Flint, Michigan once known as the largest car-factory hub in the U.S faced a manufacturing employment downturn, which left the city with a collapsed economy. Flint began to scramble to reverse its $25 million deficit financial crisis in late 2013. Governor Rick Synder (appointed as emergency manager) declared major city cost cuts, anything to cut back on costs. However, in cutting costs the city found themselves with a public-health and reputational crisis. On April 25, 2014, the city switched its drinking water supply to a cheaper alternative; rather than continuing to use treated pipe water from Detroit’s system, the city was now receiving water from the Flint River. The new water supply was not treated properly, failing to reveal high levels of lead that had contaminated the water. The city failed to test the water and ignored residents’ concerns and complaints over of foul-smelling and discolored water resulted in a long and horrible public-health crisis. It took over a year for the government to reveal the extent of the contamination to the public, and even then, minimal change and action occurred.
The animosity and distrust the Flint residents felt caused irreparable damages to the city’s reputation around the country. The government official’s inability to communicate and quickly be socially responsible to avoid or hinder the crisis. Had this situation been handled and communicated differently, the city and government could have a different reputation than they do today. In researching and analyzing this crisis while understanding situational crisis communications theory and social corporate responsibility, can result in a better course of action to avoid a situation such as this. Better strategies can also be implemented with theory knowledge, which would mitigate negative effects of a situation.
Background
It was no secret that the water supply from the Flint River was less than adequate, especially for drinking. “For more than a century, the Flint River, which flows through the heart of town, has served as an unofficial waste disposal site for treated and untreated refuse from the many local industries that have sprouted along shores, from carriage and car factories to meatpacking plants and lumber and paper mills. The water way has also received raw sewage from the city’s waste treatment plant, agriculture and urban runoff, and toxics from leaching landfills (Denchak, 2024).” Therefore, it came as an alarming surprise when city officials resorted to switching to this water supply to cut back on costs, because they were ultimately hurting their people in doing so. Soon enough after the change, residents began complaining of the foul-smell, terrible taste and discoloration of the water, yet officials did nothing but continue to state the water was safe.
Three months after they switched the supply, there was E. coli and Total Coliform bacteria detected in the water. City officials advised residents boil their water, but nothing else was done to fix the issue. The following year a study was conducted by researchers at Virginia Tech, they collected water samples from 252 residents’ home and found a lead content of 104 parts per billion. This number sparked fury since the EPA limit for lead in drinking water is 15 parts per billion. “In September 2015 Moana Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician, said she had found that the level of lead in the blood of infants from Flint had doubled since the city started getting its water from the river (The Data Team, 2017).” The mental and physical health implications caused by the lead exposure was detrimental to residents. The Flint water crisis was becoming the largest environmental health disaster in this country. Cancer-causing chemicals were soon found in the water, among other bacteria that was killing and causing people to be sick. Things had gotten so bad that fertility rates dropped by 12 percent and fetal deaths were increasing. It only made matters worse that as chaos is occuring, a leaked internal memo from the EPA of spokesman Brad Wurfel stating, “Let me start here – anyone who is concerned about lead in the drinking water in Flint can relax (Kennedy, 2016).”
The NDRC joined by residents and groups petitioned the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to immediately launch an emergency federal response to the contaminated water. However, EPA failed to acknowledge let along act, causing further doubt by residents in government officials. In January of 2016, Governor Snyder and President Obama declared a state of emergency, meanwhile the residents had sued the city and state officials to receive secure safe drinking water. In November 2016, a federal judge sided with Flint residents, requiring the government to provide every home with either properly installed and maintained faucet filters or door-to-door delivery of bottled water. A few months later there was a settlement ordered the city to replace thousands of lead pipes, comprehensive tap water testing, facet filter installation and much more to mitigate the effects.
Governor Snyder along with EPA Administrator Gina McCarty testified before the house Committee and Government Reform, where the Governor admitted that this crisis was a failure of the government at all levels, stating “local, state and federal officials – we all failed the families of Flint (Kennedy, 2016)”. The Michigan attorney general, Bill Schuette Criminal filed charges against three officials from The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), as they were ultimately responsible. Despite the few winnings Flint residents had, to this day there is still contaminated water. In 2018, Governor Synder announced they would stop providing bottled water to residents, despite the city failing to meet court-ordered obligations. In 202,1 a lawsuit was settled with the state for $626 million, but residents to this day have yet to receive it, and pipes are still the same.
