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Measuring behavioral outcomes to crises
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This edition of the world's largest study on strategic communication and public relations explores the status quo and trends across 50 countries. Topics include visualisation, social bots, hypermodernity and benchmarking for strategic communications.
Based on responses from 3,387 senior professionals from every European country, this years’ edition of the European Communication Monitor (ECM) reveals that even though the professionals are fully aware of the visual trend in society, every second professional has limited visual competencies. The data also demonstrated that the phenomenon of social (ro-)bots is largely neglected by many communication professionals in Europe. Only one third follow the debate about social bots and 15.9 per cent have no idea about the topic at all. In this context social bots are mainly seen as a threat for public debates and organisational reputation alike, although four out of ten respondents do also see opportunities arising from them.
Moreover, the ECM 2017 asked how the hyper modern paradigm might influence the work environment of communication professionals. A hypermodern society is a society in overdrive, characterised by a culture of hyper consumption, hyper change, and hyper individualism. A large majority of 71.5 per cent witness the cultural transformation towards a hyper modern culture in their country. The transition from a postmodern to hypermodern culture is the strongest in consultancies (57.2 per cent) and private companies (51.8 per cent). Organisations with postmodern and hypermodern characteristics are ahead in sensing the trend towards an overarching consumer mentality and are much stronger involved in societal debates. Most of them think that it has already changed and will continue to change the communication with their stakeholders.
The ECM is a joint project by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) and the European Association of Directors (EACD), supported by partner PRIME Research. The communication monitor study series, initiated and led by Professor Ansgar Zerfass (University of Leipzig), analyzes trends in the field since more than a decade and covers more than 80 countries across European, Latin-America and Asia-Pacific by now.
All reports for the European Communication Monitor 2017–2023 are available at www.communicationmonitor.eu
For a corporation, a crisis is a circumstance in which it cannot function properly, which affects the organizational ability to function, prevents the achievement of goals, as well as the very survival of the organization. In this paper, we analyse the process of crisis communication, characteristics of known reactive crisis communication strategies and examine if there are differences in attitudes towards reactive communication strategies among future business professionals. In order to do so, we use two samples of undergraduate seniors at the University of Zagreb: business school students and public relations students. Namely, in the future students of business will assume overall management of organizations of different types, while their colleagues studying public relations will be in a position to lead the communication of these organizations, with both groups mutually cooperating. To test the differences in tendencies towards certain reactive strategies we used a survey methodology where students were presented with hypothetical situations. By conduction of a comparative analysis of their responses and tendencies to use specific strategies, our research results show that there are significant differences between the two groups. Students of public relations have a greater tendency to use active strategies compared to their counterparts studying business economics, who in turn display greater caution and passivity in their approaches. Based of our findings it can be concluded that both groups require further training and the acquisition of practical experience to be able, at the highest level, to face, handle and successfully resolve crisis communication situations that were presented to them during the research.
This study aims to identify the factors responsible for creating brand trust and brand distrust among consumers. It uses a grounded theory approach to guide the conduct and analysis of 20 semistructured interviews that yielded 120 descriptions of consumer‐brand interactions. The 3‐stage model that emerged shows a process whereby consumers prioritize product/service quality information and subsequently consider how the company behind the brand behaves toward consumers in the name of the brand, specifically behaviors signalling its integrity and benevolence. Finally, consumers consider characteristics of the company behind the brand (e.g., its financial status) and how it behaves in its own name toward other stakeholder groups (e.g., employees). The process for distrust mirrors that for trust, implying that the two are polar opposites. The data also show that trust and distrust in a brand can coexist but within separate domains.
This case study characterizes the crisis communication challenges and potential response strategies of organizations facing crises of perception created by media exemplars. Exemplars are created through repeated news stories made memorable by highly vivid language, shocking visual materials, and evocative personal testimonies. ABC’s portrayal of Lean Finely Textured Beef as “pink slime” is provided as a case for analysis. The study concludes that organizations responding to crises of perception are at an extreme disadvantage when their standard operating procedures are portrayed negatively as exemplars. In addition, stigmatization increases an organization’s susceptibility to exemplars. Finally, appeals to neutral parties have the potential to bring some degree of added credibility to organizations responding to crises of perceptions caused by exemplars.
