CHAPTER 6 & 7 Notes

Chapter 6: Issues and Crisis Management
A. The Relationship between Issues Management & Crisis Management
• Commonalities: focus on improving stakeholder management & enabling the firm to be more ethically responsive to stakeholder’s expectations and their ultimate objective must be to have an increase in the firm’s responsiveness to stakeholders
• Through well conducted issues management initiatives, some crises may be avoided
B. Issues Management – a process by which firms identify issues in the stakeholder environment, analyze & prioritize those issues in terms of their relevance to the firm, plan responses to issues, & evaluate and monitor the results; a process of identifying and preparing to respond to potential issues
• 2 Approaches: 1) *Conventional Approach (Narrowly Focused): issues fall within the domain of public policy or public affairs management; any trend, event, controversy, or public policy development that might affect the firm, 2) Strategic Management Approach (Broadly Inclusive): issues management is typically the responsibility of senior line management or strategy planning staff; issues are viewed as more important and encompass ALL issues
• Dramatic growth in social, ethical & political issues – high visibility due to media & visibility
• A Portfolio Approach – helps to prioritize & provide focus for the firm’s resources
• Assumptions for Utilizing Issues Management (issue/emerging issue) o Issues can be identified earlier & more completely than historically o Early anticipation allows for study & understanding, more options are available
• Model of the Issues Management Process o Identification of Issues: need to scan the environment & identify emerging issues or trends that might later be determined to be relevant or have impact on the firm
 Review newspapers, blogs, public documents to identify issues
 Trend spotting services - firm pays for service; newsletter, reports, etc.
 Five leading forces as predictors of