Lecture 2 Flashcards

(13 cards)

1
Q

On which levels does ethics play a role in strategic communication?

A

Ethics play a role on multiple levels:
- Organization’s behaviour, policy, and mission
- Organization’s leaders’ behaviour and doing (role models)
- The way the organization chooses to communicate their aims, policies, doing and behaviour (their strategic communication)

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2
Q

How can we describe ethics?

A
  • ‘Moral principles that govern an actor’s behaviour’ (individual level)
  • ‘Moral rules help to structure society’ (societal level)
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3
Q

What are the consequences of breaking moral rules for an organization?

A

Breaking moral rules has consequences for an organization:
- Reputational (damage to reputation, image, or license to practice)
- Legal (if moral rules overlap with laws)
- Socially (social backlash)
- Economically (loss of stakeholder trust)

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4
Q

What is the utilitarian (consequential) ethical guideline?

A
  • Consequential approach: which decision has the most positive outcome for the most people?
  • Criticism:
    • Does it always help to do the right thing? (Sometimes you can’t see all consequences in advance)
    • What about minorities?
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5
Q

What is the deontological ethical guideline?

A
  • Categorical imperative: it could become a universal law (e.g., killing or lying is never good)
  • Criticism:
    • Two categorical imperatives at the same time (which one is more important?)
    • Can ethical rules always be(come) universal? (different cultures)
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6
Q

What is the virtue ethical guideline?

A
  • We all have our own individual morals
  • Conscience of the decision maker is the guideline
  • Criticism:
    • High risk of ethical disputes / conflicting decisions
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7
Q

How can we deal with imperfect ethical approaches?

A
  1. Define the issue
  2. Identify issue-stakeholders
  3. Define and evaluate all options (three approaches)
  4. Make and justify decision
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8
Q

What is an issue and what is issue management?

A
  • Issue (Cornelissen 2020): A public concern about the organization’s decisions and operations that may or may not also involve a point of conflict in opinions and judgements regarding those decisions and operations.
  • Issue management (Douglas 2008): A strategic process that helps organizations detect and respond appropriately to emerging trends or changes in the sociopolitical environment.
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9
Q

What are the stages of the issue life cycle?

A
  1. Potential stage: there is little media attention; no one is particularly concerned with it, at least not publicly.
    • Trigger event (e.g., social media post, angry customer, accident in factory)
  2. Emerging stage: involvement of organization has now become public; media attention may grow (could go viral or disappear).
  3. Current stage: the issue is now fully public. Media coverage is high and the organization must respond.
  4. Crisis stage: the issue has escalated and may cause serious harm to organization’s reputation. Immediate and effective communication is needed.
  5. Dormant stage: the issue has been public but has faded from attention. It could re-emerge any time. (Sleeping volcano)
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10
Q

What is issue monitoring?

A
  • Scanning news and social media on specific or general issues for emerging issues.
  • Check whether they involve risks or chances for the organization.
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11
Q

What are the four issue management communication strategies?

A
  1. Buffering strategy: keep influence from outside from interfering with organization’s operations (stonewall the issue).
  2. Bridging strategy: in response to claims, seeks to adapt organisational activities. (The organization starts dialogue)
  3. Advocacy strategy: proactively trying to influence public opinion through campaigns and lobbying.
  4. Thought Leadership Strategy: organization identifies emerging issues and proactively attempts to steer the issue debate in a beneficial direction, before the issue becomes current.
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12
Q

What is the issue arena theory?

A

Strategic communicators keep an eye on four elements of an issue to decide whether and how to participate in the debate or issue:
- Involved actors (all actors that have interest in issue)
- Places of interaction (where does debate take place?)
- Issue related aspects (details of the issue)
- Course of the debate

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13
Q

What are the research domains for issues?

A

The organisation
- Interest in the issue
- Backgrounds

Communication analyses
- Owned media
- Earned media
- Paid media

Issue analysis
- Issue history
- Issue aspects

Target publics (stakeholders)
- Latent (not aware), aware and active publics (doing something about the issue)

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