scholarly journals The role of organizational culture for creating understanding and trust through internal crisis communication

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 17-20
Author(s):  
Albena Björck ◽  
Petra Barthelmess
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Communication Practice ◽  
Crisis Situation ◽  
Key Factor

Understanding and trust are major goals of the internal communication in general. In a crisis situation with its inherent uncertainty and lack of time their importance is elevated to a new level. The crisis communication theory lacks a cultural contextualization and a long-standing tradition for including the influence of organizational culture. The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of corporate culture as a key factor for internal crisis communication and its effectiveness. It investigates how the visible and less visible levels of culture manifest themselves in the internal crisis communication practice and identifies organizational culture patterns that support or impede understanding and trust.

scholarly journals Achieving employee support during the COVID-19 pandemic – the role of relational and informational crisis communication in Austrian organizations

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Einwiller ◽  
Christopher Ruppel ◽  
Julia Stranzl
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Relational Communication ◽  
Job Engagement ◽  
Organizational Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Crises

PurposeBased on social exchange theory, the study examines the influence of informational and relational internal communication on cognitive and affective responses and job engagement during organizational crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachData were collected by means of an online survey among people working in organizations with a minimum of 10 employees (N = 1,033) and analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsResults show that informational and relational communication as organizational resources have a significant but distinct influence on how employees support their employer during the crisis. While informational communication influences employees' acceptance of managerial decisions, relational communication exerts most influence on affective commitment, which is the strongest driver of job engagement.Research limitations/implicationsThe cross-sectional design, specific crisis situation and geographic location are limitations of the study.Practical implicationsDelivering relevant information to employees quickly and reliably is important. Yet, relationship-oriented communication that demonstrates appreciation and allows for participation has even stronger effects on job engagement, which is essential to mastering challenges arising from a crisis.Social implicationsDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations demanded much from their employees. In exchange, organizations should provide the resources information, status and love (Foa and Foa, 1980) by means of internal crisis communication.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates the role of different types of internal communication during organizational crises used to convey organizational resources, and it highlights the mediating role of acceptance and commitment to enhance employees' engagement at work.

The Role of Strategic Leadership in Building the Geocentric Culture of Global Corporations

2017 ◽  
pp. 1769-1780
Author(s):  
Maria S. Plakhotnik
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Strategic Leadership ◽  
National Cultures ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
De Vries ◽  
Global Corporations ◽  
Global Companies

The purpose of the chapter is to discuss the role of strategic leadership in building and sustaining geocentric organizational culture. The geocentric organizational culture is a corporate culture of global corporations (Perlmutter, 1985). This culture has to go above and beyond different national cultures that employees bring with them and foster those beliefs and values that are “comprehensive and compelling” (Kets de Vries & Florent-Treacy, 2002, p. 299) to all employees. The chapter starts with an introduction to global companies and the geocentric culture. Then a review works around strategic leadership is followed by a discussion of the role of strategic leadership in building and sustaining the geocentric culture.

scholarly journals Navigating Crisis: The Role of Communication in Organizational Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sky Marsen
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Reputation Management ◽  
Organizational Crisis ◽  
Management Communication ◽  
Situational Crisis Communication Theory ◽  
Rich Diversity ◽  
The Rich

This article introduces the special issue on crisis communication, whose aim is to bring together diverse approaches and methods of analysis in the field. The article overviews the field by discussing two main frameworks, dealing with postcrisis (reputation management) and precrisis (issue management) communication, respectively. The article then overviews some major theories of crisis communication and their different methodologies: image repair, situational crisis communication theory, rhetorical arena theory, narrative, and integrated crisis mapping. It ends with a description of some lessons learned that apply to all approaches and an overview of the contributions to the issue. By comparing and contrasting different perspectives on crisis communication, the article emphasizes the rich diversity that characterizes this branch of business communication.

scholarly journals Crisis communication and ethics: the role of public relations

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Jin ◽  
Augustine Pang ◽  
Joshua Smith
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
Top Management ◽  
Philosophical Argument ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Communication Practice ◽  
Moral Philosophies ◽  
Business Environments

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the veracity of the contingency model of ethical crisis communication by examining the factors of influence in a time of crisis including what constitutes ethics in a time of crisis; the role of public relations (PR) practitioners as the “moral conscience” of an organization and perceptions of the PR’ role within top management. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews were conducted among ten senior PR managers with crisis communication experience in North America. Findings This research identifies and investigates six ethical variables – the nature of the crisis, the role of top management, the activism of stakeholders, government regulation/intervention, the diversity of cultures and the exposure to external business environments – and their potential influences on an organization’s communication practices. Research limitations/implications The qualitative approach does not produce generalizable results. In addition, the authors could have interviewed more people, although the authors have reached information saturation in analyzing the interview data based on the ten interviews conducted. Practical implications Insights from this exploratory study contribute to answering the “how” questions with empirical data that enhance the clarity on the roadmap of ethical factors in crisis communication practice. Originality/value Unlike other conceptual work that explores moral philosophies in ethics, this study aims to offer a practical approach – rather than a philosophical argument and persuasion – that is rooted in the practitioner’s world.

