Managing Stakeholder Emotions and Cultural Differences during Crisis: Lessons from Four Different Countries

Abstract

Since 2008, the world has witnessed some major transport (airlines, rail and submarine) failures around different continents. Among all others, Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, Malaysia Airline flight MH370, Canadian MM&A Train explosion and British Airways Boeing 777 left the world and its people under shock. Nonetheless, the immense mental trauma through which the victim families went was unimaginable. The way some authorities managed the emotions of the victim families during these crisis were really appreciable. This paper assessed the ways through which these disasters were managed by respective authorities from two perspectives, effective management of emotions of the victim families and cultural differences in crisis communication. Integrated crisis model (ICM), complexity theory and Hofstede's cultural frameworks were used to recommend culture specific crisis management techniques and effective organisational responses in dealing with the observed emotions among the stakeholders.