Crisis Management Research Research Articles

Culpable leaders, trust, emotional exhaustion, and identification during a crisis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate followers’ judgments of the culpability of their leaders and the organization’s external stakeholders in causing a crisis. The authors study the differences in effects of these judgments on their trust toward their leaders, their emotional exhaustion, and their levels of organizational identification.Design/methodology/approachUsing the survey method the authors collected data from 354 individuals from an organization that filed for bankruptcy. Respondents’ comments also provided qualitative data that was used to triangulate the findings.FindingsThe authors find that individuals’ judgments that their leaders were culpable led to reduced trust, increased emotional exhaustion, and contrary to expectations reduced organizational identification. Therefore, it appears that in situations of perceived leader culpability during a crisis, followers tightly couple their leaders with the organization as a whole. In contrast, their judgments that external stakeholders were culpable were associated with increased trust toward their leaders, increased organizational identification, and they had no relationship with their levels of emotional exhaustion. The analysis of the qualitative data provides some insights into their judgments and the dependent variables.Research limitations/implicationsOrganizational members’ judgments of culpability are important factors that should be considered in crisis management research, and in research on trust, emotional exhaustion, and organizational identification. A limitation of the study is that it is cross-sectional in nature. Therefore, future research could test the findings in a longitudinal study.Practical implicationsLeaders need to understand the judgments of their followers during an organizational crisis. These judgments have implications for when and how leaders can mobilize their followers and the leadership tasks during crisis containment.Originality/valueExtant research tends to focus on the judgments of external stakeholders during a crisis. This study is one of the first to examine the effects of internal stakeholders’ judgments of culpability for causing a crisis on their trust, emotional exhaustion, and organizational identification. Further, existing empirical studies on followers’ attributions during a crisis tend to be laboratory based. The study provides empirical evidence from individuals in an actual organization in crisis.

Facebook and Twitter in Crisis Communication: A Comparative Study of Crisis Communication Professionals and Citizens

This mixed‐methods study presents a comparative analysis of the use and perceived usefulness of Facebook and Twitter, among Swedish citizens and crisis communication professionals, as crisis communication tools and information sources. The use and perceived usefulness of Facebook and Twitter are not congruent and consistent between the two different groups, according to the overall study. Communication professionals, for example, report higher levels of perceived usefulness regarding Facebook's potential as a crisis communication tool than do the citizens. Taken together, the results show that researchers (within social media and crisis communication) and crisis managers both need to deal with the fact that social media is not a homogenous phenomenon with a single coherent role in crisis management and communication research and practice.

Leader culpability, hopelessness, and learning during organizational crises

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to investigate followers’ judgments of leader culpability and learning during a crisis, and the extent to which judgments of culpability create hopelessness and reduce crisis learning. The authors also study factors that moderate these relationships.Design/methodology/approach– Using the survey method the authors collected data from 354 individuals from a nonprofit organization that filed for bankruptcy. Respondents’ comments also provided qualitative data that was used to triangulate the findings.Findings– The authors find that followers made judgments of leader culpability and reported crisis learning. However, followers’ judgments have no direct effect on their crisis learning, but have an indirect effect by increasing hopelessness. The authors also find that followers’ job satisfaction and perceptions of sufficient crisis communications moderate this relationship. The qualitative data provides insights into the areas on which leaders were judged, and what was learned during the crisis.Research limitations/implications– More research on internal stakeholders’ judgments of their leaders during organizational crises is important as they affect followers’ psychological states and behaviors. Future research can test the findings in a longitudinal study.Practical implications– Leaders need to pay attention to the judgments of their followers during a crisis as they could foster hopelessness and reduce learning. Providing sufficient crisis communications and enabling job satisfaction could lessen these negative effects.Originality/value– Extant research tends to focus on the judgments of external stakeholders during crises. This study is one of the first to examine the effects of internal stakeholders’ judgments of leader culpability on their sense of hopelessness and crisis learning, and the moderating factors that reduce their negative effects. The authors also contribute to understanding what aspects of leadership are judged by followers during a crisis, and what followers learn from a crisis. These are areas that have not been previously examined in crisis management research. The authors also provide evidence from individuals in an actual organization in crisis which tends not to be the norm in crisis attribution and crisis learning research.

The situation in Ukraine: one or many realities?

