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The role of empathy in crisis communication: Providing a deeper understanding of how organizational crises and crisis communication affect reputation

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Abstract

This study advances our theoretical knowledge of how organizational crises and crisis communication affect reputation. Prior research solely emphasizes the importance of organizational crisis responsibility in this process. Three experiments show that stakeholders’ empathy toward the organization provides a second explanation. The first two experiments demonstrate that victim crises not only inflict less reputational damage than preventable crises because stakeholders consider the organization less responsible for the events, but also because they are more likely to empathize with the company. The third study shows that empathy can also explain the outcomes of crisis communication. An apology arouses empathy among stakeholders and subsequently increases reputation repair, unlike denial. The role of empathy in the crisis communication process has implications for both theory and practice.

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... Jin et al., 2012;Kim & Cameron, 2011;Ndone, 2022;Niu & Ma, 2023;Van der Meer & Verhoeven, 2014). Other scholars have also examined underlying emotions (like empathy) that drive crisis outcomes (Ndone & Park, 2022;Schoofs et al., 2019). While emotional crisis communication has indeed been extensively studied, the dynamic nature of crises and evolving stakeholder expectations necessitate ongoing research. ...
... Anger influences perceptions of blame, potentially amplifying reputational harm if not effectively managed (Clementson & Xie, 2020;Jin, 2013). On the other hand, empathy has been established as one of the main reasons why apologies work as a crisis response strategy (Ndone & Park, 2022;Schoofs et al., 2019). Therefore, the current study builds on research on emotional crisis communication by exploring how emotions (anger, cognitive empathy, and affective empathy) mediate the relationship between crisis type, CSR fit, and the outcome variables listed above. ...
... When stakeholders exhibit higher cognitive empathy, they better comprehend the organization's viewpoint and the crisis context. This enhances the effectiveness of response strategies, such as apologies that offer explanations and context (Schoofs et al., 2019). When stakeholders emotionally connect with the organization, they are more inclined to forgive transgressions and maintain a favorable view of the organization (Ndone & Park, 2022). ...
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This study investigates how three types of emotions (anger, affective empathy, and cognitive empathy) mediate the relationship between crisis type and corporate social responsibility (CSR) fit and organizational outcomes such as purchase intentions, negative word‐of‐mouth (nwom), organizational reputation, as well as forgiveness. An online 2 (crisis type: product‐harm vs. moral‐harm) x 2 (CSR fit: high fit vs. low fit) between‐subjects design (N = 412) was conducted with the participants recruited via CloudResearch, a crowdsourcing platform. The findings indicate that anger significantly mediates the relationship between crisis \type and crisis outcomes, with product‐harm crises increasing anger and leading to more negative outcomes. Conversely, high CSR fit reduces anger and enhances positive organizational outcomes. Affective empathy also mediates these relationships, with product‐harm crises lowering affective empathy and CSR fit improving it, subsequently influencing purchase intentions, reputation, forgiveness, and negative word‐of‐mouth. Cognitive empathy partially mediates these effects, particularly affecting negative word‐of‐mouth, reputation, and forgiveness. These results suggest that managing stakeholder emotions through CSR alignment can effectively mitigate negative impacts during crises. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Maintaining a positive organizational reputation is invaluable in attracting business, creating investment interest, and enhancing return (Carmeli & Tishler, 2005;Coombs & Holladay, 2001;Kim, 2017;Kim & Sung, 2014;Wilcox et al., 2000). SCCT posits that the more responsibility stakeholders attribute to an organization in a crisis, the greater the damage to its reputation (Coombs, 2004a(Coombs, , 2007Lee, 2004;Schoofs et al., 2019). Therefore, each crisis cluster's varying degree of attributed responsibility threatens organizational reputation at different levels, with the victim cluster posing the slightest threat, the accidental cluster posing a moderate threat, and the preventable cluster posing the greatest threat (Coombs & Holladay, 2002). ...
... Coombs and Holladay (2005) found that crisis responsibility was negatively related to sympathy and positively related to anger and schadenfreude. Furthermore, emotions have been shown to mediate between crisis responsibility and publics' responses toward the organization (Coombs & Holladay, 2007;Kim & Cameron, 2011;Schoofs et al., 2019). Researchers have found a statistically significant mediation model wherein the emotions aroused by a crisis, such as anger, sympathy, and sadness, mediate the effect of crisis responsibility on organizational reputation (Coombs & Holladay, 2007;Kim & Yang, 2009;Utz et al., 2013). ...
... This study also duplicated The Paper's web page and removed all social cues, such as the number of likes, reposts, and comments. The names of the companies were fictitious because fictional organizations provide better control over the effects of their prior reputation (Claeys & Cauberghe, 2014;Schoofs et al., 2019;Sisco, 2012). Furthermore, changing the organization's names and keeping the other information the same is equivalent to a real crisis scenario (Coombs, 2016). ...
Article
Scholars have called for communication research to verify the causal claims of mediation models from a research design perspective, instead of only proving mediation statistically. This study validates whether and how anger mediates the causal effects of crisis types on publics’ responses in Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), including reputation, negative word-of-mouth intention, and purchase intention in China. Two experiments were conducted based on the experimental-causal-chain design. Results in Study 1 demonstrate that the causal relationships between three crisis types and publics’ emotional and other responses in China are consistent with findings in Western contexts. In Study 2, the results of a 2 (anger: low, high) x 3 (crisis types: victim crisis, accidental crisis, preventable crisis) factorial experiment reveal significant mediating effects of anger on publics’ responses in the victim and accidental crisis conditions, but not for preventable crises. This novel finding suggests the possibility of a threshold effect of anger in the mediating process. Specifically, anger has a mediating effect on publics’ responses when it is below the high-anger threshold. However, anger may no longer be the mediator when it exceeds this threshold. This finding empirically challenges the common assumption that emotions have a linear relationship with publics’ responses, thus offering a new research avenue and deeper understanding of how emotions function in crises. Therefore, this research serves as a pioneer, calling for future studies to validate other theories involving mediation to yield fruitful insights.
... Tourist responses during a high-risk situation depend on their processing and evaluation of risk messages (Aliperti & Cruz, 2019;Kapuscinski & Richards, 2016;Sano & Sano, 2019), involving psychological cognition and affective involvement. The duration of waiting and empathy represent cognitive states and emotional experiences possessed by tourists in the long-term and for high-risk situations, which may impact perceptions and travel-related decisions (Schoofs et al., 2019;Wolff & Larsen, 2014). However, their moderation roles between risk messages and post-pandemic travel intentions lack clear investigation. ...
... Empathy studies are numerous in cyberspace, educational, medical, and crisis and risk situations (Bourgault et al., 2015;Fang et al., 2020;Laghi et al., 2019), which consider empathy to be an important factor for predicting social responsibility, prosocial behaviour, intergroup relationships, and well-being (Bourgault et al., 2015;Kandaurova & Lee, 2019). Importantly, Schoofs et al. (2019) confirmed that empathy plays a critical role in understanding the connection between crisis situations, crisis and risk communication, and crisis outcomes. This must be taken into consideration when investigating and explaining the impacts of crises and risk communication. ...
... Currently, empathy is attracting more attention in tourism studies, such as on hospitality service quality, dark and heritage tourism (Miles, 2002;Tucker, 2016). Empathy plays a second important role besides attributions of responsibility to analyse the relationships between crisis situations, crisis and risk communication, and outcomes (Schoofs et al., 2019). However, the effect of empathy needs more empirical research during a major global health crisis that poses serious threats to both individuals and industries. ...
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The moderation roles of empathy and perceived waiting time (PWT) on post-pandemic travel intentions have not as yet been investigated. This study of 684 Chinese resident respondents elicited how COVID-19 risk messages affected post-pandemic travel intentions. The results showed that people exposed to messages in the risk-amplifying frame had lower basic travel and destination travel intentions than those who were exposed to messages in the risk- attenuating frame. Empathy had a beneficial effect on basic travel intentions and had an inducing effect on destination travel intentions only in high-risk situations. High PWT tourists had more positive destination travel intentions in the risk-attenuating frame. The findings provide a theoretical basis for future research as well as practical implications for destination risk communications and market restoration during a public health crisis.
... Extant research suggests that crisis responsibility, or the extent to which the publics consider the organization as responsible for the crisis, is a fundamental determinant of post-crisis publics' behavior and post-crisis reputation. Resultantly, crisis communication researchers have explored crisis responsibility as the nexus between a crisis, the response strategy that an organization uses, and post-crisis reputation and publics' behavior (Fediuk, Coombs, & Botero, 2012;Schoofs, Claeys, Waele, & Cauberghe, 2019). ...
