Organizational overview

The organization that has been chosen for this report is Foxconn. Foxconn is one of the main iPhone makers in China. There are many controversies against the company. One of the main and headline controversies that are being faced by the company currently is the way the company manages its employees in the manufacturing stations in China. The company has been known as one of the world’s largest contract based electronics manufacturers. In accordance to the revenue, the company has been ranked as the third most well-known electronics manufacturers. Some of the main companies that are known to be the customers of Foxconn include Amazon, Blackberry, Apple, Sony, Cisco, and Toshiba. The main stakeholders of Foxconn include its employees, law enforcement agencies, its customer companies and the employees at the manufacturing stations. It has been mentioned that there are various controversies that have been previously faced by the company. All of these controversies are related to way employees are mistreated or the ways in which the employees are treated (Xu, & Li, 2013, p. 372). One of the main areas of controversies that are being faced by the company is in relation to the working conditions that are provided to the employees. The main issues that have been highlighted include longer working hours, increased discrimination towards the mainland Chinese workers towards the Taiwanese coworkers and there is a complete lack of working relationship in the organization. On the other hand, it has been seen that increased media attention has been attracted by the company based on increased and accelerated number of suicides of the employees. The operations of the company are running in various countries. One of the main areas of operations of the company includes having manufacturing factories in the selected countries.  Some of the main companies include Brazil, Australia, china, India, Japan, Mexico, Europe, and South Korea. These are some of the main countries in which the operational setup has been established by Foxconn in order to fulfill the demands and main requirements of the customer companies. There are various issues that can increasingly effect the operations of the company. China has been highlighted as one of the main countries in which the operations of the company have been set. The suicides and the reports of ill treatment of the employees in China is one of the main issues that have had a negative effect on the overall operations of the company. In the year 2012, it was seen that more than 120 Foxconn employees threatened to commit suicide; that attracted a great deal of media attention. The employees in China work in the walled campus of Longhead Science & Technology Park. It is also referred to as the Foxconn city. This city employs more than thousands of employees who are made to work for more than 12 hours for 6 days a week. The reported suicides of the employees are one of the main historical crises that have been faced by the company. There is a need that the company addresses the crisis in a proper manner (Biagi, 2011, p. 45).

Company’s current procedures

 The company has been working on the risk management and crisis management procedures since the past few years. It has been seen that the risk management strategies that have been developed by the company are the ones that are more based on the kinds of risks that are being faced. It has been mentioned that one of the main crisis that has been faced by the company in the past few years is related to the suicides of the employees. In order to analyze the main risk or crisis based management strategies, there is a need that the overall management strategies adopted by the company for the suicide issue. Since the reports of the suicides of the employees appeared in the media, the overall response of the company was poor. The statements that wee finally made by the company for the media were not seen to be satisfying enough. One of the main facts that need to be mentioned here is that the customer companies were looking for a statement from Foxconn that could have satisfied the customer companies.  It needs to be mentioned here that Foxconn and the media representatives from the company have little or no experience of speaking. In the wake of the suicide issue, the company representatives seemed to be in a lost state.

Foxconn can be argued as one of the most walk known billion dollar companies headquartered in China. However, the company has greatly failed to develop its presence and brand identity in the region. In the case of crisis management, it needs to be argued here that there is a need that the company has the ability to speak and address its issues and crises in the public. There is a need that the company is aware of the risks and crises being faced and there is a need that proper ways are identified with the help of which the crises are addressed in a proper manner. This is one of the main business based component for the company on which more focus needs to be given. One of the main facts that need to be mentioned here is that the company needs to be aware of the company in which it operates and what the main demands of the market are. The better the crises and risk management strategies of the company would finally decide the level of success gained by the company in the market (Chan & Pun, 2010, p. 45).

Crisis communication overview

Since the news of the employee suicide was published in the media along with an increased incrimination of the culture of the company, there was a need that a response was generated for the management reports of the company. When the situation of the company is taken into count, it is seen that the managers of the company dis not consider the first suicide attempt of the employees a threat to the company. This was one of the main reasons based on which the situation of the company got even worse. There was a consistent rise in the number of employees committing suicides, for instance the number was as high as 100 in the year 2011. It has been repotted that since the year 2011, there was an increased realization in the managers that the crises management strategies are not going well. Some of the main areas of management that have been given increased focus include job satisfaction, leadership style, job burnout, marketing, work environment and information management.

When the crisis communication of the company is taken into account, it is seen that since the being of the crises of employee suicide, it was mentioned by the communication managers that the employees of the company were being treated very well. On the other hand in accordance it one of the international surveys, it was motioned by Foxconn that the employees were provided healthy working environment being very healthy and that great amount of incentives are provided to the employees. The communication managers also mentioned that the suicides of the employees were not to be blamed on the style of leadership that was being followed in the company.  It was seen that the company representatives mentioned that the suicides of the employees were more because of the personal issues and personal problems of the employees. Thereby the company cannot be blamed for the suicides. It was additionally mentioned by the company that the suicides were more reported from the employees that belonged to the class Nongmingong. These were some of the main suicides that were proving to be one of the main hurdles in the main operational requirements of the company (Jiaqi, 2012).

One of the other main examples of the failure of the company is a statement that was made by the human resource department mentioning that the suicides of the employees were representing the fragility and weakness of the characters of the employees.  The other main fact that was highlighted by the company representatives was that greater number of suicides was from the employees who belonged to the families of immigrants from different provinces. From the statements that have been made by the company it can be seen that tee company managers are highly reluctant to look into the main occupational  issues being faced by the employees that may include occupational burnout. This is the occupational burnout that has been known to exhaust the employees mentally as well as physically. It has been mentioned by the company in a repeated manner that the company bore no responsibility of the suicides of the employees.

From the discussion above, it can be seen that there are various communication elements that Aare weak in Foxconn. The first main element that is increasingly missing is the fact that the communication representatives and the communication managers at the company need to accept the responsibilities for the crises. There is a need that the main elements that have led to the crisis are identified in order to make sure that a crisis like this is not faced in the future. The second main element that needs to be incorporated by the communication managers is to highlight the main factors that have led to the suicides of the employees. The communication managers than need to highlight the main strategies that are to be adopted for dealing with the factors in order to deal with the crisis (Jing-shi, 2012).