The Ukrainian situation can be classified as a crisis according to the National Center for Crisis Management Research and Training (CRiSMART) who regards a crisis as “a situation, which entails a s...

Instruction in crisis situations: Targeting learning preferences and self-efficacy

This study employs instructional communication and crisis communication theoretical frameworks to experimentally examine messages tailored to learning style preferences to determine their effect on receivers’ perceived efficacy to take self-protective measures during a crisis event. In the first phase of the study, participants (N=254) viewed manipulated instructional media messages in the form of simulated news reports that reflected one of four learning styles. Results revealed no significant differences in perceived self-efficacy based on receiver learning style preference or message manipulation tailored to specific learning styles, but there was an interaction effect. In the second phase, participants (N=123) completed pre-test and post-test measures of self-efficacy and watched a message that either matched or mismatched their learning style preference. Overall, participant self-efficacy significantly increased at post-test. However, none of the tailored messages significantly increased post-test self-efficacy over the others. The results extend both instructional communication and crisis management research, and provide avenues for future research utilizing instructional theories and frameworks and message tailoring to influence crisis management, instructional message design and self-protection efficacy.

Crisis management revisited: A new agenda for research, training and capacity building within Europe

Fifteen years ago we presented an agenda for crisis management research and training in Europe, here that article is revisited through a comprehensive review of social science scholarship in the field. Both the discourses on risk and crisis ‘management’ and on crisis ‘politics’ are surveyed in an effort to show the connect between knowledge and policy agendas for capacity building. Priority areas for European research are identified and discussed. The vital roles of research-based education and experience-based training to foster enhanced crisis management practices are noted. Independent yet policy-focused centres of crisis management scholarship are encouraged and needed. These should be linked through a transnational network to support a common ‘rapid reflection’ force in service of European leadership, when it matters the most.

Multi-Theoretical Perspectives in Crisis Management

Despite the considerable attention scholars have devoted to understanding organizational crises and crisis management, theoretical integration across disciplines remains limited. This panel symposium brings together researchers from public relations, communications, organizational behavior, and organization theory to address three questions which are foundational to the future of crisis management research: 1) How do we define an organizational crisis, 2) How can we integrate theories across disciplines to work towards a comprehensive theory of crisis management, and 3) How can crisis management research better provide value to managers, practitioners, and other stakeholders?

Case analysis of capability deployment in crisis prevention and response

The topic of effective crisis prevention and response is attracting significant interests from corporations and governments. It is evident that the nature within any crisis is unpredictable, erratic and difficult to prevent. Organizations are therefore preparing for unexpected events by outlining their crisis response strategies. The fact that crises may not repeat themselves and a given crisis solution might not be directly applicable to another crisis represents radical shifts in routines. As such, an organization may have to improvise when putting together a set of resources and capabilities for a response. This case study complements existing crisis management research that emphasizes both prevention and response by focusing on how an organization may adapt and deploy resources and capabilities accordingly. To meet the objective, the research draws upon an in-depth case study of Singapore's response tothe Asian Tsunami disaster in 2004. Our findings offer a useful contribution to organizations’ knowledge of mobilizing resources and capabilities during dynamic crisis situations. The case concludes with several research and practical implications.

The social process of escalation: a promising focus for crisis management research.

BackgroundThis study identifies a promising, new focus for the crisis management research in the health care domain. After reviewing the literature on health care crisis management, there seems to be a knowledge-gap regarding organisational change and adaption, especially when health care situations goes from normal, to non-normal, to pathological and further into a state of emergency or crisis.DiscussionBased on studies of escalating situations in obstetric care it is suggested that two theoretical perspectives (contingency theory and the idea of failure as a result of incomplete interaction) tend to simplify the issue of escalation rather than attend to its complexities (including the various power relations among the stakeholders involved). However studying the process of escalation as inherently complex and social allows us to see the definition of a situation as normal or non-normal as an exercise of power in itself, rather than representing a putatively correct response to a particular emergency.ImplicationsThe concept of escalation, when treated this way, can help us further the analysis of clinical and institutional acts and competence. It can also turn our attention to some important elements in a class of social phenomenon, crises and emergencies, that so far have not received the attention they deserve. Focusing on organisational choreography, that interplay of potential factors such as power, professional identity, organisational accountability, and experience, is not only a promising focus for future naturalistic research but also for developing more pragmatic strategies that can enhance organisational coordination and response in complex events.

