How Fortune 500 companies used the Web for philanthropic and crisis communication following Hurricane Katrina

This study examined how Fortune 500 companies used their Web sites to provide philanthropic and crisis communication response following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Results showed that companies tended to use traditional means of communication versus new media tactics to disseminate information related to the disaster. Companies with holdings in Louisiana and Mississippi tended to use slightly more types of information than companies without a substantive presence in those two states.     

United Airlines’ and American Airlines’ online crisis communication following the September 11 terrorist attacks

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, provided a challenging series of events for the crisis communication efforts of American Airlines and United Airlines. Based on crisis communication theory and organizational use of the Web, this study examined how the two companies used their Web sites during the first three weeks after the incidents as one means of conveying information following the attacks.Theoretically, analysis of incident-related segments of the two sites showed that the airlines evidenced key elements of crisis response. They provided instructing communication by giving facts, stating how their publics should take action, and providing information regarding how the problem was being corrected. Additionally, they offered adjusting communication through a series of condolence messages and links to relief organizations before emphasizing normal operations.From an online perspective, this study revealed that the Web enabled both companies to provide an immediate response to the attacks. The Web also allowed United and American to offer frequent updates about the incidents to their publics and to communicate their crisis response process to various publics simultaneously.     

Entering new territory: A study of internal crisis management and crisis communication in organizations

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss some of the main findings from a large survey of internal crisis management and crisis communication conducted in the spring of 2011 among public and private organizations in Denmark (the ICMCC survey). The survey was conducted among the 367 largest private companies (selected from DK 1000, established by Børsen business magasin) and among 98 public organizations (municipalities). The overall goal was to get a preliminary idea of how these companies or organizations perceive, plan, coordinate and implement internal crisis management and crisis communication activities before, during and after a crisis. The survey questionnaire comprised 36 questions and was sent to respondents who typically are responsible for the crisis-preparedness of their organizations. The results from the survey show that the vast majority of organizations have a crisis or contingency plan, and most of these plans contain an internal dimension relating to the management and communication with the internal stakeholders during a crisis. Thus, the study shows a rather professional and formalized behavior towards crisis management in general, but also when it comes to managing a crisis in relation to the internal organizational stakeholders in specific. In addition, the results clearly indicate a strong relation between organizational size and crisis management; the larger the organization the more likely to have a crisis plan. This particularly pertained to the private organizations. The ICMCC survey forms part of a major collaborative research project, financed by the Danish Council for Independent Research/Social Sciences (2011–2014), entitled Internal Crisis Management and Crisis Communication in Danish Organizations. The purpose of this three-year long project is to shed light upon the role of internal crisis management and crisis communication before, during and after an organizational crisis and/or a societal crisis leading to downsizing or major changes within an organization or an organizational field.     

Finding renewal in the midst of disaster: The case of the deepwater horizon oil spill

In 2010, the United States experienced the worst environmental disaster in its history. An explosion on a BP oilrig located in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the crisis. As a result, the United States coast guard and BP were charged with crisis communication in its response to the crisis. This essay provides an unprecedented examination and analysis of the communication experiences of public information officers who worked in the unified command center in Houma, Louisiana during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. The authors use the discourse of renewal theory to understand the communication practices and choices of the public information officers. Then, using the renewal framework, the authors present three implications for improving crisis communication research and practice.     

A content analysis of BP's press releases dealing with crisis

This study aims to analyze what kinds of frames have been used in British Petroleum's (BP's) press releases, which dealt with the Gulf oil spill crisis that occurred in April 2010. A content analysis was conducted to explore the different frames used by BP in its press releases to deal with the crisis. The main and sub themes are also analyzed through a content analysis of press releases. This study attempts to examine BP's crisis communication strategy through press release usage by closely analyzing the frames and themes that were used. This study found that BP attempted to update the public on what the company was doing to resolve the oil spill crisis, and that they made every effort to manage the crisis by using the company's official update frame. In addition, by using the social responsibility frame, BP aimed to show the public that they had intentions of taking responsibility for the oil spill. Finally, BP used a minimal number of defensive frames as a way of showing the public that they did not want to flee from the responsibility of the oil spill crisis.     

