Social Media and Media

United Airlines: Dragging Through Crisis Management A recent scandal at United Airlines involving a routine overbooking of a flight and a non-routine removal of a passenger after none volunteered to de-board has thrust United into a rather negative spotlight. Its image has been tarred by widespread public disapproval thanks to social media, and the company's settlement with the customer out of court has done little to polish the airline's image.

Its attempt to contain the crisis has proved futile and has raised the question: Are companies desensitizing customer service by relying too heavily on crisis management via public relations? From the look of it, it appears that United would do well to re-focus its attention on vitalizing its customer service approach instead of relying on its PR team to clean up the mess. This paper will discuss the issue of United's crisis management approach and examine another possible approach that could better serve as a solution to the underlying issues.

The PR Problem The problem with relying on a PR team to address crises in the Digital Era is that it has become virtually impossible to contain a story and control a narrative once it has been picked up by social media. Traditional news outlets used to be the go-to source for information but the Internet has changed all of that. Today, any individual can make and spread news via social media feeds such as Twitter, Facebook.

Strategic communications has been revealed to be a two-way street: consumers now have access to their own form of strategic communications (social media) just as businesses have their own (public relations teams). The result is a battle of communications, and -- as the recent case shows involving the physically assaulted doctor, removed for not giving up his seat when United overbooked the flights -- the consumer has far more power to control a narrative today via social media than the business has via PR. Strategic Communications and Marketing vs.

Social Media United has attempted to rely on strategic communications and marketing to construct a positive image of itself for public consumption. This type of strategy is effective only so long as the consumer has no other information or access to information that tells a different story. As Lamb (2009) points out, today's consumers are the most informed in all of history.

Before they make a single decision about purchasing, they can research a company quickly over the Internet, compare prices, look at what others have said about the company on online reviews, and make a decision based on the evidence they obtain. Strategic communications and marketing are barely a blip in the great flood of information that consumers can pull up.

United's use of PR and attempt to market its way out of a scandal that makes the customer feel extremely uneasy about flying with the airline is like trying to counter an army with a bobby pin. The consumer is too well-aware. The only hope that United has, really, is that consumers have a short memory. This in fact may be the case, as studies have shown that social media "news" has shortened the news cycle exponentially and shortened memory spans as well (Newman, 2010; Von Muhlen, Ohno-Machado, 2012).

However, this is a shallow hope and does not reflect the realities that exist in the light of new technology and new media and the way in which individuals can share stories of human rights issues that impact us all.

Underlying Issues If United's employees and management teams were making more of a conscious effort to solve problems (such as overbooking) and to treat customers as they themselves would like to be treated, would United even have such a PR problem? One may point to social media as a major factor in how companies find it difficult to address stories that spiral out of control thanks to viral videos and instant sharing of information among social media users around the world.

However, if the company itself were better at handling the types of issues that serve as the cause for such social media fodder in the first place, perhaps the PR problem would not be so enormous. Perhaps, United's problem is really a problem of organizational culture -- i.e., a sociological problem. The Sociological Solution As Southwest Airlines and Virgin Airlines have both shown, putting people before profits is the best way to actually create a successful workplace culture (Gallo, 2013; Srinivasan, 2014).

It shows the workers that they are valued and gives them a feeling of satisfaction -- a desire to want to be on the job. That feeling is passed along to the consumer, who wants to share in the experience of flying with the airline because the airline clearly feels good about what it is doing and wants the consumer to feel good as well.

Both Southwest and Virgin have made great strides in advancing their companies in recent years in the face of stiff competition from the larger airlines -- and the secret to their success has been the positive workplace culture promoted from within.

By taking a sociological approach to the work (one that puts people first and at the heart of the organization) instead of a profit-driven approach to the work (one that puts profits and the bottom line above all else), both Southwest and Virgin have succeeded in avoiding the types of snafus airlines like United have stumbled into in their desire to max out seating and then in their poor response to handling the situation when customers fail to respond as the airlines would like.

The Marketing Angle When the sociology of the workplace is ignored and the sociological relationship between workers and consumers receives such little focus, companies like United are left to try to "manage" fallout by utilizing the marketing approach. This means that they attempt to craft and cultivate their image with the public and win back customers through branding efforts, commercials, and other ways of reaching out to the public.

Instead of cultivating a positive organizational culture that respects people, they attempt to get around the "people problem" by cultivating an "image" -- but in the end, with the rise of the Internet and social media in the Digital Era, the truth comes out: the "image" promoted via marketing by the company is dashed within seconds as the truth and reality of the company's practices are revealed for one and all.

Today, virtually everyone holds a camera on his person -- a smart phone -- that records data and makes it possible to upload and share instantaneously with others. There is no stopping this phenomenon and United must realize that managing fallout is an ineffective way of addressing the issues that plague its company and its relationship with consumers. Marketing is only an effective strategy when it comes to selling a product that the public can believe in because it has not been tainted with any signs of corruption.

A Better Way United's attempt to "PR" its way out of its latest airline incident involving the doctor who would not give up his seat would be like Enron attempting to win back shareholders by holding a car "giveaway" after the bottom had already fallen out of the business and its CEO and CFO were in jail. At that point, there is no choice but to start over from scratch.

The way forward for United at this point is to admit fault and express a desire to start over with consumers. That means developing and implementing a totally new organizational culture that puts people first. No PR team can make this message stick either: it will take time, but the only ones who can truly make this message work are the consumers, for in today's world.