Essendon Football Club Supplements Crisis Management Literature Media Report | Case Study Assignment Help

Report Writing Assignment

Task Details:

Given public knowledge of the Essendon Football Club supplements crisis from 2013-2016 (through media reporting and guest speakers in the subject, where applicable), with reference to crisis management and crisis media management literature, what changes would you have made to the club’s media strategy.

Tips: Given the constrained word limit and the complexity of the issue being analysed,

you may wish to consider the crisis as a series of key events, of which you will you choose to analyse the most important, or those where you think changes would have been most useful.

You should consult the LMS site for resources that might be valuable in answering the question.

The Background Case Study of Essendon Football Team

Essendon football team, the most famous and the largest football team in Australia underwent a crisis situation when a ‘Supplement scandal broke out’, about them of having used banned supplements on players. It occurred due to the breach of Rule 1.6, because they engaged in conduct that is unbecoming and unfavourable to the reputation held by AFL and even bringing the game football disputation. This was due to scientifically pioneering programs in relation to the administration of supplements for the players of the team.

Some of the people who were considered highly responsible in the Essendon crisis period include David Evans-former CEO, Ian Robinson-former chairman, Stephen Dank-The sports scientist who designed the supplement regime, James Hird-senior coach, Thompson-senior assistant coach, Bruce Reid-The club doctor, Andrew Demetriou-AFL.

Robinson and Dank were administering the supplement program and used illegal supplements with out the knowledge of the human resource department, which made the management unsure of the truth when it came to investigations. It also reveals that as a football club, Essendon failed to ensure integrity, reputation, qualification and training of the medicals supervisors who were implementing the program, and compromised on supervising the quality of supplement’s adherence to AFL Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Code (AFL, 2013).

Trusting the supplement regime suggested by Hank became the ultimate reason for the scandal. The doubt about the involvement of the top-level management in supporting the regime irrespective of knowing about in prevails, but not proved (Papanikolaou, 2016). The case is now considered as a case of self-inflicted injury by a sporting club (Wood, 2016).

The news of the anti drugs program brought fury and wrath of the fans, players, families, stakeholders, media and other well-wishers of the Essendon football club. Being famous and accountable for the actions undertaken in favour of the players, fans and to football as a game, there was a requirement for the media crisis management that would restore the image, support, favourability and credibility of all the stakeholders in relation to Essendon and Football game.

Crisis management at Essendon

Importance of crisis management:

The media crisis management is of high importance to Essendon football club. The reason behind it is the broader scope Essendon football club have because of their famous players and their fan following, football & its influence on the culture of the country and the nature of the scope the issue they are involved in (Ali, 2014). It can be clearly seen that the Essendon FC or the bombers are of high visibility because of their participation in AFL. Also the Essendon Football Clubs brings in to memory a list of really famous victories, and outstanding performances of champions in the past and present and encompasses feelings of pride and passion. Hence there tends to be a higher involvement from public of different generations (EssendonFC, 2016). So there is a greater stress on crisis management.

Lack of attention to intricacies of the company:

When cultures become big and insulated, there is a high tendency for ignoring wrongdoings and to be less cautious. The management in this case tends to underestimate the challenges and hence tends to hope and control regulatory agencies and control if a situation arises in the future (Ali, 2006). According to the report by Switkowski (2013), compliance rules were existent in the Essendon FC company, but it was insufficient for checking and keeping track of different behaviours practiced by people in the company and the CEO and the management were not acknowledged about the same. (Switowski, 2013). But despite and array of reasons that may sound reasonable, the CEO is still responsible for the events that takes place in the organisation.

Wrong strategy initiating public response:

A crisis management team was working with the company from the initial stages that were headed by Justin Roadski and Liz Lukin and was already present during the initial stages of the scandal on February 2013 (Le Grand, 2015). Evans, Robson and Hird were the people to face media conference and were social representatives for the company. They spoke what was asked of them and played their part. It cannot be ignored that among then three, Hird was asked to take the ultimate responsibility for the event before knowing the totality of the event (Le Grand, 2015). But after this event the changes in circumstances crucified Hird.

According to Mark Thompson, Hird was played into this situation, which infuriated him to a later stage. Hence the war between Hird and AFL started. It was of importance to let Hird know what he was getting into (Le Grand, 2015). Hird was made the culprit and this was planned with out his permission. The headline in ‘The Age’ was “Hird Injected Drugs”. A speaker during a crisis should be aware of the intricacies behind the situation and why he is doing so. He should passionate to protect the company over him, and cannot be just led on. The scandal stains both Andrew Demetriou and Hirk (Le Grand, 2015). Hird wanted to clear of his name, and it gave and additional scope for medias interference (Brodle, 2013). The lack of agreement between the public faces of Essendon FC does taint the image of the club.

Lack of an adequate and constant representation

From the beginning of the crisis, it can be seen that there are multiple CEO’s and spokesperson who gives away mixed messages. For example Ian Robinson takes accountability for the events that happened in the club, but refrains from taking responsibility (Pierik, 2016). On the other side, senior assistant coach who took up James Hird position with the company during his suspension owns the scandal as “its our fault, we’re the ones that actually got the program going’’ (Laughton, 2015). But on the other side Hank, the scientist who decided the composition of the supplement, has repeated multiple times that the company knew about the about usage of illegal drugs in the supplements program (ABC, 2013).