Through 40 in-depth interviews with media professionals, this study explores: 1) how media professionals approach ethical crisis communication and stakeholder engagement and 2) media professionals’ views of organizational crisis communication. Findings revealed participants’ descriptions of ethical approaches, major ethical tenets they practiced, and levels of ethical obligations or guidance. Participants spoke of ethical approaches as rule-based, balanced or utilitarian, or situational. Most followed major ethical guidelines for crisis reporting, such as respect, objectivity/neutrality, sensitivity, empathy/compassion, accuracy, timeliness, verification of facts/sources, honesty, and transparency, with a strong focus on public interest. Participants mentioned obligations and guidance from their own moral compasses, organizations or newsrooms, schooling, professions, and communities and stakeholders. Findings indicate that crises represent unique situations for ethical communication and stakeholder engagement. Participants suggested that relationships with public relations professionals in times of crisis could be improved by receiving more complete, timely, and accurate information from organizations.
This study, based on a selection of four popular Greek political blogs expressing the main ideological directions in the Greek political public sphere, undertakes a qualitative content analysis of the blog discourses to make intelligible how the deep Greek financial, political, and social crisis is framed by these blogs. After sketching the theoretical debates on the sociopolitical origins of the Greek crisis, we focus on blog participants' perceptions of democratic principles and institutions. We conclude that what dominates in the debates of the far left and far right blogs belongs to the same rigid ideological raster that excludes an understanding of the principles and grounds of democracy. The right-wing blog's ideological orientation includes antidemocratic strands of the far-right and far-left blogs, while the center-left blog is characterized by a liberal democratic stance.
Growing recognition that communication with stakeholders forms an essential element in the design, implementation and success of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has given rise to a burgeoning CSR communication literature. However this literature is scattered across various sub-disciplines of management research and exhibits considerable heterogeneity in its core assumptions, approaches and goals. This article provides a thematically-driven review of the extant literature across five core sub-disciplines, identifying dominant views upon the audience of CSR communication (internal/external actors) and CSR communication purpose, as well as pervasive theoretical approaches and research paradigms manifested across these areas. We then set out a new conceptual framework – the 4Is of CSR communications research – that distinguishes between research on CSR Integration, CSR Interpretation, CSR Identity, and CSR Image. This typology of research streams organizes the central themes, opportunities and challenges for CSR communication theory development, and provides a heuristic against which future research can be located. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Previous research indicates that organizations in crisis situations must address multiple audiences with distinct needs. The public communication offered by Jack in the Box restaurants in response to a severe food poisoning outbreak is analyzed as a case study. The analysis indicates that ambiguity may provide organizations with a means for satisfying the divergent needs of their multiple audiences—even in cases where these distinct needs appear to be contradictory.
Crisis is the truth of today's fast paced business world. Rapid organizational change, changing economic conditions, problems of personnel, unexpected technological changes and political effects cause instability on today's business world. This instability appears out of state control as economic disruptions that result in crisis. Crisis affecting our country and all other countries in the world also influences not only vacated people but also other individuals who concerns about losing their jobs. This economic uncertainty seemingly interests corporations. However environment is also one of the factors that affects crisis. If crisis isn’t brought under control or managed properly, it will come about and create chain crisis. Because of the increasing chaos, change from authoritarian leadership through teamwork and participative management mentality has been observed. Commerce has been getting more and more complicated and complex. These changes have transformed traditional crisis leaders to a leader model that makes scenario analysis and work done co-ordinately with a team by gathering lots of different point of view to create optimum solution. Leadership and crisis concepts are discussed together in order that implementation of leadership in crisis can be understood. Crisis leadership is also regarded as optimally and timely assessment process of adverse condition's effects whatever its reason is. In the first section of this article which will be presented with extensive literature, general information about leadership concept from Total Quality Management principles and comparison of leader and executive concepts will be given. In the second section, leadership in crisis management will be mentioned and in the last section the importance of lead executive in crisis and its contribution to literature will be reviewed.
In crisis management, cooperation within the response network is seen as crucial. Usually, this network refers to authorities and nongovernmental organizations, such as the Red Cross. However, the authors argue that to improve societal resilience one should take a broader overview of the actors involved in crisis preparedness and mitigation, and also include the public. With this in mind, the role of communication is scrutinized and a conceptual framework developed as a starting point for further investigation into how communication may be developed to strengthen a community approach to crisis management that includes citizen groups in the broader response network. A model is presented along with four propositions for future research. These include developing inventory methods to assist in stakeholder mapping in the pre-crisis phase, investigating all-hazard approaches to preparedness, scrutinizing collaboration during crisis situations to identify barriers to community resilience, and clarifying the kinds of communication competence needed in crisis situations and reflecting on lessons learned.
Social media data are increasingly being used in disaster management for information dissemination, establishment of situational awareness of the “big picture” of the disaster impact and emerged incidences over time, and public peer-to-peer backchannel communications. Before we can fully trust the situational awareness established from social media data, we need to ask whether there are biases in data generation: can we simply associate more tweets with more severe disaster impacts and therefore, higher needs for relief and assistance in that area? If we rely on social media for real-time information dissemination, who can we reach and who has been left out? Due to the uneven access to social media and heterogeneous motivations in social media usage, situational awareness based on social media data may not reveal the true picture. In this study, we examine the spatial heterogeneity in the generation of tweets after a major disaster. We developed a novel model to explain the number of tweets by mass, material, access, and motivation (MMAM). Empirical analysis of tweets about Hurricane Sandy in New York City largely confirmed the MMAM model. We also found that community socioeconomic factors are more important than population size and damage levels in predicting disaster-related tweets.
Purpose – Supporting and communicating with citizens is a vital part of societal crisis management. Training exercises may offer an opportunity to develop capabilities among managers in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to examine this potential in an analysis of how citizens were portrayed and perceived by participants in a major crisis management exercise.
Design/methodology/approach – Observation, document analysis and short interviews during the exercise were used as data collection methods. Data were subjected to thematic analysis to capture core themes in relation to the research aim.
Findings – Patterns in how citizens’ reactions were portrayed in the exercise were identified to form a citizen behaviour typology. Observations during the exercise also demonstrated some of the challenges in incorporating the citizen perspective. However, findings regarding the perception of the citizen perspective also demonstrate the ability of exercise participants to meet and respond to public behaviours with respect and seriousness.
Originality/value – Variation is an important condition for learning in exercises, and the identified typology is suggested as a starting point for achieving this in incorporation of the citizen perspective in training scenarios. The results of the study are discussed in terms of a learning framework with the aim of explicitly developing crisis managers’ ability to interact and communicate with citizens in crisis situations.
Social media has been used extensively in recent disasters by emergency managers particularly to warn people, and help in the coordination of response and recovery. However, its use in disaster prevention and preparedness is less understood. This article examines the use of social media in disaster risk reduction awareness strategies around the world through a literature review and expert opinion. It concludes that it is generally underutilised in major DRR awareness strategies, although there are robust programs operating in some countries with high social media use.
Food recall is the process of removing the contaminated product which can cause harm to the consumer. The aim is to protect the public health and interest prior to traceability. This research was conducted to identify the perceptions of food industries towards the importance of food recall. A qualitative approach is employed using an interview method on three respondents selected from food industries who were responsible in various departments namely the Quality Assurance (QA) and Research and Development (R and D). The efficiency of the procedure included documentation, communication and the deadline. The food recall activity has significant impact on tracking the product batch that was contaminated. Not only will it reduce the cost and regain the trust from consumers, at the same time it will protect public health. Therefore, this process is essential to be constantly evaluated for continuous systematic improvement. The strengths of food recall activity practiced in Malaysia are found to be the communication among food industries, authorities, media and consumers as well as the strictness of the competent authority such as the Ministry of Health (MOH). This study suggests the use of global networking system in the food recall activity while communication and documentation are to be implemented effectively by the particular food industry and other products in general. INTRODUCTION (JAKIM) and the Department of Veterinary Service (DVS).
In this paper we examine diffusion of responsibility in a whistleblowing experiment. We use a multi-player asymmetric information ultimatum game where only the proposer and a subset of the responders (the information insiders) know the size of a pot that the proposer distributes among information insiders and outsiders. Insiders have a clear monetary incentive to whistleblow in case of a small pot in order to avoid rejection of seemingly unfair offers by outsiders; in case of a large pot only altruistic motives could explain that insiders whistleblow. We vary the number of information insiders, one or two, who can whistleblow. We find that in all treatments close to 60% of the insiders whistleblow when they are pivotal for both small and large pots. In a treatment where other insider can also blow the whistle, we observe a significant drop in case only altruistic motives can explain whistleblowing. We show that the effect is due to the extensive margin, i.e. the share of whistleblowers drops to 20%, while patterns of active whistleblowers do not change. In case of low pot sizes, where whistleblowing is in line with selfish motives, we do not observe diffusion of responsibility, in spite of a possible free riding incentive due to a positive cost of whistleblowing.
This article focuses on the field of international crisis communication, whereby multinationals and their expatriate staff respond to crisis events in international and/or multicultural contexts. The field of international crisis communication is at or near a state of crisis due to lack of research and, more importantly, methods useful for practitioners. ‘Glocalization’—which is used successfully in fields as diverse as marketing, education, theology, and others as an effective and expedient way of leveraging global capabilities to meet local demands—is proposed as one method for addressing this need pragmatically. Using glocalization for the internationalizing of crisis communication benefits practitioners and researchers alike in a way that avoids imposing Western frameworks and interpretations onto non-Western crisis situations. We demonstrate the approach with a case study involving multinational McDonald’s Corporation and its foreign subsidiary, McDonald’s Japan.
This article examines the effects on cost stickiness of firms’ involvement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Cost stickiness represents asymmetric cost behavior whereby the magnitude of cost increases in response to an increase in the activity level is greater than the magnitude of cost decreases with a decrease in the activity level. We hypothesize that CSR involvement requires ongoing investments in value-creating activities; hence, it is difficult to scale down committed resources instantly even when the activity declines. We use two different CSR proxies and find support for the CSR-related cost stickiness hypothesis. We further decompose CSR into strategic and tactical CSR and find that cost stickiness is more pronounced for strategic CSR. Finally, we examine the CSR-related cost behavior pattern across business cycles and find some evidence of cost stickiness during an expansionary phase of the economy and cost anti-stickiness during a recessionary phase but only for the tactical CSR component.
No consensus exists on how to develop effective risk messages that motivate appropriate action yet do not unduly frighten people. A useful framework for developing risk messages is the extended parallel process model (EPPM). The EPPM suggests that when people are faced with health or environmental risks, they are motivated to either control the danger or control their fear. This chapter offers a description of how the EPPM can explain public responses to risk messages, and then reports on two pilot studies that illustrate how existing audience perceptions can be used in the design and generation of effective risk management messages.
Strategic risk and crisis communication amalgamation with social media is one of the considerable growth areas of communication research and practice. Individuals and organizations can use social media to engage in dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders while sharing information (textual and visual) on various social media platforms; transforming how crisis professionals are targeting risk bearers, who are often their consumers before, during, and after a crisis.
It is now clear that a wide variety of variables can affect a person’s motivation and/or ability to consider issue-relevant arguments in either a relatively objective or in a relatively biased manner. However, according to the ELM, extensive issue and argument processing is only one route to persuasion or resistance. When people are relatively unmotivated or unable to process issue-relevant arguments, attitude changes may still occur if peripheral cues are present in the persuasion situation. In fact, the ELM postulates a tradeoff between argument processing and the operation of peripheral cues: as argument scrutiny (whether objective or biased) is reduced, peripheral cues become relatively more important determinants of persuasion, but as argument scrutiny (whether objective or biased) is increased, peripheral cues become relatively less important. In the first part of this chapter we discuss the tradeoff between relatively objective processing and the operation of cues, and in the second part of this chapter we discuss the tradeoff as it applies to biased processing.
PurposeFor over three decades, researchers have sought to identify factors influencing employees’ responses to wrongdoing in work settings, including organizational, contextual, and individual factors. In focusing predominantly on understanding whistle-blowing responses, however, researchers have tended to neglect inquiry into employees’ decisions to withhold concerns. The major purpose of this study was to explore the factors that influenced how staff members responded to a series of adverse events in a healthcare setting in Australia, with a particular focus on the role of perceptions and emotions.
Methodology/approachBased on publicly accessible transcripts taken from a government inquiry that followed the event, we employed a modified grounded theory approach to explore the nature of the adverse events and how employees responded emotionally and behaviorally; we focused in particular on how organizational and contextual factors shaped key employee perceptions and emotions encouraging silence.
FindingsOur results revealed that staff members became aware of a range of adverse events over time and responded in a variety of ways, including disclosure to trusted others, confrontation, informal reporting, formal reporting, and external whistle-blowing. Based on this analysis, we developed a model of how organizational and contextual factors shape employee perceptions and emotions leading to employee silence in the face of wrongdoing.
Research limitations/implicationsAlthough limited to publicly available transcripts only, our findings provide support for the idea that perceptions and emotions play important roles in shaping employees’ responses to adverse events at work, and that decisions about whether to voice concerns about wrongdoing is an ongoing process, influenced by emotions, sensemaking, and critical events.
A critical success factor for any significant agricultural emergency is how effectively governments and industry communicate to stakeholders. This communication must be undertaken prior to, during and after an emergency. This paper describes a number of communication initiatives undertaken in the agricultural sector including: a national communication network; pre-approved advertising material for use in a crisis; national telephone arrangements; a national agriculture emergency website; biosecurity education and awareness campaigns; and, a course to train PR professionals in crisis communications.
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Applying systematic analysis of academic literature the paper discusses not widely spread social phenomenon in Lithuania communication systems in business environment Multidiscipline approach is employed to analyze the phenomenon. While elaborating scientific discussions in social science interface it is intended to find the answers to the following issues: how decision taking is influenced by internal and external business environments; how to communicate during crisis period; how to prepare efficient crisis communication plan. The paper introduces communication as a social institution system and as a strategic management function which can solve modern socioeconomic challenges in a business environment: necessity to create trust between internal and external company stakeholders; business activation through developing responsible corporate culture. The first part of the paper gives theoretical background of communication concept with the emphasis on communication place in the management structure. On the basis of these theoretical insights it is possible to state that crisis management requires cooperation within separate introduced social phenomenon structures: efficient internal and external communications; identification of persons and their roles that are defined by special position and responsibility; efficient collective decision taking; control; cooperation responsibility and communication. Applying deductive logic in the second part of the paper practical recommendations are supplied - the plan of effective crisis communication. The following hypothesis has been put forward - communication is central to the today's company approach, and communication between publics is the core of business activity. In the introduced context the problem of effective communication stays topical from the social, economic and management approaches.
By drawing on New Institutional Theory, the aim of this paper is to provide an overview on the Social Media Manager as a new professional figure who is gaining an active role in the management and control of the firm’s reputation.
Social Media have indeed increased direct interaction and dialogue across organizations and stakeholders, but, on the other hand, they have expanded the spectrum of reputational risks. In order to monitor and create a dialogue with stakeholder and to gain positive reputational effects, firms have to take into account the need of a specific professional role in charge of the Social Media Strategy on the behalf of organization. After having provided a classification of the Social Media Managers, we have highlighted how Social Media have reached the stage of diffusion in the S-shaped institutionalization process but they have not up until now reached the institutionalization phase yet.
Image management is essential to corporations, particularly during crisis situations. The ongoing financial crisis in the United States has led to the failure of several banking firms. Because systemic economic problems may result from the loss of confidence in the banking system, effective use of crisis management and image restoration strategies by the banking industry is particularly important. This paper discusses the importance of corporate reputation management, illustrates the use of communication theory to analyze corporate responses to crisis, and analyzes Citibank's responses to the company's recent financial crisis using two crisis response frameworks, Coombs' Situational Crisis Communication Theory (2007) and Benoit's Image Restoration Typology (1995). Findings indicate that in general, Citigroup responded to negative events in an effective manner (Coombs, 2007; Benoit, 1995) and in such a way to reduce the damaging effects of the crisis. In many instances, Citi used corrective action strategies, in which management indicated ways to solve problems and to prevent the crisis from happening again.
This volume examines the role of apologia and apology in response to public attack. Author Keith Michael Hearit provides an introduction to these common components of public life, and considers a diverse list of subjects, from public figures and individuals to corporations and institutions. He explores the motivations and rationales behind apologies, and considers the ethics and legal liabilities of these actions. Hearit provides case studies throughout the volume, with many familiar examples from recent events in the United States, as well as an international apology-making case from Japan. The broad-perspective approach of this volume makes the content relevant and appealing to practitioners and scholars in public relations, business communications, and management. It is a valuable text for courses that take a discursive approach to public relations, and it also appeals to readers in business management, examining apology as a response strategy to corporate crises. © 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Patterns of communication and behaviour emerge within a construction project in response to a construction crisis. This paper investigates, within a grounded theory framework, the nature of these patterns, the sociological and psychological forces which shape them and their relationship with crisis management efficiency. A grounded theory is presented in four parts. The first part conceives a construction crisis as a period of social instability, arising from conflicting interest groups, seeking to exercise power in the pursuit of social structures which suit their political and economic interests. The second part sees a construction crisis as a desensitizing phenomenon which results in a period of behavioural instability and conflict which is self-perpetuating. The third part cites social structure as an important influence upon construction crisis management efficiency, in determining the efficiency of information flow, and the level of uncertainty between those affected. The fourth part points to the in-built defence mechanisms which construction crises have and to three managerial ironies which make construction crisis management difficult.
Organizational Change integrates major empirical, theoretical and conceptual approaches to implementing communication in organizational settings. Laurie Lewis ties together the disparate literatures in management, education, organizational sociology, and communication to explore how the practices and processes of communication work in real-world cases of change implementation. • Gives a bold and comprehensive overview of communication research and ideas on change and those who bring it about • Fills in an important piece of the applied communication puzzle as it relates to organizations • Illustrated with student friendly, real life case studies from organizations, including organizational mergers, governmental or nonprofit policy or procedural implementation, or technological innovation • Winner of the 2011 Organizational Communication NCA Division Book of the Year.
Social media are invaluable sources of information during organizational crises. Although recent research confirms this fundamental role in crisis communication, this article is aimed at deepening the understanding about the role of the source of information in this socially mediated era by comparing the organization and the employee as communicators. As social media lack traditional gatekeeping processes, dynamics of both source and content credibility are assessed. The findings, based on an experimental design, advocate that judgments of organizational reputation are not only dependent on the crisis-response strategy, but also depend on the source and perceptions of source and content credibility. 2015
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolving role of religion in issue management and introduces a case in Malaysia to examine the emerging corporate risk when western multinationals fall foul of the precepts of Islam.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper details events when Cadbury in Malaysia faced online rumours that its locally made chocolate was contaminated by porcine DNA and examines the corporate and community response in the context of issue management, international public relations, cross-cultural communication theory and apologia theory.
Findings
– The case illustrates that for a multinational company doing business in a Muslim country, an issue response strategy must be based on sound local knowledge and understanding of the religious implications.
Practical implications
– Although issues in the public arena frequently have a political and legal dimension, a religious element can make issue management even more challenging. Internationalisation of both business and issues has increased the profile of Islamic values, and the case shows the practical effectiveness of a calm and considered response in the face of extreme provocation.
Originality/value
– While western public relations literature has highlighted cases of strongly held familiar Christian values driving issues onto the national issue management agenda, this paper identifies how Islamic precepts now represent an increasingly important consideration for modern risk and issue managers.
This case study provides insights into how a community of organizations communicates during a crisis by examining how challenges to collective bargaining laws in Wisconsin and Ohio provoked a dramatic response by education unions and the labor sector as a whole. Using the theoretical frameworks of reflective management and the discourse of renewal, this insider account of the response found that these pivotal events were a cause for change in how the education unions and their partners communicated. These events resulted in increased collaboration between partners, embracing an organic response of members, and the rearticulation of organization values. In addition to the presentation of crisis communication beyond the traditional narrow-focus of the response of a single organization, the results of this study also challenge the concept of what constitutes reflection and renewal after a crisis.
Purpose
– The purpose of this research was threefold, including to provide a four-point rationale for teaching corporate crisis management as a module within a course on ethical decision-making in business and organizations; to provide evaluative data supporting this approach; and to highlight the implications of this approach for human resource development and training.
Design/methodology/approach
– Thirty-four undergraduates in a required course on ethical decision-making in business and organizations completed pre- and post-course assignments assessing their knowledge about crisis/management, as well as their skills in crisis recognition, evaluation and action planning. Participants also completed a survey on their perceptions of the crisis management module and its placement within the ethics course.
Findings
– Statistical analyses demonstrated significant knowledge acquisition on crisis/management; significant skill development on crisis recognition, evaluation and action planning; and significantly greater “true positives” and significantly fewer “false negatives” in post-course identification of crisis warning signs. Perceptions of the crisis management module and its placement within the course on ethical decision-making were positive.
Research limitations/implications
– Although the sample size was relatively small, small samples are associated with a greater risk of failing to detect an effect that is present, rather than the greater predicament of erroneously concluding that an absent effect is actually present. This information, coupled with the fact that the results demonstrated not only statistical significance but also large effect sizes using Cohen’s d, inspires confidence. Nonetheless, additional assessment with larger samples would allow for the possibility of convergent evidence. Similarly, additional assessment within different organizational contexts, including applications in human resource training and development is warranted. Future research should also include assessment of specific underlying teaching strategies and evaluation of whether certain models are associated with greater learning on a broader range of crisis management skills.
Practical implications
– Programs in business ethics education and training comprise one useful context in which to teach corporate crisis management. The program specified here addresses two training needs previously specified in the human resource development (HRD) literature on crisis management, including identifying specific methods of enhancing recognition or detection of crisis warning signs and also of providing tools and enhancing skills for assessing and containing crisis.
Originality/value
– Despite the centrality of both ethics and HRD to crisis management, there has been a dearth of research on whether ethics education is a useful context through which to teach this topic. This research addresses this dearth and suggests new avenues for HRD in this respect.