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COMM THEORY – ATTRIBUTION THEORY/CRISIS/COVID

Please see the attachment titled review topic and citations, which include all the topic details and APA citations. Please read the assignment description and rubric carefully. The assignment MUST be 2 pages and include APA in-text citations and the source material attached. This is a literature review on the communication theory, attribution theory, as it relates to dealing with workplace crisis management. This part 1 of a 4 part assignment. If the tutor does an excellent job on this assignment I will seek their assistance on the other 3 assignments.

COMM300 – Assignment 1 – Literature Review

Assignment Subject

Communication Theory: Attribution Theory and Situational Crisis Communication Theory

Workplace Problem: Communicating Workplace COVID-19 Safety Protocol. Addressing employee and client fears as it relates to COVID-19 safety.  The workplace communication problem I was faced with relates to the pandemic. COVID-19 created organizational changes and challenges, as well as uncertainty, and emotional disruption for my employees. It is difficult to find appropriate communication channels to match the multi-generational workforce to effectively covey messages. For example, communicating evolving safety protocols placed by the state, the building management team, and our organization. Normally, we would communicate HR related information via an in-person team meeting and place posters in the breakroom. Since the team is working remotely, keeping them in the loop on proper procedure has proven problematic. Employee’s are required to wear facial coverings when in the building, take their temperature when entering the office, and report if they have tested positive for COVID. Assuaging employee fears by effectively communicating the safety protocols in place needs to be rectified, so they are comfortable coming into the office on a limited basis

Communication Theory Goals:

· My theory goal is to understand workplace crisis management.

· My goal is to persuade co-workers to follow workplace safety protocols.

· My goal is to change people’s attitudes toward workplace safety.

———————————————————————————————————————

Assignment Criteria

Content: Based on what you learn, write a 2-page, double-spaced essay in which you explain how the theory that you have chosen relates to your final paper’s research question.

· Your literature review should begin with an introduction that contains your research question, an explanation of its significance, and any other background information setting the context of your research.

· Use the body paragraphs to describe and assess what you learned about the communication theory that you plan to use in your final project.

· The conclusion should summarize the major issues that the researchers reported about the theory; it also should evaluate whether the theory accurately explains or can be used to resolve the workplace* communication problem you are investigating.

Format:

· 2 pages

· Double-spaced

· 12 point font

· 1” margins

· APA-style cover page

Do not use any quotes or paraphrases in your writing. Just synthesize and summarize what you learned about your communication theory and critique its utility for your final project.

———————————————————————————————————————

Literature Review Citations

Charoensukmongkol, P., & Phungsoonthorn, T. (2020, July 21). The effectiveness of supervisor support in lessening perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of university employees during the COVID-19 crisis: the constraining role of organizational intransigence. The Journal of General Psychology. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2020.1795613

Coombs, W. T. (2007). Attribution Theory as a guide for post-crisis communication research. Public Relations Review, 33(2), 135–139.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1016/j.pubrev.2006.11.016

Coombs, T. (2017). Crisis communication. In M. Allen (Ed.), The sage encyclopedia of communication research methods (Vol. 1, pp. 291-293). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc doi: 10.4135/9781483381411.n108

Groysberg, B., & Abrahams, R. (2020, August 17). What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from Harvard Business School:

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/what-the-stockdale-paradox-tells-us-about-crisis-leadership

Holtom, B., Edmondson, A., & Niu, D. (2020, July 9). 5 Tips for Communicating with Employees During a Crisis. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from Harvard Business Review:

https://hbr.org/2020/07/5-tips-for-communicating-with-employees-during-a-crisis

Honigmann, D., Mendy, A., & Spratt, J. (2020, June 26). Communications get personal: How leaders can engage employees during a return to work. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from McKinsey & Company:

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/communications-get-personal-how-leaders-can-engage-employees-during-a-return-to-work

Institute for PR. (2007, October 30). CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from Institute for Public Relations:

Crisis Management and Communications

McDermott, V. (2009). Attribution theory. In S. W. Littlejohn & K. A. Foss (Eds.), Encyclopedia of communication theory (Vol. 1, pp. 61-63). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412959384.n23

Thompson, S. (2019). Attribution Theory. Salem Press Encyclopedia. Retrieved from:

https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89164082&site=eds-live&scope=site

Submit: Assignment 1 – Final

Project Literature

Review, due Tuesday, Week 2 (9/1)

Instructions

COMM 300 6380 Communication Theory (2208)

Assignment 1 – Final Project Literature Review, due Tuesday, Week 2

This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade.

For this step of your final project’s development, you will write a literature review on
what you have learned from your research and understand about the communication
theory that you plan to use in your final project. You should be able to use the
material that you develop here in your final project. Before you tackle this exercise,
please make sure you have read the Week 2 course materials.

Objective: To demonstrate a thorough understanding of your

communication theory

and how it relates to your workplace* communication problem.

Skills: This assignment will help you refine your abilities to execute the following skills
for professional-level research:

identify and formulate research questions that clearly define and focus what you
would like to investigate in school or on the job;
locate authoritative information in library and internet resources;
analyze and assess the relevance of information to a research question, and
synthesize new knowledge and establish context for your inquiries.

Background: Please begin this assignment by reading the following information
carefully.

A literature review is a critical summary of what subject matter experts have to say
about a question or topic. In your case, you will write an account of what scholars
have published in peer-reviewed journals about the communication theory that you
have determined to be relevant to the communication issue in your workplace.*

Occasionally, you will be asked in school or on the job to write a literature review as a
stand-alone report. More often, you will use a literature review to establish the context

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/511931/navigateContent/2997/Previous?pId=19233806

https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/511931/navigateContent/2997/Next?pId=19233806

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for a larger business report or business proposal, or for a scholarly report. In your
case, your literature review will become a part of your report’s introduction where it
will help your readers to understand why the theory is applicable to your workplace
communication problem. You will use your literature review to disclose the knowledge
and ideas that already have been established on your theory. However, it must not be
just a description of the information available. To gain a better understanding of what
a literature review is and is not, watch this video from UMGC’s Effective Writing Center
at https://youtu.be/2IUZWZX4OGI .

(*Remember, if you are not employed or cannot discuss your workplace, you should
be using a communication problem from another organizational setting in which
you are involved for your final project, such as school, church, or a community
group.)

Steps:

Begin by reviewing the list of communication theories in the Week 1, Overview
1.1, “Introduction to Theory, Theory Building, and Communication Theories.”
Click on the links for any theories that you think may address your workplace*
communication problem. The links will take you to entries about that theory in
the < Encyclopedia of Communication Theory >.

Once you have reviewed the theories, select a communication theory that
appears to be related to your paper’s research question. Then click on Resources
> Library in the navigation bar across the top of your classroom screen or go
directly to the UMGC Library at http://www.umgc.edu/library/library.html. The
links will take you to the library’s OneSearch page.

Using OneSearch and the name of your communication theory as a search term,
select the “scholarly journals only” search function and locate three academic
resources about your communication theory.

Content: Based on what you learn, write a 2-page, double-spaced essay in which you
explain how the theory that you have chosen relates to your final paper’s research
question.

Your literature review should begin with an introduction that contains your
research question, an explanation of its significance, and any other background
information setting the context of your research.

Use the body paragraphs to describe and assess what you learned about the
communication theory that you plan to use in your final project.

http://www.umuc.edu/library/library.html

The conclusion should summarize the major issues that the researchers
reported about the theory; it also should evaluate whether the theory accurately
explains or can be used to resolve the workplace* communication problem you
are investigating.

Format:

2 pages
Double-spaced
12 point font
1” margins
APA-style cover page

Do not use any quotes or paraphrases in your writing. Just synthesize and
summarize what you learned about your communication theory and critique its
utility for your final project.

Use American Psychological Association-style end-of-text references to document to
create a list of the resources you consulted to learn about your theory. See the
university library’s website at https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-examples for guidance
on how to format your references according to the latest edition of the APA’s style
manual.

Resources to support this activity:

The following resources can provide you with guidance on how to analyze, write, and
format a literature review.

“Writing a Literature Review Section” at https://vimeo.com/kinglibrarysjsu/lit-
review-section

“Locate and Evaluate Scholarly Articles” at
http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/articles.cfm

“Secrets of My Research Success: Article Selection” at
http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/research_tutorial_articleselection.cfm

“Is My Source Credible?” at http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/credibility.cfm

“How to Read a Research Study Article in a Scholarly Journal” by UMGC Faculty
in the Week 2 learning resources

Sample format for an APA-style paper at
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_an
d_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html

https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-examples

https://vimeo.com/kinglibrarysjsu/lit-review-section

http://sites.umuc.edu/library/libhow/articles.cfm

http://sites.umuc.edu/library/libhow/research_tutorial_articleselection.cfm

http://sites.umuc.edu/library/libhow/credibility.cfm

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html

Due September 1 at 11:59 PM

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Task: Submit to complete this assignment Assessment

Assignment 1 – Final

Project Literature

Review_2018

REFRESHed

Our library also has videos on how to format an APA-style paper according to the
latest APA rules at https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-document-formatting-7h and on
how to create your APA-style references page at https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-
references-list-formatting-7h

Grading: For insight into your instructor’s expectations for this assignment, scroll
down here to click on and review its grading rubric.

Due Date: Submit your literature review as a Word , x, or .rtf attachment
only in its assignment folder under the Assignments link in your classroom by 11:59
p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday of Week 2. Do not submit your assignment in ,
.Gdoc, .Pages, or other format. See the Course Schedule in the syllabus for the exact
final due date for this assignment.