Investigating the Roots of Crisis Management Studies and Outlining Future Trajectories for the Field

This article presents a review of some literatures that have been instrumental in forming at times disparate scholarly thoughts on managerial and operational decision-making and behavior during extraordinary events into the nascent academic field known as crisis management studies. The article outlines some of the most influential literature streams, presents their main findings, reveals four significant knowledge gaps in the present literature, and calls for future crisis management research to direct attention to the organization as the principal level of analysis.

Crisis management for SMEs: insights from a multiple-case study

Research in crisis management involves a variety of perspectives, including crisis impacts, strategic vision and leadership, contingency planning and technical capabilities. However, crisis management mechanisms of small and medium enterprise (SMEs) were rarely investigated for sound theory building and practical guidance for management. The aim of this paper is to explore mechanisms by which SMEs use to manage crisis. This paper presents a general crisis management model that represents crisis management processes in terms of detection, occurrence, recovery and resolution. To validate and refine this model, a multiple-case study is designed to investigate five SMEs’ actual crisis management practices. The case study results show that SMEs, in spite of their resources constraints and relatively weak market positions, display resilient market responsiveness. This paper further suggests that effective crisis management of SMEs involve proactive business mindsets for sustainable growth and continuous expansions.

Crisis Response Information Networks

In the past two decades, organizational scholars have focused significant attention on how organizations manage crises. While most of these studies concentrate on crisis prevention, there is a growing emphasis on crisis response. Because information that is critical to crisis response may become outdated as crisis conditions change, crisis response research recognizes that the management of information flows and networks is critical to crisis response. Yet despite its importance, little is known about the various types of crisis information networks and the role of IT in enabling these information networks. Employing concepts from information flow and social network theories, this paper contributes to crisis management research by developing four crisis response information network prototypes. These networks are based on two main dimensions: (1) information flow intensity and (2) network density. We describe how considerations of these two dimensions with supporting case evidence yield four prototypical crisis information response networks: Information Star, Information Pyramid, Information Forest, and Information Black-out. In addition, we examine the role of IT within each information network structure. We conclude with guidelines for managers to deploy appropriate information networks during crisis response and with suggestions for future research related to IT and crisis management.

Placing Crisis Management Research in Context : An Analysis and a Call for the State of Crisis Management Research in Public Relations

본 연구는 PR분야 국제학술지인 Public Relations Review와 Journal of Public Relations Research에 지난 11년간(1999-2009) 게재된 노출도 높은 PR학술논문들을 중심으로 위기관리 PR연구의 최근 경향을 내용분석하였다. 특히, PR분야 위기관리연구에 있어서 주로 공헌한 학자와 대학, 자주 사용된 연구 방법론, 주로 연구된 주제 및 이론적 배경 등에 대해 분석하였다. 분석의 틀로 주목한 위기관리의 4단계를 바탕으로 본 연구는 향후 위기관리PR연구들이 사전 이슈관리 단계, 전략적 리스크 커뮤니케이션 단계, 반응적 위기커뮤니케이션 단계, 회복의 평판관리 단계에서의 연구의제들을 균형적으로 조사하고 심화, 확장시켜 나가야 한다고 제언하였다. 또한, 다수의 PR분야 위기관리연구가 이론을 적용하지 않았던 경향을 관찰하면서 본 연구는 향후 연구자들이 유관 연구들을 기획하고 수행하는데 있어 이론적 배경을 바탕으로 한 가설 검증과 이론의 개발을 위해 보다 노력해야 한다고 주장하였다.

Introduction to the special issue: information and communications technology for crisis management: defining an agenda for scientific research

Information and communication technology (ICT) for postdisaster management of critical infrastructure functions best when its design follows from a solid understanding of the sociotechnical systems that it is meant to support. Yet as is evident from past (Quarantelli 1997) and more current research (National Research Council 2007), there are significant gaps in scientific understanding concerning how ICT should be designed (Computer Science and Telecommunications Board 1996), used (Stewart and Bostrom 2002), and evaluated (Orlikowski and Iacono 2001). ICT often provides the means by which data, information, and knowledge are shared and used across critical infrastructure systems. Contributions to ICT research in crisis management therefore bear directly upon questions of how to analyze, design, and manage critical infrastructure systems. Developing an agenda for fundamental ICT-centered research in the domain of crisis management is likely to require input from multiple disciplines. The papers in this special issue are the result of a convergence of workshopbased discussions among researchers. These discussions, and the various working papers that led to the contributed articles, centered on three questions (Stewart and Bostrom 2002):