Apologising Note and empathising with the company:

Both Evans and Tanner have repeatedly conveyed and agreed to the fact that The Supplements Program of 2012, was a mistake of the highest order. They have apologised to the fans and stakeholders, family and players repeatedly (EssendonFC, 2015). This is one of the reasons why the fans still follow Essendon FC.

Lack of information:

Essendon football team has high level of secrecy to an extent that information and communication was not easily available with crisis management team. As they lacked information in relation to the truth of the situation, some of the information that is published by the company had to be recorrected by the publishing team. Unawareness creates a speculation and hence it spreads different rumours about the club and its performance (Callanan, 2013). It reduces the faith that public has on the company.

General communication strategies:

True value solar centre was used for delivering better quality to the sports fans, when there was ASADA investigation, they made use of #EFCListens as a response to the ASADA investigation. This acted as a platform for fans to reach out and let them know that they are frustrated and angry with the club and its management. The media management reverted to these messages by empathising with them. Supplements about investigations were posted on Facebook to provide direct information for the fans. While the crisis management was in effect, the club maintained its day-to-day activities through regular functioning. They also started a new training centre that has more facilities to help and enhanced training of the customers. They chose not to acknowledge social media trolls to discourage their frequent posts, but made sure they responded to creative criticism. They also started a virtual studio for providing information to the fans about football and sport related events. In general the strategy was to give fans a set of other reasons to appreciate Essendon FC (Callanan, 2013) instead of pure defamation.

Recommendations for better crisis management at Essendon Football Club

Importance of Resilience:

Resilience is considered as one of the most important features required for bouncing from an adversity and it is equally important to the functioning and viability of human being and organisations (Carmeli, Friedman & Tishler, 2013). This resilience is especially important in the case of organisations that have a wide stakeholder base through crisis management. Essendon also made use of multiple media crisis management strategies. There is a lifecycle for crisis management and it has various stages including prevention, preparation, response and revision (coombs, 2007). The efforts that are to make includes strategic efforts, efforts in terms of structural efforts, diagnosis and evaluation efforts, efforts of communication, and psychological and cultural efforts (Pauchant, Mitroff & Lagadec, 2008)

Importance of prevention:

The first recommendation for controlling a crisis situation is to prevent it. In the case of Essendon FC, enough attention should have been paid to prevention of the crisis, rather than managing it after its occurrence. The report by Dr. Ziggy Switkowski reveals a whole lot of factors that could have prevented this issue from its occurrence. According to the report football clubs were growing and there was a significant increase in terms of the number of staff. The company has failed in setting up a governance structure, accountability and adequate hiring practices at the company. Had they given adequate attention to the anomalies of the supplement regimen, for which evidences were already present, a situation of this intensity could not have occurred (Switkowski, 2013). Essendon’s lack of having stringent monitoring triggered supplements investigation (The conversation, 2013)

Having a strategy:

There is a high level of importance that is attached to learning and embracing new opportunities because it helps the organisations to implement strategies that are new and legal and hence they will help in emerging from a crisis with renewed vitality (Veil, 2011). An institution is judged on the basis of how they respond in a crisis. The response that is given by EFC is totally incorrect, as they did not anticipate and implement risk management strategies for a crisis of this intensity and hence their mitigation was slowed down (Switkowski, 2013). EFC lacked an adequate communication strategy. But they should be appreciated for seeking an internal report.

United Front:

It is very important for the management to present a united front in front of the media, instead of playing the blame game. Though it makes interesting twists for the readers, it impacts the company negatively. The crisis management team should make sure to avoid any negative publicity that happens during the time of crisis. There are players and employees who came and spoke adversely about the company. Crisis management team should have avoided this strategically as it gained media attention.

Constant Representative:

It is very important to have a responsible and accountable representative to communicate to the media through out the crisis management. That helps in developing trust along with measuring the vibes of the media reporters, and learning the nature of the press conferences. It also helps in presenting one unique perspective, and reduces the chances for scattered information.

Considering Fans and players:

It is of no doubt that the media were very rude on Essendon, because like Essendon there were multiple clubs who had used supplement programs with drugs to enhance performance of the customers (Holmes, 2013). But it is very important to communicate to the customers directly, through website, press releases, and social media which is all a platform for one to one communication. Knowledge management, which is related to the process of producing new knowledge and integrating existent knowledge, plays an important role in crisis management (Wang & Belardo, 2009)

In crisis management planning the crisis management team should be in constant communication with players, fans and families, because the players were banned from playing the 2012 season and the ban is 34 other players till the end of 2016. It is important to let the players and their families feel secure. The players who used supplements will be worried about the impact of these supplements on their health. Hence, provision for health check ups should be provided to them, irrespective of the intentions of players to file lawsuits. The role of ethics in crisis management should never be compromised. Stakeholders look into the adaptation of responsibility practices undertaken by the company (Coombs, 2007)

Assurance:

the organisation should apologise to its fans and stakeholders and assure them that events of this magnitude would not reoccur in the future. The club should also acknowledge to fans and players of the new governance and accountability mechanisms in place let them know that an issue of this intensity shall never be repeated again.

Conclusion

To conclude crisis management planning is a part of organisational planning and risk management planning and is proactive process. Essendon Fc failed in the initial phase of crisis management. How ever, it has regained the trust of its plan through constant improvement. Advanced planning of crisis management will help bigger organisations to be better prepared in event of an occurrence of crisis.