Week 3 Question

Journal Article- (Points – 50)

Please read the attached journal article titled- ‘Restoring reputations in times of crisis: An experimental study of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the moderating effects of locus of control’.

Hint: Week 1 folder provides you tips on ‘how to find and read research articles’. Use those tips to skim through the article. I have also highlighted few sections (in yellow) that are important from this assignment perspective.

Pay attention to the theory and measures section of the paper to answer the following questions:

Abstract: This study attempts to provide empirical evidence for Coombs’ (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), which provides guidelines for matching crisis response strategies to crisis types to best restore organizational reputations in times of crisis. The impact of crisis type and crisis response strategies on perceptions of corporate reputation is measured for 316 consumers participating in a 3 (crisis type: victim crisis, accidental crisis, preventable crisis) × 3 (crisis response: deny strategy, diminish strategy, rebuild strategy) between-subjects experimental design. The results show that preventable crises have the most negative effects on organizational reputation and that the rebuild strategy leads to the most positive reputational restoration. Moreover, the more severe people judge a crisis to be, the more negative are their perceptions of the organization’s reputation. The interaction effect between crisis type and crisis response strategies on corporate reputation is not significant. However, a person’s locus of control has a moderating impact on the relationship between crisis response strategy and organizational reputation. Specifically, the results show that people with an external locus of control prefer the use of deny strategies more than people with an internal locus of control 

1. Identify the theory used in the article (5 points)

2. Describe the theory briefly (10 points)

3. Describe their Hypothesis 1 (H1) (5 points)

4. Do you think the authors did a good job in how they developed their hypothesis? (5 points)

5. Identify all variables in the study (5 points).

6. How was each variable operationally defined? (5 points)

7. How was each variable measured (i.e what scales were used)? (5 points)

8. What was the scale of measurement for each variable? (5 points)

9. Provide the APA citation of the article (5 points) (Hint: Week 1 folder has a separate powerpoint that talks about how to cite in APA style)