COMM THEORY - ATTRIBUTION THEORY/CRISIS/COVID

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods Crisis Communication

Contributors: Author:Timothy Coombs Edited by: Mike Allen Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods Chapter Title: "Crisis Communication" Pub. Date: 2017 Access Date: August 21, 2020 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc City: Thousand Oaks Print ISBN: 9781483381435 Online ISBN: 9781483381411 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483381411.n108 Print pages: 291-293

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Crisis communication typically focuses on how organizations respond to a crisis and includes the external organizational messages and actions as well as the internal processing of information and decision making. Crisis communication is a mix of managing information and managing meaning during a crisis. A crisis can be viewed as a violation of stakeholder expectation that has the potential to create negative outcomes for an organization and/or the organization’s stakeholders. Moreover, crises are often sudden events that require a quick response. Crisis communication is among the fastest growing areas of research within public relations and corporate communication. A unique feature of crisis communication is its applied nature. The research concentrates on trying to improve the practice of crisis communication in order to better protect stakeholders and organizations from the harm a crisis can inflict. The crisis communication research is dominated by studies that seek to lessen the reputational damage a crisis can create for an organization. A variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods have been employed in the study of crisis communication. The various methods reflect the biases of the different theories being used to examine crisis communication. This entry covers the dominant qualitative and quantitative approaches to crisis communication. The qualitative approaches include case studies using rhetorical and discourse analysis. The quantitative approaches include experimental designs that identify the effects of crisis communication on key outcomes such as organizational reputation.

Qualitative Crisis Communication Studies

In terms of the number of studies, the case study method is by far the most common research method utilized in crisis communication. The case study method reflects how the early crisis communication theories emerged from rhetorical studies and political communication. Two of the earliest rhetorically based crisis communication theories are corporate apologia and image restoration theory.

Corporate Apologia

Corporate apologia adapted the idea of apologia from rhetorical theory for application in crises. Apologia is self-defense and the rhetorical genre examines how individuals would defend their character when that character was under attack. Corporate apologia extended self-defense to organizations in crisis. Corporate apologia occurs when some negative event happens and the organization is held responsible for that event. The negative event threatens the character of the organization (its reputation) and the organization must respond to the situation. Corporate apologia examines the case to determine how the organization responded and provides a qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of the crisis response. Corporate apologia uses the four response strategies from apologia: denial (people claim they are not involved in any wrongdoing), bolstering (the audience is reminded of the good things the people had done), differentiation (remove the action from its negative context), and transcendence (place the action in a new, broader context that is more favorable). Three additional strategies based on the concept of dissociation (dividing a concept into two parts) were later added. The dissociation strategies are opinion/knowledge (once people examine the facts they realize the organization is not responsible for the crisis), individual/group (just a few people inside the organization are responsible for the crisis), and act/essence (the crisis is an isolated event that does not accurately represent the organization). Dissociation benefits an organization by redefining the crisis situation so that the organization is viewed as less responsible for the crisis.

Image Restoration Theory

Image restoration theory (IRT) was developed by William Benoit and builds on apologia. IRT sought to go beyond the limited number of response options provided by corporate apologia. There are five primary strategies and 12 sub-strategies in IRT. The five primary strategies are (1) denial (two sub-strategies), (2) evading responsibility (four sub-strategies), (3) reducing offensiveness (six sub-strategies), (4) corrective action (repair damage and seek to prevent a recurrence of the event), and (5) mortification (admit guilt and ask for forgiveness). IRT holds that communication is goal-oriented and that protecting one’s image

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is a common goal. Similar to corporate apologia, IRT occurs when there is a threat to an individual’s or organization’s image (reputation). There must be some offensive act that is committed and the organization is linked to that act. The rhetorical case studies examine the crisis response, identify the response strategies that were used, and make qualitative judgments about the success or failure of the crisis management effort. IRT accounts for a large segment of the published crisis communication research.

Discourse of Renewal

The discourse of renewal is one additional rhetorical-based theory that uses case studies to examine crisis events. The discourse of renewal is prospective and focuses on helping the crisis victims and creating an optimistic view of the future. The belief is that an optimistic discourse helps to create a positive future for the organization and its stakeholders. There are a limited set of parameters for when the discourse of renewal can be used effectively. Those parameters are: the organization has a strong precrisis ethical standard; the constituency-organization precrisis relationships are strong and favorable; the organization can focus on life beyond the crisis rather than seeking to escape blame, including fixing the problem; and the organization desires to engage in effective crisis communication. The case studies typically include interviews with organizational leaders because the leaders are instrumental in the creation of the optimistic discourse. In addition to the interviews, background information about the organization and the organization’s actual response are examined to formulate a qualitative evaluation of the success or failure of the crisis communication effort.

Rhetorical Arena Theory

The rhetorical arena theory was developed by Danish researchers Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen. The theory argues that extant theories have a uni-vocal approach by focusing solely on the crisis response of the organization in crisis. The rhetorical arena theory posits that there are multiple crisis communicators during a crisis event that influence the outcome of the crisis. This is called a multi-vocal approach to crisis communication. When a crisis occurs, a rhetorical arena forms as people begin to discuss the crisis situation. The rhetorical arena theory operates on a macro and a micro level. On the macro level, the theory can be used to map the various crisis communicators in the arena. On the macro level, the researcher examines the four parameters of context, media, genre, and text. Once again a case study approach is used, but discourse analysis is the preferred method of analysis for the rhetorical arena theory.

