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.     

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.     

Journalists’ Evaluation of the South Korean Government's Crisis Management in the Cheonan Incident

The purpose of this study was to examine how journalists judge and react to the withholding of information by the government during a national crisis. This article analyses the case of the sinking of the Cheonan, which killed four South Korean marines and sparked extreme tension throughout the Korean peninsula. For this research, in‐depth interviews were conducted with journalists who reported on the Cheonan incident. All participants (11 journalists) believed that the South Korean government withheld information about the cause of the Cheonan sinking for a period of time. Half of the journalists did not agree with the governmental restrictive information policy, while the other half accepted this as the government acting in the best interest of national security in a crisis situation.     

Understanding motivated publics during disasters: Examining message functions,frames, and styles of social media influentials and followers

There has been a growing body of research regarding how organizations and general publics communicate on social media during crises. Integrating the uses and gratifications perspective, the social‐mediated crisis communication model, and the framing approach, our study offers a consolidated framework explaining how and why motivated social media publics communicate during crises. Namely, we examined whether and how influentials and followers employed different message functions through communicative devices including frames and styles. A content analysis was conducted on 800 tweets sampled from influentials and followers discussing the 2017 Ariana Grande concert bombing disaster. Our results (N = 800) suggested that influentials and followers adopted distinct communicative functions on social media during the disaster. Influentials engaged in information sharing and support exchange, whereas followers engaged in opinion expression and emotional coping. Influentials and followers also adopted specific frames and styles to achieve these communicative functions. Our findings can help crisis communicators understand the needs, concerns, and communication features of different publics and construct effective messages to reach them.     

数字社区的功能及定位

数字社区是社区层面的信息化，采集管理利用信息、提高管理水平和服务水平是数字社区建设的根本。数字社区的建设主体是政府引导支持，多方共同参与。本文通过对社区的功能进行分析，给出了建设数字社区应具备的功能，数字社区建设的总体框架及数字社区与电子政务、电子商务之间的关系与定位。     

Quantum and Approximate Privacy

This paper studies privacy and secure function evaluation in communication complexity. The focus is on quantum versions of the model and on protocols with only approximate privacy against honest players. We show that the privacy loss (the minimum divulged information) in computing a function can be decreased exponentially by using quantum protocols, while the class of privately computable functions (i.e., those with privacy loss 0) is not enlarged by quantum protocols. Quantum communication combined with small information leakage on the other hand makes certain functions computable (almost) privately which are not computable using either quantum communication without leakage or classical communication with leakage. We also give an example of an exponential reduction of the communication complexity of a function by allowing a privacy loss of o(1) instead of privacy loss 0.     

Preparing Policy Makers for Crisis Management: The Role of Simulations

This article describes and reflects upon practical experiences in using simulations to increase the crisis preparedness of policy makers and government agencies in the Netherlands. Basic issues in crisis simulation design are discussed in view of the various functions that simulations may perform in crisis management planning. A concrete example of simulation is provided to explain its design and modus operandi. The article concludes with a number of practical recommendations.     

Cultural Experience as a (Critical) Factor in Crisis Communication Planning

A key issue in crisis communication is the way people process crisis‐relevant information to minimize danger. This paper discusses the impact of previously experienced crises on the public's interpretation of warning messages. People may not have direct experience of a crisis, but they still have acquired mediated experiences of a variety of crises. The present study introduces the term cultural experience of crisis to label the synthesis of mediated crisis experiences, media and fictional narratives, collective memories of societal disasters, conversations, and immediate crisis experiences of witnesses and victims. The proposed model of cultural experience of crisis is elaborated on the basis of a qualitative text analysis derived from four qualitative interviews 16 focus groups interviews carried out in Estonia from 2008 to 2009.     