... One key area that scholars have devoted time to is the role of discrete emotions in crisis communication especially on how emotions affect organizational reputation (Claeys, Cauberghe, & Leysen, 2013;Kim & Cameron, 2011;Lu & Huang, 2018;Van der Meer & Verhoeven, 2014). Other scholars have started investigating how other emotions like empathy influence crisis outcomes like reputation (Schoofs et al., 2019). However, the study on how empathy affects reputation investigated empathy as a whole, despite some scholars arguing that different types of empathy have different effects on relationships and should be broken down into individual types of empathy (Le, Côté, Stellar, & Impett, 2020). ...
... Bringing the concepts of interpersonal forgiveness and empathy to crisis communication, we propose that when publics empathize with the organization in crisis, they are likely to reduce their attributions of the crisis toward the organization and in return forgive the organization. This leads to less reputational damage (Schoofs et al., 2019). The focus of this study is how both cognitive and affective empathy affect organizational reputation and forgiveness. ...
Article
This study seeks to contribute to the growing body of research in crisis communication by exploring how two types of empathy; cognitive empathy and affective empathy, affect organizational reputation and publics’ forgiveness for an organization that is in a crisis. An online three (crisis type: victim vs. accidental vs. preventable) × two (response strategy: rebuilding vs. denial) between-subjects experiment was conducted with 648 participants (N = 648) recruited through Amazon’s research tool MTurk. The results of the study reveal that crisis type affects both cognitive and affective empathy and people are more likely to feel empathetic toward an organization that uses rebuilding strategies than an organization that denies the existence of a crisis. Theoretical and practical implications of empathy on corporate reputation and forgiveness are discussed.
... Therefore, the current study compares how crisis type affects empathy toward the crisis spokesperson. This interest is guided by extant literature that when the publics interpret a crisis as unintentional (victim crisis), they are likely to empathize with the offender (Ndone & Park, 2022;Schoofs et al., 2019) and likely to perceive the spokesperson as sincere (Xiao et al., 2018) Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed: H 2 : A victim crisis will result in more empathy toward the CEO and perceived sincerity than a preventable crisis. ...
... The empathy model of forgiveness posits that feeling empathy toward a transgressor overshadows the hurt the transgressor may have caused (McCullough et al., 1997). This model allows crisis communication scholars to incorporate both empathy and attributions of responsibility as precursors to forgiveness and post-crisis organizational reputation (Ndone & Park, 2022;Schoofs et al., 2019). Thus, empathy becomes an impetus for forgiveness. ...
... Therefore, empathy should be investigated as an emotional factor in crisis management since it cultivates positive feelings about the organization. These favorable feelings toward an organization are manifested in the publics' rating of the organization's reputation and forgiveness (De Waele et al., 2020;Schoofs et al., 2019). Besides, empathy helps to understand the relationship between crises crisis communication and crisis outcomes (Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
Article
This study seeks to advance the literature in emotional crisis communication by comparing the effects of single emotional message framing to mixed emotional message framing in organizational crisis on organizational reputation and forgiveness. Through an online four (emotional message framing: control vs. negative emotion [sadness] vs. positive emotion [sympathy] vs. mixed-valence emotions [both sadness + sympathy]) by two (crisis type: preventable vs. victim crisis) between-groups experiment, this study investigated the effects of mixed-valence emotions, where the CEO expressed both positive and negative discrete emotions ( N = 424). Additionally, the current study sought to test the mediating effects of perceived sincerity and empathy toward the CEO on the relationship between the crisis type and message framing on both organizational reputation and forgiveness. The findings show that, during a preventable crisis, expressing mixed emotions results in a more positive organizational reputation and organizational forgiveness than expressing single emotions (sadness or sympathy). Also, both empathy toward the CEO and perceived sincerity mediated the relationship between a preventable crisis and organizational reputation as well as forgiveness. Both practical and theoretical implications of this study are discussed.
... The degree to which an organization is deemed responsible for a crisis determines both the reputational damage it will suffer and the most appropriate response to repair this harm. Experimental research has repeatedly demonstrated that the more responsible an organization is considered for a crisis, the more its reputation will suffer (e.g., Coombs & Holladay, 2002;Ma & Zhan, 2016;Schoofs et al., 2019). As a response, an organization should accept as much crisis responsibility as is attributed by its stakeholders (Coombs, 2007;Coombs & Holladay, 2002). ...
... While we know from prior research that the use of such an appropriate crisis response strategy can indeed repair reputational damage (e.g., Coombs & Holladay, 1996;Sheldon & Sallot, 2008), we know very little about what exactly explains the impact of such strategies (Schoofs et al., 2019). An important question to consider is how crisis response strategies affect public perceptions of responsibility. ...
... While there is widespread agreement that apologies can be very successful in terms of reputation repair (e.g., Claeys et al., 2010;Schoofs et al., 2019;Sheldon & Sallot, 2008), they can trigger increased attributions of responsibility. Prior research has shown that stakeholders attribute less crisis responsibility to the organization when it denies the crisis as compared to when it apologizes for the crisis (Brown-Devlin et al., 2020;Kim & Sung, 2014). ...
Article
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This study examines how both the content (i.e., denial vs. apology) and the verb voice (i.e., active voice vs. passive voice) of a crisis response affect the public's perception of crisis responsibility and, subsequently, the reputation of an organization accused of wrongdoing. The results of two experiments first show that an apology results in higher responsibility attributions than denial, which, in turn, adversely affects an organization's reputation. When we consider the verb voice of the message, a crisis response that is constructed in the passive voice reduces responsibility perceptions more than the active voice, leading to less reputational damage. An interaction effect shows, however, that this result only holds true for a passive denial strategy and not for apologies. As such, when an organization needs to deny an accusation, it seems wise to construct the message in the passive voice in order to strengthen the denial and effectively protect the organizational reputation.
... (e.g. Crijns et al., 2017;De Waele et al., 2020;Schoofs and Claeys, 2021;Schoofs et al., 2019). We asked the participants to rate their level of agreement with five items on a five-point Likert scale (ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree). ...
... The mediation effects observed through empathy are consistent with previous research indicating that identification with the CEO increases empathy during a crisis, as shown in studies by Crijns et al. (2017) and . Moreover, the positive impact of empathy for the CEO on an organization's image is also consistent with the findings of other studies that have highlighted the crucial role of perceived empathy in crisis communication research, as demonstrated by studies conducted by De Waele et al. (2020), Schoofs et al. (2019), and Schoofs et al. (2022). Therefore, when organizations strategically communicate private information about their CEO, they should carefully consider the appropriateness of the information to promote identification and, consequently, empathy. ...
Article
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Purpose This study examines the role of CEO communication in effective crisis management. Specifically, it examines whether the communication of private information about a CEO can create a positive pre-crisis image that serves as a buffer during actual crises. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a 2x2 experimental design to analyze the effect of CEO communication (private information vs no private information) on pre-crisis image and its effectiveness in different types of crises (victim crisis vs preventable crisis). Findings The results of this research show that the communication of private information about a CEO contributes to the improvement of public image perceptions when a crisis occurs. This effect is influenced by the recipient’s identification with the organization as well as perceptions of empathy and competence toward the CEO. Notably, stronger effects are observed in the context of a victim crisis. Originality/value This study contributes to the field by highlighting the importance of CEO communication in crisis management and its potential to proactively build a positive pre-crisis image. In addition, it examines how this mechanism varies by crisis type, providing valuable insights for crisis communication strategies.
... Furthermore, relationship-oriented leadership strategies, such as safety coaching and safety care, are inducements for autonomous motivation, while task-oriented leadership strategies, such as safety motivation and safety control, are inducers of controlled motivation (Caringal-Go et al., 2021). The role of empathy in crisis communication is crucial for shaping organizational reputation and stakeholder response (Schoofs et al., 2019). Additionally, the danger of misinformation during crises underscores the significance of transparent and accurate communication by leaders (Meer & Jin, 2019). ...
... Additionally, the danger of misinformation during crises underscores the significance of transparent and accurate communication by leaders (Meer & Jin, 2019). Effective crisis communication, mediated by charismatic leadership, plays a vital role in shaping organizational reputation during crises (Schoofs et al., 2019). Furthermore, the concept of relational immunity emphasizes the importance of relationships as a shield during crises, highlighting the need for leaders to build and maintain trust (Schoofs et (Goode et al., 2017). ...
