Rescuing gender: An exploration of embodied resilience-making in the Chilean miners' catastrophe

In this paper, we explore the theoretical and empirical links between gender and resilience within the context of crisis management by developing a theoretically oriented analysis of the iconic case of the 33 Chilean miners rescue. Analytic focus is placed on the capacity of resilience-promoting actors to embody and transform the discursive and practical dimensions of gendered regimes that predominate at an organizational level. As a result, we can distinguish four distinct modalities—normative redefinition, emotional reaccommodation, resistance, and affective affirmation—through which the gendered dimension of resilience becomes undone and redone, based on the action of alternative rationalities and affects. Overall, our findings indicate that resilience cannot be made possible without effectively disputing the norms that dispose how bodies, in all their diversity, are able to be recognized and socially experienced to face and manage crises effectively.     

Development of an Indigenous Inventory GMAB (Gambling Motives,Attitudes and Behaviors) for Chinese Gamblers: An Exploratory Study

Scale development in the extant gambling literature has been dominated by pathological gamblers, but the non- or sub-clinical gamblers have been overlooked. Moreover, most scales are predominantly based on Western samples; only a few of the scales have Chinese versions validated with Chinese samples. A rarely explored niche still exists for the development of an indigenous scale for Chinese gamblers. The current exploratory study made the first step towards such a direction by identifying factors through the construction of an indigenous Gambling Motives, Attitudes and Behavior (GMAB) scale for Chinese gamblers. Preliminary items were generated primarily from focus group discussions. The items were administered through a telephone survey in which 791 randomly sampled gamblers participated. Exploratory factor analyses revealed (a) five dimensions of gambling motives, namely, self-worth, monetary gains, sensation seeking, boredom alleviation, and learning; (b) four dimensions of gambling attitudes, namely, luck and fate, attitudes toward negative consequences in gambling, techniques, and superstition; and (c) six dimensions of behavior, namely, impaired control in gambling, gambling involvement, arousal reaction, superstitious behavior, controlled gambling and casino exploration. Implications of the interplay among these factors and future research directions were discussed.     

The quality of work during the employment crisis: the Italian case

The paper aims to study empirically the relationship between the effects of the employment crisis and the quality of work in Italy using a multidimensional approach. The quality of work is identified and measured through five dimensions. Such dimensions have been regressed, both for linear and quantile regression, for the ‘employment crisis’ variable, controlling for a set of variables including worker's characteristics, firm's variables, and job characteristics. The main findings show an uneven impact of the employment crisis on the quality of work dimensions. The employment crisis seems in fact to have significantly changed quality of work just in some of the dimensions. Moreover, the changes do not apply homogeneously in respect to both the sector of activity and the distribution of the examined dimensions.     

Psychometric Evaluation and Discussions of English Language Learners’ Listening Comprehension

The importance of listening in the context of English language acquisition is gaining acceptance, but its unique attributes in language performance, while substantively and qualitatively justifiable, are generally not psychometrically defined. This article psychometrically supports listening as a distinct domain among the three other domains of language learning—reading, writing, and speaking—through the analysis of listening data from a large-scale K-12 English language proficiency assessment. Student responses in this study were compared on the basis of cognitive, metacognitive, and other learning strategies between high achieving and low achieving listening groups that were formed using a latent mixture distribution model. Latent mixture distribution and differential items functioning analyses together with classical item analysis were used to substantiate or draw attention to literature findings. The article also highlights the importance of social-interactive items that are inadvertently embedded in an assessment that is primarily created to measure academic language.     

Public expectations of crisis outcomes in the social media era in China: A communication-mediated psychological mechanism

This study theoretically and empirically identifies a new typology of Chinese publics’ normative expectations of crisis outcomes. It classifies the concept into three culturally relevant dimensions—public expectations of (a) organizational accommodative responses (i.e., how an in-crisis organization should respond), (b) punishment of the organization (i.e., how publics collectively should respond), and (c) government intervention (i.e., how government should respond) for desirable crisis outcomes. Using an online survey of the Beijing public, this study investigates the degree to which information seeking and online expression mediate relationships between crisis blame and the three types of expectations. The study finds that as the level of crisis blame increases, active information seekers expect more regarding organizational accommodation and government intervention, whereas active expressers expect stronger punishments of the organization and less government intervention in China.     

Introducing the Co-oriented Scansis (CoS) model: A case of chatbot,Lee-Luda

This study presents the Co-oriented Scansis (CoS) model, which provides a comprehensive understanding of scansis—a recently identified crisis type integrated into the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). Using a crisis case of Scatter Lab, a South Korean AI company, as a model case, the study applies the CoS model to analyze the perceptions and meta-perceptions of both the organization and the public regarding the crisis. The data collection involved three official statements released by Scatter Lab and an analysis of 365 reviews from the Google Play users' reviews page of Science of Love—the app used by Scatter Lab to collect intimate conversations between romantic partners. The findings highlight the utility of the CoS model in explaining how Scatter Lab's AI crisis evolved into a scansis. Specifically, the organization's failure to accurately comprehend the public's perception of the crisis (second level co-orientation) and the resulting discrepancy between the organization and the public's perceptions (third level co-orientation) contributed to moral outrage, ultimately leading to a scansis. The study concludes by discussing the theoretical contributions of the CoS model and its practical implications for crisis management.     