Debunking misinformation in times of crisis: Exploring misinformation correction strategies for effective internal crisis communication

This study aimed to explore misinformation correction strategies for effective internal crisis communication. Using an experimental study (N = 1196) with full-time employees in the United States, this study found that a corrective strategy using more elaborated facts was effective in protecting internal reputation and that timely, proactive communication to debunk crisis misinformation was a significant factor influencing employees' cognitive reactance (counterarguing) and behavioural outcomes. This research can help crisis communicators better understand how to prevent negative outcomes that undermine the effectiveness of evidence-based communication efforts. Specifically, the findings suggest the use of more proactive internal crisis communication to correct misinformation and to prevent damage caused by employees' misconceptions and related communication behaviours. Furthermore, the study theoretically extends the literature on debunking crisis-misinformation by elucidating the cognitive and behavioural processes of crisis misinformation in internal crisis communication.     

Communication‐mediated psychological mechanisms of Chinese publics’ post‐crisis corporate associations and government associations

Through an online national survey in China, the study empirically examines the serial mediation effects of active communication behaviour and post‐crisis corporate associations in the relationships between initial crisis perceptions of problem, constraint, and involvement recognitions and government associations. The study suggested that higher problem and involvement recognitions were positively associated with more active communication behaviour in crisis, and such active communication behaviour was in turn positively associated with more favourable post‐crisis corporate associations. The findings also revealed connections between post‐crisis corporate associations and government associations, suggesting publics’ psychological associations of the company in crisis were extended to government associations in China.     

On private computation in incomplete networks

Suppose that some parties are connected by an incomplete network of reliable and private channels. The parties cooperate to execute some protocol. However, the parties are curious—after the protocol terminates each party tries to learn information from the communication it heard. We say that a function can be computed privately in a network if there is a protocol in which each processor learns only the information implied by its input and the output of the function (in the information theoretic sense). The question we address in this paper is what functions can be privately computed in a given incomplete network. Every function can be privately computed in two-connected networks with at least three parties. Thus, the question is interesting only for non two-connected networks. Generalizing results of (Bläser et al. in J. Cryptol, 19(3): 341–357, 2006), we characterize the functions that can be computed privately in simple networks—networks with one separating vertex and no leaves. We then deal with private computations in arbitrary non two-connected networks: we reduce this question to private computations of related functions on trees, and give some sufficient conditions and necessary conditions on the functions that can be privately computed on trees.     

Real and complex-exponential describing functions for transient analysis of non-linear control systems†

A real exponential describing function as an analysis tool for studying the transient response of a class of non-linear feedback systems was developed by Bickart (1966). In this paper describing functions are developed for similar analysis more suitable to higher-order non-linear feedback systems. The two classes of describing functions developed are identified as real exponential or complex exponential.

Here, signals in ?₂ ( ? ∞, t] a space of the space of square integrable signals defined on (?∞, t ], are approximated by the sum of n signals in ?₂ ^{1, m} (?∞, t)one-dimensional sub-spaccs of ?₂ ( ? ∞, t] having the mth function from the set of reversed time orthogonalized real or eponential functions as a basis. A system mapping ?₂ ^{1, m}(?∞, t] into itself is associated with a system mapping ?₂ ^{1, m}(?∞, t] into itself; the latter system is characterized by a gain—real or exponential describing function. These multiple one-dimensional system mappings give rise to approximation components of the response whoso addition will represent a better approximation to the actual response than each component by itself. The contraction-mapping fixed point theorem is also used to determine conditions for the existence of a solution prior to the use of the exponential describing functions for obtaining on approximate response.     

Social Media as Information Source: Recency of Updates and Credibility of Information

Social media are increasingly being used as an information source, including information related to risks and crises. The current study examines how pieces of information available in social media impact perceptions of source credibility. Specifically, participants in the study were asked to view 1 of 3 mock Twitter.com pages that varied the recency with which tweets were posted and then to report on their perceived source credibility of the page owner. Data indicate that recency of tweets impacts source credibility; however, this relationship is mediated by cognitive elaboration. These data suggest many implications for theory and application, both in computer‐mediated communication and crisis communication. These implications are discussed, along with limitations of the current study and directions for future research.     

