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.     

AI‐Powered mental health chatbots: Examining users’ motivations,active communicative action and engagement after mass‐shooting disasters

Chatbots are gaining their popularity in society and have triggered heated discussions in academia as well. Currently, few studies explored the applications of AI‐powered mental health chatbots in a mass‐shooting disaster context. Via integrating literature from multi‐disciplines such as crisis management, mental health and digital communication, this quantitative study intends to contribute to close this gap and explore the associations between perceived gratifications and protection motivations of using mental health chatbot services, active communicative action, and online and offline engagement behaviours of solving mental health problems after disasters. This study surveyed 1,114 US participants who ever used chatbot services from top healthcare companies. Implications of the results enhance theoretical discussions on how artificial intelligence has shaped individuals’ motivations, communicative action and engagement behaviour to treat mental health problems. This study also benefits professionals who want to learn more about chatbots for mental healthcare, crisis management and customer engagement.     

Corporate Governance in the Context of Crises: Towards a Stakeholder Theory of Crisis Management

In this paper, we take a step towards developing a stakeholder theory of crisis management. We argue that, in the context of crises, adopting the principles of a stakeholder model of corporate governance will lead companies to engage more frequently in proactive and/or accommodating crisis management behaviour even if these crisis management behaviours are not perceived to maximize shareholder value. We also propose a mechanism that may explain why the stakeholder model may be associated with more successful crisis management outcomes. We conclude by challenging the efficacy of the shareholder view in crisis and crisis‐like situations, and call for further theoretical and empirical research.     

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.     

Reactive Crisis Management in Constructive Projects — Patterns of Communication and Behaviour

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 de-sensitizing 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.     

Beyond cognition and affect: sensing the unconscious

In the past decade, research on human–computer interaction has embraced psychophysiological user interfaces that enhance awareness of computers about conscious cognitive and affective states of users and increase their adaptive capabilities. Still, human experience is not limited to the levels of cognition and affect but extends further into the realm of universal instincts and innate behaviours that form the collective unconscious. Patterns of instinctual traits shape archetypes that represent images of the unconscious. This study investigated whether seven various archetypal experiences of users lead to recognisable patterns of physiological responses. More specifically, the potential of predicting the archetypal experiences by a computer from physiological data collected with wearable sensors was evaluated. The subjects were stimulated to feel the archetypal experiences and conscious emotions by means of film clips. The physiological data included measurements of cardiovascular and electrodermal activities. Statistical analysis indicated a significant relationship between the archetypes portrayed in the videos and the physiological responses. Data mining methods enabled us to create between-subject prediction models that were capable of classifying four archetypes with an accuracy of up to 57.1%. Further analysis suggested that classification performance could be improved up to 70.3% in the case of seven archetypes by using within-subject models.     

Improving Communication in Crisis Management by Evaluating the Relevance of Messages

Efficient communication is a major challenge for emergency responders during crisis management. Reports show that missing information and information overload are important factors that determine the success of crisis management. We propose a method as basis for a software system that improves text or voice‐based communication. Communication is split into segments and the system determines from the content of the communication, the tasks of actors and their locations for which responders in the crisis the information is relevant. The system is tested on data recorded at a fire fighting disaster management exercise and found to be accurate enough to be useful.     

Towards a Theoretical Understanding of the Recurrence of Crises Embracing the Issue of Organizational Learning: An Illustration with the Case of Two Hostile Takeover Bids Faced by Société Générale (1988, 1999)

In this article, we try to better understand the relationship between learning and crisis through the analysis of recurrent crises. Our study focused on two successive and similar crises experienced by the same organization, namely two hostile takeover bids a French bank (Société Générale) had to cope with in 1988 and 1999. From a literature review within the fields of organizational learning and management crisis, we proposed an analytical grid making it possible to get a better understanding of crisis‐induced lesson‐drawing processes. We then used that grid to analyse and compare the learning processes implemented during the two crises under study. This comparison leads us to suggest that lack of organizational learning is one factor that accounts for crisis recurrence. Conversely, proactive crisis management behaviour – resulting from double‐loop learning – seems to be the most fruitful behaviour to adopt in order to prevent a recurrent crisis and produce long‐term effects in the organization.     

Communication Gaps in Disaster Management: Perceptions by Experts from Governmental and Non‐Governmental Organizations

The complexity of current disasters creates a challenge for crisis communication. This paper aims at identifying gaps in communication in disaster management experienced in practice in order to facilitate learning from those situations. The research was conducted using a qualitative online open‐ended questionnaire. It shows that despite the developments in the discipline, communication as an integral part of decision making in disaster management needs to be further developed. The paper provides a practical‐oriented overview of the communication constraints in complex crisis situations, which has not been provided so far. This research is part of an international project developing performance indicators for a quality measurement system for crisis communication.     

Narcissism and Effective Crisis Management: A Review of Potential Problems and Pitfalls

In the event of a crisis, effective leadership by senior officials plays a significant role in an organization's attempt to return to a state of normal operation. Effectiveness, however, can be hampered by a leader's behaviour and attitude towards colleagues, and other employees within the organization. This paper explores how narcissism and narcissistic leaders may affect crisis management within an organization. Using the literature from the American Psychiatric Association, crisis management, and leadership, this paper explores how personality disorders associated with narcissism may affect the pre‐crisis, crisis, and post‐crisis stages of crisis management. The paper concludes by offering suggestions on how to handle narcissistic leaders within an organization, and areas for future research.     