Article
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This article intends to examine the importance of conveying information in a timely manner, ensuring message clarity, and tailoring communications to suit the specific needs of the target audience. These factors are important to maintain transparency and trust during a crisis. The method used in this research is a literature study method by taking several articles in Scopus indexed journals based on the years 2010-2023, based on fields, and also based on foreign language articles. The analysis used in this research is literature review analysis. Data in the context of a literature review involves the systematic examination and synthesis of existing research findings and data related to a particular topic or research question. In the context of educational research. The results of this research emphasize the importance of leadership qualities such as empathy, adaptability, and clear communication in managing crises effectively. Leaders who demonstrate empathy and actively listen to the concerns and needs of their teams and stakeholders will be better prepared to provide necessary support and guidance during a crisis. They must prioritize clear and timely communications, leveraging multiple channels to reach all stakeholders and address potential misinformation or confusion. Additionally, leaders must be adaptable and open to changing circumstances, continually reassessing their strategy, and making necessary adjustments.
... Issues to consider in crisis response are time, pressures, the organization's individual who makes decisions, and the perception of the anticipated outcome of the communication (Claeys & Coombs, 2020). An essential element in crisis communication is the content of messages, particularly empathy in building a positive reputation of the organization (Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
... Empathy is one factor that plays a large role in how a crisis is perceived. Schoofs et al. (2019) state that individuals can sympathize with organizations, if that company is seen as a victim. The study, which looked at the role of forgiveness, found that the ability to have empathy was vital in decreasing the damage the crisis did to the organization's reputation. ...
Article
COVID-19 created a challenging environment both for businesses and individuals. Effects of the pandemic on companies had the potential to create negative public relations as entities attempted to deal with the worldwide crisis and to communicate their situation. Many companies were quick to provide information to customers and employees early in the pandemic about how they were responding to the crisis, while other companies provided limited immediate response to COVID-19. An examination of the top 300 companies listed in the 2020 Fortune 500 found that 186 of those companies communicated their status and plans in press releases posted from January 2020 through May 2020 regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This study, based on Situational Crisis Communication Theory, qualitatively analyzed the releases via constant comparative method. The analysis resulted in four primary categories that dominated company releases: (1) In This Together, (2) Perseverance Through Strength, (3) We are Here for You, and (4) Fighting for the Team.
... Regarding image transfer effects in a crisis context, Crijns, Claeys, et al. (2017a) found a positive connection between perceived empathy for a spokesperson and perceptions of their organization in the context of a preventable crisis. Schoofs et al. (2019) also found a positive effect of perceived empathy for a CEO on perceptions of their organization. Therefore, trust in and empathy for a CEO may lead to a positive perception of their organization, as expressed in the following hypotheses ( Figure 1): ...
... Finally, we measured empathy for the CEO using five items of a scale used by McCullough et al. (2003) and by Coke et al. (1978). This scale has also been used by Crijns, Claeys, et al. (2017a) and Schoofs et al. (2019) in the context of crisis communication. We asked the participants to rate the extent of their agreement with five items on a five-point Likert scale (ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree). ...
Article
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In strategic communication, there is a plethora of studies dealing with effective crisis communication. CEO communication is an important building block in strategic crisis communication because in times of organizational crisis, the CEO often becomes an organization’s most important spokesperson. In this role, the leader of the organization has the opportunity to frame the organization’s crisis response in a certain way. The present study examines whether sharing private information about the CEO with stakeholders in a crisis response is beneficial for the perception of the organization. We experimentally analyze the effects of including such private information in a crisis response and test whether crisis type (accidental vs. preventable crisis) moderates these effects. The results show that organizational image is assessed more positively when the CEO includes private information in their crisis response. This effect is due to an increased identification with the CEO that, in turn, increases empathy for and trust in the CEO.
... For an organization with a neutral or positive pre-crisis reputation, information sharing can dissipate the adverse impact of a crisis [3]. Victim crises, such as the COVID-19, have less potential to damage organizational reputation than accidental or intentional crises [24]. A victim crisis is more likely to evoke sympathy since stakeholders are more likely to empathize with the organization. ...
... The cues in the communication may absolve or reduce the stakeholder opinion on the organization's crisis responsibility. In a victim crisis, the lower crisis responsibility lowers the reputational threats to the organization [24]. This leads to hypothesis H5. ...
Article
The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown bore a devastating impact on organizations across the globe. In this crisis, organizations belonged to the victim cluster, with a low crisis responsibility. Nevertheless, organizations needed to strategize their crisis responses and communicate with stakeholders to reduce the threat to reputational capital and manage stakeholder reactions in the pandemic. In this paper, we studied organizational Twitter communication during the COVID-19 crisis through the lens of the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). We analyzed 325,627 tweets collected from the Twitter pages of 464 organizations belonging to the Fortune 500 list. The Twitter data reflected organizational COVID-19 crisis response strategies and demonstrated organizational use of Twitter for crisis communication. We applied lexicon-based emotion mining to identify and measure emotions, and topic mining to measure crisis response topic scores from this large multi-organization dataset. We performed path analysis to test our research model derived from the SCCT. The analysis showed that instructing and adjusting information can minimize threats to organizational reputation in a victim crisis and manage stakeholder reactions. Positive emotions showed a stronger association with behavioral outcomes. Emotion neutral tweets generated more favorable stakeholder reactions. The paper contributes to the literature on situational crisis communication for a victim crisis. The multi-organization data addresses the sensitive inter-organization dependencies and improves the understanding of crisis communication. It provides practitioners an insight into the effect of the COVID-19 crisis response strategies on stakeholder emotions and behavior.
... Kim, Avery, and Lariscy (2020) revealed that companies that show responsibility and offer concrete solutions tend to restore their reputation more quickly (Kiambi & Shafer, 2016) (Primasari, 2018). Conversely, a lack of transparency and slow response can exacerbate the situation and prolong negative impacts (Schoofs et al., 2019). This research seeks to examine how Honda Astra Indonesia implemented these principles in their response to the eSAF crisis. ...
Article
This study investigates the crisis communication strategies employed by Honda Astra Indonesia in response to the eSAF (Enhanced Smart Architecture Frame) issue, which posed significant challenges to the company's reputation and customer trust due to product quality concerns. The urgency of this research lies in understanding how effective crisis communication can mitigate reputational damage and restore public confidence in the automotive industry. Utilizing crisis communication theory, which emphasizes transparency, consistency, and swift responsiveness, this study examines the approaches Honda Astra Indonesia adopted to manage the crisis.A content analysis method was employed to analyze various data sources, including official press releases, media reports, and public responses on social media platforms Instagram. The analysis aimed to identify key themes and assess the effectiveness of the communication strategies implemented by Honda Astra Indonesia.Findings indicate that the company's consistent and transparent communication through regular press releases, which outlined the steps taken to address the eSAF issue, played a crucial role in mitigating the negative impact. Media reports reflected mixed perspectives, with some criticism of product quality and appreciation of the company's corrective actions. Social media analysis revealed diverse public responses, ranging from concerns about safety to praise for the company's prompt response and transparency. The study's novelty lies in its comprehensive examination of how different communication channels and strategies contribute to crisis management in the automotive industry. It provides valuable insights into best practices for effectively managing product-related crises and highlights the importance of maintaining open and transparent communication with stakeholders. These findings offer practical implications for other companies facing similar challenges, emphasizing the need for structured and proactive communication plans to restore and maintain public trust during crises. AbstrakKajian ini mengulas strategi komunikasi krisis yang digunakan oleh Honda Astra Indonesia dalam menanggapi isu eSAF (Enhanced Smart Architecture Frame), yang memberikan tantangan signifikan terhadap reputasi perusahaan dan kepercayaan pelanggan karena masalah kualitas produk. Urgensi penelitian ini terletak pada pemahaman bagaimana komunikasi krisis yang efektif dapat memitigasi kerusakan reputasi dan memulihkan kepercayaan masyarakat terhadap industri otomotif. Memanfaatkan teori komunikasi krisis yang menekankan transparansi, konsistensi, dan kecepatan tanggap, penelitian ini mengkaji pendekatan yang diterapkan Honda Astra Indonesia dalam mengelola krisis. Metode analisis konten digunakan untuk menganalisis berbagai sumber data, termasuk siaran pers resmi, laporan media, dan tanggapan publik di platform media sosial Instagram. Analisis bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi tema-tema utama dan menilai efektivitas strategi komunikasi yang diterapkan Honda Astra Indonesia. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa komunikasi perusahaan yang konsisten dan transparan melalui siaran pers rutin, yang menguraikan langkah-langkah yang diambil untuk mengatasi masalah eSAF, memainkan peran penting dalam memitigasi dampak negatif. Laporan media mencerminkan perspektif yang beragam, dengan beberapa kritik terhadap kualitas produk dan apresiasi terhadap tindakan perbaikan yang dilakukan perusahaan. Analisis media sosial mengungkapkan tanggapan masyarakat yang beragam, mulai dari kekhawatiran mengenai keselamatan hingga pujian atas respons cepat dan transparansi perusahaan. Kebaruan studi ini terletak pada pemeriksaan komprehensif tentang bagaimana berbagai saluran komunikasi dan strategi berkontribusi terhadap manajemen krisis di industri otomotif. Laporan ini memberikan wawasan berharga mengenai praktik terbaik untuk mengelola krisis terkait produk secara efektif dan menyoroti pentingnya menjaga komunikasi yang terbuka dan transparan dengan para pemangku kepentingan. Temuan-temuan ini menawarkan implikasi praktis bagi perusahaan-perusahaan lain yang menghadapi tantangan serupa, dengan menekankan perlunya rencana komunikasi yang terstruktur dan proaktif untuk memulihkan dan menjaga kepercayaan publik selama krisis
... It can escalate into a disaster or long-term impediment to business growth if not handled with efficiency and sensitivity to all involved. An organizational crisis determines reputational damage as well as the effectiveness of crisis response strategies (Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
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Of late, there has been a growing interest in the concept of corporate reputation/crisis, yet a precise and widely accepted definition remains elusive. This study aims to meticulously review, analyze, and assess previous definitional statements of corporate reputation/crisis. 938 Building on this review and a lexicological analysis of the concept of reputation/crisis, a new, more explicit and narrow definitional statement is proposed to bring theoretical clarity to these areas of studies. A comprehensive, extensive, and panoptic literature review in the relevant fields was reviewed to improve and expound the understanding of organizational reputation and crisis definitions. These definitions have considerable information in each of them with unique terms. Regrettably, many organizations invest in organizational reputation and stakeholder relationships. However, very few organizations deemed it fit to invest in unpredictable crises, which have the potential to damage reputation in a significant capacity. It is hoped that this study and the resulting definitions will stimulate further scholarly efforts aimed at establishing a unified understanding of corporate reputation/crisis. An organizational crisis determines reputational damage as well as the effectiveness of crisis response strategies. Reputation could create a halo effect that shields an organization during a crisis, deflecting potential reputational damage.
