Case study essay

The purpose of this paper is to analyze an organizational crisis and how the organization managed and communicated about that crisis. You get to select the organization, but the crisis must be recent (in the last 5 years).

Your paper should address the following questions:

1. Explain the crisis
a. Identify what kind of crisis it was, who was involved, when did it happen, what happened, etc.
2. Looking at how the organization communicated about the crisis, what image repair strategies did they use to address the crisis? Provide examples.

You will be graded on your ability to analyze the crisis and critique the organization’s responses. This is a research paper, so you will have outside sources (about the crisis, likely press releases, websites, and/or news articles). You should also cite course readings related to crisis (such as Benoit) to support where you pull information, definitions, etc.

Your paper should have a cover page and running head and conform to APA standards (12-point font, Times New Roman, double spaced). You must cite all sources you use in this paper, including the textbook and additional course readings and include a reference page at the end. The paper should be 5-8 pages (excluding title page and references).

Grading:

Explanation of the crisis: 40 points
Identification of type of crisis
Working through stages of crisis
Organization’s handling of the crisis: 80 points
Analysis of image repair strategies
Scholarship: 30 points