Activity Details

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https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-document-formatting-7h

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Synthesis and Analysis (50

points)

Exceeds
Standards
5 points

Meets
Standards
4.25 points

Needs
Improvement
3.25 points

Does Not
Meet
Standards
2.5 points

Criterion
Score

Identifies workplace

communication problem

/ 5

States research question clearly / 5

Explains significance of

research

question
/ 5

Provides context for research

question
/ 5

Describes the origins, major

ideas and definitions of one

relevant communication theory

/ 5

Explores the communication

theory’s meaning,

generalizability/parsimony, and

testability

/ 5

Identifies key research studies

used to develop the

communication theory
/ 5

Explains the communication

theory’s applicability to a

specific workplace

communication problem
/ 5

Draws conclusions that convey

a clear understanding of the

communication theory
/ 5

Meets minimum length

requirements
/ 5

Documentation Style (20

points)

Exceeds
Standards
10 points

Meets
Standards
8.5 points

Needs
Improvement
6.5 points

Does Not
Meet
Standards
5 points

Criterion
Score

Total / 100

Overall Score

In-text citations reflect

American Psychological

Association rules

/ 10

End-of-text reference list

reflects American Psychological

Association rules
/ 10

Variety of Sources (10 points)
Exceeds
Standards
5 points

Meets
Standards
4.25 points
Needs
Improvement
3.25 points
Does Not
Meet
Standards
2.5 points
Criterion
Score

Information reflects research

from at least three

authoritative sources

/ 5

Resources include peer-

reviewed academic journals
/ 5

Writing Fluency (20 points)
Exceeds
Standards
10 points

Meets
Standards
8.5 points
Needs
Improvement
6.5 points
Does Not
Meet
Standards
5 points
Criterion
Score

Employs college-level spelling,

capitalization, punctuation, and

grammar

/ 10

Organizes information

cohesively
/ 10

Exceeds Standards
94.96 points minimum

A to A+

94.96 to 100 points

Meets Standards
69.96 points minimum

C- to A-

69.96 to 94.95 points

Needs Improvement
5 points minimum

59.96 to 69.95 points

Does Not Meet Standards
0 points minimum

0 to 59.95 points

Submit_ Assignment 1 – Final Project Literature Review, due Tuesday, Week 2 (9_1) – COMM 300 6380 Communication Theory (2208)
Rubric Assessment – COMM 300 6380 Communication Theory (2208) – UMGC Learning Management System

Encyclopedia of Communication Theory

Attribution Theory

Contributors: Author:Virginia M. McDermott
Edited by: Stephen W. Littlejohn & Karen A. Foss
Book Title: Encyclopedia of Communication Theory
Chapter Title: “Attribution Theory”
Pub. Date: 2009
Access Date: August 21, 2020
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks
Print ISBN: 9781412959377
Online ISBN: 9781412959384
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959384.n23
Print pages: 61-63

© 2009 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online
version will vary from the pagination of the print book.

javascript:void(0);

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959384.n23

To make sense of the world, people develop explanations about what is happening and why people are acting
certain ways. When people are interacting with others, communication decisions are influenced by the implicit
theories, or attributions, of the participants. Ineffective communication may be partly a consequence of the
parties’ idiosyncratic inferences and incompatible interpretations. Attribution theory provides a framework for
understanding how people explain their own and others’ behavior. This entry reviews the attribution process
and examines the importance of attributions for determining success or failure, for managing conflict in
interpersonal relationships, and for determining people’s stigmatizing attitudes and discriminatory behaviors.
It ends with information about the fundamental attribution error and the self-perception theory.

An important basis of attribution theory is that people behave the way they do for a reason. In other words,
people have reasons for developing their impressions of others. Fritz Heider, one of the first researchers to
write about the attribution process, was interested in how one person develops an impression of another.
These impressions, he argued, are developed through a three-step process: (1) observation of behavior, (2)
determination of whether the behavior is deliberate, and (3) categorization of the behavior as internally or
externally motivated.

Attribution Process

When a person encounters someone, how he or she interacts with that person is, in part, determined by his
or her interpretation of the other person’s behavior. Internal attributions, which are also called dispositional
attributions, occur when an observer infers that another’s behavior was caused by something about the
person, such as personality, attitude, or upbringing. External attributions, or situational attributions, occur
when the observer ascribes the cause of the behavior to the situation or outside circumstances. For example,
Daniel’s roommate Tom rushes into the house, slams the door, throws his books on the table, and runs
upstairs. Tom does not say a word to Daniel, and Daniel wonders about what is happening. Daniel can
develop different explanations for Tom’s behavior. If he attributes Tom’s behavior to an internal factor, he
might think that Tom is rude and inconsiderate. If he attributes Tom’s behavior to external factors, he might
conclude that Tom is late for an appointment and rushing to get things done. Daniel’s attributions will affect
how he interacts with Tom when they next encounter each other. Based on Daniel’s internal attribution, he
may ignore Tom when Tom comes down the stairs. However, if Daniel selects an external attribution, then
when Tom walks down the stairs, Daniel may ask whether Tom needs anything. Daniel’s attribution affects his
actions, and his actions can affect how the roommates manage their interaction and relationship.

Before Daniel decides whether to attribute Tom’s behavior to dispositional or to situational factors, he needs
to examine a few other factors. Harold Kelley, a social psychologist specializing in personal relationships,
proposed that there are three general guidelines that influence people’s attributions: consensus, consistency,
and distinctiveness.

Consensus describes how other people, in the same circumstances, would behave. If all Daniel’s roommates
tend to rush into the house and run upstairs, then Tom’s behavior is likely determined by the situation, leading
Daniel to make an external attribution. If Tom is the only one who behaves this way, Daniel is more likely to
make an internal attribution.

Consistency refers to whether the person being observed behaves the same way, in the same situation,
over time. If every time Tom entered the house he behaved this way, Daniel would likely make an internal
attribution. However, if this was an unusual way for Tom to behave, Daniel would likely look for an external
explanation.

Distinctiveness refers to the variations in the observed person’s behavior across situations. If, for example,
Tom rushed through the door at work and ran through the hallways at school, his behavior on entering
his house would not be distinct from his normal behavior. In that case, Daniel would likely attribute it to
internal, dispositional causes. Conversely, if in most situations, Tom was mellow and slow moving, Daniel

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© 2009 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

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Encyclopedia of Communication Theory

might attribute his rushing behavior to external, situational causes.

Although each of these three factors is important for attributing cause to either internal or external factors,
when an observer can combine these factors, patterns can emerge. For example, when a person behaves a
certain way over time and across situations, but others do not behave the same way, people tend to make
dispositional attributions (That’s just the way she is). However, when someone’s behavior is not typical of
that person or expected in the situation, observers have a difficult time attributing cause to the person or the
situation. In these cases, the observer tends to assume that something peculiar is happening (I don’t know
what’s going on; something must be wrong).

In addition to the three factors Kelley originally identified, two more guidelines influence whether an observer
makes an internal or external attribution. If a person violates a social norm, behavior that is typical or expected
for a situation, others tend to make internal attributions. Additionally, in the absence of situational cues,
observers tend to make dispositional attributions.

Attribution theory provides a framework for understanding both our own and others’ behaviors. It provides
guidelines for interpreting actions, so it is useful for examining motivations for achievement and conflict
in interpersonal relationships. This theory has also been used to examine stigmatizing behavior and
discrimination.

Attribution and Achievement

Bernard Weiner extended attribution theory to how people explain their own and others’ success and failure.
He contends that interpretations of achievement can be explained with three dimensions of behavior: locus
of control (Whose fault is it?), stability (Is it ongoing?), and controllability (Can I change it?). First, a person’s
success or failure is attributable to either internal factors (I am a smart person) or to external factors (My
computer crashed). Second, the cause of the success or failure can be either stable (It’s always going to be
like this) or unstable (This is a one-time event). Finally, the event may be perceived as controllable (I can
change this if I want to) or uncontrollable (Nothing I do can change this situation).

These three dimensions, together, create eight scenarios that people use to explain their own achievements
and disappointments:

• 1.
Internal-stable-uncontrollable (I’m not very smart)

• 2.
Internal-stable-controllable (I always wait until the last minute)

• 3.
Internal-unstable-uncontrollable (I felt ill)

• 4.
Internal-unstable-controllable (I forgot about the assignment)

• 5.
External-stable-uncontrollable (The teacher’s expectations are unrealistic)

• 6.
External-stable-controllable (The teacher hates me)

• 7.
External-unstable-uncontrollable (I was in a car accident)

• 8.
External-unstable-controllable (The dog ate my homework)

Understanding how to motivate students to achieve academically requires an understanding of their
attributions. People’s explanations for their own success or failure will help determine how hard they work in
similar situations. Students who perceive that their successes and failures are controllable are more likely to
continue to work hard academically. When people perceive that they have no control over a situation, believe

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that the situation is permanent, and think that the outcomes are due to their own characteristics, they are
likely to stop working and may exhibit signs of learned helplessness.

Attributions and Interpersonal Conflict

People tend to choose conflict styles based on their attributions about their partner’s intent to cooperate, the
locus of responsibility for the conflict, and the stability of the conflict. Their attributions about these issues
influence the strategies they adopt; specifically, they tend to adopt conflict management strategies they
believe are congruent with their partner’s projected responses. The attribution process causes people to see
others as more competitive, more responsible for the conflict, and more stable and traitlike than they perceive
themselves to be. They underestimate the role of unstable situation factors and overestimate the extent to
which behavior is caused by stable personality traits. The bias in this process often discourages integrative
modes of conflict resolution. The choice of conflict strategies affects the likelihood of conflict resolution and
the degree of satisfaction in the relationship.