... The selection and transmission of material during this stage considerably impacts public opinion and perceptions of an organization's crisis management. According to Schoofs et al. (2019), empathy is essential in crisis communication because it helps organizations better understand the impact of environmental catastrophes and create trust with stakeholders. ...
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This study investigated the building of the attribute agenda of an environmental crisis, taking the MV X-Press Pearl shipwreck incident as a case study. English weekend newspapers for a year since the incident were used for a content analysis to identify the information subsidies and their respective attribute agendas. An analysis framework was developed based on information subsidies and their respective attribute agendas. Results indicated that the governmental bodies unrelated to the environment were the most frequently cited sources, followed by experts and local non-governmental organizations/ industries. Conversely, the public was the least cited information source. Environmental damage was the most frequently emphasized attribute, followed by law and agreements and prevention. However, policy was the least reported attribute. Considering the correlation between information sources and attributes, the Marine Environmental Protection Authority highlighted the mitigation agenda, while non environmental related governmental bodies emphasized prevention agenda. Policymakers focused on getting compensation, while governmental bodies emphasized law and agreements and Experts prioritized on environmental damage. The evidence for attribute agenda building was found further strengthening the agenda building hypothesis and information subsidies had their own attributes highlighted in media reports. The study delves into the practical implications of agenda building, which can influence media outlets. It suggests strategic communication planning, aligning coverage with objectives, and collaborating with environmental advocacy groups. This understanding informs decision-making, promotes balanced coverage, and enhances public engagement. It is important to additionally take into account the process used to establish the agenda in future research.
... The strategic goal of crisis communication is to avoid deception and build trust (Al-Omoush et al., 2023). In connection with deception, the duty of honesty and truth-telling arises; the collection of crisis communication rules stipulates that it is forbidden to lie to those involved, and to always communicate honestly and openly (Coombs, 1999) to preserve the company's reputation (Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
... Within the dynamics of employee-leadership relationships, empathetic language emerges as a predominant mode of communication (Arghode et al., 2022). Scholars assert its pivotal role in bolstering employee engagement and satisfaction, attributing its effectiveness to various elements such as emotional connection, perspective-taking, compassion, and civility (Schoofs et al., 2019). Consequently, leaders who employ empathetic language convey care, sensitivity, and a humanistic approach towards their followers. ...
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The linguistic dynamics within a workplace play a pivotal role in shaping the organizational milieu, thereby significantly influencing the overall success or failure of the organization. Consequently, this investigation was crafted to scrutinize the impact of various linguistic elements, such as directive communication, empathetic discourse, proficiency in English language, and communication efficacy, on employee allegiance, mediated through the lens of trust. Employing a cross-sectional research design, data were gathered from employees within the banking sector of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Utilizing questionnaires aligned with prior scholarly literature, the study employed simple random sampling techniques to solicit responses, amassing 231 usable questionnaires. The data analysis was conducted using Smart PLS 4 software. The results revealed that directive communication, empathetic discourse, English language proficiency, and communication effectiveness positively influence employee trust. Furthermore, the statistical analyses substantiated the significant impact of trust on employee loyalty. Notably, this study also confirmed the mediating role of employee trust. The implications and avenues for future research are expounded upon in detail within this investigation.
... Prior studies have adapted the concept of empathy and focused on its role in organisational crises. For example, Schoofs et al. (2019) show how perceived organisational image in a crisis depends on the evoked level of empathy towards this organisation. Their results indicate that a victim crisis (compared to a preventable crisis) can increase empathy perceptions which, in turn, have positive effects regarding the image. ...
... The apology CRS can generate empathy and tolerance from the public by expressing a modest attitude, and the public's sympathy for the destination is an important factor affecting the destination's capacity to repair its reputation (Ndone & Park, 2022;Schoofs et al., 2019). Compared with the sense of aggression and oppression brought by aggressive HMF, the destination conveys a wittier and humbler image to the public through the use of self-deprecating HMF for crisis communication. ...
... Negative public perception, scandals, ethical lapses, or product recalls can tarnish an organization's reputation, eroding trust among stakeholders. Reputation management strategies, transparency, and ethical conduct are pivotal in mitigating such crises and rebuilding trust (Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
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Crisis management and risk mitigation are vital components of organizational resilience and success in today's dynamic and uncertain business landscape. Effectively managing crises and mitigating strategic risks can determine an organization's ability to withstand disruptions, protect its reputation, and maintain stakeholder trust. This study employs a mixed-method approach, combining expert interviews and a comprehensive literature review, to explore these crucial areas thoroughly. By identifying key themes and patterns, the research aims to develop evidence-based strategies that empower decision-makers to proactively address crises and strategically manage risks, fostering stability and sustainability in the face of challenges. The outcomes of this research hold the potential to make significant contributions to the broader fields of crisis management and risk mitigation.
... Besides, in victim crises, stakeholders perceive the organization as less responsible for the events, and they are also more inclined to empathize with the organization. Therefore, employing an apology strategy proves more effective for reputation repair than a denial strategy in such situations [29]. Conversely, in preventable crises, deny strategies are, nonetheless, effective for restoring corporate image when compared with diminish or acknowledge/rebuild strategies [30]. ...
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Crisis communication plays a crucial role in preserving the national reputation during significant national crises. From the perspective of Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), this research paper analyzed over 1,790,816 YouTube comments from Chinese-speaking audiences, using sentiment analysis alongside the Difference-in-Differences (DiD) model, in order to investigate the influence of strategic crisis communication on public perceptions during public health crises. The study findings indicate that during this public health crisis, YouTube Chinese media, whose audience mainly consists of overseas Chinese-speaking users, primarily incorporated the enhancing strategies, succeeded by the diminish strategies, with limited application of deny strategies, while the use of rebuild strategies was virtually absent in this context. In addition, the research analysis confirms that Chinese media effectively increased the public’s positive perceptions of crisis events through crisis communication. Particularly, enhancing strategies proved most effective in improving public perceptions, followed by diminish strategies. In contrast, deny strategies failed to influence public perceptions of the crisis, and rebuild strategies demonstrated a negative impact on public perception. Thus, the research findings of this paper extend essential insights for effectively managing potential public health crises in the future.
