The Organization-Public Relationship and Crisis Communication: The Effect of the Organization-Public Relationship on Publics' Perceptions of Crisis and Attitudes Toward the Organization (original) (raw)
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The Role of Organization-public Relationships in Crisis Communication
i I dedicate this work to my parents, Joe and Stavroula Akinyode and sister, Sophia Osawe-Akinyode who contributed immensely to my pursuit of a Masters degree. I would have not been able to reach this far without the support of Maria Berger-Liehm and Peter Liehm and Michaela Berger; thank you. I also extend my gratitude to all the guidance provided by the staff in the Institute of Media and Communication at the Technical University of Ilmenau especially towards the completion of this thesis. Particularly, I would like to acknowledge the most often than not brief, but precise pieces of advice given to me by Professor Martin Löffelholz over the course of my two year study. I hope this work expresses my appreciation for the opportunity to study at the institute. I thank Dr. Andreas Schwarz for his patience and support but most importantly his encouragement during the period of writing this thesis. I also would have never made it this far if not for the help of my good friend Akhil Agrawal who was there when times were rough. In direct support for this research I would like to extend my appreciation to Michaela Berger for the wonderful work in the translation of the survey from English to German; this went a long way to secure the success of the field work. I also express my humble gratitude for her unconditional friendship that ensured the mental support that was crucial for making my stay in Germany a pleasurable one. Also I appreciate Dr. Akinola Akinyemi for his input during our discussions about the scientific method as it applies to the social sciences. Thanks to all those anonymous students who partook in the experiment/survey. Finally, the University Regensburg library for the vast number of material needed for this thesis. ii Two themes run recurrently throughout this thesis that details a theoretical reconstruction of organization-public relationships within crisis situations and its operationalization in current crisis communication research. Implications from the empirical investigation show support for a strategic view of public relations as a proactive management function whose main objective is to balance overall organizational missions with the dynamics that are prevalent in business environments by building and protecting its intangible resource base. The research isolates crises as peak points stemming from the inevitable conflicts of interests during the ongoing relationships that link the organization to its stakeholders. Crisis management is placed as a reactive sub-functionality of an inherently proactive public relation (PR) framework. A between-subject randomized web-based experimental design provides evidence that the primary unit of analysis in PR research-relationships-might be the more important than previously conceived when strategically responding to the threats posed by crises. A student sample (n=290) was exposed to a simulation of a past Deutsche Bahn (DB) crisis trough an article describing a preventable yet challenging situation. A post-crisis response statement given was manipulated. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of four crisis response messages that were configured based on guidelines from the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Prior to experimental manipulation, a pre-test measured perceptions of relationships with DB. Findings indicate that (1) pre-existing perceptions of relationship quality with DB had considerable impact on how participants reacted to crisis response messages on the outcomes of (a) reputation and (b) attribution of responsibility and on (2) the extent of account honouring. That is, the extent to which they (a) accepted the message and (b) assigned credibility/trustworthiness. A relational view to crisis management theoretically welcomes crises as dangerous opportunities to learn, adapt, reconfigure and understand stakeholder dynamics. This thesis which mostly focuses on for-profit organizations offers insights to the strategic effectiveness of crisis response strategies from a stakeholder orientation and concludes that the focus of managing reputation limits the application of public relations theory. A focus on relationships provides valid and reliable performance indicators for the competitive advantage of organizations and the creation of value both for the organization and society as a whole.
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.
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management , 2021
In crises, relationships between organizations and publics are under pressure. Building or managing relationships in crises has attracted heated discussions among scholars in the field of public relations and business communication over the past few decades. To provide an updated systematic analysis of this area, this study presents a review of 131 published journal articles from 1997 to 2019. Findings identified theoretical and methodological trends in current relationship management research in crises. In addition, five themes of relationships in crises were demonstrated. These included the antecedents, outcomes, mediating/moderating role, networks and the process of relationships. Results also indicated that crisis communication strategies, crisis types and prior crisis history were key precursors of (re-)building relationships in the literature. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Public perception of crisis in companies
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Crisis is inevitable and in today’s scenario with the pandemic affecting every aspect of our lives, crisis has become something which every industry has had to deal with. The more important aspect today is, how to deal with crisis today. To do so it becomes necessary to understand and evaluate the impact it has on the brand. The study focuses on the impact of crisis on brand image and reputation. The study was conducted amongst the people of Jalandhar with a sample of 130. This study aims at evaluating the relation between a company and it consumers, the way they perceive business news and the manner in which they react to crisis by continuing to support the brand and purchasing.
