How empathy defuses tension in organizational crisis

Ogbuagu Anikwe demonstrates how showing empathy in the face of a crisis helps defuses tension and helps managers take charge.

Last week’s incident in Akure reminded me of universities’ standard PR response to student unrest. The Akure incident mirrored a crisis that authorities deftly defused at the university of Calabar (Unical) in January. In the Canaan City, a third year female library science student died at the Unical Medical Centre. At Akure, a final year male engineering student also died at the Health Clinic of the Federal University of Technology.

In both incidents, embittered students took to the streets to protest poor equipment and services in their health facilities. Although peaceful, last week’s Akure protest nevertheless took over the ever busy Owo–Ife-Ibadan highway, triggering a traffic gridlock.

What interests me here is the manner that both institutions managed the crisis.

The Akure Response

First, Akure, the most recent. The University spokesperson said that “from reports pieced together,” the victim slumped in his hostel. “All attempts and medical intervention at resuscitation … failed with doctors recording that he was brought in dead.”

He continued: “The student was rushed to the Health Centre at about 8:50 p.m. on Thursday 24th August 2023. He was brought in dead. Efforts to resuscitate him through cardiopulmonary resuscitation and oxygen therapy proved abortive. He was subsequently taken to the UNIMED Teaching Hospital, Akure by the medical personnel on duty inside the University ambulance.” Note the repeated words, “brought in dead.” Someone is trying to escape responsibility here, without establishing the truth of what happened. He then delivered what amounts to empathy. According to him it was “understandable that Mr Akeredolu’s friends and colleagues were devastated by the sad development. The management joins them to mourn at this very difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with our students and the bereaved family.”

This was all the University said about five years of skills and training wasted on this young life. Not to mention the 21 wasted years of resources and care on him by his heartbroken family. It was an excellent press release, no doubt. The only problem is that the words contradict witness accounts of what transpired at the Medical Centre.

Students said they rushed Akeredolu to the Centre when he slumped in his Hall of Residence. According to them, he died because the basic amenities to save him were not working. Power outage complicated efforts to give him oxygen and CPR. To be injected, students used flashlights to show the spot to medical staff. There was power blackout and no backup power supply in the Clinic. The students also levied allegations of negligence and hard-heartedness on the Clinic Staff. They recalled past incidences where clinic staff allegedly invented flimsy excuses to refuse medical attention even to critical cases.

The spokesperson however did say that students later met with the school management. They used the opportunity to vent their feelings at poor services in the Centre. The authorities directed ”immediate remedial measure to address the lacuna and other issues raised by students,” he said. Everyone apparently went away dissatisfied with the outcome.

The elegantly crafted press release from FUTA falls far short. The spokesperson is not to blame; whatever he put out is the official, approved position. The management of universities need to understand that Public Relations is not about clever press releases. It is about stepping up to show empathy and by swinging into action to make anends in the face of crisis.

Contrast this with the exact same situation in Calabar last January, and it raises a question. Why are university authorities reluctant to leverage local and international best practices to manage tragedies such as this? The University of Calabar show put up by Vice Chancellor Florence Obi is the standard and best practice.

The Calabar Response

Here is what happened in Calabar. On 15 February, the Unical Vice Chancellor suspended four staff of her University’s Medical Centre. The suspension was not for professional negligence. It was for not showing emotional and psychological support to a female student who died in the Centre. The student reportedly died 30 minutes after arriving at the Centre as an emergency case. Just like Akure students did, Unical youths embarked on a protest, accusing the Medical Centre of serial negligence. In response to the emerging crisis, the Vice Chancellor carried out three significant, preemptive, and image management actions to quell the unrest.

First, she stepped up and took charge. She addressed the students, appealed for calm and expressed disgust at the suggestion that Medical Centre staff could be negligent. In a statement, the University Registrar, Gabriel Egbe, announced that the VC constituted a panel to investigate the student’s death. She also ordered the Medical Board of the University to establish the circumstances of her death through an autopsy. They were to determine if the death were preventable, by verifying accusations of carelessness or negligence of Medical Centre staff.

Second, when the Committee wrote up the report, she invited concerned stakeholders to meet with the panel members. These were the deceased’s family, Benue/Tiv community in the university, and Unical student union executive. The victim was from Benue State.

Third, after the report presentation, the VC showed why she is a mother and a no-nonsense administrator. The Panel cleared the Medical Centre staff of professional misconduct. Still it found that they failed to provide expected level of “emotional and psychological support” that the patient needed. For this reason, she suspended for four months each, the four indicted staff of the Medical Centre.

The autopsy report provided closure for the family. In particular, it showed that appendicitis rupture was not the cause of death as originally alleged. Relying on the autopsy, the VC disclosed the patient’s cause of death to the family but did not make it public. Everyone went away satisfied, tempers cooled, and the VC became the hero.  At this point, with all information in and transparency established, she then took on those promoting negative image for her school through the incident.

Empathy is the key

What happened in Calabar is empathy in action. What happened in Akure is empathy in words. Huge difference. The Akure template is also not peculiar; it has become the standard adopted by university managers and it gives the impression that they do not care. One does not demonstrate empathy by writing clever press releases and trying to escape responsibility without verification. For every organisation, the beginning of empathy is the effort to understand an aggrieved customer’s thoughts and emotions. Generally, students are powerless in Nigerian universities; they endure ill treatment without complaints. Whenever students take to the streets, they have had enough raw deals served by authorities and a few rotten teachers.

Ironically, empathy is the key to making improvements that endure. At Calabar, setting up a panel allowed the VC to take charge, communicate effectively, and ultimately fill every information gap. It is empathy at work when she invited stakeholders to the presentation of the panel and coroner inquest reports. This would have created positive interactions and given satisfaction that the process was open, transparent, and that their feelings counted. If a similar event occurs in future,  stakeholders will have confidence  that authorities will approach with tact and understanding.

Above all, suspending persons found to have rendered poor service serves notice that it is not business as usual. As she told journalists after the meeting, the panel of inquiry absolved the nurses on duty of any professional negligence. But members observed elements of lack of emotional commitment as medical professionals, she noted.

“The problem of commitment to work in the university is a pillar that the institution gives great value in all its sections, including the Medical Centre. Management has, therefore, decided to place all the staff members on duty on a three-month suspension for lack of empathy and psychological support and especially for demanding money for card against the Medical Centre’s policy of attending to patients in critical condition first.”

This is how to demonstrate public empathy, followed by proactive actions. Such actions teach improved services, improved communication skills, and improved problem-solving skills. Let’s give it to the modern Nigerian woman. She continues to shine the light of integrity, empathy and hands-on leadership in an increasingly corrupt and stinking society.

Bravo, Prof Florence Obi, professor of psychology and special needs education who is manifesting excellence in public relations as well. I don’t want to spoil this by waxing political. Nevertheless, can we forget that this was the same academic who oversaw a seamless election process that brought Prof Chukwuma Soludo to power in Anambra State?

It is difficult to hide excellence.