... This indicates that the institution's inability to manage messages during a crisis situation will impact its reputation crisis. One study examines how organizational crises and crisis communication affect organizational reputation (Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
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Crisis communication is a strategy for managing crisis situations through the process of sending and receiving information during or after a crisis event with the aim of managing the situation, minimizing damage, and ensuring the safety of the people involved, or victims. The leadership of the National Police institution has an important role in carrying out crisis communications as a communicator in improving the organization's reputation. The scandal, which was not carried out institutionally, but involved the involvement of high-ranking police officials and a number of other police officers, caused the reputation of the police organization to experience the threat of a crisis of public distrust. Law enforcement agencies that are actually faced with violations of the law are demanded by both the families of victims and the public that police agencies prioritize transparency, accountability and justice in resolving cases. The three stages of the press conference as a form of conveying the National Police Chief's crisis communication were chosen for analysis, namely the press conference held on August 4, 9 and 25 2022. Based on the content analysis, it was concluded that the most highlighted messages were relevant messages, messages emphasizing credibility, and statements. ongoing process. Meanwhile, the Timely message and messages of empathy for victims were not highlighted in the National Police Chief's press conference to show that empathy is an important thing in the National Police Chief's crisis message.
... Effective communication is consistently highlighted as a critical component of crisis management . The way organizations communicate during a crisis significantly influences public perception, stakeholder trust, and the overall outcome of the crisis (Schoofs, et al., 2019). Timely and transparent communication, both internally and externally, is essential for managing the flow of information and reducing uncertainty during crises (Kim, 2018). ...
... Leta and Chan, 2021;Seeger and Ulmer, 2001); outcomes such as organizational reputation perceived by stakeholders (e.g. Schoofs et al., 2019); and organizational learning to prevent future crises (e.g. Buhagiar and Anand, 2023;Eismann et al., 2021;Veil, 2011). ...
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Purpose This paper aims to analyze the ethical responses of the fashion industry to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when the entire world was shocked by the rapid spread of the virus. The authors describe lessons from emergency ethics of care in the fashion industry during the initial months of COVID-19, which can assist fashion managers in improving ethical decisions in future operations. Design/methodology/approach Rapid qualitative research methods were employed by conducting real-time, in-depth interviews with key informants from multinational fashion companies operating in Spain, a severely affected region. A content analysis of news articles published during the first months of 2020 was conducted. Findings Five critical disruptions in the fashion industry were identified: (1) changes in public needs, (2) transportation and distribution backlogs, (3) defective and counterfeit supplies, (4) stakeholder relationships at stake and (5) managers' coping challenges. Additionally, five business survival responses with a strong ethics of care component were identified, implemented by some fashion companies to mitigate the damage: (1) adapting production for public well-being, (2) enhancing the flexibility of logistic networks, (3) emphasizing quality and innovation, (4) reinventing stakeholder collaborations and (5) practicing responsible leadership. Originality/value Despite the well-documented controversies surrounding unethical practices within the fashion industry, even during COVID-19, our findings inform managers of the potential and capability of fashion companies to operate more responsibly. The lessons learned can guide fashion companies' operations in a post-pandemic society. Furthermore, they can address other grand challenges, such as natural disasters, geopolitical conflicts and climate change.
... Empathy has been shown to impact employees' cognition, emotions, and behavior. Empathetic leaders were more likely to listen to and understand employees [5]. Empathy is an important motivator for leaders in developing social enterprises and fulfilling the social mission. ...
... Studies also suggests that empathy is a kind of emotion unconsciously and unintentionally integrated with the objects in the ocean context (Yi et al., 2022). In the context of the increasing importance attached to the development of information technology and cultural communication (Schoofs et al., 2019;Khalid et al., 2021), it is easy to associate the practical role and value of empathy with crisis incident communication (Yi et al., 2021), sports spirit communication (Pang et al., 2022;Masood et al., 2022), and narrative cultural memory . ...
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The current ocean city development is witnessing a “transitional period” amid modernization and globalization. It has become a consensus of urban development to shape urban cultural brand through culture and stimulate the vitality of urban innovation. Previous studies mainly elaborated on the importance of urban cultural brand in urban development from the perspective of urban marketing events and festivals, but few studies focused on the construction of urban cultural brand from a humanistic perspective. Considering basic human needs, and based on Empathy Theory and Cultural Memory Theory, the current study selected Shenzhen, as the sample and adopted case study approach and grounded theory to explore the empathic elements of urban cultural brand construction from the angles of urban cultural brand and cultural memory, to clarify the memory process of urban cultural brand construction, and to explain the supply and demand sides of brand building. The exploration in this study from the dual dimensions of urban cultural supply and human cultural demand aims to provide reference for the development and promotion of ocean city cultural brand in the new era.
... Such complications have led to calls for scientists to adopt more respectful, relatable, patient, and kind approaches to public science communication, which have been shown to enhance message credibility and persuasiveness (Saffran et al., 2020). By being less adversarial and more respectful, scientists can create compelling messages that an audience is more likely to empathize and engage with (Dahlstrom, 2014;Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
Article
This exploratory study examines an instructional activity in which undergraduate biology students at a Canadian university who, after receiving instruction from an expert science communicator on how to publicly address pseudoscience in online media, were asked to research online a pseudoscientific news of their choice, demonstrate how they would publicly address a pseudoscience-believing audience, and self-assess their communicative performances. An analysis of students’ written reflections showed that participation in this activity fostered recognition of the importance of dialogue, with most students adopting an audience-centered (dialogic) stance that took into account the public’s interpersonal needs (respect, empathy), communicative needs (comprehensible input) and epistemic needs (scientific knowledge). Yet, inspection of video-recordings of their oral presentations revealed that some students took a combative communicative approach – communicated in ways that suggested a confrontational attitude toward the public that was inconsistent with their dialogic views. Acknowledging interpersonal difficulties associated with the act of implementing their dialogical views, these students stressed the challenging nature of public science communication about fake news. It is argued that, fully developing communicative competence to address fake news requires extended and sustained instruction that allows students to progressively hone their communication skills.
... Crisis communication refers to "the collection, processing, and dissemination of information required to address a crisis situation" (Coombs, 2010, p. 20). Crises carry significant dangers to organizations and require a response to limit reputational damage (Coombs, 2007;Ndone & Park, 2022;Schoofs et al., 2019). ...
Article
Organizational crises are emotionally-charged occurrences for both organizations and their stakeholders. There has been a growing body of research on the effects of emotions on organizational outcomes such as reputation, forgiveness, and negative word-of-mouth. The current study seeks to contribute to this growing body of research in emotional crisis communication by investigating the role of discrete emotions in a crisis, and the effects of such emotions on organizational reputation. Additionally, the current study seeks to investigate whether the effect of emotional expression depends on the crisis response strategy adopted. A between-subjects three (communicated emotion; anger vs. guilt vs. no emotion) × two (response strategy: rebuilding vs. denial) experiment was designed with 922 participants. The findings show that, in the context of a severe crisis, rebuilding strategies result in a more positive organizational reputation than denial strategies and that guilt was superior to anger regardless of response type. The implications of the study on organizational reputation and crisis management are discussed.
... Second, our findings reveal five novel relationship cultivation strategies that have ties with the public relations and care ethics literature, enabling us to understand GPR cultivation with a caring lens. Empathy has been limitedly discussed in public relations scholarship outside of crisis communication research (e.g., Schoofs et al., 2019). Empathy is intricately tied to ethics of care, with researchers arguing that "we must feel something" and respond to the needs of care-receivers by either caring about (i.e., having concern for) or caring for (i.e., acting on care), both of which require and demonstrate cognitive or affective empathy, or both dimensions simultaneously (Noddings, 2015, p. 75). ...
Article
In this study, we explore the potential contribution of care ethics to government-public relationship (GPR) management. Drawing on the ethics of care and relationship management theory, this study examined government communicators’ conceptualizations of care and care-based relationship cultivation strategies by interviewing 32 public relations practitioners working at county government agencies in the United States. Findings suggest that care is a complex, multidimensional construct that involves relational, emotional, humanistic, and personal components in the context of government public relations. The study advances public relations scholarship by proposing a Care-Based Relationship Cultivation Model and suggests measures for seven care-based relationship cultivation strategies highlighting care ethics. Our findings are useful for local government practitioners across countries to infuse care into their public relations efforts.
... Dalam hal ini, empati menjadi salah satu dari unsur esensial yang diperlukan untuk melakukan komunikasi persuasif yang efektif (Reynolds & Quinn Crouse, 2008). Rasa berempati ini juga dapat mengisyaratkan bagaimana suatu institusi atau organisasi merasa adanya tanggungjawab yang menyebabkan reputasi menjadi semakin positif dan berdampak baik pada keluaran dari upaya komunikasi krisis yang dilakukan (Schoofs, Claeys, De Waele, & Cauberghe, 2019). ...
