My last university assignment

My last uni assignment after four and a half years of study… Not the typical academic prose, but hey - you’ve got to have a bit of fun sometimes - right??

COMU3140 Critical reflection:
The lessons, the learnings and the literature

An introduction, of sorts

You might be disappointed to hear that I think this course has taught me more about people than stakeholder engagement and crisis management. More about short tempers and over achievers and pleasers and lets-just-get-it-done-ers. More about 2D conversations and internet connection. More about expectations around time, and night-owls, and the frustration of break-out groups on mute. More about the importance of positive leadership and recording lectures live. More about valuing feelings over facts.

It might sound disappointing to hear this, however, you know these lessons matter. That they are relevant, and kind of also what you were aiming to teach. And while I know you had other objectives too, I think I really value these lessons the most. Besides, it’s not hard to see where the theory fits in. It’s more that I focused on the people and found that the theory seemed to support what I discovered (funny that?). Everything I have learnt in this course, and throughout my whole degree, has related to people. Everything I have learnt has stemmed from my ability to connect, understand, analyse, communicate, redirect and persuade. So, I will give you a critical reflection. But I won’t structure it like every one of my other university essays. I’ll apply the lessons and learnings in a prose that I can use to create ‘deeper realisations and understandings’ which I can carry into my professional practice. Because, in the end, that’s what you asked for… right?

Lesson number one

Your reputation matters. In fact, ‘reputation is arguably the single most valued organisational asset’ (Gibson, Gonzales & Castanon, 2006). I learnt this lesson in the final four days before our group presentation. Our group had been innocently bumping in and out of contact in a hopeless attempt to pre-empt the inevitable final days of fury. However, as always with group assignments, the final days of fury was inevitable. It was during these final four days of nightly Zoom calls that the reputation of each group member really begun to distinguish itself in my mind. The stress bought out one member’s kindness and natural people-pleasing nature, another member’s drive to achieve and tendency to over-explain, and the other member’s apparent lack of stamina as she refused to turn on her video and in doing so very clearly said ‘I’m over this’. Despite working with them the entire semester, the impressions I formed of these people during the final few days has almost entirely shaped their reputation in my mind.

Having acknowledged this, I can now understand why reputation management during a crisis is so important. As chapter eight of Register and Larkin’s textbook is aptly titled, ‘perception is the reality’ (2008). Any preconceived ideas I have formed of my group-members was overshadowed by my perception of them during our own crisis (aka the final few days before presenting). It was clear that, for us, any buffer offered by the halo effect was dissolved by the stress of a deadline (Coombs & Holladay, 2006). It is during a crisis that a business’s reputation is most visible, vulnerable and valuable. It is when an audience is most quick to judge, the scrutiny is the most extreme and any impression is set to last. As with the Exxon Valdez oil spill case study, a poorly managed issue is a sure-fire way to invite years of difficult business due to reputational damage (Register & Larkin, 2008, pp. 174-5).

So, what has the group work experience and my knowledge of reputation management theory taught me? Well, I’ve learnt that you have to practice being who you want to be every day. You must practice it so much that you become it, authentically. It’s no wonder executives refer to ‘the need to build and sustain ‘core values’’ as central to the idea of reputation management (Davies & Miles, 1998, pp. 20). Because when you are put in a stressful situation and your ability to control the messaging and your emotions are weakened, that is when your reputation is finalised. And reputation matters (Gibson, Gonzales & Castanon, 2006).

Lesson number two

On a personal level, one thing really struck me this semester. It was something that Leonie Vandeven said during her client briefing. She said she didn’t want an employee who she couldn’t trust not to cry during high-pressure situations.

When I was filling out the yellow envelope form at the beginning of the semester I didn’t think one of the ‘top four professional skills’ I should try to develop was a resistance to crying. Frankly, I don’t think I’d have much hope. I choke up asking for leave at work or at even the slightest hint of criticism or disapproval. My voice adopts a weak wobble in nearly every slightly confronting situation.

This is an issue. Because, in Leonie’s eyes, this character flaw would have a ‘significant effect’ on my function and performance as an employee (Register & Larkin, 2008, pp. 44).