The residents lost respect for the city, along with people across the US with the large media coverage it gained. Faith in government officials to help when needed was lost, in analyzing this public-health crisis on how it came to be and how it was handled a framework can be created to avoid future scandals that ruin the reputation of an organization. Understanding situational crisis communication theory and social corporate responsibility theory would have changed the course of this scandal, avoiding the endangerment of its residents and ruin of the city’s reputation.
Theoretical Framework
A crisis is a threat to the social legitimacy of an organization, an attack on the character of the organization (requiring self-defense). Situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) examines how to protect organizational reputation and crisis outcomes by understanding the crisis and how people make sense of the negative. Crises are categorized into three main clusters: victim (organization is the victim of the crisis), accidental (crisis was caused by technical error/accident), and preventable (the organization knew of crisis and put stakeholders at risk). With SCCT, the crisis type is examined and matched with the most appropriate response to ensure the organization is taking responsibility for its actions and/or involvement in the situation. The more severe the crisis, the more accommodative the response an organization should adopt (Sommerfedt, 2023).” Research also advises that crisis communication should be done as quick as possible, therefore the organization should be the first to announce a crisis is occurring. SSCT recognizes the value of addressing the needs of crisis victims, including potential victims, therefore having an ethical-based response is crucial in minimizing the public's feelings of anger and anxiety towards the organization.
The government officials involved in the Flint water crisis were directly responsible for the escalation and endangerment of its residents. The secrecy, lack of responsibility taken, and delayed announcement (with no sympathy or apology), left the residents and people across the country disgusted with the city’s actions. SCCT would have helped address this crisis, because there would have been a solid understanding on how the residents cognitively and emotionally effected to develop a proper communication strategy to help support their needs. The Flint water crisis was a preventable crisis, meaning the city was responsible since they willingly put stakeholders at risk. According SCCT, during any crisis there is a requirement for an organization to release an ethical base response after discovering the issue. Even though there are three response categories for crisis, government officials would have benefited from implanting all three. An instructing information response would have protected the residents physically from the crisis, an adjusting information response would help them cope psychologically and reputation management would repair the damage they had done to the city’s reputation. However, rather than have any response after the discovery, the city made matters irreparable by neglecting concerns and talking poorly about the questioning residents.
There was known information that the Flint River was being an unofficial waste disposal site; therefore, an immediate investigation should have been required when complaints and concern were addressed. The public wants to be seen and heard by the organizations that serve them, this was not the case. Water testing, in-home pipe inspections and more should be done. Next, there should have been a press conference and media interviews with Governor Synder and members from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, quickly after discovering the city was at fault; apologizing and acknowledging wrongdoings minimizes negative feelings towards the organization, ultimately saving the city’s image. Denying or pushing the responsibility on to others or something will only cause the situation to become more aggressive, as it did for the residents and the city. A crisis response should be given in the ““single voice” because the emphasis was on one voice- the organization’s crisis management effort (Sommerfedt, 2023). The city can’t change the past, they can only focus on learning from their mistakes. It will be a long time, maybe never, that the residents will trust in the government therefore a rebuilding strategy should be focused on. Rebuilding a relationship with the residents that were mentally and physically harmed will help restore the image, such as “offering apologizes or compensations to those affected by the outcomes (Amareson, 2023).” Finally, the city should establish ways for residents to voice future concerns without fear of being silenced and ignored.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to why and how organizations have a responsibility to contribute to society. There are four categories in which CSR is broken into: environmental, philanthropic, ethical and economic. In the Flint water crisis, the city government officials blatantly ignored their environmental and ethical duty. Environmental responsibility refers to an organization seeking ways to reduce harmful practices that hurt the environment, regulate energy consumption, and offset any negative impact that is occurring on the planet. Ethical responsibility is concerned with “ensuring an organization is operating in a fair and ethical manner. Organizations that embrace ethical responsibility aim to practice ethical behavior through fair treatment of all stakeholders, including leadership, investors, employees, suppliers and customers (Stobierski, 2021).” The importance of CSR goes beyond organizations doing good; to maintain a positive reputation, image and relationship with the public, there is a requirement to partake for a better society and environmental. Not only is the organization's image improved, but there is more willing to forgive during a crisis.