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Dalam berbagai literatur komunikasi, telah banyak penulis yang membahas model komunikasi krisis yang ideal, namun belum banyak yang mengulas bagaimana ciri-ciri praktik komunikasi krisis yang buruk. Dengan menjadikan teori komunikasi Reynolds dan W. Seeger (2005) sebagai model, tulisan ini menganalisa praktik buruk komunikasi krisis yang dilakukan oleh pemerintah Indonesia menjelang kemunculan pandemi Covid-19 di Indonesia. Dengan melakukan analisis isi media arus utama yang berisi pernyataan aparat pemerintah Indonesia, penulis menemukan ciri-ciri komunikasi krisis yang buruk itu, antara lain: Kurang responsif dalam mengantisipasi kemungkinan terjadinya wabah; Kurang transparansi dan akurasi data terbaru perkembangan pandemi; Inkonsistensi dan ketidakjelasan pesan di saat krisis memuncak; Kurang empati terhadap korban. Temuan tersebut menjadi esensial mengingat masa krisis bukan hanya terkait dengan Covid-19 saja, tetapi juga mengacu pada berbagai potensi krisis yang akan dihadapi Indonesia ke depannya.
... Die Ursachen dieses Trends sind vielfältig: So gibt es ein zunehmendes Interesse an Fragestellungen, die Wirkungen strategischer Kommunikation betreffengerade in der Krisen-(Übersichten bei An & Cheng, 2010;Ha & Riffe, 2015;z. B. Ham & Kim, 2020;Schoofs et al., 2019) und CSR-Kommunikation (Übersicht bei Lee, 2017;z. B. Lee & Tao, 2020;Park & Kang, 2020) werden Fragestellungen häufig experimentell analysiert. ...
Chapter
COVID-19 presented many challenges for school principals in the United States and around the world. Chief among these concerns was teacher turnover. An extensive review of literature, author research, and the author's experience as a school building and district leader was aggregated to report on themes related to fostering a strong P-12 public school climate, aimed at retaining teachers for the benefit of student growth and academic achievement. This information is organized within the Myers four-stage crisis management framework of normal operations, emergency response, interim processing, and restoration in order to explore opportunities for school principals to support teachers before, during, and after a crisis such as COVID-19.
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Bireysel internet kullanımının yaygınlaşması kurumlar için tüketicilerin kurumsal iletişim strateji ve uygulamalarında söz sahibi oldukları büyük değişimler yaratmıştır. Sosyal medya platformlarında kullanıcılar (tüketiciler/kurum temsilcileri) tarafından paylaşılan içeriklerin kısa bir sürede büyük kitlelere ulaşabilme özelliği kurumlar için hem avantaj hem de dezavantaj oluşturabilecek yenilikleri beraberinde getirmiştir. Hatta sosyal medyanın interaktif iletişimi olanaklı kılan doğası zaman zaman kurumlar için tehdit oluşturan örneklerin de yaşanmasına neden olmuştur. Günümüzde özellikle üst düzey yöneticilerin sosyal medya platformlarındaki artan görünürlüğü ve kurum sözcülüğü temsilleriyle şahsi sosyal medya hesaplarından yaptıkları paylaşımlar, kurumlar için krizlere neden olarak yıllarca özenle inşa edilen itibarı da kısa sürede zedeleyebilmektedir. Bu çalışmada, 20 Nisan 2024 tarihinde bir tüketicinin X (Twitter) sosyal medya platformu üzerinden Patiswiss ürünlerinin küflü çıkması üzerine yaptığı paylaşımla ortaya çıkan kriz süreci konu alınmaktadır. Bu kapsamda Patiswiss krizinin iletişim süreci krizin ortaya çıkışı, kriz anı ve sonrası olmak üzere X paylaşımları üzerinden vaka analizi yöntemiyle incelenmektedir. Çalışmada kriz iletişiminde kurum sözcülüğünü üstelenen kişilerin sosyal medyadanın kriz iletişimi sürecinde taşıdığı riskleri doğru yönetemediği bir vakanın betimsel analizi yapılmış olup, sosyal medyada etkin kriz iletşimi yönetimi için öneriler geliştirilmiştir. Bulgular, Patiswiss örneği üzerinden tüketici ve kurum kriz iletişim sözcüsü arasında gerçekleşen yanlış iletişimin markaları büyük itibar krizlerine sürükleyebileceğini, maddi ve manevi varlıklarını tehdit edebileceğini göstermektedir.
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Recently, corporate scandals have become more common. When scandals are publicized, companies face crisis situations. Those companies must then express appropriate messages to the public and stakeholders to repair their reputation.
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Krisis dapat terjadi pada setiap organisasi secara tiba-tiba kapan dan dimana saja, setiap organisasi pasti pernah mengalami suatu krisis. Salah satu krisis yang pernah terjadi pada PT. Pertamina yaitu meledaknya depo Pertamina Plumpang. Meledaknya depo Pertamina Plumpang mampu menyebabkan krisis karena banyaknya korban jiwa yang disebabkan oleh ledakan. PT Pertamina merespon krisis tersebut dengan cepat, strategi yang diterapkan merupakan strategi pembangunan kembali (rebuild) yaitu dengan cara memberikan pernyataan bahwa Pertamina siap bertanggung jawab secarah penuh terhadap kejadian tersebut, pertamina juga menyampaikan permohonan maaf dan rasa prihatin, serta memberikan kompensasi kepada para korban. Pendekatan emosional dilakukan Pertamina untuk mendapatkan kepercayaan masyarakat kembali, salah satunya dengan cara komunikasi empati, PT. Pertamina berusaha untuk memperkuat posisinya di mata stakeholder dengan melakukan permohonan maaf, kompensasi, dan juga memposisikan diri sebagai korban.
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During crises, hospitality firms practice a range of coping strategies such as laying-off or furloughing employees to cope with financial pressure (denying strategy) to cutting CEOs’ salaries to maintain jobs for employees (rebuilding strategy). While firms are still managing the effects of the pandemic, it is unclear how consumers judge how firms respond to crises. This study applies signaling theory to investigate how consumers’ ethical idealism influences customers emotional and behavioral responses of firm crisis responses. Study 1 conducts a 2 (crisis response: denying vs. rebuilding) × 2 ethical idealism (low vs. high) quasi between-subjects design experiment to examine the two-way interaction effects on purchase intention, brand support, and positive word of mouth. Study 2 examines the effect of empathy as a key mediator, using a moderated mediation model. Study 1 results show that although negative intentions were not observed toward denying strategies, consumers’ purchase intention, brand support, and positive word-of-mouth were elevated when rebuilding strategies are employed among consumers with high ethical idealism. Study 2 results find that consumers with high ethical idealism are more empathetic to the companies’ rebuilding responses, thus greater behavioral intentions were witnessed.
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Drawing insights from leadership, public relations, and communication literature, this study aimed to advance the theorization of leadership communication in disruptive crisis times. Specifically, leadership communication attributes of transparency, authenticity, empathy, and optimism (TAEO) were connected to a central internal communication outcome, employee trust. Through an online survey with 1,044 full-time employees working across diverse industry sectors in the U.S., this study also tested the potential mediators of feelings of uncertainty and psychological well-being. Structural equation modeling analysis results showed that CEO communication attributes of TAEO during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced employees’ feeling of uncertainty and enhanced their psychological well-being, which in turn, boosted employee trust toward the organization. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Household food waste is a significant concern beyond policy formulation and regulations because of its proximity. This study examines the impact of climate change awareness and household behavioral intentions toward food waste consequence mitigation in south-eastern Nigeria. Specifically, we evaluated complicated household attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention toward food waste in two experiments with between-subject designs: participants (N = 480), 240 (awareness, 120 aware and 120 unaware) and 240 (information, 120 high and 120 low). The first and second experiments revealed that a significant effect of climate change awareness elicited a more favorable effect on food waste reduction when households were exposed to awareness and high information banners because climate change awareness was sensitized through food waste consequences and disasters. Intention toward food waste reduction mediated the relationship between climate change awareness and food waste reduction. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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This study explores the business ritual practice of apology in corporate crisis management. By comparing the frequencies and analysing apology strategies from fifty local and nonlocal Chinese companies’ public letters of apology, we extend the politeness study of public apology to a broader hierarchy of a ritual frame and discuss the related formulaic patterns and strategies of apology. The results show that both groups share a high proportion of taking responsibility and explaining but differ significantly in their use of such strategies. We find that the business ritual practice of apology varies in accordance with the cultural identity of the corporation. Local Chinese companies tend to greatly rely on a ritual frame of involvement, whereas nonlocal companies take an interest in constructing a ritual frame of defence. The paper provides implications for the scholars of cross-cultural pragmatics and for business practitioners and future research directions for a ritual perspective when revisiting the practice of apology.
