Understanding what a crisis is and how to effectively communicate in a time of crisis are two things that business managers must become acquainted with. The Flint Water Crisis is an excellent example of a lack of managerial communication during a time of crisis and how that lack of communication made matters worse. The situation in Flint can be looked at as what not to do during a crisis. This report will cover what happened in the city of Flint, what a crisis is, what crisis communication is, and why learning about such information is relevant to the business world.
What Happened in Flint?
Just over two years ago, the city of Flint, Michigan decided to switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The city of Flint was originally paying the city of Detroit to use water from Lake Huron, but city officials wanted to decrease Flint’s budget and spending, so the city officials made an executive order to instead use the Flint River as the water source (Ganim & Tran, 2016). Citizens were …show more content…
A group of researchers then decided to take samples of the “drinkable water” from Flint and published their results. The amount of lead found in the water was exponentially higher than legally allowed. 5 parts of lead per billion parts of water is a cause for concern regarding health. The highest level of lead found by the Virginia Tech researchers was 158 part of lead per billion parts of water, which is over 31 times the amount that causes concern (refer to Figure 2). The levels of lead in the Flint water were clearly an issue, but the city and state officials were adamant that nothing was wrong. Had the officials communicated the issue and addressed the problems early on, the Flint Water Crisis could have been resolved much earlier. However, due to their lack of planning and communication in a time of disaster, a crisis
What Happened in Flint?
Just over two years ago, the city of Flint, Michigan decided to switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The city of Flint was originally paying the city of Detroit to use water from Lake Huron, but city officials wanted to decrease Flint’s budget and spending, so the city officials made an executive order to instead use the Flint River as the water source (Ganim & Tran, 2016). Citizens were …show more content…
A group of researchers then decided to take samples of the “drinkable water” from Flint and published their results. The amount of lead found in the water was exponentially higher than legally allowed. 5 parts of lead per billion parts of water is a cause for concern regarding health. The highest level of lead found by the Virginia Tech researchers was 158 part of lead per billion parts of water, which is over 31 times the amount that causes concern (refer to Figure 2). The levels of lead in the Flint water were clearly an issue, but the city and state officials were adamant that nothing was wrong. Had the officials communicated the issue and addressed the problems early on, the Flint Water Crisis could have been resolved much earlier. However, due to their lack of planning and communication in a time of disaster, a crisis