CSR is a crucial theory that helps organizations emphasize their strong values and honor. The Flint government officials did not employ CSR, hurting them further as the crisis escalated. “One of the benefits of CSR is that it helps organizations define and communicate their core values and purpose, which can guide behavior and decisions in time of crisis (AI & LinkedIn Community, 2023).” Since the city did nothing to share their core values, the residents already assumed the worst when it came to their involvement in the crisis (which was true). To employ environmental responsibility, the strategy should have been to conduct water testing before approving a water supply change. For Flint to mitigate any resentment and other negative feelings they should have and, in the future, will listen to their people. The government has a duty to hear and protect its people, therefore when residents have any concerns, no matter how small, they need to be investigated rather than ignored or questioned. Adequate care for residents should be provided, especially when health and mental implications are caused by the organization. In the future when a similar situation arises, Flint should seek external help to ensure the drinking water is completely safe, measures should also be taken into their own hands to fix it, if there is the ability to do so. Providing bottled water was something Flint did for a little, but they stopped despite there not being a resolution. By aiding the residents and the community itself the city officials would see reputational improvement and restoration of respect and trust.
SCCT and CSR are powerful theories that require an understanding for organizations to come out of crisis with success. With the Flint city officials ignoring these theories, they destroyed their reputation with the residents and the U.S public. This crisis and poor management allowed for this story to be in media headline for years. Network theory explains how interactions and intercedences among social entities associate with emotional and behavioral outcomes. Networks are embedded within webs of relationships. When a crisis becomes national news, so do the negative emotions regarding the organization. The city did not take into consideration how the network of its residents and local media outlets could spread the wrongdoings like wildfire.
The Flint water crisis was handled so poorly by government officials, that it will never be forgotten. This crisis is a lesson to organizations that SCCT and CSR are important theories to understand and employ when implanting something new and conducting crisis communication. If city officials had used the strategies, even now, suggested by both theories there would be minimal backlash and consequences. There would be backlash, but trust and respect would have been restored to the government. A relationship between the residents and the city would have also been restored allowing for the population to regrow back to a healthy state. Going forward they must be environmental responsible, listen and acknowledge its residents, and immediately address issues and fault. It is clear that to this day the Flint city officials are unaware or ignoring SCCT and CSR since the crisis has not been put to rest. “A decade after community activists discovered lead in Flint’s pipes, residents are still fighting for clean, affordable water for all (DiFelice, 2024). Although there have been charges against some of those that were heavily involved in this crisis, there seems to be lack of empathy as there is still little action to combat the wrong-doings, including providing what was court-ordered.
References
AI & LinkedIn Community. (2023, October 25). How can CSR improve crisis management?. Four Ways CSR Can Improve Your Crisis Management. https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-csr-improve-crisis-management-urc2e#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20benefits%20of,decisions%20in%20times%20of%20crisis.
Amareson, S. (2023, February 23). Situational Crisis Communication Theory and how it helps a business. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/service/situational-crisis-communication-theory
Denchak, M. (2024, October 8). Flint water crisis: Everything you need to know. Be a Force for the Future. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flint-water-crisis-everything-you-need-know#summary
DiFelice, M. (2024, April 25). 10 years after crisis, Flint is still fighting for Clean Water. Food & Water Watch. https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/04/25/flint-10-years-later/
Kennedy, M. (2016, April 20). Lead-laced water in Flint: A step-by-step look at the makings of a crisis. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/465545378/lead-laced-water-in-flint-a-step-by-step-look-at-the-makings-of-a-crisis
The Data Team. (2017, September 27). The water crisis in Flint, Michigan has had terrible consequences for residents’ health. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/09/27/the-water-crisis-in-flint-michigan-has-had-terrible-consequences-for-residents-health?utm_medium=cpc.adword.pd&utm_source=google&ppccampaignID=17210591673&ppcadID=&utm_campaign=a.22brand_pmax&utm_content=conversion.direct-response.anonymous&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiApNW6BhD5ARIsACmEbkU_-pL0caEyRLzdgI52uQ9JBjAHgnbcE7JfmvXPDzc8OG7YYz7P_gMaAsZyEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Sommerfeldt, E., & Botan, C. H. (2023). Public relations theory III: In the age of publics. RoutledgeTaylor & Francis Group.
Stobierski, T. (2021, April 8). What is Corporate Social Responsibility? 4 types. Business Insights Blog. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/types-of-corporate-social-responsibility