Trust and Relational Commitment in Corporate Crises: The Effects of Crisis Communicative Strategy and Form of Crisis Response

The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which crisis communicative strategy and form of crisis response affect trust and relational commitment with respect to crisis contexts at the firm level, after controlling the effects of crisis type and organizational association. A survey of communication managers, crisis managers, and public relations and/or public affairs managers from Taiwan's top 500 companies was conducted. The results showed that in crisis managers' assessment, the form of crisis response (timely response, consistent response, and active response) is more powerful than crisis communicative strategies (denial, diversion, excuse, justification and concession) in predicting trust and relational commitment. Moreover, the result, on one hand, supports the robustness of concession as an effective communicative strategy above and beyond the impacts from crisis type and organization association. On the other hand, however, it challenges this traditional wisdom involving concession by emphasizing the intriguing mediating role of form of crisis response by demonstrating that form of crisis response is necessary for more concession communicative response to generate more favorable relational outcomes.     

Public's Responses to an oil spill accident: A test of the attribution theory and situational crisis communication theory

Situational communication crisis communication theory (SCCT) and Weiner's attribution theory are used in this research to explain the public's responses to a corporation that caused an oil spill accident. Consistent with SCCT, people made higher internal attributions and lower external attributions about the oil spill accident when low distinctiveness information was provided, compared to when high distinctiveness information or no information was provided. Higher internal attributions and lower external attributions, in turn, resulted in greater punitive opinions and punitive behavior.     

Determinants of consistent,timely, and active responses in corporate crises

This paper investigates the individual and combined factors affecting the extent to which corporations respond to crisis events consistently, in a timely manner, and actively. The determinants examined include public relations autonomy, legal dominance, strategic orientation, and organizational factors. A survey was conducted of communications mangers, public affairs personnel, and public relations personnel, drawn from the top 500 companies operating in Taiwan. Results indicate that the relative effect of individual sources of influence on crisis response is greatest for situations in which public relations departments have the most autonomy, followed by those where crisis management is handled with a strategic orientation, those where the legal departments dominate, and those where organizational factors provide the main avenue of address. The results emphasize the intriguing role of public relations autonomy by demonstrating its significant impact on providing a consistent, timely, and active crisis response. The strategic orientation of situation analysis also predicts a consistent response, whereas legal dominance predicts strategic ambiguity or inconsistent communication.     

Pragmatic optimism,crisis leadership,and contingency theory: A view from the C-suite

In the last three decades, the theory of strategic conflict management has been developed so that it is a strong framework for considering the factors that influence an organization’s response to crises and identifying the importance for dynamic and flexible approaches to crisis decision-making and communication. While leadership is considered one of the critical internal contingency factors but individual characteristics of key decision-makers, like the CEO, are also one of the most understudied ones. At the same time, the concept of optimism has long been explored as a factor influencing performance and positive outcomes in many arenas, but with scant evidence in the application to senior-level leadership or crisis contexts. In fact, in the crisis literature where optimism and pessimism is addressed, it largely argues that crisis leaders should adopt a pessimistic mindset. For this study senior-leaders in multinational companies responsible for managing employees in an average of 70 countries each and with extensive crisis leadership experience reflect on their own experiences during crises. Findings indicate that optimism is a critical trait in successful crisis leadership connecting to positive outcomes for the teams and organizations. These data also provide critical insights that develop a stronger understanding of contingency planning in crisis management because we have identified a trait that amongst an elite group of managers with extensive crisis experience was consistently attributed to their own success as crisis leaders.     

