Communication During Crisis: Negotiation Strategies

The study aims o find out the steps the Samsung organization took to resolve the exploding Galaxy Note 7 issue and to identify the negotiation strategies adopted in the discussion. The study employed a qualitative method to analyse the content. The organisation recorded the step taken by Samsung in detail. The researchers extracted data from past studies and written online press release resources. The results showed that the Samsung organization took a fast and decisive response regarding their crisis. Moreover, integrative bargaining was used to negotiate between both parties. The customers are familiar with Samsung products as a brand and are therefore not seen as a predictor for post-crisis reputational damage. It has been concluded that Samsung organization employed well-planned crisis management strategies that proved its capability to deal with the crisis and restore its customer’s trust in its product. The study concludes with the negotiation process and the actions taken concerning a crisis to provide healthy organizational crisis communication. Organizations can use this to implement a more effective strategy of crisis communication.


Introduction
A crisis communication strategy allows seamless communication within an organization, where the actions used in communication are meant to make the right decision during a crisis. A crisis is a significant event that potentially has a negative outcome that can affect the organization and its stakeholders. An organizational crisis can affect an organization, staff, stakeholders, and society. Though they usually are unpredictable and detrimental to the organization's daily functioning, they are omnipresent and unsurprising (Lu & Jin, 2020). From a communication perspective, addressing a crisis often puts the crisis's essence and meaning into action. Organizations use different crisis communication responses to address and mitigate risks because crises vary depending on the type of crisis, the level of corporate responsibility, the nature of the harm, the number of stakeholders involved, and the current reputation and history of the organization (Marsen, 2020). It is essential to handle a crisis effectively to retain ownership of the company, restore the corporate image, and recover stakeholders' trust. Organizations often establish elaborate business crisis management plans. A company can quickly and easily switch from everyday operations to crisis Negotiation is when two or more people with different needs and goals address mutually compatible alternatives. Negotiating skills are essential in business for casual dayto-day interactions and formal agreements like sales, leases, service delivery, and other legal contracts. While business negotiation somehow differs from other negotiations. This is because it is considered the most challenging communication task in business and an essential part of the management process relevant to implementing business strategies (Ghauri & Usunier, 2003). According to Beenen and Barbuto (2014), successful negotiations contribute to business success by creating stronger relationships and providing long-term, quality results. Ideally, successful negotiations make each group satisfied and able to do business with each other again. The plan should promote goodwill regardless of the differences in party priorities. Many cases worldwide fall under the business negotiation; one of them is the "Exploding Battery of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone."

Background of Study
On August 19, 2016, Samsung released its new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone to public consumers (Samuelson, 2016). Each 7.9mm Samsung Galaxy Note 7 comes with an irregularly thin-sized battery of 3,500mAh lithium-ion. It also has a water-resistant S-pen, Gorilla Glass 5, and HDR video. Half of the batteries made were done with the help of Samsung's subsidiary, which later became dangerous to its users. Due to the battery's gaunt size in a thin phone, even a minor mistake in its construction can cause frequent overheating to the phone . Battery cells are easily affected if the inside flow pathway gets clogged by its walls. Unfortunately, some of the Samsung consumers who bought the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 were befallen by unexpected tragedies of battery explosions and fire bursting from the smartphone.
A few incidents related to mobile phones were reported in August and September (Madanapalle, 2016). A Galaxy Note 7 was confirmed to have exploded on August 24 while charging in China, and 30 other cases of the same problem were reported at the end of August. Another problem arose in September of that year after the Galaxy Note 7 model that exploded was replaced with another model that ought to be safe. Madanapalle (2016) also reported an incident involving a shutdown of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in the pocket of a flight passenger who had started to emit smoke, prompting the flight attendants to evacuate the aircraft. Also, a video was taken from a Burger King employee holding a Galaxy Note 7 with green smoke pouring out of it. After those incidents, Samsung had two choices: to replace their consumers' Galaxy Note 7 or permanently end the model. A decision has been made to stop the Galaxy Note 7's production and sale (Titcomb, 2016). Samsung then reissued and recalled all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones shortly after the reports were made in September 2016. The safely made ones were mixed with high risk to cause injuries distributed evenly throughout its consumers. To avoid any more hazardous incidents, Samsung issued all 3 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold worldwide returned to them. Referring to Gibbs and Yuhas (2016), those who own a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 were told to have their mobile phone shut down for safety precautions before returning the smartphone. The recall was the largest in consumer electronics history, costing Samsung billions (Banerjee, 2016).

