Business Commons^™

Maui Wildfires: A Case Study In Local Government Crisis Communication Response, Joshua A. Voda

Student Theses and Dissertations

When wildfires swept through the island of Maui in Hawai‘i in August 2023, the communities of Olinda, Kula and especially Lahaina were devastated. Thousands of people were displaced, and nearly 100 people were lost. Just like the speed at which the fiery winds consumed these towns, accusations of emergency mismanagement and a host of misinformation spread by word of mouth and online. The primary local government authority for these communities is the County of Maui, currently led by Mayor Richard Bissen. This case study examines the first month of communication from the County of Maui to the affected communities via …

Conflict Positioning In Crisis Communication: Impact Of Antecedent Conditions On Negotiation, Pang, A., Glen T. Cameron

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Organizations need to position themselves favorably in times of crisis. The conflict positioning conceptualization offers a framework for organizations to do so by integrating insights of crisis communication with negotiation through the following steps. First, understanding the factors that will affect an organization's ability to handle the crisis. Second, based on the influence of these factors, examine the stance the organization will adopt. Third, examine the strategies the organization will embrace. Four, the strategies adopted will impact the conflict property it aims to resolve which will in turn influence the negotiation approach and the relationship dynamics between the organization and …

Application Of Crisis Communication Theories During The 2019 College Admissions Scandal: Operation Varsity Blues, Rebecca Grach

Senior Honors Theses

Operation Varsity Blues was a federal investigation in 2019 that discovered an enormous college admissions scandal, where wealthy parents were paying to have someone bribe school officials or coaches with the end goal of having their child accepted into an elite university. As the investigation was released, each of the eight universities involved sent out press releases that explained where the university stood regarding the scandal and what they were doing in response. Using the well-establish crisis communication theories of Benoit’s Image Repair Theory (1995) and Coomb’s Situational Crisis Communication Theory (2007), a qualitative content analysis on the communications from …

Impact Of Moral Ethics On Consumers’ Boycott Intentions: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Crisis Perceptions And Responses In The United States, South Korea, And Singapore, Kyujin Shim, Hichang Cho, Soojin Kim, Su Lin Yeo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates the effects of individuals’ ethics on perceptions and responses to a company’s crisis. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, it empirically tests a theoretical model of crisis attribution and emotional reaction with two antecedents (i.e., individualizing moral and binding moral) on three outcomes (i.e., crisis attribution, emotions, and boycott intentions), using more than 3000 samples from three culturally-diverse countries - the U.S., South Korea, and Singapore. The study finds that individualizing and binding moral foundations have significant effects on attribution, emotional reaction, and behavioral intentions related to corporate irresponsibility, but that their effects are distinct and vary across …

Serena, Inc.: Using Instagram To Build Brand Equity After A Crisis, Frauke Hachtmann

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

Serena Williams is one of the most successful athletes of all time. In addition to dominating the professional tennis circuit for decades, she has also built a massive business empire while becoming a first-time mother and wife. During this time of transition, Williams experienced a significant crisis moment during the 2018 US Open. Williams did not publicly acknowledge or apologise for the crisis and instead focused on a new sense of direction after living through the experience, much of which is documented and promoted on her Instagram account. This exploratory case study focuses on Serena Williams’s use of Instagram as …

Crisis Communication And Executive Leadership: Ethical Shortcomings In Government, Daniel Davidoff

School of Professional Studies

This research thesis project is an analysis of how and why governments fail in their attempts at crisis communication. The hypotheses tested are: there exists a negative correlation between unethical leadership and successful crisis communication practices. And governments are more likely to experience these failures due to ethical disconnects in modern politics. Research includes a review of relevant academic literature regarding crisis communication theory, as well as the ethical framework that can be applied to that theory. Cases considered are Hurricane Katrina, the choking death of Eric Garner, and the COVID-19 global pandemic. The research project concludes with a recommendation …

Public Relations Litigation, Kishanthi Parella

Scholarly Articles

Conventional wisdom holds that lawsuits harm a corporation’s reputation. So why do corporations and other businesses litigate even when they will likely lose in the court of law and the court of public opinion? One explanation is settlement: some parties file lawsuits not to win but to force the defendant to pay out. But some business litigants defy even this explanation; they do not expect to win the lawsuit or to benefit financially from settlement. What explains their behavior?

