Chilean Copper Mine Case Study

Chilean Copper Mine
BCOM/275

CHILEAN COPPER MINE
On August 5, 2010, 33 miners were trapped in a chamber 2,300 feet below the earths surface. It is the responsibility of the company to notify the family of the situation before the media. The last thing that any company needs is to have the media represent them in a disaster such as this.
Verbal Communication
There are many things to address, but first we must focus on who was on shift at the time of the collapsed and contacting the next of kin. Due to the nature of the information, face to face communication would be more appropriate than a phone call to meet the potential needs of the family and the employees . For the family, it is important for the company to send a representative to the home of the family member who was involved
that speaks the same language.
This will help to avoid any potential language barriers. In the Chilean Copper Mine disaster, the company was able to set up videoconferences with family. Each member was given one minute to speak with their family. Letters was the main communication link between the miners and their family which was key to both their mental health. Keeping them aware of the situation will lessen the stress of not knowing what is going on with their loved ones (Franklin, 2010).
Use of the element of persuasion will factor into convincing the family that they will be taking care of in light of the situation. There are three elements: ethos, pathos and ethos. These elements used together will give the employees and family a sense that you understand, care and trustworrthy. Establishing trust will give employees
renewed faith and strengthen the feeling of support from the company. If face-to-face is not possible then a phone call will be the next step. This allows the family to ask questions once they have been given time to process the information. Depending on how soon the information is disseminated, some family members may already be distraught, so it will be crucial to ensure them that the company is doing everything to recover their loved ones as quickly as possible. As the messenger, you must be prepared for the worst reaction from the employee and family. Both the family and employees have a potential psychological and physiological need. Physiological comes in play for the trapped employees during. In order to increase survival there must be communication to the employees relaying status of their retrieval along with food and water. Without both, the employees may feel that their chance of survival is less and the same feeling to to their families. The trapped employees should also be made aware of needs versus wants. The logistics of sending supplies that are not necessary for survival could have a negative impact on retrieval. For example, request for cigarettes or alcohol would not be meet due to the affects it would have the the enclosed environment and alcohol effects on the human body.
Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication is just as important a verbal. The messenger must be able to relay sincerity and be aware of proxemics, kineses, haptics and oculesics. The combination of the four will make the employee and family comfortable, and more receptive to your message. “Albert Mehrabian (Mehrabian& Weiner, 1967) found that 55 percent of the meaning people send is contained in facial expressions, 38 percent of the meaning is contained in the voice, and only 7 percent of the meaning is contained in the actual words. More current estimates put the nonverbal messages at about 2/3 and verbal messages at about 1/3 (Burgoon, 1994)” (Cheesebro, O 'Conner, & Rios, 2010, p.88). One must ensure that the message is authentic and the body language matching the verbals.

Conclusion
Communicating is not easy. There will always be barriers or obstacles that makes communication difficult. The only way to learn how to overcome these barriers is to understand them. Verbal and nonverbal communication is key crisis control. Using all resources available was instrumental in the Chilean Mining Copper Mine disaster Ensuring only the accurate information is disseminated to individuals who have a valid need to know.

Addendum 1 Meeting with the famlies (face to face)

There has been an accident at the San Jose mine. Your (son, husband, wife or daughter name) has been trapped 300 meters below ground. Once we establish communication you will be the first to know the status of your (son, husband, wife, daughter). Our first goal is to establish communication to access the damages, provide first aid kits, then food and water. We want to ensure to you that we are doing everything possible to bring your loved one back home safe. We will be providing you with updates to eleviate stress from you and your family. The only thing that we ask is for you patience and to forward any questions to me as your point of contact during this hard time. I can be reached at [phone] or [e-mail].

Addendum 2 Meeting with employees

If you are not already aware, there has been a cave in at the San Jose operation. Some of your co-workers have been trapped 300 meters below ground. We have arranged for rescue teams to do everything possible to establish contact and provide food and first aid. There will be a full assessment of the accident to ensure your safe prior to resuming any work and efforts made to prevent this from happing again. There will be updates sent via your leadership team. We ask that you keep gossip to a minimum as to eleviate stress for the families of the trapped victims.

References
Cheesebro, T., O 'Conner, L., & Rios, F. (2010). Communicating in the Workplace. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Franklin, J.R. (2010). The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/05/AR2010090503426.html