Augustine Pang

New media: a new medium in escalating crises?

Purpose – The use of new media in crisis is a double‐edged sword. On one hand, its pivotal role in online monitoring and dissemination of information can help an organisation manage crisis. On the other hand, it can also create organisational crisis. The purpose of this paper is to examine how new media can be used to escalate crisis.Design/methodology/approach – Four crises were examined: the 2008 Edison Chen sex scandal in Hong Kong; and in the USA, New York Taco Bell‐KFC rats infestation crisis in 2007; JetBlue Airways crisis in 2007, and the Kryptonite locks crisis in 2004.Findings – The very characteristics that make new media unique, such as user interactivity and integration of multimedia effects, are also its Achilles heel.Research limitations/implications – Research has revolved around new media as a tool, a useful aid in times of need. The paper presents an emerging and under‐explored side of new media of how it is used as an accessory in escalating crises.Practical implications – Practitioners ...

Corporate crisis planning: tensions, issues, and contradictions

Purpose – Crisis planning, which symbolizes an organizations crisis preparedness and often conceptualized at the corporate headquarters, is increasingly decentralized to regional centers of global companies. These centers, in turn, synchronize their crisis master plans with its national units for expeditious management of localized crises. The purpose of this paper is to capture the decision‐making processes that practitioners at a regional center faced as they nurtured their master plan from conception to implementation.Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative method is used. This is a case study of a Fortune 500 company with plants in every continent. The company has four regional centers, and the center under study oversees more than 20 national units or countries.Findings – This study found a deep divide in attitude, expectation, and style between what practitioners and the dominant coalition regarded as necessary and sufficient measures in crisis planning.Research limitations/implications – Res...

Negotiating crisis in the social media environment: Evolution of crises online, gaining credibility offline

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine how crises can be triggered online, how different social media tools escalate crises, and how issues gain credibility when they transit to mainstream media. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study uses the multiple case study method to analyze five crises, generated online, throughout their life-cycles, in order to build analytic generalizations (Yin). Findings – Crises are often triggered online when stakeholders are empowered by social media platforms to air their grievances. YouTube and Twitter have been used to raise issues through its large user base and the lack of gatekeeping. Facebook and blogs escalate crises beyond the immediate stakeholder groups. These crises are covered by mainstream media because of their newsworthiness. As a result, the crises gain credibility offline. Mainstream media coverage ceases when traditional news elements are no longer present. Research limitations/implications – If crises are increasingly generated online...

Crisis leadership: when should the CEO step up?

Purpose – One explicit leadership role the chief executive officer (CEO) can play during crisis is to assume the role of being the organizations spokesperson. What remains unclear is at what point of the crisis should the CEO step up and how does that impact crisis communication? The purpose of this paper is to examine this question.Design/methodology/approach – The meta‐analysis method is used to combine different data in various studies of one topic into one comprehensive study. More than 30 crises are meta‐analyzed.Findings – The CEO needs to step up to revise earlier statements or when the integrity of the organization is questioned. Additionally, the CEO should step up at the beginning of the crisis if the crisis pertains to organizational transgression or when the crisis becomes unbearable to organizational reputation. As counter‐intuitive as it may, CEOs should refrain from stepping up at the height of the crisis.Research limitations/implications – It is an exploratory study. Some cases have lesse...

Bridging the Gap: An Exploratory Study of Corporate Social Responsibility among SMEs in Singapore

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) among small-medium enterprises (SME) is an overlooked area, despite the latters emerging prominence as an economic player. To provide a comprehensive analysis of the CSR landscape among Singapore SMEs, a triangulation of 15 in-depth interviews and a self-administered Web survey was conducted among 113 senior executives from top 500 Singapore SMEs (27.2% response). Key findings include (a) moderate awareness but low comprehension of CSR; (b) engagement relevance to immediate stakeholders; (c) individual values, stakeholder relationships, and governmental influences as main drivers; and (d) lack of various resources as key barriers. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Building Relationships Through Integrated Online Media Global Organizations’ Use of Brand Web Sites, Facebook, and Twitter

Many studies have examined organizations’ use of specific types of online media, but few studies have examined how organizations generate dialogues and develop relationships by using multiple online communication platforms. This study takes an integrated approach by examining how top global organizations incorporate brand Web sites, Facebook, and Twitter to cultivate relationships with stakeholders. Its findings suggest that those particular online media are used similarly, that is, more for information dissemination than user engagement and more for one-way than two-way communication. The findings also suggest that the types of products promoted can affect the way that organizations use different online media to develop relationships.

Communicating crisis: how culture influences image repair in Western and Asian governments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to seek to understand the differences in image repair strategies adopted by two governments that operate in the Western and Asian societies when faced with similar crises.Design/methodology/approach – Textual analyses are presented of communication of Hurricane Katrina and Typhoon Morakot by the Taiwanese and US governments, respectively.Findings – Faced with similar accusations of slow response, the Asian culture, represented by the Taiwanese Government, used predominantly mortification and corrective action strategies. The Western culture, represented by the US Government, used predominantly bolstering and defeasibility and a mixed bag of other strategies such as shifting the blame and attack the accuser.Research limitations/implications – A limitation of the study is that it depends on news reports, instead of news releases and speeches, for analysis. However, given the rapidity and volatility in the unfolding drama of each of the two crises, many of the comments ...

Mediating the media: a journalist‐centric media relations model

Purpose – The prevailing challenge faced by practitioners is to conduct effective media relations, especially with the proliferation of diverse media platforms both online and offline. For such a predominant and critical function, a systematic approach needs to be offered. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – A new model is developed, drawing on insights from corporate communications and journalism literature.Findings – This model identifies two sets of influences that practitioners should seek to understand. The internal influences include journalist mindsets, journalist routines, and newsroom routines. The external influences include extra‐media forces and media ideology.Research limitations/implications – At this juncture, it is not able to predict causalities among the influences. What this model is able to establish is the connections among the influences. Future research can address that.Practical implications – This model is instructive for new practitioners to view...

Towards a crisis pre-emptive image management model

Purpose – A good corporate image is important to organizations. However, little is elaborated on how organizations can work on their images. This study seeks to explicate the types of image management before, during, and after a crisis through the development of the crisis pre‐emptive image management model.Design/methodology/approach – Integrating insights from communication and marketing literature, this paper uses cases from the USA, Europe and Asia to make the concepts come alive.Findings – At each stage of Wilcox and Camerons crisis life cycle, different types of image management can take place. At the proactive stage are image creation and maintenance; at the strategic stage are image strengthening and transformation; at the reactive stage is image repair; and at the recovery stage are image renewal and reinvention.Research limitations/implications – This paper is a comprehensive examination of the types of image management that organizations can consider as they seek to solidify their images at di...

A Comparative Study of Crisis Consultancies Between Singapore and Denmark: Distant Cousins of the Same Destiny?

The aim of this article is to compare the state of crisis consultancies in Singapore and Denmark. Adapting and integrating indicators to assess professionalism, the study seeks to examine: 1) the level of expertise of public relations consultants in offering crisis management and communication consultancy to private and public organizations; 2) the level of experience of the consultants; and, 3) the value and expedience of the consultancy services offered to the clients. The research design comprised two stages. First, archival search of the websites of the public relations agencies that professed to offer crisis consultancy in the two countries was conducted. Second, the agencies that claimed to offer such services were contacted and a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with senior executives was conducted. The findings identified important differences and similarities between crisis consultancies in Singapore and Denmark.