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CRC06 Social Media and Traditional Media in Crisis Communication
PP 421 From #InsideAmazon to #WeAreVolkswagen: Employee Social-Mediated Crisis Communication as Reputational Asset or Threat?
M. Opitz1
1 Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Media & Communication, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Abstract Purpose/research question/relevance – This research project examines employee influence in organizational crises on social media. The advent
of digital communication technologies has transformed the handling of crisis scenarios: Crisis communication and management processes have become
more transparent. Furthermore, all publics of an organization increasingly utilize social media and, through the creation and exchange of information,
themselves become part of an organization’s crisis response. While this development has received broad scholarly attention, and spawned the Social-Me‑
diated Crisis Communication (SMCC) model in which this research project is conceptually grounded, academics are only beginning to explore the role
of employees as crisis communicators and/or organizational representatives in crises. Conceptually, the role of employees and their influence on stakeholder
perceptions of organizations in crisis is widely acknowledged, although empirical investigations are, with some exception, limited. Multiple international
cases from the past year are illustrative of this situation: From Amazon, Volkswagen, Twitter, and Nestle, companies and brands have been affected both
positively and negatively by employee social-mediated crisis communication (ESMCC). Consequently, this research aims to identify under what conditions
ESMCC can become reputational asset or threat.To this end, it is investigated how EMSCC is perceived by an organization’s publics, how it influences the pub‑
lic’s communicative and behavioural intentions towards an organization, and how characteristics of message and medium mediate its impact. Design/
methodology/approach –To achieve the set objective, an online survey with experimental conditions is employed among a sample of social media users. In
addition to testing the effects of ESMCC on organizational perception in comparison to crisis communication originating from other users, conditions based
on findings from previous literature include the nature of the message – whether positive or negative – and the medium. Consequently, the study has a 2
(messenger: internal, external) x 2 (message: positive, negative) x 2 (medium: blog, microblog) between subjects design. A fictional case based closely
on real scenarios is drawn up to generate materials. Measures include reputation, secondary crisis communication and secondary crisis reaction (forming
overall organizational perception), with perceived communication credibility as a mediating variable. Originality/value – The findings generated by this
research project are relevant to both researchers and practitioners alike. From a theoretical perspective, knowledge is created for the growing body of so‑
cial-mediated crisis communication literature, closing the gap between internal and external crisis communication perspectives, as scholars have argued
for. From a managerial perspective, communication professionals will be able to learn about the perception of social-mediated crisis communication of their
employees as well as the impact of this behaviour on their organisation. Thus, policy and crisis plans can be adapted to include specific measures grounded
in scientific procedure. Keywords: crisis communication, employees, reputation, social media, social-mediated crisis communication
PP 422 The Impact of Social Media in Crisis Communication Management of Corporate Brands
M. Victorino1
1 Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas, Lisboa, Portugal
This research focuses on the impact of social media in crisis communication management, in light of the new environment in which organizations have to
manage threats to their corporate brands’reputation. We set out to question the extent to which the speed and reach that social media impose on commu‑
nication are having an impact in the management of crisis communication. Adopting an interpretivist approach, this research addresses the field of crisis
communication management, with specific emphasis on the consequences that a crisis situation may have on the corporate brand's reputation. The main
objective is therefore to understand how the changes brought about by the onset and dominance of social media are influencing organizations in their
definition of specific methodologies to manage crisis communication; and whether social media is having a catalytic effect on the management of issues
that may damage the corporate brands’reputation. Grounded on the theoretical framework provided by the study of existing literature in these fields, this
research combines different empirical methods of a qualitative nature in order to attain a broader understanding of the profound changes brought by social
media to crisis communication management. For this purpose, we started by conducting a set of interviews with qualified specialists from Academia in
the fields of corporate communication, reputation, and crisis communication, which assisted us in defining the scope of the research field and its relevance,
as well as to validate our conclusions. However, the core of our empirical work is based on eighteen in-depth interviews with corporate communica‑
tion managers of large corporations operating in Portugal. We complemented this analysis with inputs from secondary sources. An interpretivist analysis
of the results allowed to conclude that there are significant changes in top management’s mindset and approach to crisis communication towards a more
open and transparent attitude in face of these situations. However, although organizations claim to have structured methodologies in place to manage crisis
communication, most of them have not yet implemented updated procedures. We confirmed that social media is having a catalytic role on organizations’
approach to crisis communication management.The fact that most organizations feel uncomfortable with the lack of control and the uncertainty that social
media entails, coupled with a broader range of threats brought by this media, is not only increasing their awareness of the need to manage their reputation
effectively, but also reshaping top management’s outlook on this field. This research process led us to the definition of the determining variables for cor‑
porate brands’crisis communication management in the era of social media, as well as to the complementing of the existing SMCC (Social Mediated Crisis
Communication) model developed by Jin, Liu and Austin in 2011. This model intends to help understanding how the public produces, consumes, and shares
crisis information via social media. The field of crisis communication is a challenging field of research, since it involves complex issues that organizations
would rather keep silent or very restricted in view of the potential negative impact they may have on their reputation.