Enhancing Employee Engagement via Leaders’ Motivational Language in times of crisis: Perspectives from the COVID-19 outbreak

By bridging theoretical perspectives from diverse disciplines including public relations, organizational communication, psychology, and management, this study advances a sequential mediation process model that links leaders’ motivational communication—specifically, direction-giving, empathetic, and meaning-making language—to employees’ organizational engagement during times of crisis. The model incorporates employees’ psychological needs satisfaction and their subsequent crisis coping strategies so as to explain the process that underlies the effects of leader communication on employee engagement. We tested the model in a unique yet underexplored crisis context: organizational crises triggered by the global pandemic of COVID-19. The results of an online survey of 490 full-time U.S. employees provide strong support to the model’s predictions. Our research extends internal crisis communication scholarship in public relations by addressing what types of leader communication strategies as well as how these strategies contribute to employee engagement in a holistic fashion. It also advances theoretical development of the motivational language theory, self-determination theory, transactional model of stress and coping, and organizational engagement—the four theoretical bases of our study—in the context of organizational crises. Lastly, the study results provide timely practical insights on effective internal crisis communication.     

Premature menopause and self-concept disjunctions. A case for crisis management

1. Surgically or chemically induced premature menopause is a life transition characterized by a situational crisis superimposed on a developmental crisis. 2. After surgically or chemically induced premature menopause, women's self-concept shifts and evolves through an interactive or relational process. 3. Nurses can use crisis management to increase women's understanding of the physiological and psychological dimensions of premature menopause, facilitate their links with community support systems, and strengthen their existing social networks. 4. Effective crisis intervention approaches include structuring, verbalizing, clarifying, normalizing, and supporting.     

Tweeting about emergency: A semantic network analysis of government organizations’ social media messaging during Hurricane Harvey

While social media like Twitter have been increasingly adopted by public-sector organizations, it remains less explored as to how government and emergency management (EM) organizations use these platforms to communicate with the public in response to emerging natural disasters. Extending the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to the realm of social media, this study examines the emerging semantic networks from 67 government and EM organizations’ official tweets during Hurricane Harvey over a three-week period. It identifies how multiple crisis response strategies—including instructing information, adjusting information, and bolstering—are constituted of different issues, actions, and organizational actors before, during, and immediately after the disaster event. Results suggest that government agencies use the strategy of instructing information predominantly before and during the disaster, whereas adjusting information and bolstering strategies are utilized more during post-disaster recovery. The study offers theoretical and practical implications of using a semantic network approach to studying organizational crisis responses.     

An Integrated Symmetrical Model for Crisis-Communications Management

This article presents an integrated four-step symmetrical model for the effective management of crises. Although the model is also applicable to the management of accidental and operational crises, it is formulated primarily for those crises whose occurrence is more likely a consequence of the inherent fallibility of management—that is, mismanagement. It is based on Grunig's situational theory and on the emerging theoretical framework of issues management—that is, on an early identification, redirection, or influence of issues. A biological analogy is used to suggest an early crisis intervention that averts further development of a potentially troublesome issue. The model incorporates both proactivity and symmetry and has three overarching principles: issues management, planning-prevention, and implementation. Two widely known corporate crises—Intel's Pentium flaw and McDonald's hot coffee spill—are used to illustrate the model.     

Social media dialogues in a crisis: A mixed-methods approach to identifying publics on social media

Despite the promise of social media to engender dialogue, the common approach to studying social media may prioritize monologue, whereby research considers the strategies organizations use in targeting publics, particularly in a crisis. This study uses a mixed-method approach to analyze dialogue in a crisis—semantic network analysis and content analysis. Specifically, this study examines the emotional expression and crisis coping behaviors on social media during two separate terror attacks: the Paris terror attacks in 2015 and the Barcelona terror attacks in 2017. Results demonstrate how publics may be identified and understood through semantic network analysis and content analysis. This study also shows the connection between emotions and coping, expanding the crisis communication literature in public relations, and suggests the need to consider agenda-setting and resilience in crisis communication research. Finally, we discuss this study’s implications for assuming a dialogic orientation in public relations.     

Perceptions by treatment staff of critical tasks in the treatment of the compulsive gambler

Seventy-five clinicians who treat compulsive gamblers were surveyed. Each rated 89 clinical tasks and responsibilities for importance in the treatment of this population. Analysis of those items for which a plurality of clinicians rated the item as critical was chosen as the criteria of importance. A principal components analysis was conducted to determine the underlying structure of clinical perceptions of importance. An eight-dimensional model was found to describe perceptions in the most satisfactory way. The analysis revealed five major and three minor clusters of tasks and responsibilities. The major dimensions were labeled as (1) self-help/social support, (2) crisis interventions, (3) behavioral resources for change, (4) psychodynamics of treatment, and (5) crisis severity. The minor dimensions were (6) knowledge and training, (7) ethics and sensitivity to needs, and (8) confidentiality and regulations. A brief discussion of the implications are presented.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.     