Attributions and Stigmatizing Behavior

Attribution theory is an important framework for understanding why people endorse stigmatizing attitudes and
engage in discriminatory behaviors. A person’s attributions about the cause and controllability of another’s
illness or situation can lead to emotional reactions that affect their willingness to help and their likelihood of
punishing the other. If you assume that another person’s difficult situation is that person’s fault and could have
been prevented, you may be less likely to offer assistance and more likely to react with anger. For example,
Sue is an office manager and Terry is a new employee. If Sue thinks that Terry’s unorthodox and unpredictable
behavior is caused by injuries he suffered when he was a child, she may be tolerant and understanding. If,
however, Sue thinks Terry’s unorthodox behavior is the result of years of illegal drug use, she may be more
likely to get angry with him and take punitive actions. People’s attributions about the causes of another’s
illness can lead to prejudice and discrimination.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The fundamental attribution error is a common attribution error in which people overemphasize personality or
dispositional (internal) causes of others’ negative behavior or bad outcomes and underestimate the situational
(external) factors. When interpreting another’s positive actions or outcomes, however, people overemphasize
the situational causes and underestimate the dispositional causes. For example, Alicia is a server in a
restaurant, and one of her coworkers, Julia, just got a really big tip. Alicia thinks to herself, “Wow, Julia keeps
getting lucky because the hostess keeps giving her the good customers.” An hour later, another coworker
complains that he got a bad tip, and Alicia thinks, “Well, if you weren’t such a crappy server, you would get
good tips.” Alicia just committed the fundamental attribution error. She assumed that when something bad
happened to one coworker, it was the coworker’s fault and that when something good happened to another
coworker, it was the situation that brought about the positive result.

Conversely, the self-serving bias (or actor-observer bias) is an error in which individuals attribute their own
success and failure to different factors. One’s own success and positive outcomes are attributed to internal,
dispositional characteristics whereas one’s failures or negative outcomes are ascribed to external, situational
causes. To continue the restaurant example, Alicia gets a really big tip and thinks, “I worked really hard for that
group and gave great service,” but when another group leaves a bad tip, she thinks, “They are cheapskates.”

In sum, attribution errors work in the following ways:

• When good things happen to me, I deserve it (I worked hard or I am a special person).
• When good things happen to you, you don’t deserve it (the teacher likes you or you just got lucky).
• When bad things happen to me, it’s not my fault (the teacher doesn’t like me or he started it).

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• When bad things happen to you, it’s your fault (you should work harder or you should be more
careful).

Self-Perception Theory

Daryl Bem’s self-perception theory, like attribution theory, relies on internal and external attributions to explain
behavior. However, instead of observing others, we use the same process to interpret our own behavior.
Bem argues that we come to know our own thoughts and beliefs by observing our actions and interpreting
what caused our behaviors. Our explanation for our behavior is determined by the presence or absence of
situational cues. For example, if Debbie earns $100 campaigning for 3 hours for a politician, she can attribute
her behavior to external causes (“I did it for the money”). If, however, Debbie earns only $5 for her 3 hours of
campaigning, she will likely attribute her behavior to internal causes (“I did it because I like the candidate”).
Self-perception theory is important in persuasion research because people who are internally motivated are
more likely to maintain behaviors.

• attribution
• fundamental attribution error
• attribution theory
• attribution processes
• self-perception theory
• observer
• tipping

Virginia M. McDermott
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412959384.n23
See also

• Cognitive Theories
• Conflict Communication Theories
• Interpersonal Communication Theories
• Learning and Communication
• Persuasion and Social Influence Theories

Suggested Reading

Borkowski, J. G., Schneider, W., & Pressley, M. (1989). The challenges of teaching good information processing to learning disabled

students. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 36 , 169-185.

Hsien, P. H. (2005). How college students explain their grades in a foreign language course: The interrelationship of attributions, self-

efficacy, language learning, beliefs, and achievement. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A, 65 (10-A).

Jones, E. E., Kannouse, H. H., Kelley, R. E., Nisbett, S. V., & Weiner, B. (Eds.). (1972). Attribution: Perceiving the Causes of Behavior.

Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

Peterson, S., & Schreiber, J. (2012). Personal and interpersonal motivation for group projects: Replications of an attributional analysis.

Educational Psychology Review, 24 , 287-311. Retrieved December 11, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research

Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=74638577&site=ehost-live

Woodcock, S., & Vialle, W. (2011). Are we exacerbating students’ learning disabilities? An investigation of preservice teachers’ attributions

of the educational outcomes of students with learning disabilities. Annals of Dyslexia, 61 , 223-241. Retrieved December 11, 2013 from

EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=ehh&AN=67281134&site=ehost-live

~~~~~~~~

Essay by Sherry Thompson, Ed.D.

Dr. Sherry Thompson is a graduate of the University of Utah. She has written articles on workplace satisfaction, employee turnover, and the

impacts of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Her other areas of interest include ethics, agentic shift, and student supports in

higher education.

Copyright of Attribution Theory — Research Starters Education is the property of Great Neck Publishing and its content may not be copied

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Public Relations Review 33 (2007) 135–139

Attribution Theory as a guide for post-crisis
communication research

W. Timothy Coombs ∗
Communication Studies, Eastern Illinois University, 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL 61920, USA

Received 1 November 2006; received in revised form 1 November 2006; accepted 20 November 2006

Abstract

The field of crisis communication is poised to take the next in its evolution. Now is the time to move beyond the limits of the
case study methods that shape the field’s development and shift to empirical methods. As the field matures, crisis managers need
recommendations that are based on scientifically tested evidence rather than speculation. The argument for scientifically tested
evidence for action is based on the evidence-based in management and medicine. This article discusses the role Attribution Theory
has played and can continue to play in building scientifically tested evidence for crisis managers as well as providing an integrative
mechanism for the diverse crisis research that spans a variety of disciplines.
© 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Crisis communication; Attribution Theory; Crisis

Post-crisis communication, what management says and does after a crisis, is a robust area of research in
communication and management. While prolific, the post-crisis communication research is often disjointed and
atheoretical. Much of the extant writings consist of lists of what “to do” and what “not to do” drawn from case studies.
Moreover, the case studies tend to be based on mediated accounts of the crisis and do not involve interviews with
those involved in the crisis. What is underrepresented are theory-based studies designed to systematically identify
and model the key variables in post-crisis communication. We “know” little about how people react to crises or crisis
responses given the lack of experimental study of the phenomenon (Ahluwalia, Burnkrant, & Unnava, 2000; Dawar &
Pillutla, 2000; Dean, 2004; Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 1998). What we need in crisis communication is a shift towards
evidence-based management, the use of scientific evidence to guide managerial decision-making (Rousseau, 2005).

In communication-based crisis research, we have an over abundance of rhetorical studies that attempt to use descrip-
tive data to claim issues of causality and theory building. There are also problems in preoccupations with finding
“genres” in crisis communication that contribute little to theory development and testing. Apologia was a gateway for
many into crisis communication. It was useful to think of organizations using communication to protect their public
personas/reputations and provided a wealth of resources for developing crisis response strategies (Hearit, 2006). But
that does not mean the genre should be the focal point of crisis communication. Some researchers seem bent on finding
a new genre in every new crisis. Every crisis does have unique features. However, is it right to have a genre of one?
Is not genre to be based on a pattern emerging from a number of works? Furthermore, of what value is discovering

∗ Tel.: +1 217 581 3324.
E-mail address: wtcoombs@eiu.edu.

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2006.11.016

mailto:wtcoombs@eiu.edu

dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2006.11.016

136 W.T. Coombs / Public Relations Review 33 (2007) 135–139

another genre of crisis communication? While a valuable start for crisis communication, we seemed to have exhausted
the yields from apologia. Post-crisis communication research can offer greater value to theory and practitioners if there
is a grander picture that can unite and integrate the various “genres” in to usable applied knowledge.

Rhetorical cases’ studies provided the roots for the study of crisis communication in the communication field. It
awakened us to the need to focus on what organizations say and do as well keyed us to the value of the situation in
influencing crisis responses. However, the time has come to embrace the evolution of the field and influx of empirical
studies of crisis communication (e.g., Arpan & Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2005; Dean, 2004; Huang, Lin, & Su, 2005).
Crisis communication research should adopt the perspective of evidence-based management. This piece argues that
Attribution Theory provides one useful beacon for this evolutionary track.

1. Attribution Theory as a guide

Two key traits of crises are that they are unexpected (we might know one might hit but not when) and negative. These
are also the key characteristics that Attribution Theory expert Bernard Weiner identified as driving people’s need to
search for causes of an event (Weiner, 1985,1986). It is logical to connect crises and Attribution Theory. Stakeholders
will make attributions about the cause of a crisis; they will assess crisis responsibility. Was the crisis a result of
situational factors or something the organization did? Indeed, extant research forges a link between Attribution Theory
and crises (e.g., Bradford & Garrett, 1995; Coombs, 1995; Härtel, McColl-Kennedy & McDonald, 1998; Jorgensen,
1994,1996; McDonald & Härtel, 2000; Stockmyer, 1996).

The attributions stakeholders make about crisis responsibility have affective and behavioral consequences for an
organization (Coombs & Holladay, 2005; McDonald & Härtel, 2000). If the organization is deemed responsible, the
reputation will suffer. In turn, stakeholders may exit the relationship and/or create negative word-of-mouth. Management
has a vested interest in preventing either of these two negative outcomes.

1.1. Early application of Attribution Theory to crisis

The first true studies of crisis communication appear in the management literature with works appearing in the 1980s.
While the study of apologia pre-dates the 1980s, its application to crisis communication did not occur until the later
1980s. Mowen (1980) was among the first to systematically broach the idea of a crisis response. Mowen also initiated
an important conceptual link for crisis communication, the use of Attribution Theory. Wiener (1986) built Attribution
Theory on the premise that people need to assign responsibility for events. Attribution Theory posits that people look
for the causes of events, especially unexpected and negative events. Most experts agree that a crisis is negative and
unexpected. When using Attribution Theory, the threat of a crisis is largely a function of crisis responsibility/blame.
Managers should evaluate the situation to determine which crisis response is best for the situation (Coombs, 1995,
2004; Mowen, 1980).

Product harm crises were used for the initial development of crisis communication. For product harm crises, four
crisis response strategies have served as the focal point of research: denial, forced compliance, voluntary compliance,
and super effort. Denial involves the organization claming there is no threat from their product. Voluntary compliance
occurs when the government forces a recall or other remediation efforts. Voluntary compliance is when a company
recalls or takes remediation efforts on its own accord. Super efforts involve voluntary compliance plus compensation
and an extensive communication campaign to promote the effort (Siomkos & Kurzbard, 1994).

Researchers have documented that crises have negative effects on market share, sales of the recalled product,
stock prices, purchase intention, and sales of other products by the company (taint-the-line) (Dawar, 1998; Siomkos
& Kurzbard, 1994). The crisis response can reduce or eliminate these negative effects. It is important to note that
management researchers look beyond reputation (character) to include other variables. Again, this is not just apologia.
The management recognition of various outcomes more accurately reflects the demands faced by crisis managers. They
are not just wrestling with reputational concerns but with legal and financial ones as well.

Bradford and Garrett (1995) applied Attribution Theory to ethical crises, a departure from the product harm line of
research. Bradford and Garrett developed a model, based in Attribution Theory, which was designed to explain what
crisis response to select based upon the nature of the ethical crisis. We find Attribution Theory has now been applied
to a variety of crisis types. However, the research is made comparable by the theoretical linkage. The research shares
similar theoretical and methodological assumptions.

W.T. Coombs / Public Relations Review 33 (2007) 135–139 137

1.2. Situational crisis communication theory

Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) applies Attribution Theory based ideas to a wider array of crises.
SCCT draws upon experimental methods and social–psychological theory. This is true to the Attribution Theory roots
of SCCT. SCCT advances and test hypotheses related to how perceptions of the crisis situation affect the crisis response
and the effects of crisis responses on outcomes such as reputation, emotions, and purchase intention. SCCT research
extends and is comparable to the early product harm and ethical crises research found in the management and marketing
literatures.

SCCT begins with the crisis manager examining the crisis situation in order to assess the level of the reputational
threat of a crisis. The threat is the amount of damage a crisis could inflict on the organization’s reputation if no action is
taken. Three factors in the crisis situation shape the reputational threat: (1) initial crisis responsibility, (2) crisis history,
and (3) relationship history/prior reputation. Crisis managers follow a two-step process for using these three factors to
assess the reputational threat.

The first step in assessing the reputational threat is to determine the initial crisis responsibility attached to a crisis.
Initial crisis responsibility is a function of stakeholder attributions of personal control for the crisis by the organization
– how much stakeholders believe organizational actions caused the crisis (Coombs, 1995). Research has consistently
demonstrated that increased attributions of crisis responsibility produce lower reputational scores – is a greater repu-
tational threat (Coombs & Holladay, 1996,2002,2004). The initial assessment is based upon the crisis type. The crisis
type is how the crisis is being framed. Frames are cues that stakeholders use to interpret crises (Coombs & Holladay,
2002; Dowling, 2002). A crisis type is a frame that indicates how people should interpret the crisis events. Was the
event an accident, sabotage, or criminal negligence?

SCCT posits that each crisis type generates specific and predictable levels of crisis responsibility—attributions of
organizational responsibility for the crisis. SCCT research has identified three crisis clusters based upon attributions of
crisis responsibility by crisis type: (1) victim cluster has very weak attributions of crisis responsibility (natural disasters,
workplace violence, product tampering, and rumor) and the organization is viewed as a victim of the event; (2) accidental
cluster has minimal attributions of crisis responsibility (technical-error accident, technical-error product harm, and
challenge) and the event was considered unintentional or uncontrollable by the organization; and (3) intentional cluster
has very strong attributions of crisis responsibility (human-error accident, human-error product harm, and organizational
misdeed) and the event was considered to be purposeful (Coombs & Holladay, 2002).

By identifying the crisis type, the crisis manager can determine how much crisis responsibility stakeholders will
attribute to the organization at the onset of the crisis. In turn, crisis responsibility indicates the initial reputational
threat because crisis responsibility has been proven to be negatively related to organizational reputation (Coombs &
Holladay, 1996,2001).

The second step in assessing the threat involves two intensifying factors, consistency and distinctiveness, derived
from Kelley’s principle of covariance (Kelley, 1972; Kelley & Michela, 1980; Martinko, Douglas, Ford & Gundlach,
2004). Consistency is operationalized as crisis history; whether or not an organization has had a similar crisis in the past.
Consistency is high if an organization previously has had similar events. A history of crises suggests an organization
has an ongoing problem that needs to be addressed. The organization is consistently having problems.

Distinctiveness is operationalized as relationship history/prior reputation; how well or poorly an organization has
treated stakeholders in other contexts. Distinctiveness is low if the organization has a history of treating stakeholders
badly. An organization shows little consideration for stakeholders across a number of domains, not just in this crisis.
The crisis is not distinctive. Either high consistency or low distinctiveness increases the threat from a crisis. Each
indicates that the crisis is part of a pattern of behaviors rather than an isolated incident (Coombs, 2004).

