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/