Abstract
Over the past few years, crises at South African universities have become a regular occurrence. A growing number of researchers have confirmed that Coombs’ Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) assists in understanding how management generally responds to a crisis situation. This study used SCCT to investigate how the crisis communication activities at one South African university of technology was perceived by the staff of that institution. The study examined, through a survey among a stratified random sample of staff members, the respondents’ perceptions of the communication channels and crisis response strategies that management used when communicating with staff during crises related to student protests at the University. The findings suggest that the University mainly used the justification crisis response strategy to communicate to university stakeholders, while rarely using the other strategies found in SCCT. The communication channels most preferred by staff for crisis communication were SMSs and WhatsApp messages, while the University website was perceived to have been used most by management. The article finally makes some recommendations, but also points out some limitations of the study.
Highlights
An organisational crisis is a condition that can intensify and may threaten the image of an organisation, or even interfere with the everyday business activities (Stephens et al 2005)
The aim of the study was to understand what kinds of internal communication channels, and what kinds of crisis communication approaches, are perceived by employees at a South African university of technology to be effective and to be used most by management when communicating with employees during a crisis period at the University
The section outlines which communication channels were perceived to be used most in the crisis communication, and thirdly, it is pointed out which communication channels the employees preferred most for purposes of crisis communication
Summary
An organisational crisis is a condition that can intensify and may threaten the image of an organisation, or even interfere with the everyday business activities (Stephens et al 2005). Recent literature and media reports have acknowledged the prevalence of workplace crises. From a range of media sources, it can be presumed that the situation is increasing rapidly, affecting major corporates, universities, state organisations, as well as international brands and entities. Crises at South African universities are not a new phenomenon. Since 2015 the South African higher education sector saw countrywide student protests. The use of SCCT to study crisis response strategies over fees, known as the #FeesMustFall movement. This movement triggered unrest across South African universities, which led to temporary closures at some. Even those universities that are usually adept at resolving student crises were not equipped to handle the crisis
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