Distinctiveness (relationship history/prior reputation) and consistency (crisis history) have both a direct and indirect
effect on the reputational threat posed by the crisis. Either low distinctiveness or high consistency will intensify
attributions of crisis responsibility thereby indirectly affecting the reputational threat. Moreover, the two factors have
a direct effect on the reputational threat that is separate from crisis responsibility (Coombs, 2004). Crisis history
(consistency) and relationship history/prior reputation (distinctiveness) are used to adjust the initial assessment of the
threat. SCCT posits that either a crisis history or a negative relationship history/prior reputation will intensify the
reputational threat. Applied to crisis management, a victim crisis becomes treated as an accident crisis and an accident
crisis becomes treated as an intentional crisis when either consistency is high (crisis history) or distinctiveness is low
(negative relationship history) (Coombs & Holladay, 2001,2004).

138 W.T. Coombs / Public Relations Review 33 (2007) 135–139

The crisis response strategies vary in their perceived acceptance of responsibility for the crisis. SCCT’s general tenant
is that as the reputational threat and negative affect increases, crisis managers should utilize crisis response strategies
with the requisite level of accepting crisis responsibility. Put another way, crisis managers need to accept grater levels
of responsibility as the reputational threat intensifies. SCCT has been applied beyond reputation. The factors shaping
the reputational threat also serve to shape the affect generated by crisis and purchase intentions (Coombs & Holladay,
2005). Refer to Coombs (2006) for a fuller discussion of SCCT recommendations for post-crisis communication.

2. Integrative nature of Attribution Theory

Attribution Theory provides a common set of concepts and shared methods that allow for easier integration of
research findings from different researchers. Kelly’s covariation principle is an example. Kelley’s work is built on
the concepts of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency (Kelley & Michela, 1980). Studies that share the use of
covariation can be compared. The research will share experimental methods and how the variables should relate to one
another. Exact operationalization of variables might differ but the consistent conceptualization of concepts results in
similar operationalizations. The shared concepts and methods made it possible to integrate a number of diverse product
harm crisis studies into one larger set of recommendations for crisis managers (Laufer & Coombs, 2006).

The idea for evidence-based management is derived from evidence-based medicine. The focus is on using scientif-
ically proven results to guide actions in medicine and now management (Rousseau, 2005). This piece argues that we
should extend the ideas to create evidence-based crisis communication and move away from the speculation offered
by cases built from mediated reports of crises. Attribution Theory provides a mechanism for integrating the various
studies of crisis communication to build a set of principles for evidence-based crisis communication.

3. Summary

Post-crisis communication research should continue along its newer, empirical track. Such research is providing
tested results to crisis managers rather than speculation based on case studies. We move away from decisions based
on unsystematic data toward evidence-based decisions. Attribution Theory is an historical and still viable theory for
integrating crisis communication research. A common theoretical link allows for the integration of research from various
researchers in diverse fields. We begin to build upon one another’s work and see how the pieces can begin to be integrated
into a larger whole. Moreover, there is a broad research agenda to pursue based upon Attribution Theory. A partial
list would include application of fundamental attribution error to crises and implications for crisis communication, the
ability of crisis response strategies to shape perceptions of the crisis frames, how crisis response strategies can trigger
the discounting principle, and relationship of crisis frames to counter-factual thinking. With Attribution Theory as a
connecting point, diverse streams of research can converge into to a river of post-crisis communication knowledge that
provides a mechanism for evidence-based crisis communication.

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Attribution Theory as a guide for post-crisis communication research

Attribution Theory as a guide
Early application of Attribution Theory to crisis
Situational crisis communication theory
Integrative nature of Attribution Theory
Summary
References

[This is the fourth installment in a monthly series on management issues in the time of COVID-19.]

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with
the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” —
Admiral James Stockdale.

In August, while most developed nations’ rates of COVID-19 infections are falling, the rate in the United
States continues to rise. States that had reopened or begun to, such as California and Texas, have
reversed course, and the European Union did not list the United States as one of the 15 “safe
countries” whose citizens may enter freely. Meanwhile, many leaders are reporting that their teams—or
they themselves—have crashed into a wall of demotivation and despair.

The Stockdale Paradox, made famous in Jim Collins’s bestselling book From Good to Great, and the
related discipline of survival psychology shine a light on the present moment and contains wisdom for
how leaders can manage the unrolling crisis.

“AS CEOS IN THIS CRISIS, WE HAVE NO OPTION BUT TO BECOME
THE WARTIME CEO, HOWEVER ILL-EQUIPPED OR PREPARED WE
ARE.”

To review the origins of this project, we asked 600 global CEOs across a variety of industries what
concerns were keeping them awake at night. Their topics ranged widely, but a handful of overarching
mental tasks emerged: Comprehend complex, rapidly changing circumstances accurately, and respond
to those circumstances keeping both immediate and long-term goals in mind.

One respondent summed up the challenge in a particularly apt way: “Shifting existing organizational
structures from ‘peacetime’ value creation to ‘wartime/survival’ in a very short period of time … As
CEOs in this crisis, we have no option but to become the wartime CEO, however ill-equipped or
prepared we are.”

This is where Admiral Stockdale comes in.

17 AUG 2020 | by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

The Stockdale Paradox and survival psychology contain wisdom for how
leaders can manage the coronavirus crisis, according to Boris
Groysberg and Robin Abrahams.

LEADING IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY

More Stories in This Series
How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding
What Leaders Can Do to Fight the COVID Fog
It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

What is the Stockdale Paradox?
Stockdale was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for seven-and-a-half years. Before meeting with the
legendary soldier and statesman, Collins read Stockdale’s memoir and found its grim details hard
to bear, despite his knowledge that Stockdale’s later life was happy. Collins wondered, “If it feels
depressing for me, how on earth did he survive when he was actually there and did not know the
end of the story?” (Emphasis in the original.)

When he posed that question to the admiral, Stockdale answered: “I never lost faith in the end of
the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and
turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

Collins asked him about the personal characteristics of prisoners who did not make it out of the
camps. “The optimists,” he replied. “Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by
Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to
be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then
it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart … This is a very important lesson.
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—
with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

This formulation became known as the Stockdale Paradox. The admiral elaborated further on the
concept when, at a West Point graduation, he was asked if he dwelt on the end of his
imprisonment to sustain him, or if he lived day to day?

“I lived on a day-to-day basis. … [M]ost guys thought it was really better for everybody to be an
optimist. I wasn’t naturally that way; I knew too much about the politics of Asia when I got shot
down. I think there was a lot of damage done by optimists; other writers from other wars share that
opinion. The problem is, some people believe what professional optimists are passing out and
come unglued when their predictions don’t work out.”

How does it apply? (or, Why there is no “normal” to come back to)
Your state, industry, organization—or unconscious mind—may be pinning hopes on some other
event or date after which some version of “rescue” will come: a vaccine, a cure, a reliable and
cheap test, the acquisition of herd immunity. But to review the brutal facts, none of these
developments are likely in the foreseeable short term. The possibility remains that there may
never be a fully effective vaccine or cure; this virus may be something that we live with and
manage for years to come. Doing so will mean changing elements of our social interaction in
unprecedented ways that may well lead to irrevocable social changes.

Already, the follow-on effects of the virus are enough to ensure there will be no normal to return to,
as this incomplete list indicates:

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/how-remote-work-changes-what-we-think-about-onboarding

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/what-leaders-can-do-to-fight-the-covid-fog

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/it-s-time-to-reset-decision-making-in-your-organization

Excess fatalities (higher death counts than normal, even excluding COVID-19 deaths)
Mental health crises
Secondary health problems from neglect/postponement of routine/preventative care
Mass unemployment
Dining, entertainment, arts, tourism industries—the whole experiential economy—devastated.

Further, the pandemic is playing out against a backdrop of extreme economic, political, social, and
meteorological instability. The Black Lives Matter protests that began in the United States in late
May and spread worldwide have thrown another massive change agent into the equation.
Meanwhile, globalization itself is under threat:

“Globalization describes a world economy increasingly integrated under a common set of rules
and principles.” wrote Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, in a personal
correspondence. “We’re now experiencing the beginnings of an unwind, primarily because of a
growing divergence in the rules and principles that major participants in the global economy
operate by. The three most powerful economic actors in the world—the United States, China, and
Europe—are growing further apart in their economic strategies, and that’s going to become
increasingly obvious as we see how they act under unusual stress.

No one knows the end of this story.

Wisdom converges
The Stockdale Paradox—have faith, but confront reality—can be seen in slightly different forms in
many cultures.

Stockdale himself was a follower of the ancient Greek Stoic philosophers, who were noted for their
concern with understanding reality correctly and shaping one’s response to it optimally. The
maxim of Epictetus, “What, then, is to be done? To make the best of what is in our power, and take
the rest as it naturally happens,” has similarities to both Buddhist doctrine and the Alcoholics
Anonymous Serenity Prayer. (“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”). Therapy techniques
such as radical acceptance similarly emphasize the point of letting go of desires and beliefs about
what should be and seeing reality as it is.

These approaches do not maintain that people should not try to change external conditions, nor
that we should have no emotional responses to them. People are neither sheep nor robots. In
the words of Marsha Linehan, the founder of radical acceptance: “Radical acceptance doesn’t
mean you don’t try to change things … You can’t change anything if you don’t accept it, because if
you don’t accept it, you’ll try to change something else that you think is reality.”

And while Stoicism may colloquially refer to repressing emotion, such repression was never part of
original Stoic doctrine. And neither emotionlessness nor constant positivity are a hallmark of
emotional adjustment during crisis. “In general, resilient people have intensely negative reactions
to trauma,” writes Emily Esfahani Smith. “They experience despair and stress, and acknowledge
the horror of what’s happening. But even in the darkest of places, they see glimmers of light, and
this ultimately sustains them.”

How does mechanisms of survival work?

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/coronavirus-is-only-part-of-the-excess-fatality-mystery.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/04/mental-health-coronavirus/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/investigations/coronavirus-excess-deaths-heart/

https://www.eurasiagroup.net/people/ibremmer

Why do so many wisdom traditions converge on this basic paradox? The discipline of survival
psychology—the study of how people react in disasters—may hold a clue. Psychologist John
Leach has spent his career studying survival.