Negotiation Strategies
Negotiations include ongoing relationships and a strategic view of what is successful and necessary instead of considering negotiating effectiveness (Arumugam et al., 2021;Chapman et al., 2017;O 'Connor et al., 2005). Negotiations are often characterized as distributive or integrative. Distributive negotiations require less information exchange as there is a zerosum, win-loss focus, with less concern for problem-solving (Beenen & Barbuto, 2014). Distributive negotiators are mainly concerned with themselves, including anchoring the spectrum of negotiations closer to the desired result of one's own and explaining why their offer is fair. Integrative negotiations, meanwhile, involve each party's best alternative to the negotiated agreement (BATNA) and aim to seek opportunities for mutual gain (Chapman et al., 2017). Integrative negotiators are concerned about others as they want long-term relationships. This negotiation style would also recognize tradeoffs, make several offers, and create trust through a problem-solving approach that seeks to produce satisfactory results for all parties. Shell (1999), in his crisis management framework, mentioned the negotiation process to deal with the situation once the crisis occurs.

Process of Negotiation
Process of negotiation (Shell, 1999) During the preparation and planning phase, the party in a negotiation must figure out the nature of the crisis and determine and clarify their own goals and stand in the negotiation. Each party also needs to make predictions about what the other party expects regarding the negotiation outcome. Kang et al (2019), in their study on the exploded Samsung Note 7 phone, mentioned the negotiation strategies implemented by Samsung by determining customers' expectations of the company's reaction to the issue. During the ground rules phase, the parties involved will define their ground rules and the procedures that will be taken to conduct the negotiation process. At this phase, questions like what actions will be taken and when the procedures will be conducted will be discussed.
During the phase of clarification and justification, the party involved will explain their stand and demand. This is the phase where the party could understand the other party's views on their stand. Each party could suggest or review their negotiation strategies to determine the best outcomes for the parties involved. Next comes the most crucial element in the negotiation process, where the concept of 'give and take' takes place. The parties will use negotiation strategies to achieve their goals during the preparation phase. An agreement should be made at the end of the negotiation process. Finally, the procedures must be designed and implemented about the agreements' terms at the closure and implementation phase. To conclude, a crisis management plan should be planned carefully by considering the three phases of crisis development, pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. The negotiation process should also be appropriately conducted to ensure the needs and demands of the parties involved can be addressed. Kang et al (2019) examined the crisis of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 explosion by analyzing posts from the social media platforms Twitter regarding the issue. The study revealed that the users often complained about the strategies that should have been taken by Samsung during the pre-crisis phase and critiqued the value of attribution and morality. The results also depict the customers' stand on Twitter, which was negative during the crisis's early phase. The following study on a relatively similar topic is by Yu (2020), which aimed to figure out the repair and response strategies used by Samsung to deal with the conflict. Mixed-method research has been used in this study, and analysis is done by adopting (Fink's crisis management theory, 1986). Business owners must take their customers' complaints seriously to maintain their loyalty to the company .

