Post on 11-Apr-2017
Organizational ChangeLeah Snider
Bangladesh Factory Collapse
Communication during Crisis
“Unplanned” ChangeCrisis- is an unplanned change
It evolves in three stepsPrecrisis
Crisis
Postcrisis
Communication must be handled with externally and internally
Types of “Unplanned” Change Natural Disasters- Hurricane Katrina
Financial Crisis- Recession
Terrorism- 9/11 Attacks
Industrial Accidents- BP Oil Spill
Food-Born Illnesses-E coli found in food
Bangladesh Factory CollapseDeadliest garment factory accident in history
Over 3,000 workers in the factory lost their lives
Pre Crisis“3,639 workers refused to enter the eight-story Rana Plaza factory building because there
were large and dangerous cracks in the factory walls.”
“The owner, Sohel Rana, brought paid gang members to beat the women and men workers, hitting them with sticks to force them to go into the factory. Managers of the five factories housed in Rana Plaza also told the frightened workers, telling them that if they did not return to work, there would be no money to pay them for the month of April, which meant that there would be no food for them and their children.”
“They were forced to go in to work at 8:00 a.m.”
“At 8:45 a.m. the electricity went out and the factories’ five generators kicked on.”
“Almost immediately the workers felt the eight-story building begin to move, and heard a loud explosion as the building collapsed, pancaking downward.”
Globalbourrights.com
CrisisExplosion in the building
Factory workers could not get out of building because the factory managers keep doors locked
1,137 confirmed dead at Rana Plaza
A year later, over 200 remain missing
Post CrisisAn investigation began into why the building had such poor conditions
Investigations began into which retailers produced clothing in this factory
Prinmark
Benetton
J.C. Penney
The Plano
Joe Fresh, a Canadian retailer was the first to look into the accident and send representatives to investigate the collapse
Post Crisis“Walmart itself has made a donation, alongside its U.K. supermarket subsidiary Asda and
the Walmart Foundation. The world’s largest retailer (2013 revenues: $476.3 billion) gave $3 million to the North American branch of the Bangladeshi non-profit BRAC, with $1 million of that going directly to victims and their families”
“The largest donor to date has been Primark, the U.K. fast fashion chain where it isn’t unusual to find t-shirts priced at £2 (just over $3). Primark is owned by the British branch of Canadian billionaire family the Westons; their transAtlantic counterparts own the afore-mentioned Joe Fresh. Primark has benchmarked the equivalent of $12 million, the entirety of that sum going to restitution for workers and their families. One of the British clothier’s supplier, New Wave Bottoms, had been based on Rana Plaza’s second floor”
(O’Connor, 2014)
How could this be PreventedUnions for the factory workers
Industry associations
Activist
(Meiers, 2014)
Moving Forward Brands operating in foreign countries must join civil society
organizations
Leaders should consider urban planners, health workers and women’s rights
Companies need more than just safety inspections in the factoriesHealth and well being
Gender equality
Housing
Personal safety
(Meiers, 2014)
QuestionsThe companies that had their clothes made in the
Rana Plaza factory did not even know they were being produced there. Do you think this adds to the post crisis communication to employees and public?
QuestionsWhat are other ways that companies producing in
foreign countries should move forward from this crisis?
Do you believe that this crisis will help change the way other garment factories operate and treat their workers?
Work CitedFactory Collapse in Bangladesh. (2014, April 24). Retrieved March 31, 2016, from
http://www.globallabourrights.org/campaigns/factory-collapse-in-bangladesh
O'Connor, C. (2014, April 26). These Retailers Involved In Bangladesh Factory Disaster Have Yet To Compensate Victims. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/26/these-retailers-involved-in-bangladesh-factory-disaster-have-yet-to-compensate-victims/#e2be80357c5c
Meiers, R. (2014, April 24). To Prevent Another Rana Plaza, Build Better Societies, Not Just Better Factories. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from
https://hbr.org/2014/04/to-prevent-another-rana-plaza-build-better-societies-not-just-better-factories/