CONCEPTS OF FUZZY INFORMATION MEASURES ON CONTINUOUS DOMAINS

Measures of information based on fuzzy sets (possibility distributions) had been defined only for finite domains of discourse. This paper presents a method of defining such information functions on a continuous universe of discourse—a domain which is a measurable space of measure 1. The method is based on the concept of “rearangement” of a function, used in lieu of sorting discrete possibility values. For technical reasons, it is preferred to express information value as information distance to the most “uninformed” (constant possibility 1) distribution. The final form of the information for possibility distribution f is

The paper then discusses related information distances and approximations using discrete information functions.     

Salience of public leaders’ “meaning making” in news coverage of a health crisis

Meaning making by leadership in a crisis is required to reduce uncertainty. We used analytic criteria for meaning making suggested by crisis management literature to investigate public leaders’ quotations in news coverage of a health crisis. The quotations were examined in terms of the five frame functions, which include offering a credible explanation of what happened, offering guidance, instilling hope, showing empathy, and suggesting that leaders are in control. The Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea was examined. As a result, the most salient frame function identified was displaying they are in control of the emergency, followed by offering guidance and explaining what happened. The salience of leaders’ meaning making disappeared in coverage by a liberal newspaper.     

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.     

Information,Community, and Action: How Nonprofit Organizations Use Social Media*

The rapid diffusion of “microblogging” services such as Twitter is ushering in a new era of possibilities for organizations to communicate with and engage their core stakeholders and the general public. To enhance understanding of the communicative functions microblogging serves for organizations, this study examines the Twitter utilization practices of the 100 largest nonprofit organizations in the United States. The analysis reveals there are three key functions of microblogging updates—“information,”“community,” and “action.” Though the informational use of microblogging is extensive, nonprofit organizations are better at using Twitter to strategically engage their stakeholders via dialogic and community‐building practices than they have been with traditional websites. The adoption of social media appears to have engendered new paradigms of public engagement.     

Organizational decision-making during COVID-19: A qualitative analysis of the organizational decision-making system in the United States during COVID-19

This study sought to understand COVID-19-related organizational decisions were made across sectors. To gain this understanding, we conducted semi-structured interviews with organizational decision-makers in North Carolina about their experiences responding to COVID-19. Conventional content analysis was used to analyse the context, inputs, and processes involved in decision-making. Between October 2020 and February 2021, we interviewed 44 decision-makers from the following sectors: business (n = 4), community non-profit (n = 3), county government (n = 4), healthcare (n = 5), local public health (n = 5), public safety (n = 7), religious (n = 6), education (n = 7) and transportation (n = 3). We found that during the pandemic, organizations looked to scientific authorities, the decisions of peer organizations, data about COVID-19, and their own experience with prior crises. Interpretation of inputs was informed by current political events, societal trends, and organization mission. Decision-makers had to account for divergent internal opinions and community behaviour. To navigate inputs and contextual factors, organizations decentralized decision-making authority, formed auxiliary decision-making bodies, learned to resolve internal conflicts, learned in real time from their crisis response, and routinely communicated decisions with their communities. In conclusion, aligned with systems and contingency theories of decision-making, decision-making during COVID-19 depended on an organization's ‘fit’ within the specifics of their existing system and their ability to orient the dynamics of that system to their own goals.     

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.     

Citizens' Response Patterns to Warning Messages

This paper elaborates the concept of citizens' crisis‐coping strategies, using data from a qualitative study of people who have experienced a real crisis plus discussions of simulated warning messages. The analysis results suggest that, to emotionally cope with a crisis, citizens may need more than institutionally framed warnings. They may either seek information from informal information networks or simply take their own response action. The paper concludes that the use of alternative sources and channels of warning messages would help people to cope, emotionally and cognitively, with crises. These alternatives would increase the efficacy of institutional crisis communication plans and consequently the public's response to crisis messages.