Statement of Problem
Social media spreads crisis information more rapidly through user sites, virality, and worldwide coverage than other media channels (Arumugam et al., 2022;Van & Verhoeven, 2013). Moreover, to increase public focus by impacting the organization's reputation and business interests (Gou, 2016 as cited in Zhang, 2020); therefore, researchers are concerned about how crisis frameworks and social media sentiment influence global perceptions internationally. Kang et al (2019) investigated Twitter posts with negative feelings in South Korea, the United States, and Australia. The study highlighted that customer concerns and companies' breakdowns were dominant, demonstrating social media users' reactions to a company crisis. Several studies focused on the response of global users to the crisis. Samsung company got a significant impact and responded to this crisis around the world. Next, previous studies analyzed how Samsung handled the crisis. Zhang (2020) said Samsung's "double standard" strategy made a fatal error in the company. The results show that close cooperation with powerful social media is essential to crisis management. Besides that, Yun et al (2018) also examined the causes and impacts of the crisis management of Samsung's smartphone battery explosion. The study uses previous research, local and international news articles, and interviews to analyze Samsung's crisis regarding their exploded smartphone. Due to past studies, more focus on social media posts and comments on Samsung's company. However, not many studies have looked into the strategy or negotiation regarding this crisis. Therefore, to address this gap, the following research questions will be answered: 1. What steps did the Samsung organization take to resolve the exploded Galaxy Note 7 issue? 2. What negotiation has been used by the Samsung organization to deal with the crisis? 3. Did the crisis affect Samsung's reputation?

Methodology
This study employed the qualitative method of content analysis. The data were collected from Samsung press releases, Facebook posts, and user comments. It was revealed that Samsung applied three image repair strategies: reduce offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification. Through content analysis, researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings, and relationships of certain words, themes, or concepts. Since most of Samsung's actions were recorded in written form in detail, analyzing this form of information would give better exposure to the matter. Media content analysis is a part of the method of content analysis. It is a well-established research methodology, as content analysis has been the fastest-growing technique over the past 20 years, according to (Neuendorf, 2002). Therefore, this study used data collected from online press releases and articles.

Conceptual Framework
We live in a society that is increasingly vulnerable to natural or human-made crises, humanitarian crises, and many other crises. A crisis's emergence could also affect an organization's image and reputation. Therefore, the organization needs to have a good plan to prepare for a crisis in the future. Crisis management plans should be formulated based on each stage in the crisis phase. A framework adapted from Coomb (1999); Shell (1999) was used in this study, as the framework allows researchers to analyze each stage of crisis management in detail and help the researchers to address the strategies of negotiation adequately (Kang et al., 2019).

Stages of Crisis
The development stage of crisis (Coomb, 1999) Coomb (1999) notes about crisis development stages; pre-crisis, crisis (negotiation process; preparing, exchanging information, bargaining, and closing), and post-crisis. During the precrisis phase, a plan to address the potential problems that might arise is created to ensure readiness in dealing with it. Kochigina (2020) mentioned the importance of having a crisis management plan. The medium of communication nowadays allows information to spread widely in a short period, and solid plans and communication strategies are needed for every organization. The pre-crisis management plan is designed to address crisis occurrences and, at the same time, prevent them from happening. When a crisis occurs, several steps need to be taken to handle the situation properly and effectively. The good conduct of the problemsolution process could minimize the effect of the crisis on the organization.

Process of Negotiation
The preparation and planning phase happened when Samsung received the exploded case. They stated in their press release, "We take every incident report from our valued customers very seriously ."During the ground rules phase, the first step of crisis management taken by Samsung to deal with the crisis was informing their customers that they were aware of the situation and that they would take full responsibility and investigate the problem with the model as soon as possible. Below is Samsung's statement: "Samsung is committed to producing the highest quality products, and we take every incident report from our valued customers very seriously. We are working with our carrier partners to announce the details of the U.S. product exchange program as soon as today." The phase of clarification and justification, taken on September 2, as noted by Edward (2016), informed the investigation of why the phone exploded because of the faulty batteries and announced a global recall.