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Organizational reputation can be seriously damaged after a self-inflicted or externally induced crisis. Studies have tested the restoring and protective effects of various crisis communication strategies. For this paper, we compared the effects on organizational reputation dependent on (a) crisis type and (b) crisis communication strategy used. We combined six strategies in a stepwise manner, showing which ones are most effective in which type of crisis in an experimental online setting. Respondents were randomly assigned to questionnaires with varying combinations of (b) in a different sequence of (a) rating the organization for three points in time. Using a diverse sample, we show that organizational reputation improves significantly only after combining at least five strategies.
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In previous research on consumer network usage behavior, the focus was mainly on how to collect information. Few studies have delved into consumers’ psychological responses to information and whether they are also affected by emotional contagion. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainties and risks for travel have increased. Both the positive and negative emotional performance of travel information sharers often affect receivers’ feelings. This study explores whether the sharing of travel information on social network sites will have an emotional impact. It also explores how that might influence site members’ attitudes and behavioral intentions related to travel. According to the study, people have recently been infected with negative emotions. They hope those emotions will be transformed into positive ones by sharing travel information during the pandemic. This study shows that emotional contagion can occur in both physical and virtual spaces, and it will further affect the recipient’s attitudes toward certain tourist destinations and travel willingness.
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Many brands have launched pandemic-themed advertising campaigns, aiming to build rapport with their customers in this unprecedented moment. Yet it is challenging for brands to know how to communicate efficiently. To fill this gap, the current research aims to provide a systematic framework that could guide advertisers in designing pandemic-themed advertisements to stimulate consumer engagement on social media by examining the role of values in context-specific brand communications. In particular, we analyze a large corpus of 286 brand YouTube videos posted between the onset of the COVID-19 and the fall of 2020 through a combination of qualitative induction, coding, and big data analytics. The results demonstrate that brands can incorporate various values in their brand communications when the world is combating a victim crisis like the current pandemic. Our findings reveal that hedonism, universalism, conformity, security, and tradition values positively predict consumer engagement (i.e., commenting), whereas stimulation value negatively predicts consumer commenting. We develop a new type of victim crisis – omnipresent victim crisis – and offer a theorization of this sub-type of victim crisis to delineate the pandemic or crises alike (e.g., environmental issues) for future research. We further highlight the role of value embodiment in crisis communication and advertising literature and offer rich theoretical and practical implications.
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Previous work in the areas of organizational trust repair and crisis communication has provided conflicting answers to the question of whether denial can be more effective than apology in repairing stakeholder trust in a company following an integrity-based violation. This article reports the results of an experiment designed to (i) test the effects of these two strategies on individuals’ trust in a company accused of corruption, and (ii) determine whether and how evidence of the company’s guilt influences stakeholder reactions to its trust repair message. The results demonstrate that, when evidence against the company is weak, trust is restored more successfully with a denial than an apology. Contrary to our hypothesis, denial was found to outperform apology in repairing perceptions of the company’s integrity and benevolence even in the face of strong evidence, and it was as effective as apology in restoring perceived ability and trusting intentions. These results provide empirical evidence for the ‘paradoxical effect’ that an open and honest attitude can, in the short term, be more detrimental to organizations than a defensive strategy. More research on the factors that determine the credibility and persuasiveness of corporate denial is called for.
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In this chapter a theory of motivation and emotion developed from an attributional perspective is presented. Before undertaking this central task, it might be beneficial to review the progression of the book. In Chapter 1 it was suggested that causal attributions have been prevalent throughout history and in disparate cultures. Studies reviewed in Chapter 2 revealed a large number of causal ascriptions within motivational domains, and different ascriptions in disparate domains. Yet some attributions, particularly ability and effort in the achievement area, dominate causal thinking. To compare and contrast causes such as ability and effort, their common denominators or shared properties were identified. Three causal dimensions, examined in Chapter 3, are locus, stability, and controllability, with intentionality and globality as other possible causal properties. As documented in Chapter 4, the perceived stability of a cause influences the subjective probability of success following a previous success or failure; causes perceived as enduring increase the certainty that the prior outcome will be repeated in the future. And all the causal dimensions, as well as the outcome of an activity and specific causes, influence the emotions experienced after attainment or nonattainment of a goal. The affects linked to causal dimensions include pride (with locus), hopelessness and resignation (with stability), and anger, gratitude, guilt, pity, and shame (with controllability).
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Measures of corporate reputation currently in widespread use suffer from fundamental methodological and conceptual weaknesses. This paper begins with a brief overview of the reputation construct and its expected dimensionality. It then examines some of the major indices in use and documents their principle weakesses. A new instrument is proposed - the 'reputation quotient' - to measure corporate reputations and establish its empirical validity and reliability through focus groups and pilot studies. It concludes that the reputation quotient is a robust measure of corporate reputations that considerable improves the state of the art in reptuation measurement.
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This study investigated the responses of consumers to information about an organizational crisis. Three hundred and eighty-five individuals from Hong Kong responded to hypothetical scenarios describing a plane crash. The scenarios manipulated causal attribution (internal and external), the organizations’ crisis response (shifting the blame, minimization, no comment, apology, compensation, and corrective action), and crisis severity (severe and extremely severe). Results showed significant main effects of causal attribution and crisis response on (a) judgment of organizational responsibility for the crisis, (b) impression of the organization, (c) sympathy toward the organization, and (d) trust in the organization. However, no significant effects of crisis severity were found. Crisis response affected participants’ judgment of organizational responsibility, and the “no comment” crisis response fostered more trust in the organization than did the minimization crisis response. Implications of the findings for attribution theory and cross-cultural research on crisis communication are discussed.
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Crisis managers benefit from understanding how crisis communication can be used to protect reputational assets during a crisis. Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) offers a framework for understanding this dynamic. SCCT provides a mechanism for anticipating how stakeholders will react to a crisis in terms of the reputational threat posed by the crisis. Moreover, SCCT projects how people will react to the crisis response strategies used to manage the crisis. From its empirical research emerges a set of evidence-based crisis communication guidelines. The development of SCCT is discussed along with the presentation of its guidelines for crisis communication.
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Crisis management research is developing a solid line of research that examines the communicative responses of organizations in crisis. As we begin to address crisis responses, it is essential to develop an understanding of how to make the most effective use of these symbolic resources. Analyzing the crisis situation is an important step toward understanding the effective use of crisis responses. If we accept that the situation influences communicative choices, the crisis situation should influence the selection of crisis responses. This article reports the results of a study that tested a system of crisis situation analysis based on crisis responsibility. The article develops a rationale for the crisis responsibility base and reports the results of the study. The end product is an analytic system that provides a rough guide to the type of crisis responses the crisis manager should be employing.
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Proposes a 2-stage model of empathic mediation of helping behavior, which holds that taking the perspective of a person in need increases empathic emotion; this in turn increases helping. Ss in 2 experiments learned of another person's need from taped radio broadcasts and were subsequently given an opportunity to offer help to that person. The experiments used different strategies for manipulating empathic emotional response to the other's plight. In Exp I, using 44 male and female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally reduced by a misattribution of arousal technique; in Exp II, using 33 female undergraduates, the empathic emotion of some Ss was experimentally increased by a false feedback of arousal technique. Results of each experiment support the proposed model. Ss who experienced the most empathic emotion also offered the most help. Results of Exp I indicate that perspective taking did not directly affect helping; it affected helping only through its effect on empathic emotion. Motivational implications are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Empathy accounts for the naturally occurring subjective experience of similarity between the feelings expressed by self and others without loosing sight of whose feelings belong to whom. Empathy involves not only the affective experience of the other person's actual or inferred emotional state but also some minimal recognition and understanding of another's emotional state. In light of multiple levels of analysis ranging from developmental psychology, social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical neuropsychology, this article proposes a model of empathy that involves parallel and distributed processing in a number of dissociable computational mechanisms. Shared neural representations, self-awareness, mental flexibility, and emotion regulation constitute the basic macrocomponents of empathy, which are underpinned by specific neural systems. This functional model may be used to make specific predictions about the various empathy deficits that can be encountered in different forms of social and neurological disorders.