“We are all day-to-day survivors. We are alive today because from childbirth our behaviour has
adapted to our own particular environment,” Leach writes. “The danger arises when we are forced
outside of our adapted environment. This suggests that there are two types of survival behaviour:
intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic survival is supported by our daily, regular, routine behaviours within
our normative environment. Extrinsic survival refers to those new behaviours we need to survive in
an environment or situation not previously experienced: from a shipwreck to a kidnapping, from a
fire in an office block to an airliner crash in the jungle.”

“PEOPLE WHO SURVIVE DISASTERS ARE THE ONES WHO ARE
ABLE TO REGAIN COGNITIVE FUNCTION QUICKLY, ASSESS THEIR
NEW ENVIRONMENT ACCURATELY, AND TAKE GOAL-DIRECTED
ACTION TO SURVIVE WITHIN IT.”

Part of the exhaustion common now is that our intrinsic survival mechanisms—such basic
behaviors as how to enter a building, or bring in the mail, or greet a friend—require conscious
thought in a way they have not since toddlerhood. The services and businesses that facilitated our
lives—childcare, dry cleaning, the coffee shop on the way to work, gyms, housecleaners—are
shuttered or more difficult to access. Masks must be found and worn and cleaned. Simple
conversations require managing new technologies and protocols. Even walking down the street
requires a level of hypervigilance not required in even the most dangerous neighborhood.

Research by Leach and others indicates that people who survive disasters are able to regain
cognitive function quickly after the event, assess their new environment accurately, and take goal-
directed action to survive within it. This is the balance that the Stockdale Paradox facilitates: the
realism to let go of intrinsic survival mechanisms and the deep-seated faith to learn the new ones.

Applying survival psychology to the current crisis may be extending the mandate of the discipline
—the business leaders who are our reading audience are unlikely to face crises of literal, physical
survival. However, the pattern of human response to disasters has been shown to be remarkably
consistent across cultures, and for disasters of many different causes, effects, and durations, from
earthquakes to shipwrecks to kidnapping. There is every reason to believe that the responses to
less-direct threats will be similarly structured.

All disasters have in common phases of pre-impact, impact, and recoil, with typical behaviors
occurring during each. In short-term disasters, these three phases are followed by rescue and
post-traumatic adjustment. This is what is happening in many countries now, where the virus is
being contained and normal activities are resuming, with some modifications. In long-term
disasters, rescue does not come, or comes long after expected. This is closer to the situation in
the United States. We argue that CEOs who are reporting demotivation and depression in
themselves or their teams are currently experiencing the shift from short-term to long-term crisis.
That shift is difficult at best. The circumstances of this particular shift, particularly the awareness
that things could have played out differently, make it especially difficult. Leach writes in Survival
Psychology that hope is curvilinear during long-term crises: “[H]ope is strong at the beginning of
an ordeal but weakens substantially if relief does not arrive after an acceptable period of time.
What counts as an acceptable period seems to vary from person to person.”

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-1/survival-psychology-wont-live

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/reopening-psychological-morass/613858/

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-1/survival-psychology-wont-live

https://books.google.com/books/about/Survival_Psychology.html?id=mvB-AAAAMAAJ

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/07/alternate-history-pop-culture-pandemic/613783/

Once it becomes clear that rescue will not happen soon, those who survive move into the phases
of adaptation and consolidation. Leach’s description of adaptation is worth quoting in full:

“During the period of adaptation there is a slight initial decomposition of a victim’s psychology.
There is a breaking of the links of his previously learned behaviour. Once broken, the survivor’s
behaviour can be adapted and rebuilt to better fit the new environment. Initially, there is a natural
reluctance to believe that the old environment has been torn away during the period of impact and
consequently denial, crying, anger, and weakness are frequent reactions. The period of recoil
follows, which is a further breakdown in the psychological bonds shown by despair, grief,
depression, and so on. Only once the victim is through this period can new survival behaviours be
developed.”

“WE ARGUE THAT CEOS WHO ARE REPORTING DEMOTIVATION
AND DEPRESSION IN THEMSELVES OR THEIR TEAMS ARE
CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING THE SHIFT FROM SHORT-TERM TO
LONG-TERM CRISIS.”

Adaptation is breaking and unlearning, followed by consolidation, during which the new
circumstances—though they may be unwanted and hostile—are accepted as “real,” and the
survivor begins to function again. “He becomes someone again,” as Leach puts it. People who are
in the consolidation phase are able to make jokes, to help others, to articulate their values and live
them out in appropriate new ways in their new environment.

What long-term survival looks like
There is no point at which this becomes easy. Both Leach and Stockdale note that success in a
long-term survival situation means getting up and fighting each day. Stockdale wrote in A Vietnam
Experience: Ten Years of Reflection that it was “the persistent practitioner of endurance who
carried the day for courage. The game of physical intimidation was not won or lost in one grand
showdown. The hero of us all was the plucky little guy who made them start all over every day.”
Leach cited a shipwreck survivor who wrote, during the fifteenth day on his life raft, “My mood
follows the sun. The light of each day makes me optimistic that I might last another forty. But the
darkness of each night makes me realise that, if any one thing goes wrong, I will not survive.”

The circadian rhythm appears to be very important. Advice on adverse conditions—from
unexpectedly having to work from one’s couch to Arctic survival—invariably emphasizes strict
daily routine and self-discipline. However, such advice can backfire if it creates a black-and-white
mentality in which one lapse invalidates the whole (the “I’ve eaten one cookie so I may as well eat
the whole bag” syndrome). The most important thing is to get up each day with determination, not
entrapped by the failures of the previous day.

What about the role of faith? “Most men need some kind of personal philosophy to endure what
the Vietnam POWs endured,” Stockdale wrote, “For many it is religion; for many it is patriotic
cause; for some it is simply a question of doing their jobs even though the result—confinement as
a POW—may not seem necessarily fair.”

This insight is repeatedly endorsed by studies of survivors. Having a value system, a sense of
identity, a purpose for one’s existence increases the odds of survival and resiliency. Leach’s
explanation is elegant:

https://hbs-my.sharepoint.com/personal/ssilverthorne_hbs_edu/Documents/Working%20Knowledge%20Production/Stories%20in%20Edit/Ten%20Years%20of%20Reflection

“Personal spirituality functions in a deceptively simple way. When a person who has lived for
themselves and their immediacy is thrown into a new and frightening environment, be it a prison
camp or a liferaft, a mountain range or a war zone, they become uprooted and disorientated. They
have learnt their former life too well and cannot adapt to the change in circumstances. Their world
has sunk and they along with it. On the other hand, those people who possess a personal ideal
will take it with them, wherever they go, and wherever they happen to find themselves.”

A personal sense of spirituality, morality, values, meaning—call it what you will—is also
indispensable for maintaining relationships during crisis situations. Stockdale repeatedly
emphasized the practicality of integrity, the fact that the honest person cannot be blackmailed,
shamed, or paralyzed from within. Bad decisions, failures, and mistakes are inevitable, especially
in hostile circumstances; Stockdale was vehement on the need to acknowledge your errors, to
yourself and your team:

“If you realize fear and guilt are your enemies, and not pain, then you’ve got a ticket to self-respect
and certainly to friendship and support of your fellows. I’m not just telling you how to behave in
prison, I’m telling you how to stay out of the grips of bureaucratic or any kind of extortion, how to
avoid being used, how to rely on your conscience, how to keep your self-respect. You’ve got to
start right off by unloading to and confiding in and trusting your fellow officers and your men.”

Advice and exercises for leaders
While the entire world is enduring the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis is affecting individuals in
drastically different ways depending on where they live, what they do, their family situation, and
their understanding of and expectations about the pandemic, among other factors. Because of
this, your team members are likely to be in different phases of reaction to the crisis. Keeping this
in mind may be helpful. Here are additional, practical suggestions.

Begin meetings by having each person introduce themselves by their name, job title, mission, and
their immediate tasks (e.g, “I’m Sarah, I’m a creative, I’m creating a brand for Client X, I’m in this
meeting to present findings and receive feedback”). Emergency responders typically ask people to
give their names, where they are from, whom they are with, and what skills or abilities they have.
This provides practical information to rescuers, but also has the effect of bringing people back to
themselves and helping them begin to focus again. In a survival situation, keeping people
connected to their identity, roles, relationships, and tasks is of utmost importance.

In long-term survival situations, these basic facts of the self must be connected to an overarching
purpose. This purpose does not need to be grandiose but must above all be clear, and able to be
broken down into concrete tasks. Arguably, the most important job a leader has in a crisis is to
consistently articulate this purpose, and connect each day’s tasks to it. People drift without such
leadership, as Leach explained: “The need for planning is crystal clear in acute, short-term crises.
This need to plan is not always so clear in long-term situations where the threat to survival rolls on
monotonously day after day. This is because planning automatically implies a future, and this
future is frequently in doubt.”

Crisis leaders must motivate people past that doubt—not by happy talk or Stockdale’s
“professional optimism,” but by constantly, constantly reiterating the organizational purpose and
operationalizing it as tasks.

Talk of vision and ideals may seem a luxury that a crisis does not allow for, but this is a
tremendous mistake. “A man must relate to a community, a commonality of communication style,
a commonality of ritual, of laws, of traditions, of poetry, of shared dreams, if he is to prevail, if he is

to resist,” Stockdale writes “‘Man does not live by bread alone.’ Learning the truth and full meaning
of that biblical adage was lesson one for us in that crucible of pressure. It goes without saying that
the first job of leadership is to provide the communication necessary for that civilization, that ritual,
those laws, those traditions.”

Angela Duckworth’s concept of grit may be useful here. By grit, Duckworth does not mean
endurance for its own sake, but rather commitment to a high-level goal, purpose, or mission—and
the ability to assess and revise lower-level goals and tactics as necessary. The concept of
hierarchical goals applies to both individuals and organizations. Daily tasks and immediate,
concrete benchmarks “support broader goals at the next level, which in turn support an
overarching primary goal that provides meaning and direction,” Duckworth writes. CEOs must
continually reiterate the organizational purpose, and clarify the action chain of subordinate goals.
These subordinate goals should be interrogated frequently, as the business environment
continues to rapidly change.

It is crucial for all leaders, not only those in the C-suite, to understand the organization’s purpose,
values, and how those connect to each day’s work. It has long been known that managers have at
least as much impact on team morale and performance as the overall organization itself does. In
crises, people tend to rely on the authority figures they already know and trust even more than
usual. And remote work means that a direct manager may be an employee’s only real point of
contact with the organization.

One question should be regularly asked at meetings: “What is something that doesn’t fit in, that
doesn’t make sense?” We are in the midst of a rapidly changing set of circumstances, and it is
difficult to know what data points matter. Create regular times to discuss facts that don’t seem to fit
the narrative. During a crisis, people tend automatically toward denial, to discount their
experiences, “perceptual narrowing” (hyperfocus on the task at hand with no attention to the
environment), and behavioral conformity. As a leader, you can help fight these cognitive biases by
being aware of them.

Inevitably, you and members of your team will occasionally lose focus, make mistakes, fall victim