"Samsung confirmed it has been collaborating with the United States Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) following its announcement of battery cell issues related to the Galaxy Note 7. New Note 7 replacement devices will be issued to exchange program participants upon completion of the CPSC process. In the interim, consumers can return their Note 7 for another device." Then, there have been reported crises in which the replacement model also exploded (Madanapelle, 2016). Samsung is considering giving their customers the support they need, which will stop the sales and exchanges of Galaxy Note 7 while the investigation is taking place. "Samsung understands the concern our carriers and consumers must feel after recent reports have raised questions about our newly released replacement Note 7 devices. We continue to move quickly to investigate the reported case to determine the cause and will share findings as soon as possible." When Samsung identified the effect on their product, later on, during the bargaining and problem-solving phase, Samsung requested customers to return their purchased phone to the store where they bought it. Samsung's press release supported this: "Samsung announced the expansion of the Galaxy Note 7 voluntary recall to include all original and replacement Galaxy Note 7 devices sold or exchanged in the United States before and after the original recall on September 15, 2016". Lastly, during the closure and implementation phase, Samsung permanently ended the phone's production. Their press release mentioned: "Consumer safety remains our highest priority, and we've had overwhelming participation in the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program, with more than 93 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices returned." On January 23, 2017, all the phones were returned. Samsung also took steps to ensure that buyers who have not yet returned their smartphones should immediately shut them down and contact their carrier to receive a refund or exchange.

Post-crisis
Dua (2017) noted that recovering from post-crises will be challenging, as people will still look at where the crack was. Koh Dong Jin, the President of Samsung Electronics, postcrisis statements as such: "For the last several months, together with independent industry expert organizations, we conducted a thorough investigation to find the cause of the Galaxy Note7 incidents. Today, more than ever, we are committed to earning the trust

of our customers through innovation that redefines what is possible in safety and as a gateway to unlimited possibilities and incredible new experiences."
From the press release statement above, we can see that Samsung tried to convince its stakeholders that a thorough investigation has been conducted. They are committed to earning their consumers' trust and ensuring that they will always strive to give the best to the consumers in the future. Not only that, but Samsung also confirmed the cause of the incidents with the Galaxy Note 7 via a press conference on January 23, 2017 (see Appendix A). Samsung is now focused on the future, announcing a new eight-step testing procedure to verify future safety batteries. Samsung also promises to add an external protective bracket to prevent phone drops from damaging the battery inside (see Appendix B).

Samsung's Reputation
Regarding this problem, Samsung's credibility was affected by the explosive batteries of its newly announced flagship following its crisis. This crisis was held accountable by Samsung's organization and may be linked to post-crisis damage. Huisman (2017) mentioned that responsibility is not seen as a significant predictor of reputation after the crisis. Moreover, Coombs and Holladay (Huisman, 2017) have stressed that credibility declines as responsibility intensifies and concluded that negative publicity eventually results in more reputation damage. Conversely, these studies have shown that the Samsung crisis can be considered a 'victim crisis .' Furthermore, a crisis can be seen as a product accident detrimental to the public or even a product failure (Huisman, 2017). Thus, the type of Samsung's crisis can be described as product damage or a technical error. Besides, this is the first time that Samsung has had this exploded battery crisis. Hence, the technical failure of its product was just an accident. Also, Samsung's battery crisis does not harm credibility as it can be preventable (Huisman, 2017). Therefore, not every responsibility has an impact on a post-crisis reputation.
Some influences and consequences of this event occurred on both sides. Samsung branding is still the choice of consumers even though the situation might downgrade their image. Kemp et al (2012) concluded that negative emotions are the basis for future decisionmaking. Thus, a crisis's effect on a consumer will likely undermine a company's reputation. Negative emotions are not perceived to be a significant indicator of post-crisis credibility. It is unlikely to confirm the findings of this analysis (Kemp et al., 2012). Trust and reputation are not negatively impacted as the trustee is familiar with the organization. The more they are conscious of a product from Samsung Electronics, the less adverse feelings they encounter (Dunn & Schweitzer, 2005, as cited in Huisman, 2017. Therefore, negative emotions do not significantly impact brand image after the crisis.
Lastly, the modesty of the CEO, who apologizes for the occurrence that occurred. "I deeply apologize to all of our customers, carriers, retail, distribution partners, and business partners. We thank you for your patience and continuous support". Besides, they are responsible for replacing the current phone with the new one. This reveals their willingness to address the issue and not just be hands-off. Their reputations are not severely impacted, and their goods continue to have strong sales over others. From the customer's viewpoint, their money is not affected because they can either refund it or swap their phones for another smartphone model. In conclusion, this scenario is protected by inclusive talks since both sides have not lost anything, and it is for both parties a win-win situation.

