Product-Harm Crisis Management Interventions and Outcomes Comment by John House: Please name your files as shown in the instructions. This is very important. Product harm crisis is one of the primary functions of an organization. Organizational leaders are required to invest in product-harm crisis management to minimize the negative consequences of poor management of a product-harm crisis. Failure to effectively manage product-harm crisis can result in causing losses or harm to an organization and its stakeholders. Organizations of the modern day are more vulnerable than any time before to adverse impacts of product crisis that that can happen at any point in the supply chain. In order to effectively mitigate the possibility of experiencing product related adverse incidents; it would be necessary to embrace continuity management that can help an organization handle product-harm crisis. This focus of this study is to explain the objective of product-harm crisis as one of the primary functions of management. Comment by John House: Split infinitive.Do you mean counteract?

harm crisis management, effective crisis management, objects/objectives of Product-harm crisis management.

Crisis management is defined as a method by which organizations or individuals handle unforeseen emergencies or situations that come in the workplace. In the business setting, product crisis can be defined as any event or happening that arises that would require the change of product or recall of a defective product or handling new pressures as a result of market changes that have implications on the sale of the product. The ways by which product-harm crisis is handled matters a lot towards the determination of the success of the company sales. This is because most of the cases of product-harm crisis have implications on the sales and trust that the customers would have on the product. In this article, an overview of product-harm crisis will be presented, as well as the management of this crisis, and its objective (Chen, Ganesan & Liu 2009). Comment by John House: This is passive voice. See p. 77 in the APA manual for a discussion of passive and active voice. Use active voice. Comment by John House: The thesis statement in an introduction and the Level 1 headings used in an essay outline an essay. Therefore, there should be a clear relationship between them.

Significance of Product Crisis Management Comment by John House: See pp. 62-63 in the APA manual for a discussion of headings.

Bilkey and Nes (1982) have defined a crisis in multiple ways. These definitions include the aspect that a considerable threat risks the normal operations of an organization and can result in several negative consequences. A crisis as a threat can is classified into three individual categories of threats. The threats include public safety to the people who consume/customers of the company, the threat of loss of reputation, and lastly the threat to loss of finances. These threats are real and must be handled because they have the potential to negatively affect the organization's stakeholders, the company or to a larger extent, or the whole industry in general (Bilkey & Nes, 1982). Product-harm crisis may also lead to injuries or, in the worst cases, lead to the deaths of individuals who are handling the product. While companies may just damage their reputation in some incidences, various research studies have indicated significant correlations between a company's reputation and financial losses. Comment by John House: Use past tense when writing about published literature. See pp. 65-66 in the APA manual. Comment by John House: This is passive voice. See p. 77 in the APA manual for a discussion of passive and active voice. Use active voice.Too many "be" words as well.

According to a study by Pearson and Mitroff (1993), the failure to effectively manage a product-harm crisis typically results in serious harm to stakeholders, and large financial losses for businesses. The authors further explain that poor management of product-harm crisis can lead to a threatened future for the organization. On this basis, product-harm crisis management is a critical organizational function of a company regarding creating preparedness of the company to deal with any eventuality. When it comes to the need for effective product-harm crisis management, the issues of public safety, reputation, and financial concerns top the list of the primary concerns by management (Pearson and Mitroff, 1993). Comment by John House: Split infinitive. Comment by John House: Use & in a citation not and. See pp. 170-183 in the APA manual for a discussion of proper citations. Comment by John House: Do not insert blank lines.

When it comes to...

The first phase is the pre-crisis, which is a phase that handles issues of prevention and preparation against any potential product-harm crisis cases that may occur. The second phase is the crisis response; whose primary role is to handle crisis as they occur in the real time. It involves the many approaches that are applied in handling the crisis that has just occurred. The third and last phase is post-crisis, which involves analysis of the way product-harm crisis is handled, and suggesting new ways by which future crisis can be handled in a better sense. Thus, effective product-harm crisis has the objective of protecting an organization against possible harm where possible or minimize the impacts of harms that could not be prevented (Dawar & Pillutla, 2000). Comment by John House: This is passive voice. See p. 77 in the APA manual for a discussion of passive and active voice. Use active voice. Comment by John House: This is passive voice. See p. 77 in the APA manual for a discussion of passive and active voice. Use active voice. Comment by John House: Do not insert blank lines.
Factors Influencing Product Crisis Management Comment by John House: See pp. 62-63 in the APA manual for a discussion of headings.

Puchan (2001) suggested three pervasive factors employed in product-harm crisis management that have an influence on consumer responses and recovery after product-harm crisis has occurred. The first factor deals with the coordination with regulatory agencies; second is the press, and thirdly is the management of the timing of the response. He explained that the effectiveness in handling product-harm crisis is dependent upon the way these three factors are handled. It would be important to notify and work with regulatory agencies of a particular industry when a crisis occurs. Secondly, it would be important to deal with the press in an appropriate manner, only sharing information that is true and has been validated. Thirdly, it would be important for the management to act appropriately and on time. Delays in communication may give customers time to make assumptions and conclusions about product-harm crisis from other news sources besides the company (Puchan, 2001). Comment by John House: Use past tense when writing about published literature. See pp. 65-66 in the APA manual. Comment by John House: This is passive voice. See p. 77 in the APA manual for a discussion of passive and active voice. Use active voice.I will stop marking passive voice. Please stop using it. Comment by John House: Do not insert blank lines. I will stop marking this.

Alternative Perspectives

It is important to compare two cases of Fitbit Force and Kryptonite bicycle lock product-harm crises. The Fitbit Force case involved sale of a wrist-worn product that tracks fitness activity. After the product had been sold, 1.7% of more than 100 million users complained of skin rashes where the device was being worn. The CEO apologized and announced a product recall with full refund. Later, it was discovered that the likely cause for the rash was users not properly cleansing the area beneath the all-day worn device. The company continues to do well. This case can be compared with the Kryptonite bicycle lock crisis in 2004. An Internet video surfaced showing user hacking the well-respected company's lock. The company went quite as many more videos and complaints began forming. The company responded late after the media and consumers had stained the company's brand for days. This made the company lose big business (Coombs, 1998).

Recommendation

For a company handling a product-harm crisis, a proactive approach to handling crisis is recommended. This approach will close the gaps for the company to lose reputation by allowing other external forces such as the press and media to spoil the reputation of the company. Companies are recommended to respond with a constant, active and firm response after crisis has occurred (Chen, 2009).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the study proves that effective product-harm crisis includes the objective of protecting an organization against possible harm where possible or minimizing the impacts of harms that could not be prevented. The premise of this study is that product-harm crisis management should be objective and proactive to order to minimize extensive losses of reputation and finances of a company. It is clear that product harm crisis is one of the key functions of companies. This arises because of the many possibilities of that have unforeseen activities/events related to a product that can harm an organization. The study acknowledges the need for…