Crises as Learning Triggers: Exploring a Conceptual Framework of Crisis‐Induced Learning

This article contributes to the debate on organizational learning from crisis by shedding light on the phenomenon of crises as learning triggers. To unveil theoretical patterns of how organizational crisis‐induced learning may appear and develop, I suggest a conceptual framework based on concept categories and answers to four fundamental questions: what lessons are learned (single‐ or double‐loop)?; what is the focus of the lessons (prevention or response)?; when are lessons learned (intra‐ or intercrisis)?; is learning blocked from implementation or carried out (distilled or implemented)? The framework's applicability is explored in a study of how a Swedish utility and the city of Stockholm responded to two large‐scale blackouts in Stockholm. The final sections suggest four propositions for further research.     

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.     

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

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

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.     

The European Union's capacities for managing crises

This article draws on a comprehensive new data set of crisis management capacities at the European Union level to highlight key patterns in their development and use. Organised within the categories of detection, sense‐making, decision‐making, coordination, meaning‐making, communication, and accountability, the data show considerable accumulation of capacities in detection and sense‐making, while decision‐making capacities lag behind. We find that most capacities are sector‐oriented rather than cross‐sectoral, and reside primarily within the European Commission rather than other EU institutions. Comparing the data to previous studies, we note that capacities overall are increasing and some are undergoing evolution; for example, horizon‐scanning tools once limited to collecting information have increasingly been given an analytical, “information enrichment” function akin to sense‐making.     

Crisis Communication in Public Organisations: Dimensions of Crisis Communication Revisited

Research on crisis communication has traditionally focused on private organisations' reputation and blame avoidance strategies. As a result, there is limited knowledge on crisis communication from the perspective of public organisations. This is troublesome as public organisations have substantial responsibilities for preparing, communicating and managing large‐scale crisis events. In order to be able to better conceptualise public organisations' crisis communication, a typology based on communication aims and orientations is introduced. According to the typology, public organisations engage in two dimensions of crisis communication: reputation‐oriented vs. resilience‐oriented and strategic vs. operational. These dimensions are illustrated and discussed by empirical examples from the Queensland floods of 2010/2011. The paper ends with a discussion on how to understand these dimensions of crisis communication in relation to public organisations' priorities, processes and practices.     

Vicious and virtuous circles of offshoring attitudes and relational behaviours. A configurational study of German IT developers

Prior research has shown that the success of offshoring is affected by relational behaviours of the employees involved in an offshoring collaboration. However, hardly anything is known about the attitudes that onshore colleagues hold towards offshoring, and how such offshoring attitudes affect relational behaviours towards offshore colleagues. We therefore present an interpretivist, qualitative case study that explores the offshoring attitudes of German information technology developers. We found that offshoring attitudes affected relational behaviours towards Indian offshore colleagues, in terms of (1) treating Indian colleagues as fellow team members as opposed to suppliers; (2) spending more or less effort in communication and knowledge transfer; and (3) supporting vs. avoiding the task transfer. These relational behaviours fed back into participants' offshoring attitudes, leading to vicious and virtuous circles. The circles created two contrasting configurations of offshoring attitudes and relational behaviours, driven by opposing forces within the departmental context. Our findings highlight the value of taking a configurational perspective for understanding offshoring success and for identifying drivers that need to be managed in order to achieve favourable configurations. We suggest that future research should further expand the typology of attitude‐behaviour configurations and could apply theories of efficacy, self‐reinforcing spirals and planned behaviour.     

In Search of Archetypes in Crisis Management

Despite their unstable nature, crises are frequently defined as opportunities for managers to make strategic decisions in terms of bringing new configurations into play. According to this perspective, research is undertaken to discover new forms taken on by organisations during times of crisis. Relying on the experience of Local Centres of Community Services in Quebec during the ice storm of 1998, the results of this research permitted us to demonstrate three archetypes of crisis management collectivists, integrators and reactive types, each with the specific characteristics and imperatives as defined by Miller (1987) . These consist of leadership, strategies, structures and environments. The research also permitted us to establish participants' appreciation of the performance of their organisation and of the managers dealt with the crisis. Finally, we will discuss the importance of applying theories of configuration in the field of crisis management and several promising areas of research in this field.     

Bordering on Reality: Findings on the Bonfire Crisis Management Simulation

On 6 April 2005 a national crisis management simulation, code named Bonfire, was held at various locations in the Netherlands. The Bonfire scenario was built around a terrorist threat followed by an actual attack in the Amsterdam ArenA and a hostage‐taking. Bonfire's scale and realism made it unique for the Netherlands. Its complexity led to unplanned incidents that actually made it even more realistic, because this is something that occurs in every crisis situation. This evaluation shows that the co‐ordination, internal provision of information and crisis communication – the three core elements of crisis management discussed in this report –were mainly in the hands of the decision‐makers themselves. This put so much pressure on them that they were rarely able to make strategic decisions for the medium or long term. Support staff had been expected to ease pressure on the leadership by preparing their meetings and working out the results. This did not go as planned, however. Since they did not always have access to the latest information, they could not provide optimum support. As a result, they were by‐passed, so that they had even less access to information. The vicious circle was thus complete. It was observed that new counter‐terrorism structures installed in the Netherlands after ‘9–11’ functioned as foreseen, but that decision‐making required the input of far more parties than had been envisaged. In the course of the operations, therefore, the various levels established a more or less spontaneous link with the standard crisis management structures.