Summary

The rhetorical and discourse analysis case studies seek to provide subjective insights into crisis communication efforts. Researchers utilize qualitative methods to locate patterns of communication or particular actions that seem to be effective or ineffective in a particular crisis case. Keep in mind these are qualitative judgments that cannot prove causal relationships between crisis communication actions and crisis outcomes.

Quantitative Crisis Communication Research

There is a substantial line of quantitative research in crisis communication as well. The quantitative research relies on experimental designs in order to establish relationships between core variables and to demonstrate causal relationships between certain crisis communication strategies and outcomes. The two major lines of quantitative crisis communication research are situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) and stealing thunder.

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Situational Crisis Communication Theory

SCCT was developed by American researchers Timothy Coombs and Sherry Holladay. It is rooted in attribution theory and posits that the effectiveness of a crisis response (the ability of a crisis response to protect the organization’s reputation) is heavily influenced by specific situational factors. Crisis responsibility is the central variable. Crisis responsibility is how strongly or weakly stakeholders perceive the organization as responsible for the crisis. The amount of reputational damage increases as attributions of crisis responsibility increase. As crisis responsibility intensifies, crisis managers need to use crisis response strategies that are more accommodative. Accommodative crisis response strategies focus more on the concerns of crisis victims and less on the organization itself. For instance, saying the crisis was accidental is low in accommodation while offering compensation to victims is high in accommodation.

Through experimental studies, SCCT has documented the influence of crisis type, crisis history, and prior reputation on attributions of crisis responsibility. Crisis types are the way a crisis is being framed. Organizational crises generally fall into one of three frames: victim (a crisis caused by some external force, creating very weak crisis responsibility attributions), accidental (minimal crisis responsibility), and preventable (strong crisis responsibility due to a crisis being caused by the managerial actions that placed stakeholders at risk or violated the law). Crisis history reveals whether or not the organization has had a similar crisis in the past. Prior reputation is how well or poorly the organization was perceived to have treated its stakeholders before the crisis occurred. Studies have shown that attributions of crisis responsibility increase if the organization had a previous crisis or the organization is known to have an unfavorable reputation prior to the crisis.

These three variables are used in a two-step process to assess the potential crisis responsibility a crisis is likely to generate. The initial assessment is to determine how the crisis is being framed—the crisis type that is being presented to stakeholders. The second step in the assessment is to determine if there were any past crises or an unfavorable prior reputation. If any of these two intensifiers are present, there will be stronger attributions of crisis responsibility than is indicated by the crisis type. For instance, an accident crisis type should be treated as a preventable crisis if one of the intensifiers is present. Once the assessment is completed, crisis managers can estimate if they are facing a crisis with a low or high amount of crisis responsibility. If the crisis responsibility is low, crisis managers can use the ethical base response. The ethical base response tells stakeholders what they can do to protect themselves physically from a crisis (if there is a physical threat) and helps the stakeholders to cope psychologically with the crisis through expressions of concern and other efforts. If the crisis responsibility is high, crisis managers should use the ethical base response and couple that with either compensation and/or an apology. Studies have shown the value of matching the crisis response to the level of crisis responsibility for protecting the organization’s reputation during a crisis.

Stealing Thunder

“Stealing thunder” focuses on the timing and source of the crisis announcement. The stealing thunder experiments find that in the exact same crisis situation, the crisis does less reputational damage to an organization when the organization is the first source of information about the crisis. If another source is first, such as the news media, the crisis will inflict greater reputational damage than if the organization is the source. The stealing thunder studies show a causal relationship between the timing and source of information about the crisis and the effect of the crisis on the organization’s reputation.

Timothy Coombs

See also Communication and Culture; Communication Theory; Emergency Communication; Environmental Communication; Field Experiments; Health Communication; Media Effects Research; Organizational Communication; Public Relations

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Further Readings

Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Claeys, A. S., & Cauberghe, V. (2010). Crisis response and crisis timing strategies: Two sides of the same coin. Public Relations Review, 38(1), 83–88.

Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (2002). Helping crisis managers protect reputational assets: Initial tests of the situational crisis communication theory. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 165–186.

Frandsen, F., & Johansen, W. (2010b). Crisis communication, complexity, and the cartoon affair: A case study. In W. T. Coombs & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), Handbook of crisis communication (pp. 425–448). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Hearit, K. M. (1995). “Mistakes were made”: Organizations, apologia, and crises of social legitimacy. Communication Studies, 46, 1–17

Ulmer, R. R., Seeger, M. W., & Sellnow, T. L. (2010). Considering the future of crisis communication research: Understanding the opportunities inherent to crisis events through the discourse of renewal. In W. T. Coombs & S. J. Holladay (Eds.), Handbook of crisis communication (pp. 691–697). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Timothy Coombs

• crisis communication • organizations • apologia • the crisis • crisis

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483381411.n108 10.4135/9781483381411.n108

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