LEADERSHIP STYLE, CRISIS RESPONSE AND BLAME MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF HURRICANE KATRINA

Crisis management research has largely ignored one of the most pressing challenges political leaders are confronted with in the wake of a large-scale extreme event: how to cope with what is commonly called the blame game. In this article, we provide a heuristic to help understand political leader responses to blame in the aftermath of crises, emphasizing the crucial role of their leadership style on the political management of Inquiries. After integrating theoretical and empirical findings on crisis management and political leadership styles, we illustrate our heuristic by applying it to the Bush administration's response to Hurrican Katrina in 2005. We conclude by offering suggestions for further research on the underdeveloped subject of the blame management challenges faced by political leaders in the wake of acute crisis episodes.

Small business research: time for a crisis-based view

Small business and crisis management research are two established but largely uncoupled domains of study. Given the economic importance and vulnerability of a small businesses, closer attention is ...

Small business research: Time for a crisis-based view

Small business and crisis management research are two established but largely uncoupled domains of study. Given the economic importance and vulnerability of a small businesses, closer attention is needed to understand how their owners think and act in relation to crisis management efforts in the event of business interruptions.This study highlights the relative absence of crisis management research in the small business literature and the absence of a small business focus in the crisis management literature, despite a rising tide of regulation and legislation that requires companies to have crisis/business continuity management arrangements in place. The study examines the understanding of, and resourcing and support for, crisis management using case studies from four UK small businesses. The resulting analysis illuminates four themes; understanding risks, three-dimensional crisis, learning from crisis, and stifled support systems. Furthermore, data suggest that owner-managers may frame risks in two ways — a ‘growth vulnerability paradox’ and the ‘risk elastic’ — while their understanding of crisis is conceptualized using a chronological approach to identify three key areas: crisis threat, crisis response, and crisis impact. The study concludes by asserting the need for a crisis-based view of small business research and proposes an agenda for future study.

Leadership Style, Crisis Response and Blame Management: The Case of Hurricane Katrina

Crisis management research has largely ignored one of the most pressing challenges political leaders are confronted with in the wake of a large-scale extreme event: how to cope with what is commonly called the blame game. In this article, we provide a heuristic to help understand political leader responses to blame in the aftermath of crises, emphasizing the crucial role of their leadership style on the political management of Inquiries. After integrating theoretical and empirical findings on crisis management and political leadership styles, we illustrate our heuristic by applying it to the Bush administration’s response to Hurrican Katrina in 2005. We conclude by offering suggestions for further research on the underdeveloped subject of the blame management challenges faced by political leaders in the wake of acute crisis episodes.

Crisis management: a strategic and tactical leadership imperative for organisational sustainability

Crisis management is a strategic and tactical leadership imperative which can positively or negatively impact an organisation's or a nation's competitive capability and potential for long-term success, survival, and sustainability. Therefore, crisis management should be integrated into the overall strategic and tactical plans of organisations and nations. Organisational leaders should use a crisis management process which is capable of being consistent and easily replicated. In this article, the authors propose a seven step crisis management process which aligns well with the classical/traditional strategic management process. In addition, we offer an example of the integration of crisis management into an organisational strategic plan. Also, we make recommendations for future crisis management research.

한국 행정학에서의 위기관리 연구경향 실증분석: 1987년부터 2007년까지의 연구논문을 중심으로

This article analyzed the crisis and emergency management research trend in the field of public administration in Korea from 1987 to 2007. The research purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate the state of art in the crisis and emergency management research trend and explore research topics and methodology for future studies. According to empirical analysis, the main research results are as follows. First, almost all research papers over 80% have been written after 1998 and, especially, 67.6% of all papers have been published from 2003-2007. Second, recently lots of scholars are more interested in the problem solving prescriptive topics than normative and theory orientation. Third, in the Korean public administration, 74.6% of research papers which dealt with crisis, have investigated the disaster crisis including natural and man-made disasters, among conventional security crisis, disaster crisis, critical infrastructure crisis, and living safety crisis. Finally, so far, crisis and emergency management research trend in Korean public administration have consisted mainly of the papers with more descriptive approach and literature survey than empirical approach and survey research.