Strategic Crisis Response

For organizations crises are pervasive, difficult to
keep quiet, challenging, unexpected, and can be
catastrophic. Since the late 1970s, there has been a
breadth of research focusing on crisis communication
strategies. However, while our knowledge of what
crisis response strategies exist and are used is
broad, there is a dearth of research and analysis
emphasizing relationships between response
strategies, the influence of situation and
organization, and outcomes. The present research
proposes a Situational Model of Crisis Communication
and begins to test the model in a cross-sectional
sample of crises by focusing on the influence of type
of organization and type of crisis on the message
components of crisis response strategy and invocation
of organizational culture. Findings indicate that
organization and crisis type strongly influence
message components, the invocation of organizational
culture is an important component in crisis response
messages and that the use of crisis response
strategies emerges into eight particular approaches
to crisis response in contemporary organizations.

Autorentext

Dr. Audra Diers specializes in strategic crisis response. She hasworked with nonprofits, advocacy groups, and businesses-small,medium, and multinational. Her MA is from the University ofWyoming and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.Today, she is on faculty at Marist College and runs herconsulting firm-Strategy Consulting.

Klappentext

For organizations crises are pervasive, difficult tokeep quiet, challenging, unexpected, and can becatastrophic. Since the late 1970s, there has been abreadth of research focusing on crisis communicationstrategies. However, while our knowledge of whatcrisis response strategies exist and are used isbroad, there is a dearth of research and analysisemphasizing relationships between responsestrategies, the influence of situation andorganization, and outcomes. The present researchproposes a Situational Model of Crisis Communicationand begins to test the model in a cross-sectionalsample of crises by focusing on the influence of typeof organization and type of crisis on the messagecomponents of crisis response strategy and invocationof organizational culture. Findings indicate thatorganization and crisis type strongly influencemessage components, the invocation of organizationalculture is an important component in crisis responsemessages and that the use of crisis responsestrategies emerges into eight particular approachesto crisis response in contemporary organizations.