Postal strike, a case of Excellence PR

On 5th November, the postal strike against Royal Mail has been called off temporarily by Communication Workers Union (CWU). It is reported that the cause of this incident is the dispute between Royal Mail and CWU over “redundancies, and pay and working conditions.”

I think no one would doubt that such postal strike is an operational crisis to Royal Mail management, however, I reckon it is also a PR crisis. From the result of the whole incident, it is safe to say that this UK’s logistics giant is the loser because it is dealing with the CWU while increasing number of potential and current customers are switching to other companies.

This event reminds me of Excellence PR. If we compare the action that Royal Mail took in the early stage of this crisis with campaign guidlines Excellence theory proposes, we could conclude that the response of Royal Mail failed to meet the criteria of the theory.

The theory suggests that “communication programmes developed for specific publics should be based on 2-way symmetrical strategies for building and maintaining relationships.” And the meaning of “symmetry” consists of 3 parts, which are a balanced flow of communication, the positions of all parties are equal and the relationship is based on mutual needs and understanding.

Although Royal Mail lost in this game, I think it gives us a good opportunity to learn Excellence PR theory in depth.