Section: Organisational and Strategic Communication
INTERNAL CRISIS COMMUNICATION IN A GLOBAL WORLD: COMPANIES’ STRATEGIES AND EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIVE ACTIONS
* *Alessandra MAZZEI, IULM University, Milan
Argument – Crisis communication has emerged as a hot topic after the global financial crisis started at the end of 2008. All companies, directly or indirectly involved by the crisis, had to face the communication expectations, the emotional reactions and the communicative actions of their employees. At the beginning of the global financial crisis, the communication landscape was characterized by the voices of global and social media. In that situation, crisis corporate communication became more complex. This paper deals with the internal crisis communication strategies adopted by Italian companies in 2009.
Theoretical framework – This paper elaborates on several studies and theories about crisis communication: the image restoration theory (Benoit, 1995, 1997), the situational theory of crisis communication (Coombs, 1998, 2006; Coombs, Holladay, 2002), the contingency theory (Cameron, Pang, 2010), the stage model of crisis management (Fink, 1986), the triage assessment system (Myer et al., 2007), the critical events approach (Birkland, 1997), the ecological approach (Vinten, Lane, 2002), the constructivist approach (Weick, 1998; Aggerholm, 2008), the integrative framework (Frandsen, Johansen, 2011). This theoretical framework provides insights into possible internal communicative responses of companies in a crisis and situational factors affecting their choices. Companies’ crisis communication strategies have to consider the communicative behaviours of employees (Grunig, 1997) that flow through informal networks as social media in order to be more effective. In a crisis situation employees could search, interpret and share information, opinions, knowledge, and explanations (Mazzei, Kim, Dell’Oro, 2011) contributing to the effectiveness or to the failure of the companies’ communication strategies.
Methodology – Based on the literature review, five possible internal communication strategies have been elaborated: transparency, cohesion, activation of behaviours, evasion, and under-utilization (Mazzei, Ravazzani, 2012). A field study has been conducted to examine internal crisis communication strategies in order to understand if Italian companies privileged defensive/ evasive strategies or accommodative/ activating strategies. This study consisted of multiple methods: 27 explorative email interviews to internal communication managers and employees; a focus group with 12 internal communication managers; a survey of 61 companies.
Results – The main results show that Italian companies largely preferred under-utilization of internal communication and evasion strategies. Such strategies have the potential to undermine a company’s reputation as they do not actively involve employees or ask them to make an additional effort or act strategic communication actions such as advocating for their company via social media. The model presented in this study may be used by internal communication managers to better understand the strategic role internal communication plays during crises. In order to generate employee positive communication actions during a crisis situation, a company should signal its commitment with its actions and develop good quality relationships with its employees.