Revista de la Asociación Española de Investigación de la Comunicación, 2019
publication of specialized journals such as the Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication indicate the ongoing institutionalization of the field (Schwarz, Seeger, & Auer, 2016a). Moreover, an increasing number of academic and public research centers, primarily at American and European universities, point to the rapid growth and societal relevance of the field (Palenchar, 2010). Within the field of public relations and strategic communication research the management of crisis communication already counts as a vital sub-discipline (Coombs, 2012b). This gain in importance can also be explained by the numerous devastating crisis events which do not only have tremendous social, political, ecological, and economic impact, but also reveal in many cases the complexity and limitations of managing crisis communication as practiced by organizations in various fields of society. This complexity and scope of crises go along with the interdisciplinarity and multiperspectivity of the research field, which in most cases lacks reciprocal reference (Coombs, 2012a; Löffelholz & Schwarz, 2008). However, the key role of communication in the context of crisis situations and especially the role of strategically planned and research-based communication by organizations before, during and after crisis situations have been recognized in practice as well as in academia. This has stimulated further efforts of developing a stronger conceptual and theoretical basis of crisis communication research. Compared to past ontological descriptions of crises, scholars now emphasize the social construction of crises as well as the role of individual and organizational observers and their perceptions. Pearson and Clair (1998, p. 66) defined organizational crisis as "low-probability, high-impact situation that is perceived by critical stakeholders to threaten the viability of the organization and that is subjectively experienced by these individuals as personally and socially threatening." Hearit and Courtright (2004) argued that communication is a constitutive element of the construction of social reality in crisis contexts. Applying this to organizational crises, the authors concluded that "[c]rises are terminological creations conceived by human agents, and consequently, are managed and resolved terminologically. As such, instead of being one component, communication constitutes the quintessence of crisis management" (p. 205). Hence, crises and their interpretations
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Purpose -Previous crisis communication research has primarily examined the external dimension of crisis communication, i.e. the crisis response strategies applied by organizations to protect and/or restore their image or reputation among external stakeholders in a crisis situation. The purpose of this paper is to set up an integrative framework for the study of internal crisis communication in private and public organizations. Design/methodology/approach -The paper takes a theoretical approach reviewing the literature on crisis management and crisis communication and discussing the concept of internal stakeholder and the implications of a staged approach. Findings -An integrative framework for the study of internal crisis communication is developed based on two assumptions: first, that internal crisis communication research must start with a detailed study of the relationship between an organization and its internal stakeholders (in this case: the employees) to clarify to what extent internal crisis communication differs from external crisis communication; and second, that internal crisis communication research can best be systematized applying a staged approach (precrisis stage, crisis event, postcrisis stage) as an heuristic method. Originality/value -Apart from a few exceptions, the internal dimension of crises, crisis management, and crisis communication has, by and large, been unexplored.
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In theory a function of management, the practice ofpublic relations assumes various roles in different organizations, ranging from technician to manager. Crises present organizations with significant financial, social and ethical challenges. This article suggests a relationship between organizational crisis experience and the placement ofthe public relations function. A relationship between organizational size and crisis experience is noted. It also uncovers an alarming absence of crisis planning and training in organizations.
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Research on crisis communication has traditionally focused on private organisations’ reputation and blame avoidance strategies. As a result, there is limited knowledge on crisis communication from the perspective of public organisations.This is troublesome as public organisations have substantial responsibilities for preparing, communicating and managing large-scale crisis events. In order to be able to better conceptualise public organisations’ crisis communication, a typology based on communication aims and orientations is introduced. According to the typology, public organisations engage in two dimensions of crisis communication: reputation-oriented vs. resilience-oriented and strategic vs. operational.These dimensions are illustrated and discussed by empirical examples from the Queensland floods of 2010/2011.The paper ends with a discussion on how to understand these dimensions of crisis communication in relation to public organisations’ priorities, processes and practices.
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