The answer is reputation. This Article explains that certain types of litigation can improve a business litigant’s reputation in the eyes …

Using The Theory Of Emotional Stakeholders To Experimentally Test The Influence Of Proxy Communicators About Organizational Crises In Digital News Reports, Alicia Mason, Elizabeth Spencer, Kelley Macek, Alison Smith, Stephanie Potter

Faculty Submissions

The emergence of new and social media has transformed the way that stakeholders and organizations interact between and amongst each other. Online news consumers are now able to directly respond to crisis news reports by offering their own interpretation, thus expanding the diversity of viewpoints audiences are exposed to (Carpenter, 2010; Springer, 2014). Using the Theory of Emotional Stakeholders framework our study aims (1) to understand how positive and negative user-generated comments in response to online news reports of crisis events impacts audience perceptions of organizational blame; (2) to examine the persuasive effects of user comments when expert or official …

Evolution Of Corporate Reputation During An Evolving Controversy, Siyoung Chung, Mark Chong, Jie Sheng Chua, Ji Cheon Na

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolution of online sentiments toward a company (i.e. Chipotle) during a crisis, and the effects of corporate apology on those sentiments. Design/methodology/approach: Using a very large data set of tweets (i.e. over 2.6m) about Company A’s food poisoning case (2015–2016). This case was selected because it is widely known, drew attention from various stakeholders and had many dynamics (e.g. multiple outbreaks, and across different locations). This study employed a supervised machine learning approach. Its sentiment polarity classification and relevance classification consisted of five steps: sampling, labeling, tokenization, augmentation of semantic …

Communicating In The Post‐Truth Era: Analyses Of Crisis Response Strategies Of Presidents Donald Trump And Rodrigo Duterte, Natasha Binte Mohamed Ismail, Marie Angeline Pagulayan, Carlo Miguel Alfonso Francia, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The rhetoric of then U.S. President‐elect Donald Trump and Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte had triggered a shift in global political discourse (Greene, 2016). This study examines their responses on three similar crises: disrespectful remarks towards women, associations with controversial political figures, and remarks threatening geopolitical relations. Data from prestige publications, Washington Post (U.S.) and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, were analyzed during the acute stage of each crisis. Findings showed that both men employed confusing strategy combinations in their crisis responses. Despite incoherent application and contradictory strategies, they survived threats to their image as evidenced by poll results. New strategies (diversion …

Crisis Communication And Ethics: The Role Of Public Relations, Yan Jin, Augustine Pang, Joshua Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

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 …

Potable To Poisonous: An Analysis Of The Flint, Michigan Water Crisis, Christina M. Reilly

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Flint, Michigan, switched its drinking water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River in April 2014 to cut costs after a projected deficit. When an accumulation of lead and bacteria contamination was discovered over a year after the switch, Michigan was declared to be in a Federal State of Emergency. This case study investigates the events and actions leading to both the water contamination and public exposure of the crisis, as well as explores how the constituents responded and continue to be impacted by the events.

How Crisis Managers Define Ethical Crisis Communication In Singapore: Identifying Organizational Factors That Influence Adoption Of Ethical Stances, Augustine Pang, Yan Jin, Benjamin Meng-Keng Ho

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study explores the veracity of the six ethical variables proposed in the contingency theory of strategic conflict management – the role of PR practitioner, the role of top management, nature of the crisis, the activism of stakeholders; government regulation/intervention; diversity to different cultures and exposure external business environments. In-depth interviews with 10 communication professionals in Singapore were conducted. In line with the patriarchal management structure, the top management plays a critical role in determining ethical stances, with practitioners playing important consultative positions. Also, the role of the relevant government almost predisposes the organization toward certain ethical stances. The study …

Did Bp Atone For Its Transgressions? Expanding Theory Of “Ethical Apology In Crisis Communication, Audra Diers-Lawson, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Ethical communication during crisis response is often assessed by external perceptions of the organization's intentions, rather than an assessment of the organization's communicative behaviors. This can easily lead researchers to draw editorial conclusions about an organization's ethics in crisis response rather than accurately describing its communicative behaviors. The case of BP's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico provides a prime example for the importance of accurately assessing the ethical content of an organization's crisis response because the ethics of BP's response have been discussed in news and academic sources; yet little direct examination of the ethical content in …

Parody Social Media Accounts: Influence And Impact On Organizations During Crisis, Sarah Wan, Regina Koh, Andrew Ong, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With the uptake of the use of social media, the communication field has seen a rise in a new phenomenon: parody social media accounts. Through study of five such accounts, this paper shows how parody social media accounts can arise from a crisis or paracrisis, which is “a publicly visible crisis threat” that is triggered online (Coombs & Holladay, 2012, p. 409). The study also examines the behavior of these accounts and how they enforce negative perceptions and impede an organization's efforts and initiatives. Using the social-mediated crisis communication model as its theoretical lens, this study seeks to examine parody …

Stakeholder Perceptions Of A University Response To Crisis, Katherine M. Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to contribute to current theory-driven research in crisis communication by examining the perceptions of multiple stakeholder groups to a university crisis response strategy. Two main questions were examined in this dissertation. The first question attempted to determine if a significant difference existed between stakeholder groups and their perception of university reputation, responsibility for the crisis, and potential supportive behaviors toward the university following the university’s response to a crisis. The second asked if Coombs’s Situational Crisis Communication Theory is a practical application for universities.

