Deck 6: Risk, Issue, and Crisis Management.

Question 1

A crisis is an extreme event that may threaten your very existence.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

From a managerial point of view, a crisis is common in business.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

An issue is a gap between what stakeholders expect and what the firm is doing.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The most effective form of communication during a crisis is one that is reactive.

Question 5

Risk, issue, and crisis management are the natural by products of a firm's development of enterprise-level strategy.

Question 6

Top managers who adopt a more open mindset for the issues that their subordinates consider important are said to be "buying" those issues.

Question 7

The issues development process refers to the transformation of issues from a low-key and flexible stage to the regulation and litigation stage.

Question 8

One of the factors that has helped make issues management and crisis management more important to business is instant global communication.

Question 9

The formulation stage of the issues management process involves designing the firm's response to the issues facing it.

Question 10

Issues management is a process by which a firm deals with its most important stakeholders' demands.

Question 11

Risk management is divided into preventable risk, strategic risk, and external risk.

Question 12

The concept of crisis management is relatively new, arising out of the crises of the past two decades.

Question 13

Issues selling is the process by which stakeholders convince managers to pay attention to the stakeholders' particular interests.

Question 14

Issues development is a very well-defined process that allows managers to understand clearly what stage of the life cycle a particular issue is in.

Question 15

In most companies, issues management is done in isolation from other departments.

Question 16

The stages of the issues management process are easily separable; thus each can be assigned to a specialist with the public affairs office.

Question 17

Issues management can be viewed as a type of pre-crisis planning and post-crisis management.

Question 18

In a crisis, the first communication should be with internal stakeholders.

Question 19

An efficient issues management process will analyze issues before ranking them.

Question 20

Differentiating between risk, issue, and crisis management is easy.

Question 21

Which is not a leading force of social change?

A) Leading technology
B) Leading authorities
C) Leading organizations
D) Leading advocates

Question 22

Which is not a characteristic of an emerging issue?

A) Tradeoffs are inherent
B) The issue is stated in value-laden terms
C) The issue deals with matters of conflicting values and interest
D) The terms of debate are clearly defined

Question 23

The approach to issues management in which experience with each prior issue influences future issues is the

A) conventional approach.
B) strategic management approach.
C) portfolio approach.
D) changing mix approach.

Question 24

One of the benefits of the portfolio approach is that it helps

A) identify issues.
B) prioritize issues.
C) resolve issues.
D) spread authority among managers to deal with issues.

Question 25

Which of the following is not a feature that distinguishes the conventional approach to issues management from the strategic management approach?

A) how broadly issues are defined
B) whether the function stands alone or is integrated with other functions
C) who within the firm implements the system
D) at what level of the firm issues identification takes place

Question 26

Once an issue becomes public and subject to debate and media exposure, it becomes more difficult to

A) resolve.
B) hide.
C) identify.
D) define.

Question 27

Which of the following issues has always been part of the business process?

A) legislative
B) ecological
C) financial
D) social welfare

Question 28

Which is a leading force of social change?

A) Leading political jurisdictions
B) Leading events
C) Leading literature
D) All of these

Question 29

The implementation phase of the issues management process does not include

A) formulation of responses.
B) putting the plan into action.
C) evaluating the results of the response.
D) monitoring the results.

Question 30

Planning aspects of the issues management process include all of the following except

A) identification.
B) analysis.
C) ranking.
D) monitoring.

Question 31

When managers consider issues that affect their firm, they often ignore

A) ethical considerations.
B) financial concerns.
C) personnel matters.
D) personal stakes.

Question 32

Which of the following is not an element of the issues management process?

A) issues identification
B) prioritizing issues
C) eliminating issues
D) monitoring results of responses to issues

Question 33

What is not an assumption typically made when we use issues management?

A) Issues can be identified earlier, more completely, and more reliably
B) Better study and understanding of one issue
C) Early anticipation of issues widens the organization's range of options
D) The organization will have earlier identification of stakeholders

Question 34

Emerging issues have all of the following characteristics except

A) the terms of the debate are not clearly defined.
B) the issue deals with matters of conflicting values and interests.
C) trade-offs are not yet needed.
D) the issue does not lend itself to resolution by expert knowledge.

Question 35

The issues management process and crisis management process are both focused on

A) improving stakeholder management.
B) improving sustainability.
C) improving financial performance.
D) improving management development.

Question 36

Risk, issue, and crisis management focus on

A) prevention of harm to the firm.
B) avoidance of crises.
C) increasing the organization's ethical responsiveness to stakeholders.
D) understanding of stakeholders' interests.

Question 37

Which of the following is not an assumption we make when we use issues management?

A) Issues can be identified earlier and more completely than in the past.
B) Early anticipation of issues gives the firm more options.
C) Issues are so complex that firms have little chance to resolve them favorably.
D) The firm will be able to identify stakeholders earlier than in the past.

Question 38

The most dramatic growth in importance of issues has been in ____ issues.

A) financial
B) social, ethical, and political
C) practical
D) military

Question 39

The issues management process contains two basic functions,

A) planning and implementation.
B) identification and resolution.
C) planning and controlling.
D) leadership and followership.

Question 40

One thing that is common to all techniques used for identification of issues is

A) news clipping services.
B) environmental scanning.
C) subscription to forecasting services.
D) a formal, organized effort to gather information on emerging social trends.

Question 41

Which of the following is not a stage in the issues development process?

A) felt need
B) resolution
C) media coverage
D) regulation

Question 42

Which is not a key question to help with issue analysis?

A) How did it start?
B) Who started the ball rolling?
C) Who is now involved?
D) Who will get involved?

