafoya (PhD, the University of Michigan, MS, the University of Pennsylvania) has more than 30 years of academic and business experience across a variety of fields.  He is president of CompCite Inc., an international research and development firm that focuses on factors that affect performance at individual, group and organizational levels.   He has authored the "Advance/Recover Database" an inter/intranet tool to improve individual knowledge, decision making and problem solving capabilities, numerous articles and four books:  The Effective Organization (2010), Organizations in Crisis (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2013), Marginal Organizations: Analyzing Organizations at the Edge of Society’s Mainstream (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2014) and  Managing Organizational Crisis and Brand Trauma  (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2017). Tafoya has significant international experience ranging from numerous papers and research studies, hands-on work with international management and sales teams and has prepared specific whitepapers for the European Union describing the role of "Steel as a Global Industry" (presented at European Community Conference, la-Napoule, France 1992); the possible role and emergence of Dubai as a money-broker for the mid-east, ("Dubai, UAE: Fountainhead for the Mid-East's 21st Century", November 12, 1997); and, as a guest of the Yeltsin government to examine management issues in a post-Soviet Union society ("Russia and Its Move from Communism to Free Market Economy:  Challenges for Management"  August, 1999). He has written and holds patents related to knowledge management (US 6,834,274)  and performance forecasting (US 7,865,383), has participated in government programs aimed at measuring competency, labor relations and the value of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in business and industry. 

Dedication 5
Preface 6
The Exception: Professionals and Organizations That Do It Right 6
Contents 10
List of Figures 12
List of Tables 14
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Organizational and Brand Traumas 15
Diagnosing and Treating Organizational and Brand Trauma 16
The Nature of Brand Trauma and Its Effects on an Organization 21
Finally, Who Owns the Crisis Management Process? 24
Conclusion 26
References 27
Chapter 2: Organizational Health: The Capacity to Manage Events (and Their Downsides) Requires an Organization Steeped in Competent and Capable Individuals 28
Introduction 28
Typology of Organizations 29
Organizational Health and Performance Through Control 31
Organization Capabilities and Capacity to Manage Events 34
Health and Capability as Functions of Culture 35
Organizational Health and Performance Through Networks 37
What Does a Social Network Look Like? 39
Key Practices and Procedures That Serve as Preventative and Remedial Tools 42
Carrying Capacity as an Indicator of Overall Organizational Health and Capability to Perform 45
Gauging Organizational Health: The Spectrum of Brand Health 47
References 51
Chapter 3: Trauma in Organizations: Triggering Organizational Trauma and the Trauma Model 52
Events, Incidents and Emerging Crises 54
Organizing and Operating Around Reactive and Proactive Orientations 55
The Proactive Organization 56
A Proactive Orientation is only Part of a Risk Management Effort: Overall Performance Management is Essential 60
Pathways to Success or Failure: Failure Point One—Poor Orientation to Management Practices 61
The Structure and General Nature of Organizational Trauma and the Trauma Model 64
Trauma Tipping Points 66
The Trauma Model 70
Internal, Operational Distress and Disarray 72
Stakeholder Challenges Emerging from Within 73
Externally, Emergence of a Stakeholder Swarm 74
Manifestations of Organizational Trauma: A Unique Opportunity for Relationship Decay 76
Conclusion 81
References 82
Chapter 4: Brand Trauma 84
Brands and People 84
Describing the Organization Network 86
The Occurrence Range of Brand Trauma in Organizations: Brand Trauma Is Personal Trauma 92
Measuring the Incidence of Brand Trauma 96
The Potential for the Emergence of Brand Trauma and Subsequent Damage to an Organization 97
The Mechanics of Brand Trauma Diffusion Through the Organization and Stakeholder Network 100
The World of Brand Trauma 101
Causation 101
The Nature of Time and Trauma 107
Chapter Summary: Brand Trauma Fact Sheet for Localized Trauma 110
References 114
Chapter 5: When Trauma Isn’t a Given (When an Event That Should Produce Trauma, Doesn’t) 116
What Is Brand Trauma? 116
The Deep-Seated Issues Associated with Brand Trauma 119
A Search for a Cause and Effects 121
Below the Surface 122
Consequences of Choices Made 124
Human Processes (and Perception) 125
Personal Behaviors (and Counterfactual Thinking) 126
Personal Constructions of Meaning 127
Toward a Unified Theory of Affiliation 130
The Mechanism of Affiliation: Using Bias as a Tool of the Affiliation Process 132
Organization and Brand Trauma Associated with the Formation of a Labor Union 133
Affiliation as a Public Statement 136
Labor Unions as an Example of the Emergence and Self-Organization of a Complex Adaptive System 139
Workplace Issues, the Emergence of a Union Movement as an Event, Personal Affiliation and the Nature of Organizational and Brand Trauma 140
Sketching a Preliminary Foundation for the Affiliation Process: Joining Is Not Affiliating 141
Testing the Model Outlining the Joining Process 143
Fundamentals of the Overall Study: Specifying the Dynamics of the Affiliation Process—Exploring, Defection, Joining and Related Equations 145
Decisions and the Affiliation Process 147
Results and Observations: The Emergence and  Self-­Organization of Labor Organizations 160
Notes 165
References 166
Chapter 6: Measuring Brand Trauma 169
Defining a Threat to the Organization’s Brand 170
Source of the Trauma Risk 174
Delineating and Measuring Brand Trauma and Resulting Danger 176
Brand Trauma Examined 178
Measuring Organizational Traumas: Quick Assessments 181
Measuring Brand Trauma at the Street Level 182
Conclusion: The Sample Measures 187
References 189
Chapter 7: Introducing, Reestablishing and Maintaining Order 190
Introduction 190
Addressing the Status of the Organization Is Addressing the Needs of the Stakeholder Experiencing Brand Trauma 211
Gauging the Status of the Social Network and Effects of Brand Trauma as a Precursor for a Crisis Management Plan 213
References 219
Chapter 8: Trauma Never Goes Away: It Always Has to Be Managed 222
Part I: Background 222
I. Building Approaches for the Brand Trauma Recovery Process 226
II. Searching for a Solution for Brand Trauma 229
Who Should Manage the Brand Trauma Recovery Process? 230
Who Owns the Brand Trauma Recovery Process? 235
Launching the Brand Trauma Recovery Team 241
Designing and Delivering the Intervention 243
Introduction: Problem Recognition, Problem-­Solving and Intervention Design Evolve in Organizations That Are Complex System 244
Managing the Intervention: The Fundamentals 246
The Management Bottom Line 248
Conclusion 251
References 252
Chapter 9: Conclusions: Whether for Legal or Illegal Reasons—Examine Results in Terms of Your Purpose, Performance, Progress 254
Social Networks and Stakeholders (Big and Small, Inside and Out) 256
Brand Trauma Effects and Time 257
Sketching a Brand Trauma Action Plan 258
Revisiting Management Fundamentals 260
Revisiting Management Fundamentals: Demonstrate Commitment to Change 260
Demonstrate Commitment to Stakeholders: Build a Plan to Take Action 261
Conclusion 261
References 262
Index 263