Type of Negotiation Strategies used to Deal with the Crisis
The type of negotiation that happened in the case of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is integrative bargaining. It is because Samsung company and its customers have a win-win situation where both parties get their winning part. The customers get replaced with the new phone, and Samsung's reputation is still in the best rating by having a press conference to explain the situation. Furthermore, Samsung knew its fault and promised to give the new phone to its customers for their safety. This integrative negotiation leads to the problem-solving method, where both parties fulfill their interest, and each party works to understand what the other needs out of the negotiation (Mirbabaie & Marx, 2019). Not only that, but Samsung also surfaces their interest and meets the needs of their customers. Interest is divided into four: substantive interest, which focuses on the critical issues in the negotiation, and process interest, which finds the way the dispute is settled (Park et al., 2019). Next, relationship interest, where they value both parties' relationship, and interest in principle, where they did what is fair for both sides, right, acceptable and ethical. In this case, the interest is more interested in principle because it is their responsibility for the damages and has to take care of their customers' perception of them and the reputation of the business itself.
Moreover, it is widely known in business negotiation that one must have alternative solutions to settlement agreements. A term known as BATNA is a vital concept that can make negotiations more successful. Excellently, Samsung knew their BATNAs in negotiating with many parties, either the other organizations or the consumers, and showed how keen they are towards the issues of the Galaxy Note 7: recall and refund programs. Some of the alternatives taken were using their official Samsung website to give information and links on how the customers can contact them. They also made a press release to persuade a few more Galaxy Note 7 users who refused to return their phones. "Our number one priority is the safety of our customers. We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note 7 and exchange them as soon as possible". By doing so, Samsung successfully retains its company's business and reputation because of its effective crisis management. The alternatives proved they are good in the business negotiation and stand out as one of the biggest mobile phone makers. Not only that, if the negotiation goes wrong, Samsung will fail to back up itself. Integrative negotiation thus helps the negotiation promote an agreement about what is most desired by each party while maintaining a constructive relationship (Eklinder-Frick & Age, 2020).

Conclusion
This study shows that Samsung's involvement is of great importance. In answering research question one, the implementation in three phases of crisis growth of the exploded Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which are: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis, has taken place in the context of the crises management system from (Coomb, 1999;Shell, 1999). The results showed that Samsung reacted quickly and decisively to its crisis. Samsung uses well-planned crisis management strategies demonstrating its capacity to handle the crisis and regain customers' trust in its product. Moreover, in answering research question number two, the type of negotiation used was integrative bargaining, where a win-win situation happened for both sides, Samsung's company and its customers. The customers get to refund or exchange the smartphones, and since Samsung is a well-recognized brand, the customers still trust Samsung. Hence, the crisis did not indeed affect Samsung's brand.
The findings and the interpretation of the results are focused on the data analysis. Furthermore, to answer research question three regarding Samsung's reputation, it is found that Samsung's company takes responsibility for the crisis and does not affect the post-crisis reputation. Samsung claimed that technological product damage caused the crisis by the battery crisis explosion. Also, negative emotions are not seen as a significant predictor of the reputation after the crisis since the customers are familiar with and know the root of their negative emotions towards Samsung's product as a well-recognized brand. The modesty of Samsung's management also can protect the company's name as an excellent brand to customer views. Therefore, Samsung's reputation is not severely impacted by the crisis. The successful way of interacting shows that the public maintains trust in Samsung's products. We also think the fault is only on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, not the entire Samsung company. Thus, Samsung's company was well managed in crisis management, negotiating, and communicating to the media, the public, and most importantly, their affected customers.
This study also has several limitations, which the analysis was mainly from the Internet: online press releases and online articles. Not only that, Samsung's reputation was determined based on the press releases only, which none from the stakeholders' point of view. Therefore, future studies are recommended to investigate Samsung's reputation from the stakeholders' point of view by conducting surveys or analyzing the comments on social media.