The participants were from 4 stakeholder groups associated with a …

Enduring Image: Capturing Defining Moments In Crises, Benjamin Ho, Augustine Pang, Grace Xiao-Pei Auyong, Liang-Tong Lau

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In today’s media environment, crises are magnified as media events and are rich sites for theinception ofimages. Particular images, like a photograph or a sound bite are found to endureas representations of defining moments of crises. This study seeks to examine the concept ofan enduring image, how it is engendered and how it impacts crisis communication efforts.The study utilizes five case studies of crisis with an inherent enduring image. An enduringimage constitutes a prime representation of the accused in a given crisis. These images areloaded with symbolic potential and exhibit a sense of permanence in public consciousness.Understanding the implications of …

Developing And Teaching The Crisis Communication Course, Mitchell Friedman

Communication Studies

Comer (2010) noted the absence of literature offering guidance to instructors charged with developing standalone courses on crisis management. This article aims to fill this void, relating the author’s experience in developing two crisis communication classes (one offered online, one in a traditional classroom setting). Drawing on 15 years of teaching experience (including single sessions devoted to crisis communication, reputation management, and related issues in public relations and business courses) plus the investigation of scholarly contributions related to the development of such courses, syllabi, and feedback from practitioners who develop and deliver related training, the article delivers the essential components …

Social Media Hype In Times Of Crises: Nature, Characteristics And Impact On Organizations, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article extends Vasterman’s (2005) concept of media hype by analyzing how it applies in the social media context. It then develops the concept of social media hype, its nature, characteristics through examination of five cases that attracted much social media attention. Social media hype can be defined as a netizen-generated hype that causes huge interest that is triggered by a key event and sustained by a self-reinforcing quality in its ability for users to engage in conversation. It involves a trigger event, followed by interest waves, and sustaining of the interests on different social media platforms. In response, organizations …

Derailed: Communicating Singapore’S Mass Transit Crises [Case Study], Pang, A.

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The case: In December 2011, one of Singapore’s main mass transit rail lines came to a standstill for several hours on two separate days. While occasional public transport breakdowns are unavoidable, the rail operator came under intense criticism for its poor handling of the incidents, including its failure in crisis communication. Its value: This case can be used to illustrate a number of perspectives and concepts from the literature on crisis and organisational communication. Of particular contemporary interest is what the case shows about how communication technologies, including social media, should and should not be used by organisations.

Corporate Historical Responsibility (Chr): Addressing A Past Of Forced Labor At Volkswagen, Claudia Janssen Danyi

Claudia I. Janssen Danyi, PhD

This article introduces corporate historical responsibility (CHR), a concept that can guide organizations when addressing dark corporate histories. CHR holds that organizations have responsibilities toward victims of past corporate practices and toward present reconciliatory discourse. Volkswagen’s discourse about its history of forced labor during WW II serves as an example of CHR. The rhetorical analysis illustrates that CHR hinges on the recognition of the past as a moral issue and on the organization’s ability to create historical accountability, take responsibility, make public acknowledgements, and remember its past. It further illustrates that CHR creates sustainable policies that can strengthen corporate citizenship …

Corporate Historical Responsibility (Chr): Addressing A Past Of Forced Labor At Volkswagen, Claudia Janssen Danyi

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

This article introduces corporate historical responsibility (CHR), a concept that can guide organizations when addressing dark corporate histories. CHR holds that organizations have responsibilities toward victims of past corporate practices and toward present reconciliatory discourse. Volkswagen’s discourse about its history of forced labor during WW II serves as an example of CHR. The rhetorical analysis illustrates that CHR hinges on the recognition of the past as a moral issue and on the organization’s ability to create historical accountability, take responsibility, make public acknowledgements, and remember its past. It further illustrates that CHR creates sustainable policies that can strengthen corporate citizenship …

Toward A Publics-Driven, Emotion-Based Conceptualization In Crisis Communication: Unearthing Dominant Emotions In Multi-Staged Testing Of The Integrated Crisis Mapping (Icm) Model, Yan Jin, Augustine Pang, Glen T. Cameron

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To better understand not only the minds, but also the hearts of key publics, we have developed a more systemic approach to understand the responses of audiences in crisis situations. The Integrated Crisis Mapping (ICM) model is based on a publics-based, emotion-driven perspective where the publics' responses to different crises are mapped on 2 continua, the organization's engagement in the crisis and primary publics' coping strategy. This multistage testing found evidence that anxiety was the default emotion that publics felt in crises. The subsequent emotions felt by the publics varied in different quadrants involving different crisis types. As far as …

Ethics And Its Vital Role In Crisis Communication: A Research On How To Survive From A Crisis In Today's Challenging Business Environment, Ozden Erim

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

The Final Countdown To Y2k: Is Your Small Business Ready?, Douglas J. Swanson Ed.D Apr

Douglas J. Swanson, Ed.D APR

No abstract provided.