Applying Care to Political Public Relations: Crisis Communications Following the Terrorist Attack in New Zealand

Care is not a word generally associated with political crises. However, following the mosques massacre in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was found to have used care and a feminist approach to political communication that served to unite rather than divide her country following this racially motivated terrorist attack. There is much literature on corporate crises, but this paper adds to the dearth of literature on political crises in a public interest context. Grounded in a consideration of care and agenda building theories, it reveals that a caring approach to political communication (both verbal and nonverbal) following an act of terrorism can influence the media agenda and by extension public opinion.

The Corporate Crisis Management Of Colour Blind Advertising - A Case Study of Dolce & Gabbana’s and H&M’s Racially Charged Campaigns

The purpose of this Masters Research Paper is to analyze the methods of crisis communication utilized by H&M and Dolce & Gabbana in response to their racially charged ads launched in January 2018 and November 2018 respectively. After thorough research, it is clear that many retail groups have suffered irreparable damage to their images from a crisis (Liu et al., 2011). Image Restoration Theory (IRT) and the Social-mediated Crisis Communication model will act as a lens through which the companies’ techniques will be examined. The Literature Review aiding the research gathered in this paper will provide insight into the growth of the advertising industry, examples of modern corporate crises, and a recap of each corporation’s controversial pasts. The review will also cover theories of crisis communication and social media’s role in crisis communication. After manually collecting data from Dolce & Gabbana’s Instagram and Twitter accounts, it is clear that the Italian fashion house misused denial in combination with William Benoit’s other strategies within IRT. The public swiftly accused Dolce & Gabbana of lying and avoiding blame. After Dolce & Gabbana turned to mortification, their image had been damaged as many users labeled the apology as insincere. Similarly, the data collected on H&M reveals that the retail group attempted to evade responsibility. Later, H&M retracted their statement and released an apologized. The apology received a marginally warmer reception by Instagram users, where as many users on Twitter were demonstrably skeptical of its genuineness. When corrective action is employed the public recalls each company’s racist past. After thorough analysis, it is evident that in racially charged corporate crises it may be in the best interest of the company’s image to take full responsibility for the act and release a denial free apology.

The Corporate Crisis Management Of Colour Blind Advertising - A Case Study of Dolce & Gabbana’s and H&M’s Racially Charged Campaigns

The purpose of this Masters Research Paper is to analyze the methods of crisis communication utilized by H&M and Dolce & Gabbana in response to their racially charged ads launched in January 2018 and November 2018 respectively. After thorough research, it is clear that many retail groups have suffered irreparable damage to their images from a crisis (Liu et al., 2011). Image Restoration Theory (IRT) and the Social-mediated Crisis Communication model will act as a lens through which the companies’ techniques will be examined. The Literature Review aiding the research gathered in this paper will provide insight into the growth of the advertising industry, examples of modern corporate crises, and a recap of each corporation’s controversial pasts. The review will also cover theories of crisis communication and social media’s role in crisis communication. After manually collecting data from Dolce & Gabbana’s Instagram and Twitter accounts, it is clear that the Italian fashion house misused denial in combination with William Benoit’s other strategies within IRT. The public swiftly accused Dolce & Gabbana of lying and avoiding blame. After Dolce & Gabbana turned to mortification, their image had been damaged as many users labeled the apology as insincere. Similarly, the data collected on H&M reveals that the retail group attempted to evade responsibility. Later, H&M retracted their statement and released an apologized. The apology received a marginally warmer reception by Instagram users, where as many users on Twitter were demonstrably skeptical of its genuineness. When corrective action is employed the public recalls each company’s racist past. After thorough analysis, it is evident that in racially charged corporate crises it may be in the best interest of the company’s image to take full responsibility for the act and release a denial free apology.

V-5 Model of Employee Engagement During COVID-19 and Post Lockdown

COVID-19 has left the globe in a situation of despondency. Physical as well as the human resources (HR) of an organization were adversely affected during the lockdown. The corporate world is observing several corporate crises from the full or partial shutdown of businesses to layoffs, furloughs and resignations. HR managers are struggling to curb this renunciation of employees and grappling with reduced employee engagement. To keep employees highly motivated in this time of mayhem and maelstrom of the pandemic, HR managers need to revisit their employee engagement strategies with a new perspective. This article provides a ready reference list of variables to HR managers to enhance employee engagement level during COVID-19 and post lockdown. This article suggests five major elements of employee engagement, namely—value, voice, variety, virtue and vision. These logical elements of employee engagement are identified after an exhaustive review of the literature. Appropriate variables for each element support author’s perspective. Though neither these elements nor the variables are exhaustive, yet they hold utmost relevance to enhance employee engagement in the time of the global pandemic.

Action Steps to Overcome Organizational Crisis

The purpose of this research paper is to offer innovative tools and techniques to avert corporate crises to ensure organizational excellence and effectiveness. It explains calm leadership and advocates soft leadership. It illustrates with inspiring examples of leaders including Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Boris Yeltsin, who handled substantial crises successfully. It provides a list of leaders who led during turbulent times, saved their companies from the brink of disaster, and emerged in stronger positions; several are specifically profiled: Steve Jobs, Lee Iacocca, Ed Whitacre, Isaac Perlmutter, Richard Clark, and Gordon Bethune. It explains decision-making on complex issues and crises and shows how turbulence can be an opportunity, not a threat. It differentiates between leadership styles and the need to apply hard leadership skills during crises and soft leadership skills during normal times. It outlines action steps to overcome organizational crises. It concludes that with the advent of the fourth industrial revolution demarcated by artificial intelligence and automation, it is essential to take appropriate action steps to avert corporate crises to ensure organizational excellence and effectiveness.

