Public relations

Posted by Winnie Melda on February 20th, 2019

Public relations usually entail enhancing the organizational reputation in the stakeholders and the public. While enhancing the organizational reputation, the employees tend to strive to maintain the brand image of the organization.

Wal-Mart case

Question 1

If I were the advisor to Scott the CEO, I would advise him first not to shut down the internal investigation. Shutting down internal investigation would have led to a clear picture of what was happening in the company and lock out the public from the result of the investigation. The public would not be aware of the results whether the results were positive or negative. If the CEO thought about the internal investigation, it would be possible for the company to avoid the external investigations. Something else to consider in this situation would be to report the existence of the internal investigation to The US in time instead of having to wait for seven years. When the issue arose in the bribery cases at Wal-Mart, the executives focused on damage control. If I was the advisor to the CEO, something that I would consider doing was to focus on rooting out wrongdoing through conducting internal investigations.

Question 2

In the case of Wal-Mart bribery, the company did hire outside law firms who would lead the internal investigations into allegations of the wrongdoing. In the case of the company’s response to the charges, I would consider it as being vague. The reason for my opinion on the issue is that the company first decided to shut down the internal investigations and also the internal investigation started after about seven years (Heineman, 2012). When responding to the allegations, the official appointed by the company, to investigate the allegations was a top official target at Wal-Mart. Therefore, the procedure that the company used to follow up on the allegations was not clear and also right because we might think that the company wanted to hide something that did not want the public to know. Considering the procedure followed in this case, it is not clear if Wal-Mart did bring forward all the evidence so as to clear them from the allegations or they just downplayed the allegations.

Question 3

When considering the case of Wal-Mart bribery allegations, I believe that the case did have a significant impact on the company. The allegations did affect the reputation of the company about the investors (Heineman, 2012). During the incident, some of the top shareholders were suing the company and some shareholders planning to vote against the re-election of the board members. The incident did have a devastating impact on the company’s reputation.

Question 4

The public posture for Wal-Mart going forward about the bribery charges should be consider allowing the internal investigation to happen and also play down any positive results that may suggest bribery. It is necessary for Wal-Mart to consider conducting the investigation because failure to conduct the investigation can make the company vulnerable to law enforcement. Conducting the internal investigation will also provide the company with a chance of determining some of the roots in its system and determine strategies that will enable the business stay away from lawsuits (Heineman, 2012). Such a step will enable the company to redeem itself from any problem that may arise in the future because of failure of resolving a single issue. Following such a procedure will also enable Wal-Mart to build its reputations.

BP CASE

Question 1

A procedure for assessing the response of BP to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is through recording its activities aimed at controlling the spill (Weber & McClam 2010). Also, measuring the effectiveness of the activities would help which will mean establishing if or not the BP’s approach of taming the spill brought any hope. Another strategy for assessing the response of BP to the oil spill would be conducting questionnaires and interviews. Interviews with the members of the public would help to seek the opinions of the public about the company’s response to the spill. The public tend to be very aware of what companies are doing and about the effect of the company’s activities on the environment. Therefore, it will be essential to conduct an interview with the public as they will have the necessary information needed to assess the company’s response to the spills.

The response that BP provides in regards to the oil spill was not good. BP did provide a lot of contradictory information after the incident that worked to damage the image of the organization and also lead the public not to trust the organization (Weber & McClam 2010). The problem caused by the spillage and also the response from the management exhibited only served to display the additional inadequacies in the operations of the firm and their ethical conduct.

Question 2

During the incident, the main person in charge, the CEO, Tony Hayward, failed to respond to the incident in the right manner. His inappropriate remarks and also performance did arouse dissatisfaction among people, and it also caused a huge loss of profits for the company. So as to prevent the damage done by the CEO, it would be appropriate for the company and the CEO to consider social responsibility on a daily basis. If the company considered social responsibility, it would help avoid the problem. Social responsibility tends to be a dynamic area with issues changing in a constant manner (Weber & McClam 2010). When the incident first occurred, it was appropriate for BP to hold an emergency board meeting and determine the appropriate solutions so as to block off the oil spill. In the meeting, the members involved would discuss what they were to communicate to the public and that would help to eliminate the damage that the CEO spokesman caused. It was very important for the company to make sure that it prepared a speech that it would help guide its representatives on what to say to the public so as to avoid causing more damage.

Question 3

In the case of BP, what the company faced was a serious accident even though the accident losses and damage are unprecedented. As long as the company maintains clear responsibility, sincere attitude, and transparent operation of information, it would help lessen the pain of the damage. When the accident occurred, BP was immediate in the eyes of the public and the media. Therefore, the advice I would give Hayward in response to the questions asked would be to play down and cease providing precise answers like giving the exact volume of leaks (Weber & McClam 2010). In my opinion, I would also advise Hayward to not predict anything because anything can happen and render what he predicted null. It would also be important if Hayward provided the public with some hope through telling them that the company would provide some compensation for the families of employees who died in the incident. Hayward would also go ahead and tell the public some of the issues considered to make sure that the company protects the ecological system of the Gulf of Mexico.

Reference

Weber, H & McClam, E (2010). BP’s failures made worse by PR mistakes

Heineman, B (2012). Wal-Mart’s massive bribery scandal. 

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in custom essay paper writing if you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom research paper services.