So, in true issue management form, I have learnt that there are key steps I should take to control the issue. I should, firstly, learn how to manage my response. This requires focused attention and time commitment and will work best if I plan a pre-determined response early (Register & Larkin, 2008, pp. 100). I should also understand the ‘public view’ (probably that of the person I am trying to avoid crying in front of), and that it is normal to feel increased pressure due to the scrutiny that crisis attract (pp. 101). Then, of course, there’s a whole lot of other stages that I could take to ensure that this issue doesn’t evolve into a crisis (Jaques, 2014, pp. 7). Aka, my tendency to cry does not result in actually crying. For more of these steps, please see Register and Larkin (2008) as I myself have done.

(…Maybe relating issue management theory to my tendency to cry was a bit of a stretch. But if I’m not fulfilling marks for incorporating course literature, then I hope I’m satisfying the criteria which requires open and critical evaluation of learning experiences. For writing about crying is pretty open, right?)

Lesson number three

Situation: The crisis management case study dealt with an issue of cultural significance for Aboriginal people.

Effect: Two of the group members had not grown up in Australia, and felt uncomfortable about engaging with this issue as they did not understand the cultural background. I found that my group members automatically begun looking at how we could apply the iAP2 framework and other relevant theories (Neshkova & Guo, 2012, pp. 276; Claeys, Cauberghe & Vyncke, 2010).

Action: Without looking into the theory or frameworks, my gut instinct was that our communication strategy had to be focused around apologising to the Traditional Owners and then working with them to regain their respect. Having grown up in Australia, I felt a searing need to ensure we did not cause any further harm to Aboriginal people. This was a priority I had to communicate to the group, and, in the end, it directed our response strategy.

Learning: People have to be at the forefront of decisions. Considering all the hurt that has been elevated in the world right now (Black Lives Matter, 2020), I believe it’s more important than ever to remember the humanity behind our communication strategies. It is easy to get swept up in the statistics and the annual revenue and the headlines of the companies or clients, but what is really behind crisis management is people. People who could be marginalised or disadvantaged or offended. If a formal education has taught me one thing for my professional practice, it’s to always remember that people are the priority.

Concluding

This should be my final university assignment before I graduate and I wanted it to be good. I wanted to write something that I actually meant. As my final assessment, it is not with ignorance that I deviated from the typical academic prose. As I leave my formal academic education behind, I want to hold onto all of the lessons. Like you say, I want to take the ‘aha moments’ and be able to apply them to my future professional (and personal) practice. And writing this reflection, in this way, has enabled me to do that. So, thank you for giving me this opportunity to reflect. After four and a half years of study, I think a moment of reflection is exactly what I needed. I hope you agree.

I hope you agree and don’t fail me.

References

Black Lives Matter. (2020). Black Live Matter – Home. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Claeys, A. S., Cauberghe, V., & Vyncke, P. (2010). Restoring reputations in times of crisis: An experimental study of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the moderating effects of locus of control. Public Relations Review, 36(3), 256-262.

Davies, G., & Miles, L. (1998). Reputation management: theory versus practice. Corporate reputation review, 2(1), 16-27.

Gibson, D., Gonzales, J. L., & Castanon, J. (2006). The importance of reputation and the role of public relations. Public relations quarterly, 51(3), 15.

Jaques, T. (2014). Issue and crisis management : Exploring issues, crises, risk and reputation. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au

Neshkova, M. I., & Guo, H. (2012). Public participation and organizational performance: Evidence from state agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(2), 267-288.

Regester, M., & Larkin, J. (2008). Risk issues and crisis management in public relations : A casebook of best practice. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au

P.s I just got my feedback for this! Stoked that it paid off

Hi Lucy

Thank you for thinking deeply, for being open, and for managing to do all of that while linking your reflection to academic sources! I appreciate your learning journey and I expect these learnings will stay with you throughout your working life. I took into account your syntax changes that you emailed through—thank you for highlighting those.

It sounds like you were fully engaged with the content this semester—so much so that you could take your interpersonal relationships and link them to how you would approach a crisis situation. I will admit, I was taken aback when I first read your reflection—while it was not a standard submission it showed great insight and engagement to the course materials.

Would you mind if we de-identified this reflection and used is as an exemplar for future years? Please get in touch with me and _____ if it is okay for us to do that.

Congratulations on finishing 4 years at UQ studying!

Best wishes for your future career!

Cheers,