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Italian husbands (n = 79) and wives (n = 92) from long-term marriages provided data on the role of marital quality, affective reactions, and attributions for hypothetical partner transgressions in promoting forgiveness. Structural equation modeling revealed that, as hypothesized, positive marital quality was predictive of more benign attributions that, in turn, facilitated forgiveness both directly and indirectly via affective reactions and emotional empathy. Unexpectedly, marital quality did not account for unique variance in forgiveness. Compared to husbands, wives' responsibility attributions were more predictive of forgiveness, whereas empathy was a better predictor of forgiveness in husbands than in wives. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the burgeoning therapeutic literature on forgiveness. Intimate relationships satisfy our deepest affiliative needs and are also the source of some of our most poignant hurts. When the hurt occurs, negative feelings (e.g., anger, resentment) are common, creating a potential disruption in the relationship. One means of meeting this challenge is through forgiveness, a concept that has received remarkably little attention in science despite its pervasiveness across cultures and major religions (Worthing- ton & Wade, 1999). Although it is a complex construct without a consensual definition, at the center of various approaches to forgiveness is the idea of a transformation in which motivation to seek revenge and to avoid contact with the transgressor is lessened and prosocial motivation toward the transgressor is increased. According to the psychotherapy literature, forgiveness helps to restore relation- ships, release bitterness and anger, and heal inner emotional wounds (e.g., DiBlasio &
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This study attempts to provide empirical evidence for Coombs’ (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), which provides guidelines for matching crisis response strategies to crisis types to best restore organizational reputations in times of crisis. The impact of crisis type and crisis response strategies on perceptions of corporate reputation is measured for 316 consumers participating in a 3 (crisis type: victim crisis, accidental crisis, preventable crisis)×3 (crisis response: deny strategy, diminish strategy, rebuild strategy) between-subjects experimental design. The results show that preventable crises have the most negative effects on organizational reputation and that the rebuild strategy leads to the most positive reputational restoration. Moreover, the more severe people judge a crisis to be, the more negative are their perceptions of the organization's reputation. The interaction effect between crisis type and crisis response strategies on corporate reputation is not significant. However, a person's locus of control has a moderating impact on the relationship between crisis response strategy and organizational reputation. Specifically, the results show that people with an external locus of control prefer the use of deny strategies more than people with an internal locus of control.
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Crisis communication has begun to systematically examine how people perceive the crisis response strategies using experimental designs. This is an important step in the evolution of crisis communication research. One problem with this research has been the over promotion of apology as “the” response. Too often the value of an apology is established by comparing how people react to an apology and to other less victim-centered/accommodative responses. This “unfair” comparison results in apology appearing to be “the” best alternative. This study compares apology to more equivalent crisis response strategies to more fairly determine if apology is “the” best strategy. The results show that people react similarly to any victim-centered/accommodative strategy meaning apology is not “the” best strategy. The implications of the results for crisis managers are discussed.
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Corporate crises often result in negative publicity, threatening the image of the company. The present study investigated the effects of company reputation for social responsibility prior to a crisis event, response to a crisis event, and responsibility for the event on overall consumer regard for the firm. The study is, in part, an experimental test of image restoration strategies conceptualized in the literature. Each of the three factors was found to exhibit a significant main effect. For the crisis scenario used in this study, responsibility explained the largest proportion of variance and response explained the least. An unexpected finding was that an inappropriate response by a “bad” company resulted in an increase in regard toward the firm, whereas the same response by a “good” company resulted in a decrease in regard for the firm.
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The antecedents of victim willingness to reconcile a professional relationship following an incident involving a broken promise were examined in terms of offender tactics (i.e., nature of apology, timeliness of reparative act, sincerity) and relationship characteristics (i.e., nature of past relationship, probability of future violation) using a within- and between-subjects policy-capturing design. Relatively speaking, relationship characteristics were as strongly related to willingness to reconcile as offender tactics. Furthermore, we found moderating effects of magnitude of violation on the willingness to reconcile a relationship following a trust violation. In particular, nature of past relationship was weighed more heavily, whereas probability of future violation was weighed less heavily when the magnitude of the violation was greater. Practical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
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This manuscript reports an exploratory investigation to integrate emotions into the study of post-crisis communication. Using the discussion of the role of affect in Attribution Theory, the research integrates emotion into Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), one approach to post-crisis communication. SCCT uses crisis responsibility, how much people believe the organization is responsible for the crisis, to determine the most effective post-crisis communication strategy for protecting the organization's reputation. The research examines the amount of sympathy, anger, and schadenfreude generated by a variety of crisis types. The focus is on the connection between these three emotions and perceptions of crisis responsibility. The results suggest how emotion can be integrated into post-crisis communication and supports the value of including emotion in future research.
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Coombs' (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) provides the theoretical framework for a 3 × 2 experiment testing the effects of SCCT response strategies from a nonprofit organization. The body of research devoted to crisis communication rarely addresses one of the largest areas of public relations, the public sector. Findings illustrate that in two extremes, one in which the nonprofit is a victim and one in which the nonprofit acts intentionally, the strategies of SCCT are successful. The least effective strategy was when the nonprofit was responding to an accident, the most frequent type of crisis situation.
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Sincere apologies can motivate forgiveness; however, there are differing theoretical perspectives on the mechanism by which this occurs. The empathy model of forgiveness suggests empathy mediates the link between apologies and forgiveness. Alternatively, attribution theory suggests that the apology–forgiveness link is best explained by attributions of behavioral stability. The empathy and attribution models both receive considerable empirical support; however, they remain relatively independent within the literature and the relationship between these mechanisms is thus far unexamined. Within interpersonal romantic relationships, we test a model of apologies and forgiveness that focuses on perceived remorse and integrates these two theoretical perspectives. We test the primary hypothesis that perceived remorse influences attributions of behavioral stability, which in turn influences forgiveness both directly and indirectly via empathy. Results from a path analysis suggest increases in perceived remorse decreased attributions of behavioral stability and increased empathy and forgiveness. Attributions of stability mediated the effect of remorse on empathy, and empathy mediated the effect of attributions of stability on forgiveness. These data establish a relationship between attributions of stability and emotional empathy perspectives and suggest an integrated model of apologies, remorse and forgiveness.
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Despite the burgeoning number of studies examining stakeholder effects of crisis communication and crisis causes, the varied categorizations used, together with inconsistent findings, has meant that knowledge gaps remain. Specifically, existing studies have not established whether a significant hierarchy of best communicated accounts exist that minimize crisis impact on stakeholder reactions. In addition, whether different crisis causes have different emotional, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes still requires examination. Further, crisis emotion research has been limited and has predominantly investigated anger and sympathy, indicating the need to explore a greater variety of crisis emotions. This investigation of the impact of a hierarchy of five crisis communication accounts and four crisis causes on multiple stakeholder reactions elicited several key findings. Although “confession” was the most preferred crisis account, “no comment” was almost as successful in mitigating negative reactions. Counterintuitively, confession reduced responsibility judgments. No comment was second to confession in mitigating negative, and promoting positive, reactions. Further, company control of a crisis was found to be the single most powerful predictor of stakeholder reactions. Involvement elicited multiple positive and negative crisis emotions, while different emotion categories elicited different behavioral intentions. Attitude to the company also impacted behavioral intentions. Yes Yes
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The author investigated (a) the effects of a victim's perspective taking and a transgressor's apology on interpersonal forgiveness and (b) forgiveness as a mode of dissonance reduction. Before the participants read a scenario describing a situation in which they imagined being mistreated by a classmate, the author randomly assigned them to 1 of 4 perspective-taking conditions: (a) recalling times when they had mistreated or hurt others (i.e., the recall-self-as-transgressor condition); (b) imagining how they would think, feel, and behave if they were the classmate (i.e., the imagine-self condition); (c) imagining how the classmate would think, feel, and behave (i.e., the imagine-other condition); or (d) imagining the situation from their own (i.e., the victim's/control) perspective. After reading the scenario, the participants read an apology from the classmate. The participants in the recall-self-as-transgressor condition were significantly more likely than those in the control condition to (a) make benevolent attributions, (b) experience benevolent emotional reactions, and (c) forgive the transgressor. The relationship between the perspective-taking manipulation and forgiveness was mediated by the benevolent attributions and positive emotional reactions experienced by the victims.
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Empathy is a lay term that is becoming increasingly viewed as a unitary function within the field of cognitive neuroscience. In this paper, a selective review of the empathy literature is provided. It is argued from this literature that empathy is not a unitary system but rather a loose collection of partially dissociable neurocognitive systems. In particular, three main divisions can be made: cognitive empathy (or Theory of Mind), motor empathy, and emotional empathy. The two main psychiatric disorders associated with empathic dysfunction are considered: autism and psychopathy. It is argued that individuals with autism show difficulties with cognitive and motor empathy but less clear difficulties with respect to emotional empathy. In contrast, individuals with psychopathy show clear difficulties with a specific form of emotional empathy but no indications of impairment with cognitive and motor empathy.
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