to errors in judgment. Normalize admitting these mistakes and analyzing them. Discuss weak
spots, harm reduction, and damage control—people will sometimes fall when traveling uncertain
terrain, so how can they fall without injuring themselves?

Create ways for your team to surface both their deep faith and their real fears. “As if” exercises,
roleplay, and assigned mental exercises can help the group articulate thoughts and feelings that
may be too threatening to acknowledge otherwise. Use these tools often! (And not only in the
workplace—try asking your child how their favorite plush toy, or their friends, are feeling about a
particular event sometime.)

“HAVING A VALUE SYSTEM, A SENSE OF IDENTITY, A PURPOSE
FOR ONE’S EXISTENCE INCREASES THE ODDS OF SURVIVAL AND
RESILIENCY.”

For example, when debating a course of action, have team members list all the “hard, cold”
reasons for a decision and then all the “warm, fuzzy” reasons, or the most pessimistic/most
optimistic scenarios, or the like. Incorporate both-sides thinking in order to surface tacit knowledge
and insights.

https://angeladuckworth.com/

Grit Book

One of the few management papers to address the Stockdale Paradox summarizes research on
“mental contrasting,” a sequenced-visualization exercise. This exercise, which engages the mind
with both faith in the future and brutal facts of the present, would be a useful one for either
individuals or teams.

In mental contrasting, a person:

Visualizes a goal and its rewards, and then
Visualizes what obstacles—including their own behavior—stand between them and their goal.
(It is important to do it in this order.)

For example, a person might visualize receiving a desired promotion, in lavish detail—their new
office, a celebratory dinner with family and friends, the first meeting they would plan, how they
would spend their bonus. Then they would envision unexpected budget cutbacks, the loss of a
client, their own unaddressed conflict with a superior, or whatever other obstacles—in or out of
their personal control—that might scuttle the hoped-for goal.

Mental contrasting has been shown to improve the subjective feeling of being focused and
energized, as well as objective performance, in areas from academic achievement to weight loss.

Envisioning both the positive and the negative are necessary. Why? In their paper on the
Stockdale Paradox, authors C. W. Von Bergen and Martin S. Bressler point to previous studies
that show when people focus on only positive thoughts about the future, “they literally trick their
minds into thinking they have already succeeded and, so, do not need actual efforts to attain
something perceived as already acquired. However, completely disregarding positive thinking is
also not effective. With purely negative thoughts, people convince themselves that they have
already lost the goal, so, again, there is no need to make the efforts necessary to achieve it.”

Conclusion: Have faith
What does it mean, fundamentally, to have faith without being an optimist? What does it mean to
have faith in the end of the story, as Admiral Stockdale claimed to have done?

For an answer, ask yourself: What were your highest values in January 2020? For you as an
individual? For your company (perhaps your industry, or your profession)? Those values still
matter. Those ideals do not change because of facts on the ground. If you have faith in those
ideals, those values, then how might you customize the Stockdale Paradox for yourself? For your
organization, or community?

One of this paper’s authors is a stage actress, and has defined the Stockdale Paradox for her art
thus: “The brutal facts are that it will be years before it will be safe to breathe in each other’s faces
again. It’s possible that the entire infrastructure of theater as we know it will fall apart and have to
be rebuilt. And yet—theater will never die. Theater is in the DNA of human civilization. Humans
recite, tell stories, move together in groups. It’s what we do.”

What are your brutal facts? What is your deepest faith?

What would your version of the Stockdale Paradox be?

What does your organization exist for?

https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1275&context=aij

2 days ago

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2 days ago

What is your organizational purpose? How engaging is it?

About the Author
Boris Groysberg is the Richard P. Chapman Professor of Business Administration at Harvard
Business School. Robin Abrahams is a research associate at HBS.

[Image: iStock Photo]

POST A COMMENT
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COMMENTS

Nick C
So pertinent right now,and for future “global setbacks”-what are the helpful mindsets and indeed actions.
I like to think of it as the balancing of three forces
-cold,hard realities and the recognition that these may dominate our thinking(realism and some pessimism if you like)
-the short term coping mechanisms and giving a sense of order or orientation to the stressors and anxieties(protection),and
-thinking through the mass of problems to get at rational hope-avoiding the unrealistic and getting at the possible futures that
have credible foundations(perhaps sources of rational inspiration).
All part of the resilience agenda which we may need to get a whole lot better at..
Nick C.

Katherine M. Lawrence
Excellent and pithy piece. The takeaway message came right at the beginning:

“Shifting existing organizational structures from ‘peacetime’ value creation to ‘wartime/survival’ in a very short period of time …
As CEOs in this crisis, we have no option but to become the wartime CEO, however ill-equipped or prepared we are.”

The “Greatest Generation” (WW2) lived through immense sacrifice. During the war the refrain was heard, “Don’t you know,
there’s a war on?” Armies raised, retooling industries, and yes, even baseball was cancelled.

Alas in America today, we are having trouble going through the Kubler-Ross Five Stages

1.denial
2. anger
3. bargaining
4. depression
5. acceptance

At best we are at early stage bargaining, but mostly denial with some anger mixed in.

When war was declared on USA by the Axis, the American leaders did not treat it is an annoying economic problem nor hold
back from mobilizing the entire nation. They did not fall back on the notion the defeating the threat might swell the national debt,
nor did they predict that the struggle would be over by Christmas, or Easter, or Thanksgiving.

Like Reply 0
2 days ago

The overarching reality that change is part of existence.

As the authors suggest, the pandemic, racism, or deep economic dislocation, “will mean changing elements of our social
interaction in unprecedented ways that may well lead to irrevocable social changes.”

The sooner our leadership in business, government, and society get on a war footing, the sooner we can get back to post-war
value creation. To get back to normalcy without a fight will end badly for all involved and merely prolong the agony and deepen
the crisis.

Great article!

Katherine M. Lawrence
MBA 1976, HBS

Dave K
A very good choice of articles. Stockdale sees crisis clearly,concisely and acts accordingly. Optimism should never be erased
but tethered with realism for those people that live in that paradigm. Their trait of optimism is contagious and needed in the
world every day. But in true crisis, they must retrain it. How to do that? You addressed some of the ways but most require the
eventual change of loved character in your life and their corresponding personality. Is it worth it? We will see?

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CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

by Institute for PR (https://instituteforpr.org/author/institute-for-pr/)
Posted on October 30, 2007 (https://instituteforpr.org/crisis-management-and-communications/)

Crisis management is a critical organizational function. Failure can result in serious harm to stakeholders, losses for an organization, or end its very existence. Public relations practitioners are an integral part of
crisis management teams. So a set of best practices and lessons gleaned from our knowledge of crisis management would be a very useful resource for those in public relations. Volumes have been written
about crisis management by both practitioners and researchers from many di�erent disciplines making it a challenge to synthesize what we know about crisis management and public relations’ place in that
knowledge base. The best place to start this e�ort is by defining critical concepts

There are plenty of definitions for a crisis. For this entry, the definition reflects key points found in the various discussions of what constitutes a crisis. A crisis is defined here as a significant threat to operations
that can have negative consequences if not handled properly. In crisis management, the threat is the potential damage a crisis can inflict on an organization, its stakeholders, and an industry. A crisis can create
three related threats: (1) public safety, (2) financial loss, and (3) reputation loss. Some crises, such as industrial accidents and product harm, can result in injuries and even loss of lives. Crises can create
financial loss by disrupting operations, creating a loss of market share/purchase intentions, or spawning lawsuits related to the crisis. As Dilenschneider (2000) noted in The Corporate Communications Bible, all
crises threaten to tarnish an organization’s reputation. A crisis reflects poorly on an organization and will damage a reputation to some degree. Clearly these three threats are interrelated. Injuries or deaths will
result in financial and reputation loss while reputations have a financial impact on organizations.

E�ective crisis management handles the threats sequentially. The primary concern in a crisis has to be public safety. A failure to address public safety intensifies the damage from a crisis. Reputation and
financial concerns are considered a�er public safety has been remedied. Ultimately, crisis management is designed to protect an organization and its stakeholders from threats and/or reduce the impact felt by
threats.

Crisis management is a process designed to prevent or lessen the damage a crisis can inflict on an organization and its stakeholders. As a process, crisis management is not just one thing. Crisis management
can be divided into three phases: (1) pre-crisis, (2) crisis response, and (3) post-crisis. The pre-crisis phase is concerned with prevention and preparation. The crisis response phase is when management must
actually respond to a crisis. The post-crisis phase looks for ways to better prepare for the next crisis and fulfills commitments made during the crisis phase including follow-up information. The tri-part view of
crisis management serves as the organizing framework for this entry.

Prevention involves seeking to reduce known risks that could lead to a crisis. This is part of an organization’s risk management program. Preparation involves creating the crisis management plan, selecting and
training the crisis management team, and conducting exercises to test the crisis management plan and crisis management team. Both Barton (2001) and Coombs (2006) document that organizations are better
able to handle crises when they (1) have a crisis management plan that is updated at least annually, (2) have a designated crisis management team, (3) conduct exercises to test the plans and teams at least
annually, and (4) pre-dra� some crisis messages. Table 1 lists the Crisis Preparation Best Practices. The planning and preparation allow crisis teams to react faster and to make more e�ective decisions. Refer to
Barton’s (2001) Crisis in Organizations II or Coombs’ (2006) Code Red in the Boardroom for more information on these four lessons.

A crisis management plan (CMP) is a reference tool, not a blueprint. A CMP provides lists of key contact information, reminders of what typically should be done in a crisis, and forms to be used to document the
crisis response. A CMP is not a step-by-step guide to how to manage a crisis. Barton (2001), Coombs (2007a), and Fearn-Banks (2001) have noted how a CMP saves time during a crisis by pre-assigning some
tasks, pre-collecting some information, and serving as a reference source. Pre-assigning tasks presumes there is a designated crisis team. The team members should know what tasks and responsibilities they
have during a crisis.

Barton (2001) identifies the common members of the crisis team as public relations, legal, security, operations, finance, and human resources. However, the composition will vary based on the nature of the
crisis. For instance, information technology would be required if the crisis involved the computer system. Time is saved because the team has already decided on who will do the basic tasks required in a crisis.
Augustine (1995) notes that plans and teams are of little value if they are never tested. Management does not know if or how well an untested crisis management plan with work or if the crisis team can perform
to expectations. Mitro�, Harrington, and Gia (1996) emphasize that training is needed so that team members can practice making decisions in a crisis situation. As noted earlier, a CMP serves only as a rough
guide. Each crisis is unique demanding that crisis teams make decisions. Coombs (2007a) summaries the research and shows how practice improves a crisis team’s decision making and related task
performance. For additional information on the value of teams and exercises refer to Coombs (2006) and the Corporate Leadership Council’s (2003) report on crisis management strategies.

