Measuring Crisis Communication Preparedness Across Different Branches of Government – Sharing Experiences Gained in Finland

Marita Vos,Aino Ruggiero,Pauliina Palttala,Petri Kekäle

doi:10.29333/ojcmt/2363

Abstract

An audit measurement of crisis communication preparedness was conducted for 67 organizations, mainly on the national level, in Finland. This unique project was one of the ways to implement new crisis communication regulations getting into force a year earlier. Its purpose was to strengthen central government communication in incidents and emergencies. The audit consisted of a digital survey in the participating organizations and a reflection meeting on the level of each of the 14 branches involved. The indicators were customized taking the crisis communication scorecard, developed in an international project, as a basis. In addition, several meetings were arranged to facilitate related interorganizational learning and exchange of practices. The findings showed diversity across the different branches of government and led to an exchange of practices. The evaluation of the measurement tool confirmed that it had been good to include reputation issues in the indicators for the national government level, as crises are diverse and can be initiated by reputation issues, or emergencies may also bring up reputation issues.

Highlights

Performance measurement has been utilized before, but a broad measurement applied to crisis communication on the national level has not been reported before
The research builds on work done in an earlier project ‘Developing a Crisis Communication Scorecard’, supported by EU funding1
The indicators of the crisis communication scorecard were taken as a starting point

Summary

Introduction

Performance measurement has been utilized before, but a broad measurement applied to crisis communication on the national level has not been reported before. The research builds on work done in an earlier project ‘Developing a Crisis Communication Scorecard’, supported by EU funding. The research consortium for this project had been led by a Finnish team, and Finnish experts had been represented in its Advisory Board. The project delivered an online tool for the evaluation of emergency crisis communication by public organizations before, during and after a crisis. The indicators of the crisis communication scorecard were taken as a starting point. The indicators were customized to suit a benchmark among 67 Finnish governmental organizations, implemented in 2014. The initiative was taken by the Prime-Minister’s Office with crisis communication representatives of the organizations involved, following new state regulations for crisis communication in Finland that aim at strengthening central government communication in incidents and emergencies

Methods

Results

Conclusion