Appraisal-based public relations stances in crisis situations: Conation revisited (original) (raw)
Related papers
Contingency Theory and Public Emotions in Crisis Communication –A Conceptual Study
Journal of Education Culture and Society
Aim. Problems are inevitable in the subtleties of organizational communication, but it does not mean confronting them is uncontrollable. This paper aims to offer a conceptual structure for investigating contingency theory in Public Relations (PR) during an organizational crisis. The research investigates PR practitioners’ use of advocacy and accommodation in contingency theory to intervene in crisis communication. It also offers insights into the public’s emotional response and coping mechanisms during a crisis, as well as how understanding these emotions (such as anger, anxiety, fear, and grief, among others) could aid PR professionals in developing more effective crisis communication methods. Method. Empirical research was conducted on the basis of literature reviews by observing and analyzing the existing literature on contingency theory, crisis communication in organizations, and public emotions. Results. This conceptual paper proposes and empirically tests a few propositions. T...
Çelebi, E. (2018) "Measuring the Effectiveness of Organizational Public Relations: An Experimental Research on Crisis Response Strategies", Journal of Communication Theory & Research 46, p. 275-290, 2018
In this study, the effects of organization-public relationship and crisis communication strategies on audience perception and attitudes during a crisis have been investigated experimentally. In the context of the research, an university in Turkey was selected as the organization and students were selected as target groups, and Coombs’ situational crisis communication theories have been tested an experimental study carried out with 97 students. Students were divided into 8 groups according to different corporate reputation and relational satisfaction perceptions; a crisis situation was created, and a different crisis communication strategy was applied to each group. According to the research results, no matter what the thoughts were before the crisis, crisis communication strategy doesn’t reduce the responsibility of the organization in crisis, and it doesn’t affect the minds of the audience, but the perception of corporate reputation and sense of relational satisfaction affect the credibility and confidence of the organization’s words and actions. Regardless of the corporate reputation and relational satisfaction, the strategy of denying the crisis gave the highest accusation score, and the messages given to reduce the negative consequences of the crisis were found effective within each group. The reason for this is that participants weren’t concerned about the cause of the crisis; they were concerned only with the messages to reduce the harmful effects of the crisis.
Public Relations Review, 2009
Quantitative content analysis is used to evaluate crisis response strategy analyzed in more than 18 years of research published in crisis communication literature in public relations to reveal its effectiveness, nature, and contextual application. Analysis of 51 articles published in 11 different journals using two dominant theories in public relations crisis communication literature, Benoit's Image Restoration Theory and Coombs' Situational Crisis Communication Theory, indicates a lack of diversity in cases analyzed by scholars, gaps between theory and practice, and pressing directions for future research in crisis communication.
A quantitative review of crisis communication research in public relations from 1991 to 2009
Public Relations Review, 2010
This study quantitatively examines 18 years (1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)) of data, 66 published articles, from the crisis communication domain in public relations using Coombs' situational crisis communication theory and Benoit's image restoration theory as the theoretical foundation for analysis. Overall recommendations indicate crisis communication research in public relations may be enriched both theoretically and pragmatically through more diverse contextual and methodological applications and could be less descriptive and more prescriptive through richer scholarly commentary and criticism in support for the models.
Features of Effective Crisis Communication Based on Public Relations Profession Research
Social Communication, 2018
The way of conducting communication during the image crisis is a special type of challenge for the company. Lack of preparation of the company for proper communication management may be crucial in averting and/or reducing the effects of crises. The paper presents the results of research conducted among experts from the PR industry and representatives of the largest Polish enterprises from the 500 List compiled by “Rzeczpospolita” daily newspaper. The vast majority of Polish enterprises show an open-minded approach to crisis communication. Companies from oppressive industries, where crises occur more often, are better prepared for crisis communication. The determinants of effective communication in the situation of image threats are, according to the leaders of public relations agencies, anti-crisis preparation, presence of procedures, openness and honesty in communication processes as well as quick response time.
Public Relations Review, 2006
A survey of U.S. public relations practitioners (n = 126) found that three-quarters of their employer organizations had a written crisis communications plan and that organizations, as a whole, were reasonably prepared to engage in crisis communications. Preparedness was measured based on the presence of a crisis plan as well as indices related to tactics, training, the maintenance of contact lists, and media monitoring. Preparedness was found to be positively correlated to organization size, the level of autonomy, and delegation of authority within the organization, and the process orientation of the organization, but not organization type nor involvement in international versus domestic-only operations. Practitioners from organizations with plans had lower assessments of their relationships with publics, but greater confidence in their ability to respond.
Journal of Public Relations Research, 2012
To better understand not only the minds, but also the hearts of key publics, we have developed a more systemic approach to understand the responses of audiences in crisis situations. The Integrated Crisis Mapping (ICM) model is based on a publics-based, emotion-driven perspective where the publics' responses to different crises are mapped on 2 continua, the organization's engagement in the crisis and primary publics' coping strategy. This multistage testing found evidence that anxiety was the default emotion that publics felt in crises. The subsequent emotions felt by the publics varied in different quadrants involving different crisis types. As far as coping strategies were concerned, conative coping was more evident than cognitive coping across the 4 quadrants. Evidence also suggested strong merit that conative coping was the external manifestation of the internal cognitive processing that had taken place. Cognitive coping was thus the antecedent of conative coping. Although both the publics and the organizations agreed that the crises were relevant to the organizations' goals, they differed on who should assume more responsibility. The findings, although still very much exploratory, suggest theoretical rigor in the model, with room for further refinements to generate what Yin (2003) termed ''analytic generalization'' (p. 33) for the ICM model.