Question 43

The crisis resolution stage is

A) the first stage of managing a crisis
B) cannot overlap other stages
C) defined in duration
D) the goal of crisis management

Question 44

All of the following are predictors of social change EXCEPT:

A) leading events.
B) leading authorities.
C) leading crises.
D) leading organizations.

Question 45

The evaluation, monitoring, and control of issues involves

A) continual control of responses to ensure that they remain on track.
B) extensive cost/benefit analyses.
C) deciding what to do about the issues the firm faces.
D) appointing a separate team within the public affairs office to perform the control function.

Question 46

The next stage of formalization beyond having a single person managing issues is

A) hiring outside consultants to handle the process.
B) organizing a new and independent department specifically to manage issues.
C) appointing an assistant to help with the administrative details of categorizing issues and publishing the in-house newsletter.
D) assigning the issues management function to a team, usually within the public affairs department.

Question 47

All of the following are part of the Ten Steps of Crisis Communication except:

A) Identify crisis communication team
B) Train spokesperson
C) Keep arm's length from your audience
D) Be prepared to ride out the storm

Question 48

Business continuity plans must be expanded to include all, except:

A) technology
B) environment
C) business continuity
D) communications

Question 49

When Tiger Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a tree, he made several errors in managing that crisis. Which of the following is not one of his mistakes?

A) waiting too long to issue a statement
B) running from the truth
C) hiding away
D) issuing a statement

Question 50

Key questions proposed to use in analyzing issues includes all of the following except

A) who is affected by the issue?
B) who is in a position to exert influence on the issue?
C) who can best afford to resolve the issue?
D) who ought to care about the issue?

Question 51

Which of the following is not one of Molitor's leading forces?

A) leading events
B) leading literature
C) leading economic indicators
D) leading political jurisdictions

Question 52

Which of the following is not one of the four stages of a crisis?

A) prodromal stage
B) acute crisis stage
C) chronic crisis stage
D) crisis regulation stage

Question 53

The immediate result of environmental scanning is often

A) identification of emerging issues.
B) publication of an internal report that is distributed throughout the company.
C) publication of a list of emerging issues for internal and external stakeholders.
D) resolution of some issues.

Question 54

Companies that adopt issues management processes typically develop

A) better reputations.
B) more expertise in identifying issues.
C) better relationships with internal stakeholders.
D) more ethical behavior among their employees.

Question 55

Questions and dimensions can be used to rank or prioritize issues. Which of the following is not included?

A) likelihood of occurrence
B) impact on the organization
C) how much impact will it have
D) knowledge of the business

Question 56

The most rudimentary form of issue identification entails

A) subscribing to a news clipping service.
B) subscribing to a forecasting service.
C) assigning a member of the organization to continuously scan a variety of publications.
D) relying on the staff of the public affairs office to scan the environment.

Question 57

The case that is generally agreed to have "made" crisis management is the

A) Ford/Firestone tire tread separation case.
B) Johnson & Johnson/Tylenol case.
C) Enron scandal.
D) Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Question 58

The most important thing in issue identification is

A) selection of the proper sources to scan.
B) assigning the right person to scan the environment.
C) identification of stakeholders with power, legitimacy, and urgency.
D) getting the people who are confronted with new issues in touch with top managers.

Question 59

Issues management today can be considered a subset of the activities of

A) public affairs departments.
B) strategic planning staffs.
C) public relations departments.
D) various ad hoc committees.

Question 60

An emerging issue is characterized by all of these EXCEPT:

A) the terms of the debate are clearly defined.
B) the issue deals with matters of conflicting values and interest.
C) the issue is often stated in value-laden terms.
D) trade-offs are inherent..

Question 61

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Explain how the ranking and prioritization of issues would occur.

Question 62

Utilize the knowledge you have gained to respond to the following essay questions. Your answers should state your position and use logical arguments and content from this and other chapters in the textbook to support it.
Describe and give examples of each of the seven types of crises.

Question 63

Utilize the knowledge you have gained to respond to the following essay questions. Your answers should state your position and use logical arguments and content from this and other chapters in the textbook to support it.
Explain why having a prepared plan for dealing with crises is so important.

Question 64

Utilize the knowledge you have gained to respond to the following essay questions. Your answers should state your position and use logical arguments and content from this and other chapters in the textbook to support it.
Using an enterprise-level strategy perspective, evaluate Johnson & Johnson's actions in response to the Tylenol crisis.

Question 65

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
What differentiates a crisis from a problem?

Question 66

Utilize the knowledge you have gained to respond to the following essay questions. Your answers should state your position and use logical arguments and content from this and other chapters in the textbook to support it.
Compare and evaluate the four crisis management stages and Business Week's five-step model.

Question 67

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Describe some of the major differences between issues management and crisis management.

Question 68

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Discuss some of the relevant considerations when forming a crisis team.

Question 69

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Discuss what personal stakes managers might have in issues definition.

Question 70

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Describe the issues development process.

Question 71

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Distinguish between issues management and crisis management.

Question 72

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Explain how issues management is related to corporate public policy and enterprise-level strategy.

Question 73

Utilize the knowledge you have gained to respond to the following essay questions. Your answers should state your position and use logical arguments and content from this and other chapters in the textbook to support it.
Evaluate the actions taken by Schwan Sales Enterprises, Inc. that allowed it to successfully manage its crisis with the ice cream it produced.

Question 74

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Describe what "stakeholder integration techniques" are.

Question 75

Provide a short answer to each of these questions. Be sure to fully explain your answer.
Why is it so important to tell the truth in crisis situations?