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CHAPTER 18
Communicating a continuity plan:
the action stations framework
Sandra M. Oliver
Restructuring during the 1980s and 1990s often saw functional areas such as investor
relations and government relations become the remit of finance or treasury departments,
while internal or employee management communication found itself positioned as a low
priority activity in human resource departments. During a disaster, this often left responsibility
for corporate affairs such as image, identity and reputation management in a
vacuum and without reference to corporate PR and communication strategists other than
as an afterthought by marketeers responsible for customer relations or product promotion.
The result was often a long-drawn-out damage limitation exercise or worse.
The chapter focuses on three banks to illustrate how emergency communication structures
and processes are critical components in forward planning. The role of corporate
communication/PR director is pivotal in any organization’s continuity planning, carrying
as it must for optimum performance, board-level authority and accountability, as illustrated
by the co-dependency Action Stations Framework.
Introduction
At this critical point in the history of corporate
communication management theory and
practice as it evolves from PR disintegration,
in parallel with the convergence of technology,
the role of integrated communication
management in industry and commerce is
once again attracting a higher profile, particularly
in the banking industry. The principal
activity during a crisis for communication
specialists is media relations, yet titles and
roles of communication practitioners in British
organizations vary. In banks, for example,
operational and strategic organizational functions,
including crisis management, may
appear as shown in Table 18.1.
In 1986 a Gallop survey of Britain showed
that only 3 per cent of the general population
trusted bankers, which suggests that in a crisis
situation, banks are likely to attract more
adverse publicity from the media than other
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors