Activating constructive employee behavioural responses in a crisis: Examining the effects of pre‐crisis reputation and crisis communication strategies on employee voice behaviours

This study explores how organizational management can promote employee voice behaviours, as positive behavioural reactions with constructive ideas, in responding to organizational crisis. Using an experimental study (N = 640) among full‐time employees in the United States, the study found that pre‐crisis internal reputation and crisis communication strategies—accommodative response and stealing thunder—positively and directly affected constructive employee voice behaviours in a crisis situation. Furthermore, the study revealed how post‐crisis internal reputation mediates the influences of pre‐crisis internal reputation and stealing thunder on positive/constructive and negative/destructive employee voice behaviours. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical development of crisis communication in the internal context of an organization, especially with respect to employee voice behaviours. The study also highlights an important practical implication for crisis managers who can activate and promote positive employee behaviour voices, thereby influencing leadership's strategic decision‐making in an organizational crisis.     

Guiding employees through the COVID-19 pandemic: An exploration of the impact of transparent communication and change appraisals

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and drawing on literature from change management, internal communication and cognitive appraisal theory, this study provided accounts of how transparent communication during organizational change affects employees' cognitive appraisals of the change, behavioural reactions to the change, and subsequently, turnover intentions. Our findings of 414 full-time US employees revealed that transparent internal communication is positively related to employees' challenge appraisal of the change, which, in turn, is related to change compliance and championing. In addition, transparent communication is negatively associated with threat appraisal of the change, which in turn is connected to lower change compliance. Further, employees' turnover intention was negatively associated with their compliance and championing for the change. This study has made several contributions to internal communication scholarship, appraisal theory and change management literature. We also offer several suggestions to improve communication during organizational change periods.     

Exploring social media use in university crisis communication: An experiment to measure impact on perceived crisis severity and attitudes of key publics

This study seeks to investigate the impact of an exposure to a university's social media on publics’ perceptions during a crisis. Data from this study showed that participants (N = 269) expressed more favourable evaluations towards the university and their perceived severity was mitigated after viewing its official statement on university's Facebook posts. The results of this empirical research offer a meaningful suggestion to crisis communication scholars and practitioners interested in assessing the impact of universities’ statements in social media by providing ways to understand the importance of the organizational usage of social media during a crisis, why that is important, and why practitioners should make effective social media communication tactics a priority during a crisis.     

Development and validation of a crisis self‐efficacy index

This study develops a crisis self‐efficacy index to provide a tool for crisis communication researchers and practitioners to understand behavioural aspects of crisis response better. Evaluations of public's crisis self‐efficacy using this index inform strategic message development to protect the public and minimize crisis damages by identifying the public/s most in need of self‐efficacy enhancing interventions. The index also provides practitioners a useful longitudinal index to evaluate progress in crisis preparedness programs and track changes in efficacy. A four‐stage survey index development process using structural equation modelling identifies four underlying constructs of crisis self‐efficacy: action, preventive, achievement and uncertainty management.     

Relationships and identity fusion: Understanding antecedents of employees' megaphoning behaviours in response to corporate misconduct-related crises

The purpose of this study was to understand employees' cognitive and communicative reactions to allegations of corporate misconduct levied against their organization, and identify factors that may impact employees' reactions to such allegations. Specifically, this study focused on the idea of identity fusion as a key factor in helping buffer the organization against the negative cognitive and communicative impacts of corporate crises. Surveys conducted among American employees of large corporations revealed that identity fusion indeed mitigated their negative cognitive and communicative reactions to misconduct allegations, and encouraged positive megaphoning behaviours. Furthermore, identity fusion experienced by employees also mediated the relationship between employee–organization relationships and positive and negative megaphoning intentions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Can crisis management teams mitigate COVID-19's effects? A comparative case study between China and the United States

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the world's greatest challenge since World War II. As an unprecedented global public health crisis, crisis management teams (CMTs) in the infected countries need to rethink to cope with the similar uncertainty and urgency of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The shared context of COVID-19 allows us to explore a cross-nation study of different constructs and CMT to communicate information about crises with the public effectively. Since the pandemic affected all countries, the comparison is warranted. Can CMTs mitigate the effects of COVID-19? Based on the analysis of China and the US cases, our study explores how shared and common knowledge cognition among crisis responders plays a pivotal role in effective CMTs' communication while technological failures and inadequate information disrupt the system, worsening pandemics like COVID-19. Furthermore, organizational dysfunction, such as institutional fragmentation, regulatory hurdles and bureaucratic arrogance, impede effective communication between CMTs. However, effective coordination and decisive leadership could improve coordination effectiveness and reduce crisis costs.     

Experiencing motivational conflict on social media in a crisis situation: The case of the Chick-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy

This study examined the relationship between motivational conflict involving social media use and attitude formation in a brand crisis situation. An online experiment was conducted with 658 participants using a 2 (news-article valence: positive vs. negative) × 2 (situational cue valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects design. During the experiment, participants loyal to Chick-fil-A (defense-motivated) were asked to communicate the brand through the brand's social networking sites (SNSs) while receiving a cue for the SNS audience's general unfavorable opinions on the crisis issue, the Chick-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy (impression-motivated). It was found that when motivational conflict was experienced (defense vs. impression), (1) individuals' brand attitudes were affected more by objective information such as a news article than by a cue for audience opinion and (2) their positive brand-related cognitions were countervailed by their impression-related cognitions. Overall, the findings suggest that it is not always desirable for a company to encourage customers to engage in SNS-facilitated interaction in a crisis situation.     

Toward a global understanding of the effects of the IDEA model for designing instructional risk and crisis messages: A food contamination experiment in Sweden

Communicating to publics at risk can be challenging for spokespersons during crises. Knowing what content to include in such messages can be instrumental in achieving effective behavioural results among disparate publics and may differ across cultures. Whereas the IDEA model has demonstrated itself to be an effective framework for designing instructional risk and crisis messages in the United States, this study builds on the conclusions drawn previously by examining the model's utility in Sweden. Results of the experiment confirm that messages constructed according to the IDEA model are effective in Sweden's state‐oriented risk culture, as well. Future research should focus on the model's utility for various risk and crisis types among both Swedish populations and populations in additional countries.     

I am one of them: Examining crisis communication from an intergroup communication approach

This study took an intergroup communication approach and examined how two types of social identities, namely organizational identity and shared ethnic identity with the victim, affect publics’ reactions to a crisis. Data collected via a quasi‐experiment showed that organizational identity affects publics’ reactions, such that internal publics perceive the organization more positively and have less negative word‐of‐mouth intention. Internal publics feel guilty even if they are not personally responsible for the crisis. Publics do not react more negatively when their ethnic ingroup members are accidentally victimized. Organizations should mitigate the internal publics’ anger and guilt and also clarify that the crisis is nonethnicity‐related when the victims happen to be ethnic minorities to avoid any misunderstanding of victims’ ethnic ingroup members.     

The effects of the integration of external and internal communication features in digital magazines on consumers' magazine attitude

This study investigates the effects of external and internal communication features on consumers' digital magazine attitude, and the processes (i.e., perceived interactivity and social presence) underlying these effects. Both feature types enable communication between two or more people. Though, in the case of external communication features, the interactions take place outside the digital magazine (e.g., on Facebook), whereas in the case of internal communication features, the communication takes place inside the digital environment of the magazine. In a two-wave experiment with a 2 (external communication features: present/absent) × 2 (internal communication features: present/absent) between-subjects design, 192 participants were exposed to a digital tablet magazine in which the presence of interactive features was manipulated. The results show that digital magazines with either external or internal communication features are perceived as more interactive, which has a positive influence on consumers' digital magazine attitude. The findings also reveal that – in contrast to external – internal communication features have the ability to enhance feelings of social presence, another process through which digital magazine attitude is positively affected. So, internal communication features improve consumers' digital magazine attitude through two pathways (i.e., perceived interactivity and social presence), and external communication features only via one (i.e., perceived interactivity).     

How employees' perception of information technology application and their knowledge management capacity influence organisational performance

This study investigates how workers' gender, work experience, designated division, and appointment affect (i) their perception of information technology (IT) within the organisation, (ii) their self-perceived capacity in knowledge management (KM), and (iii) their perception of organisational performance (OP). Furthermore, the study also examines the correlation among the above three dimensions by using t-test, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation and stepwise regression analysis. These results show a positive correlation among IT application, KM capacity, and OP. In addition, the study discovers that (i) adequate IT investment and acceptance will improve employees' KM capacity, (ii) appropriate IT investment and training and employees' knowledge replication ability can better predict organisational outcomes, and (iii) employees' KM capacity is a better predictor of OP than IT application. Results also show that personal factors do affect workers' perception of the organisation's IT application, their KM capacity, and overall OP.     

Understanding the use of social media by organisations for crisis communication

Many businesses have commenced using social media for crisis communication with stakeholders. However there is little guidance in literature to assist organisational crisis managers with the selection of an appropriate crisis response strategy. Traditional theories on crisis communication may not adequately represent the social media context. This study took a qualitative approach and explored organisational use of social media for crisis communication at seventeen large Australian organisations. An analysis of 15,650 Facebook and Twitter messages was conducted, drawing on the lens of Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) (Coombs & Holladay, 2002). Findings suggested that when large Australian organisations responded to crises via social media, they lacked an awareness of the potential of social media for crisis communication. Organisations often did not respond to stakeholder messages or selected crisis response strategies that may increase reputational risk. The paper contributes important understandings of organisational social media use for crisis communication. It also assists crisis managers by providing six crisis response positions and a taxonomy of social media crisis messages that stakeholders may send to organisations. Key implications are discussed.     

Planning Makes (Closer to) Perfect: Exploring United States’ Local Government Officials’ Evaluations of Crisis Management

How a government responds to, manages, and communicates about crisis has direct implications for public well‐being and ultimately shapes public opinion about local governments and government officials. Yet, little is known about crisis preparation, especially that of local governments. Local governments are involved in managing any crisis situation that affects their communities, regardless of the responsible organization or nature of the crisis. This study surveys local government officials (N = 307) in 44 states across the United States who manage crisis communication to reveal unique considerations of planning, magnitude and citizen satisfaction on crisis management. Novel findings are revealed with respect to each variable to direct future crisis research, particularly that informing the precrisis stage.     

Tracking users' visual attention and responses to personalized advertising based on task cognitive demand

This study examined the effects of personalization in banner advertising on visual attention to the advertisement. A 2 (ad type: personalized vs. non-personalized) × 2 (task cognitive demand: high vs. low) eye-tracking experiment (N = 93) was conducted to examine how personally salient information attracts consumers' attention, and how it interacts with different levels of cognitive load for given tasks. Consistent with previous literature, participants paid relatively longer and more attention to the personalized compared to non-personalized advertisements. However, task cognitive demand was shown to moderate the effects of personalization on attention, such that the personalized advertisement was much more effective in attracting consumers' attention than the non-personalized advertisement when people were engaged in a highly cognitively demanding task. No significant interactions between personalization and cognitive demand of task were found on perceived goal impediment and attitude toward the advertisement. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

The cognitive impact of interactive design features for learning complex materials in medical education

To identify the most effective way for medical students to interact with a browser-based learning module on the symptoms and neurological underpinnings of stroke syndromes, this study manipulated the way in which subjects interacted with a graphical model of the brain and examined the impact of functional changes on learning outcomes. It was hypothesized that behavioral interactions that were behaviorally more engaging and which required deeper consideration of the model would result in heightened cognitive interaction and better learning than those whose manipulation required less deliberate behavioral and cognitive processing. One hundred forty four students were randomly assigned to four conditions whose model controls incorporated features that required different levels of behavioral and cognitive interaction: Movie (low behavioral/low cognitive, n = 40), Slider (high behavioral/low cognitive, n = 36), Click (low behavioral/high cognitive, n = 30), and Drag (high behavioral/high cognitive, n = 38). Analysis of Covariates (ANCOVA) showed that students who received the treatments associated with lower cognitive interactivity (Movie and Slider) performed better on a transfer task than those receiving the module associated with high cognitive interactivity (Click and Drag, partial eta squared = .03). In addition, the students in the high cognitive interactivity conditions spent significantly more time on the stroke locator activity than other conditions (partial eta squared = .36). The results suggest that interaction with controls that were tightly coupled with the model and whose manipulation required deliberate consideration of the model's features may have overtaxed subjects' cognitive resources. Cognitive effort that facilitated manipulation of content, though directed at the model, may have resulted in extraneous cognitive load, impeding subjects in recognizing the deeper, global relationships in the materials. Instructional designers must, therefore, keep in mind that the way in which functional affordances are integrated with the content can shape both behavioral and cognitive processing, and has significant cognitive load implications.     

Effectiveness of learning in online academic courses compared with face‐to‐face courses in higher education

This study examined the effectiveness of 3 online courses compared with the same 3 courses in a face‐to‐face (F2F) format, which had the same characteristics (e.g., the same instructor and final exam content and place). Effectiveness was examined by utilizing a wide range of variables, including 2 objective measures (N = 968): grades and completion rate; and 9 subjective measures (N = 360): 7 measures include instructional aspects (course structure, learning content, lessons watched, assignments, communication), engagement, and satisfaction. Findings indicate significant differences between online and F2F courses in most of the examined variables. Students in the online courses reported better understanding of the course structure, better communication with the course staff, watching the videos lessens more, and higher engagement and satisfaction. Students in the F2F courses reported better contribution of the learning content. Students' final grades were higher in the online courses, and no differences were found in the completion rate. The findings suggest that in many of the examined effectiveness aspects, online courses are as effective as, or more effective than, F2F courses. Interpretations of the findings are discussed.     

Cyberloafing at the workplace: gain or drain on work?

This study examined the impact of cyberloafing on employees' emotion and work. We also examined gender differences in employees' perception towards cyberloafing. In general, respondents felt that some form of cyberloafing at work was acceptable. Men were also more likely to report that cyberloafing has a positive impact on work compared to women. As well, our findings suggest that browsing activities have a positive impact on employees' emotion while emailing activities have a negative impact. Results of our study provide useful insights for researchers and managers in understanding employees' attitudes towards cyberloafing, and how cyberloafing can result in gain or drain in employees' work productivity.     

Securing social platform from misinformation using deep learning

People are easily duped by fake news and start to share it on their networks. With high frequency, fake news causes panic and forces people to engage in unethical behavior such as strikes, roadblocks, and similar actions. Thus, counterfeit news detection is highly needed to secure people from misinformation on social platforms. Filtering fake news manually from social media platforms is nearly impossible, as such an act raises security and privacy concerns for users. As a result, it is critical to assess the quality of news early on and prevent it from spreading. In this article, we propose an automated model to identify fake news at an early stage. Machine learning-based models such as Random Forest, Logistic Regression, Naïve Bayes, and K-Nearest Neighbor are used as baseline models, implemented with the features extracted using countvectorizer and tf–idf. The baseline and other existing model outcomes are compared with the proposed deep learning-based Long–Short Term Memory (LSTM) network. Experimental results show that different settings achieved an accuracy of 99.82% and outperformed the baseline and existing models.     

Improving automated crisis detection via an improved understanding of crisis language: Linguistic categories in social media crises

By applying the Linguistic Category Model (LCM) in crisis communication, this study explores the potential of verb tracking on social media to examine how linguistic categories can elucidate the intentional and/or unintentional communication of crisis attribution frames. Through a content analysis, linguistic categories used in both media posts reporting three clusters of crisis and public comments on Facebook were examined. Results indicated that linguistic abstraction in both media post and public comments describing the crisis varied based on crisis cluster, suggesting that the level of linguistic abstraction reflected perceived attribution of responsibility through stability, locus and controllability. Language used to describe preventable crisis tend to be more abstract than those used to describe accidental and victim crisis. Findings of this study empirically tested the integration of LCM in crisis communication and implied potential application of LCM in building automated environmental scanning and crisis prediction systems.     

Risk governance during the COVID-19 pandemic: A quantitative content analysis of governors' narratives on twitter

The current study addresses the communication aspect of risk governance during the COVID-19 pandemic by examining whether governors' tweets differ by political party, gender and crisis phase. Drawing on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Crisis Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) model and framing literature, we examined the salience of five CERC's communication objectives, namely acknowledge crisis with empathy, promote protective actions, describe preparedness/response efforts, address rumours and misunderstanding and segment audience. Using a deductive and inductive approach, we analysed 7000 Twitter messages sent by the 50 US state governors during the period of 13 March 2020 to 17 August 2020. Our findings suggest that governors' tweets aligned with CERC's communication objectives to a varying degree. We found main and interaction effects of political party, gender and crisis phase on governors' communication objectives. New emergent communication objectives included attention to mental health, call for social influencers and promoting hope. Implications are discussed.