COVID‐19, ethics of care and feminist crisis management

The COVID‐19 pandemic threatens both lives and livelihoods. To reduce the spread of the virus, governments have introduced crisis management interventions that include border closures, quarantines, strict social distancing, marshalling of essential workers and enforced homeworking. COVID‐19 measures are necessary to save the lives of some of the most vulnerable people within society, and yet in parallel they create a range of negative everyday effects for already marginalized people. Likely unintended consequences of the management of the COVID‐19 crisis include elevated risk for workers in low‐paid, precarious and care‐based employment, over‐representation of minority ethnic groups in case numbers and fatalities, and gendered barriers to work. Drawing upon feminist ethics of care, I theorize a radical alternative to the normative assumptions of rationalist crisis management. Rationalist approaches to crisis management are typified by utilitarian logics, masculine and militaristic language, and the belief that crises follow linear processes of signal detection, preparation/prevention, containment, recovery and learning. By privileging the quantifiable — resources and measurable outcomes — such approaches tend to omit considerations of pre‐existing structural disadvantage. This article contributes a new theorization of crisis management that is grounded in feminist ethics to provide a care‐based concern for all crisis affected people.     

Integrating public relations and legal responses during a crisis: The case of Odwalla, Inc.

Crisis management is a form of issues management in which crisis managers attempt to control the terms used to describe corporate actions. In this sense, a crisis can be seen as an opportunity to demonstrate the organization's commitment to responsible behavior and to outline the steps being taken to eliminate the problem. The organization's decision-making process is evident in its communication response (public relations versus legal) strategies.This study examines the crisis communication strategies employed by Odwalla, Inc. during its juice contamination crisis, a crisis whose impact on public health and safety gave it the potential for developing into an issue that required public policy relief. An analysis of the content of published responses made by Odwalla officials showed that public relations response strategies dominated legal response strategies throughout the crisis, followed by mixed public relations and legal strategies. This case provides a clear example of the collaborative approach to crisis management in terms of legal versus public relations strategies. In addition, Odwalla exerted control over the crisis through its recall, the development of a process to eliminate the problem, and raising the issue of pasteurization.     

If the Organizations Won't Give Us Information…: The Use of Multiple New Media for Crisis Technical Translation and Dialogue

This study expands crisis message strategies to include those used to communicate technical details and examines them across multiple new media. A content analysis of blogs, Web sites, news articles, and press releases from the 2007 pet food recall crisis reveals that when stakeholders affected by the crisis desire emotional support—most frequently found in blogs—they do not include any types of technical explanations in their messages. Yet when they want rectification—assurance that the crisis will not happen again—they use more elaborate forms of technical translation explanations. Organizational use of technical translation explanations differ between media with Web sites and news articles containing more elaborate technical translation than press releases. When technical translation details are used, dialogic links, such as Web site links, are included.     

A Theory of Integration and Freedom*

The relation betwee freedom and social integration is examined using the theories of Landecker and of Kolb. Data are from a purposive sample of 25 communal and formal organizations. Information was gathered through questionnaires and participant observation. Two dimensions of integration are used, normative and consensual; three types of freedom are employed, ego, conditional, and disciplined. The basic hypothesis is that the dimensions of integration vary with the types of freedom. Normative and consensual integration will be positively associated with disciplined freedom, these dimensions will vary inversely with ego freedom, and conditional freedom will occupy an intermediate position. The hypotheses are confirmed through multiple regression analysis. Durkheim's mechanical solidarity is seen to be associated with disciplined freedom. Because we consider freedom and integration inseparable, this association is labeled consensual integration. Again following Durkheim, we hypothesize a new form of integration—contractual—based on ego freedom. They type accompanied by conditional freedom is called provisional integration. Observations are offered on the relation of these forms of integration to social change.     

Crisis communication in higher education: The use of “negotiation” as a strategy to manage crisis

This case study examined the crisis response strategies of Louisiana State University after its women's head basketball coach resigned amid charges of inappropriate conduct with former basketball players. This case study draws on relationship management and negotiation as the theoretical lens to examine the efforts of the University in managing relationships and restoring its image. Data for this study was collected through opened-ended questionnaires from students, faculty, and staff at the University. The findings from this study indicate that the good reputation of the University was responsible for the positive evaluation of the crisis management. In addition, results from this study suggest that “negotiation” can play an important role in managing a crisis when the conflicting parties are not willing to participate in a dialogue.     

The Intractability of Reputation: Media Coverage as a Complex System in the Case of Martha Stewart

This study examines media reputation—the representation of a person or organization in the media—from the standpoint of complex systems. It analyzes news releases and print media coverage about Martha Stewart from 1982 through 2007 using computer-assisted semantic network analysis. The study concludes that Stewart's media reputation showed characteristics of a complex system, including the gradual emergence of patterns of representation, the buildup of internal dissonance, a crisis point followed by the emergence of new patterns, and resistance to outside influences. These characteristics constrain efforts to shape reputation but can also provide warnings about a changing reputation long before it becomes obvious in media coverage.