A social constructionist approach to crisis management on X; the Spanish Football Association case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT In a backdrop of a changing social climate, in which organisations are expected to adhere to the rapidly evolving social expectations of the public, crisis management and communications cannot but be rethought and reshaped. In this study we explore a novel approach to crisis understanding and management, based on the social construction of a crisis and how it should be dealt with. Through the study of public’s views on X, we demonstrate that crisis understanding occurs in parallel and detached from the key actors involved, shaping the expectations and demands that the public has towards the organisation managing it. Through this, we argue that unlike previously studied and praised practices, a deviation needs to occur away from pre-prescribed crisis management and more towards a nuanced social constructionist approach of understanding each crisis at hand and correspondingly responding to it as expected.