EXPRESS: Not All Wrongdoers Are Equal in the Public Eye: A Moderated Mediation Model of Country Stereotypes, Condemning Emotions, and Retaliatory Intent in Corporate Crises

Corporate crises generate condemning emotions and retaliatory intent toward wrongdoing companies. However, not all wrongdoers are equal in the public eye. Consumers’ prior beliefs about a company’s country-of-origin may bias these responses. In three experimental studies (combined N = 1,008), the authors (1) establish that country stereotypes of warmth – but not of competence – can buffer condemning emotions and retaliatory intent toward a wrongdoing company. They further (2) reveal the psychological mechanism of greed attributions that underlies this bias and (3) identify the type of crisis as a crucial contingency factor that facilitates (corporate ability crisis) or suppresses (corporate value crisis) the buffering effect of country warmth.

Peran Corporate Communication PT Krakatau Steel dalam Mengatasi Krisis

Public Relations (PR) which is now metamorphosed into the term "Corporate Communication (CorCom)" is an important field for the company. Activities undertaken by Public Relations are building images. From the perspective of the organization, information or messages conveyed by PR are expected to have a positive meaning to maintain and even enhance the company's reputation. However, companies are not always surrounded by only positive information, sometimes even alternating with negative information. Unclear information or "issues" can disrupt the operation of the company. Issues that will continually turn into "crisis" companies. PR as the spearhead of the company is expected to be able to handle this. This paper, entitled "The Role of Public Relations in Overcoming Crisis", discusses the role of the PT Krakatau Steel (PTKS) Corporate Communication Division when hit by a corporate crisis. The research approach is qualitativeand as a knife of analysis in this research is the Attribution Theory, which is used to dissect problems of organizational behavior, for example the phenomenon when the organization is in a crisis situation. Research methods, case studieswith the postpositivist paradigm. Data collection techniques through observation,interviews, and literaturerelevant to the discussion. The findings show that when PTKS was hit by a crisis related to the corruption case of one of the officials in his environment, the issue of corporate restructuring, the issue of layoffs of 1300 employees in the mass media and employee demo news in local and national media, at that time information "milling" in various media, both print media and social media that tend to corner the company. Strategic steps taken by the Corporate Communication Division in overcoming corporate crises, namely Pre-Crisis, Crisis, and Post-Crisis. These steps are implemented very carefully, responsive, fast, and right on target. Public Relations(PR) yang kini bermetamorfosa menjadi istilah “Corporate Communication(Cor.Com)” merupakan bidang yang penting bagi perusahaan. Aktivitas yang dilakukan oleh Public Relations yaitu membangun citra. Ditinjau dari perspektif organisasi, informasi atau pesan yang disampaikan oleh PR diharapkan memiliki makna positif untuk mempertahankan bahkan meningkatkan reputasi perusahaan. Namun, perusahaan tidak selalu dikelilingi hanya informasi positif saja, terkadang silih berganti bahkan beriringan dengan informasi negatif. Informasi yang belum jelas atau “isu” dapat mengganggu jalannya operasional perusahaan. Isu yang terus menerus akan berubah menjadi “krisis” perusahaan. PR sebagai ujung tombak perusahaan diharapkan mampu menangani ini. Tulisan ini berjudul “Peran Public Relations Dalam Mengatasi Krisis”, membahas peran Divisi Corporate CommunicationPT Krakatau Steel (PTKS) ketika dilanda krisis perusahaan. Pendekatan penelitian yaitu kualitatif, dan sebagai pisau analisis dalam penelitian ini yaitu Teori Atribusi, yang digunakan untuk membedah permasalahan perilaku organisasi, misalnya fenomena saat organisasi berada dalam situasi krisis. Metode penelitian, studi kasusdengan paradigma postpositivist. Teknik pengumpulan data melalui observasi, wawancara, dan kepustakaan yang relevan dengan pembahasan. Hasil temuan menunjukkan bahwa ketika PTKS dilanda krisis terkait kasus korupsi salah seorang pejabat di lingkungannya, isu restrukturisasi perusahaan, isu PHK sebanyak 1300 karyawan di media massa dan berita demo karyawan di media lokal dan nasional, saat itu informasi “berseliweran” di berbagai media, baik media cetak maupun media sosial yang cenderung menyudutkan perusahaan. Langkah-langkah strategis yang dilakukan Divisi Corporate Communicationdalam mengatasi krisis perusahaan, yaitu Pra-Krisis,Krisis, dan Pasca-Krisis. Langkah-langkah tersebut diimplementasikan secara sangat cermat, responsif, cepat, dan tepat pada sasarannya.

Making the Most Effective Strategy More Effective: Examining the Situational and Interaction Effects of Accommodative CCSs in Corporate Crises

This study introduces the organization justice theory as a framework to conceptualize accommodative crisis communication strategies (CCSs). In this regard, it is proposed that three sub-strategies of accommodative CCSs—apology, showing regard, compensation, and corrective action—can enable organizations transform the negative responses of publics by restoring procedural, interactional, and distributive justice. Using an online experiment ( N = 800), this study investigates the effectiveness of each substrategy in different conditions of cause attribution and examines how combinations of accommodative CCSs affect postcrisis public responses. The results indicate that substantive accommodative CCSs (compensation and corrective action) are more effective than symbolic ones (apology and showing regard) in restoring the perceptions and behavioral intentions of publics regarding the organization. Specifically, substantive accommodative CCSs perform better at restoring reputation and purchase intentions when the cause of a crisis is externally attributed. Furthermore, employing a single symbolic accommodative CCS is found to result in greater account acceptance than using a combination.