scholarly journals Corporate Culture as a Tool for Improving University’s Competitiveness

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 44-54
Author(s):  
Irina V. Trotsuk ◽  
Daria V. Sukhoverova
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
University Rankings ◽  
Competing Values ◽  
University Management ◽  
Quality Of Higher Education ◽  
World University Rankings

In recent years, the terms ‘corporate/organizational culture’ and ‘ranking’ have become important reference points for the Russian system of university management and criteria for assessing the quality of higher education. However, these terms are rarely considered as interrelated, which can be explained mainly by the lack of studies assessing the role of corporate culture as a tool for improving universities’ positions in the international rankings. Nevertheless, the available data allow to draw some conclusions about characteristics of the corporate culture of the leaders of the world university rankings (it is a combination of the elements of market, adhocracy and clan types of organizational culture), which are not yet typical for classical Russian universities with the dominance of the elements of clan and bureaucratic/hierarchical types of corporate culture. The article presents the results of two surveys conducted in the RUDN University on the basis of CameronQuinn methodology. They revealed the framework of competing values and showed that over the past decade the share of bureaucratic/hierarchical type decreased due to an increase in the share of market and adhocracy types of culture that are typical for the leaders of world university rankings.

scholarly journals When is silence golden? The use of strategic silence in crisis communication

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phuong D. Le ◽  
Hui Xun Teo ◽  
Augustine Pang ◽  
Yuling Li ◽  
Cai-Qin Goh
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Communication ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Organizational Image ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Image Repair Theory ◽  
Future Events

Purpose Scholars have discouraged using silence in crises as it magnifies the information vacuum (see Pang, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to argue for its viability and explore the type of silence that can be used. Design/methodology/approach Eight international cases were analyzed to examine how silence was adopted, sustained and broken. Findings The findings uncovered three intention-based typologies of strategic silence: delaying, avoiding and hiding silences. Among such, avoiding/hiding silence intensified crises and adversely affected post-silence organizational image when forcefully broken, while delaying silence helped preserve/restore image with primary stakeholders if successfully sustained and broken as planned. Research limitations/implications First, these findings may lack generalizability due to the limited number of cases studied. Second, local sentiments may not be fully represented in the English-language news examined as they may be written for a different audience. Finally, a number of cases studied were still ongoing at the time of writing, so the overall effectiveness of the strategy employed might be compromised as future events unfold. Practical implications A stage-based practical guide to adopting delaying silence is proposed as a supporting strategy before the execution of crisis response strategies. Originality/value This is one of the few studies to examine the role of silence in crisis communication as silence is not recognized as a type of response in dominant crisis theories – be it the situational crisis communication theory or the image repair theory (An and Cheng, 2010; Benoit, 2015; Benoit and Pang, 2008; Xu and Li, 2013).

scholarly journals Focusing on the “Public” in Public Relations: The Importance of Person-Centered Messages (PCMs) in Crisis Communication on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 93-128
Author(s):  
Soo Kwang Oh ◽  
Kyung-Hyan Yoo ◽  
Jennifer Owlett
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Situational Crisis Communication Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Crisis Type ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study

Based on the theoretical frameworks of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) and person-centered messages (PCMs), this interdisciplinary study conducted a 2 x 3 experiment to examine the role of PCMs in crisis management on social media. Our findings suggest that crisis type (victim, preventable) has an effect on people’s perceptions/reactions toward an organization and that PCM levels (low, medium, and high person-centered messages) in crisis communication on social media influence organizational reputation and participants’ intention to post negative feedback about the organization in crisis. We suggest that when organizations are responding to crisis online, they provide additional attention to the interpersonal dynamics of those interactions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Some Aspects Concerning The Communication in Multinational Corporations Existing on The Romanian Market

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-106
Author(s):  
Monica Niţă ◽  
Radu D. Stanciu
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Foreign Capital ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Important Barrier ◽  
Points Of View

Abstract The proposed topic presents a high interest at least from two points of view. Economically speaking, the multinational corporations define to a considerable extent the economic performance of Romania. As communication, these corporations with entire or prevailing foreign capital could be considered as models for what it means intercultural communication and cultural adapting. The research of the aspects connected to communication in an intercultural framework allows the drawing of some pertinent conclusions concerning the role of communication as a key factor of success or on the contrary an important barrier. At the same time, the approach of communication process needs not only the study of communication itself but also the mentalities, the attitudes, and the behaviors. The present paper refers mostly to internal communication and less to promotional communication. In the same time, it refers to the way act the organizational cultures existing in those corporations, if there is a closed connection between communication and organizational culture.

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