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Breaking The Sound Of Silence: Explication In The Use Of Strategic Silence In Crisis Communication, Pang, A., Yan Jin, Youngji Seo, Sung In Choi, Hui-Xun Teo, Phuong D. Le, Bryan Reber
Breaking The Sound Of Silence: Explication In The Use Of Strategic Silence In Crisis Communication, Pang, A., Yan Jin, Youngji Seo, Sung In Choi, Hui-Xun Teo, Phuong D. Le, Bryan Reber
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Crises present organizations with the “rhetorical exigency” to enact control. Silence is not an option. This study, as the first empirical examination of Le et al’s (2019) seminal study on silence in crisis communication, examines, first, if silence can be strategically used as a bona fide strategy; second, under what circumstances should silence be broken; and third, when silence is broken, how it affects (a) organizational reputation, (b) societal risk perception, and (c) the publics’ crisis information sharing intention. An online experiment was conducted using a nationally representative sample in the United States. Participants were recruited in 2019 via a …
When Silence Is Golden: The Use Of Strategic Silence In Crisis Management, Phuong D. Le, Hui Xun Teo, Augustine Pang, Yuling Li, Cai-Qin Goh
When Silence Is Golden: The Use Of Strategic Silence In Crisis Management, Phuong D. Le, Hui Xun Teo, Augustine Pang, Yuling Li, Cai-Qin Goh
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
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 …