Crisis communication online: How medium,crisis type and emotions affected public reactions in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

Social media play in today's societies a fundamental role for the negotiation and dynamics of crises. However, classical crisis communication theories neglect the role of the medium and focus mainly on the interplay between crisis type and crisis communication strategy. Building on the recently developed “networked crisis communication model” we contrast effects of medium (Facebook vs. Twitter vs. online newspaper) and crisis type (intentional vs. victim) in an online experiment. Using the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster as crisis scenario, we show that medium effects are stronger than the effects of crisis type. Crisis communication via social media resulted in a higher reputation and less secondary crisis reactions such as boycotting the company than crisis communication in the newspaper. However, secondary crisis communication, e.g. talking about the crisis communication, was higher in the newspaper condition than in the social media conditions because people consider traditional media as more credible. We also found higher levels of anger in the intentional crisis condition than in the victim crisis condition. Anger in turn was related to reputation, secondary crisis communication and secondary crisis reaction. The results stress the need for more complex models of crisis communication.     

The state of crisis communication research and education through the lens of crisis scholars: An international Delphi study

This Delphi study explores the status of crisis communication research and education qualitatively through the lens of 22 internationally recognized crisis communication scholars, systematically recruited and retained to serve on the crisis expert Delphi panel in a two-year span. Taking a multi-iteration consensus-building approach, this study enabled the expert panel to individually elaborate and collectively evaluate shared observations and insights regarding trends, patterns, and nuances in crisis communication as a unique interdisciplinary area of research and practice. The quality and impact of current scholarship, methodological rigor and diversity, and perceived knowledge gaps between academia and industry were compared and synthesized across countries. Consensus was achieved in the majority of the proposed questions. Results show challenges and particular deficiencies within the crisis communication research domain. The main challenge is bridging the gap between academia and industry. The lack of theory development and cross-cultural studies contribute to part of this challenge. The knowledge and perceptual gaps identified by our Delphi expert panel also suggest a need to align crisis communication academic research more closely with crisis communication teaching. Despite the increasingly broadened presence of crisis communication scholarship, it remains small and stunted at some universities. The discussions and insights that emerged in this Delphi study help pave the way for further research innovation and educational program development in crisis communication.     

Empathy as a main ingredient of impactful crisis communication: The perspectives of crisis communication practitioners

Sixteen in-depth interviews with Belgian crisis communication practitioners were conducted to get their perspectives on the role of empathy in crisis communication. While demonstrating empathy toward crisis-affected stakeholders is considered an essential best practice, the role of empathy in responding to crises has only received limited attention in research. The aims of this study were to examine how practitioners interpret the concept of empathy in crisis communication; to what extent they value the expression of empathy in crisis responses and for what reasons; and what exactly constitutes an empathetic crisis response according to them. In addition, instances in which stakeholders may in turn experience empathy for organizations in crisis were examined. As such, the aspiration behind this study was to provide insights that can initiate further theorization and research on the role of empathy in the context of organizational crisis communication.     

Communications officers and the C-suite: A study of Financial Times Global 500 companies

A content analysis of the websites or annual reports of the 2012 Financial Times Global 500 companies was performed to examine the position of communications officers (COs) on their executive boards. Almost one quarter of the companies examined had a CO on the executive board. Their distribution differed by region, with North America leading, followed by Europe. No significant differences were found between business to business (BtB) and business to consumer (BtC) companies or between sectors with more or less regulated communication. Economic indicators did not predict whether a company would have a CO on the executive board.     

The crisis communication preparedness of nonprofit organizations: The case of German interest groups

A national survey of German interest groups showed that these nonprofit organizations are substantially lacking crisis preparations. Less than one third use crisis plans, crisis management teams, or crisis scenarios. In terms of web-based crisis communication, nonprofit organizations primarily relied on traditional forms of online communication for crisis response. Organizational experience with crises, the general status of the public relations function, as well as the crisis communication expertise of practitioners were positively related to the degree of crisis preparedness of these interest groups.     

