Every organization from time to time encounters issues that will have an impact on the mission and goals of the organization. The Institute for Public Relations defines an issue as a situation that evokes the attention and concern of influential organizational publics and stakeholders. It says issues management is the process that helps organizations detect and respond appropriately to emerging trends or changes in the socio-political environment.
Issues management also is sometimes referred to as reputation managementthat is, the effort to secure and maintain an organizations reputation in a community. Therefore, issues management is more than simply avoiding bad publicity (which is a reactive approach); it also requires building, maintaining and (sometimes) repairing relationships with stakeholders (a proactive approach).
Questions for you: Think about the organization that you used for your responses to the discussion questions in Week 5. What are the major issues facing the organization? How do you know when they will require managing? And how would you go about addressing those issues?