Studying Crisis Communication From the Subaltern Studies Framework: Grassroots Activism in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina

The dominant crisis communication literature has 3 limitations: its managerial bias, functionalistic orientation, and the erasure of marginalized voices by focusing on restituting the status quo. Due to these limitations, studies that aim to understand crisis experiences, interpretive processes, and communicative responses of the politically less powerful and resource-poor are scarce in the crisis communication literature. Drawing upon the subaltern studies literature, this article suggests an alternative approach (i.e., the subaltern studies framework) to aid crisis communication researchers to (a) expand the scope of the literature to nonmanagerial contexts, (b) speak to the discursive nature of crisis communication, and (c) attend to the issues of structure and agency in the interpretations of and responses to crises. A case study of grassroots activism in New Orleans is presented to illustrate how the application of the subaltern studies framework can provide a theoretical entry point for conceptualizing crisis communication from below and for facilitating academic self-reflexivity in crisis communication scholarship.     

Media manipulation in the Sanlu milk contamination crisis

This study analyzes crisis communication strategies in a transitioning media environment, specifically, Sanlu Group's crisis communication strategies during a quality control crisis in China. Analysis reveals Sanlu manipulated its relationships with local Chinese government and media to reduce media coverage and online searches regarding the contamination of infant milk formula. The case provides evidence that media can be pressured into manipulating information flow through both traditional and online media and suggests a need for additional research on crisis communication in transitioning media environments.     

Corporate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by Fortune 500 companies

COVID-19 created a challenging environment both for businesses and individuals. Effects of the pandemic on companies had the potential to create negative public relations as entities attempted to deal with the worldwide crisis and to communicate their situation. Many companies were quick to provide information to customers and employees early in the pandemic about how they were responding to the crisis, while other companies provided limited immediate response to COVID-19. An examination of the top 300 companies listed in the 2020 Fortune 500 found that 186 of those companies communicated their status and plans in press releases posted from January 2020 through May 2020 regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This study, based on Situational Crisis Communication Theory, qualitatively analyzed the releases via constant comparative method. The analysis resulted in four primary categories that dominated company releases: (1) In This Together, (2) Perseverance Through Strength, (3) We are Here for You, and (4) Fighting for the Team.     

Social media crisis communication: Enhancing a discourse of renewal through dialogic content

This qualitative study investigates through a case study how dialogic content, which is shared on social media, facilitates stakeholder support and builds relationships to advance a discourse of renewal. Prior research on crisis communication in social media thoroughly investigated crisis response theories relating to reputation management and image restoration. To date, however, a paucity of research has considered how content could facilitate stakeholder support and relationships in crisis communication.The findings show that when an organization commits to transparent, interactive dialogue during a social media crisis on a social media platform, stakeholders are pulled to authentic content because they are interested and actively seeking for relevant information. Dialogic content may also boost stakeholder support and encourage relationship building to help move the organization forward after the crisis with dialogic communication. The insights gained from this study create value for wider audiences in terms of how dialogic content can be used for social media crisis communication, to move beyond reputation and image repair to become meaningful to stakeholders.     

The Effects of Corrective Communication and Employee Backup on the Effectiveness of Fighting Crisis Misinformation

Crisis misinformation, including false information about a crisis or a crisis-stricken organization, has become a fundamental threat to organizational wellbeing. Effective crisis response geared toward fighting crisis misinformation demands a more systematic approach to corrective communication. Grounded in misinformation debunking theory, this study aims to advance misinformation research in public relations and organizational crisis communication. An online experiment using a U.S. adult sample (N = 817) was conducted to examine the effects of corrective communication strategy (simple rebuttal vs. factual elaboration) and employee backup (present vs. absent) on perceived message quality, organizational reputation, and perceived crisis responsibility. Results show: 1) the use of factual elaboration and the presence of employee backup were direct contributors to crisis response effectiveness; and 2) perceived message quality mediates the effect of corrective communication. This study provides insights into advancing crisis communication theory and offers evidence-based recommendations for practitioners to combat crisis misinformation more effectively.