A key component of crisis team training is spokesperson training. Organizational members must be prepared to talk to the news media during a crisis. Lerbinger (1997), Feran-Banks (2001), and Coombs (2007a)
devote considerable attention to media relations in a crisis. Media training should be provided before a crisis hits. The Crisis Media Training Best Practices in Table 2 were drawn from these three books:

INTRODUCTION

DEFINITIONS

PRE-CRISIS PHASE

Table 1: Crisis Preparation Best Practices

1. Have a crisis management plan and update it at least annually.
2. Have a designate crisis management team that is properly trained.
3. Conduct exercise at least annually to test the crisis management plan and team.
4. Pre-dra� select crisis management messages including content for dark web sites and templates for crisis statements. Have the legal department review and pre-approve these messages.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN

CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM

SPOKESPERSON

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Crisis Management and Communications

Public relations can play a critical role in preparing spokespersons for handling questions from the news media. The media relations element of public relations is a highly valued skill in crisis management. The
public relations personnel can provide training and support because in most cases they are not the spokesperson during the crisis.

Finally, crisis managers can pre-dra� messages that will be used during a crisis. More accurately, crisis managers create templates for crisis messages. Templates include statements by top management, news
releases, and dark web sites. Both the Corporate Leadership Council (2003) and the Business Roundtable (2002) strongly recommend the use of templates. The templates leave blank spots where key
information is inserted once it is known. Public relations personnel can help to dra� these messages. The legal department can then pre-approve the use of the messages. Time is saved during a crisis as
specific information is simply inserted and messages sent and/or made available on a web site.

An organization may create a separate web site for the crisis or designate a section of its current web site for the crisis. Taylor and Kent’s (2007) research finds that having a crisis web sites is a best practice for
using an Internet during a crisis. The site should be designed prior to the crisis. This requires the crisis team to anticipate the types of crises an organization will face and the types of information needed for the
web site. For instances, any organization that makes consumer goods is likely to have a product harm crisis that will require a recall. The Corporate Leadership Council (2003) highlights the value of a crisis web
site designed to help people identify if their product is part of the recall and how the recall will be handled. Stakeholders, including the news media, will turn to the Internet during a crisis. Crisis managers
should utilize some form of web-based response or risk appearing to be ine�ective. A good example is Taco Bell’s E. coli outbreak in 2006. The company was criticized in the media for being slow to place crisis-
related information on its web site.

Of course not placing information on the web site can be strategic. An organization may not want to publicize the crisis by placing information about it on the web site. This assumes the crisis is very small and
that stakeholders are unlikely to hear about it from another source. In today’s traditional and online media environment, that is a misguided if not dangerous assumption. Taylor and Kent (2007) and the
Corporate Leadership Council emphasize that a web site is another means for an organization to present its side of the story and not using it creates a risk of losing how the crisis story is told. Refer to the PR
News story “Lackluster Online PR No Aid in Crisis Response” (2002) for additional information about using dark web sites in a crisis,

Intranet sites can also be used during a crisis. Intranet sites limit access, typically to employees only though some will include suppliers and customers. Intranet sites provide direct access to specific
stakeholders so long as those stakeholders have access to the Intranet. Dowling’s (2003) research documents the value of American Airlines’ use of its Intranet system as an e�ective way to communicate with its
employees following the 9/11 tragedy. Coombs (2007a) notes that the communication value of an Intranet site is increased when used in conjunction with mass notification systems designed to reach
employees and other key stakeholders. With a mass notification system, contact information (phones numbers, e-mail, etc.) are programmed in prior to a crisis. Contacts can be any group that can be a�ected
by the crisis including employees, customers, and community members living near a facility. Crisis managers can enter short messages into the system then tell the mass notification system who should receive
which messages and which channel or channels to use for the delivery. The mass notification system provides a mechanism for people to respond to messages as well. The response feature is critical when
crisis managers want to verify that the target has received the message. Table 3 summarizes the Crisis Communication Channel Preparation Best Practices.

The crisis response is what management does and says a�er the crisis hits. Public relations plays a critical role in the crisis response by helping to develop the messages that are sent to various publics. A great
deal of research has examined the crisis response. That research has been divided into two sections: (1) the initial crisis response and (2) reputation repair and behavioral intentions.

Practitioner experience and academic research have combined to create a clear set of guidelines for how to respond once a crisis hits. The initial crisis response guidelines focus on three points: (1) be quick, (2)
be accurate, and (3) be consistent.

Be quick seems rather simple, provide a response in the first hour a�er the crisis occurs. That puts a great deal of pressure on crisis managers to have a message ready in a short period of time. Again, we can
appreciate the value of preparation and templates. The rationale behind being quick is the need for the organization to tell its side of the story. In reality, the organization’s side of the story are the key points
management wants to convey about the crisis to its stakeholders. When a crisis occurs, people want to know what happened. Crisis experts o�en talk of an information vacuum being created by a crisis. The
news media will lead the charge to fill the information vacuum and be a key source of initial crisis information. (We will consider shortly the use of the Internet as well). If the organization having the crisis does
not speak to the news media, other people will be happy to talk to the media. These people may have inaccurate information or may try to use the crisis as an opportunity to attack the organization. As a result,
crisis managers must have a quick response. An early response may not have much “new” information but the organization positions itself as a source and begins to present its side of the story. Carney and
Jorden (1993) note a quick response is active and shows an organization is in control. Hearit’s (1994) research illustrates how silence is too passive. It lets others control the story and suggests the organization
has yet to gain control of the situation. Arpan and Rosko-Ewoldsen (2005) conducted a study that documented how a quick, early response allows an organization to generate greater credibility than a slow
response. Crisis preparation will make it easier for crisis managers to respond quickly.

Obviously accuracy is important anytime an organization communicates with publics. People want accurate information about what happened and how that event might a�ect them. Because of the time
pressure in a crisis, there is a risk of inaccurate information. If mistakes are made, they must be corrected. However, inaccuracies make an organization look inconsistent. Incorrect statements must be corrected
making an organization appear to be incompetent. The philosophy of speaking with one voice in a crisis is a way to maintain accuracy.

Speaking with one voice does not mean only one person speaks for the organization for the duration of the crisis. As Barton (2001) notes, it is physically impossible to expect one person to speak for an
organization if a crisis lasts for over a day. Watch news coverage of a crisis and you most likely will see multiple people speak. The news media want to ask questions of experts so they may need to talk to a
person in operations or one from security. That is why Coombs (2007a) emphasizes the public relations department plays more of a support role rather than being “the” crisis spokespersons. The crisis team
needs to share information so that di�erent people can still convey a consistent message. The spokespersons should be briefed on the same information and the key points the organization is trying to convey
in the messages. The public relations department should be instrumental in preparing the spokespersons. Ideally, potential spokespersons are trained and practice media relations skills prior to any crisis. The
focus during a crisis then should be on the key information to be delivered rather than how to handle the media. Once more preparation helps by making sure the various spokespersons have the proper media
relations training and skills.

Quickness and accuracy play an important role in public safety. When public safety is a concern, people need to know what they must do to protect themselves. Sturges (1994) refer to this information as
instructing information. Instructing information must be quick and accurate to be useful. For instance, people must know as soon as possible not to eat contaminated foods or to shelter-in-place during a
chemical release. A slow or inaccurate response can increase the risk of injuries and possibly deaths. Quick actions can also save money by preventing further damage and protecting reputations by showing
that the organization is in control. However, speed is meaningless if the information is wrong. Inaccurate information can increase rather than decrease the threat to public safety.

Table 2: Crisis Media Training Best Practices

1. Avoid the phrase “no comment” because people think it means the organization is guilty and trying to hide something
2. Present information clearly by avoiding jargon or technical terms. Lack of clarity makes people think the organization is purposefully being confusing in order to hide something.
3. Appear pleasant on camera by avoiding nervous habits that people interpret as deception. A spokesperson needs to have strong eye contact,limited disfluencies such as “uhms” or “uhs”, and avoid
distracting nervous gestures such as fidgeting or pacing. Coombs (2007a) reports on research that documents how people will be perceived as deceptive if they lack eye contact, have a lot of disfluencies,or
display obvious nervous gestures.
4. Brief all potential spokespersons on the latest crisis information and the key message points the organization is trying to convey to stakeholders.

PRE-DRAFT MESSAGES

COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

Table 3: Crisis Communication Channel Preparation Best Practices

1. Be prepared to use a unique web site or part of your current web site to address crisis concerns.
2. Be prepared to use the Intranet as one of the channels for reaching employees and any other stakeholders than may have access to your Intranet.
3. Be prepared to utilize a mass notification system for reaching employees and other key stakeholders during a crisis

CRISIS RESPONSE

INITIAL RESPONSE

The news media are drawn to crises and are a useful way to reach a wide array of publics quickly. So it is logical that crisis response research has devoted considerable attention to media relations. Media
relations allows crisis managers to reach a wide range of stakeholders fast. Fast and wide ranging is perfect for public safety—get the message out quickly and to as many people as possible. Clearly there is
waste as non-targets receive the message but speed and reach are more important at the initial stage of the crisis. However, the news media is not the only channel crisis managers can and should use to reach
stakeholders.

Web sites, Intranet sites, and mass notification systems add to the news media coverage and help to provide a quick response. Crisis managers can supply greater amounts of their own information on a web
site. Not all targets will use the web site but enough do to justify the inclusion of web-base communication in a crisis response. Taylor and Kent’s (2007) extensive analysis of crisis web sites over a multiyear
period found a slow progression in organizations utilizing web sites and the interactive nature of the web during a crisis. Mass notification systems deliver short messages to specific individuals through a mix of
phone, text messaging, voice messages, and e-mail. The systems also allow people to send responses. In organizations with e�ective Intranet systems, the Intranet is a useful vehicle for reaching employees as
well. If an organization integrates its Intranet with suppliers and customers, these stakeholders can be reached as well. As the crisis management e�ort progresses, the channels can be more selective.

More recently, crisis experts have recommended a third component to an initial crisis response, crisis managers should express concern/sympathy for any victims of the crisis. Victims are the people that are
hurt or inconvenienced in some way by the crisis. Victims might have lost money, become ill, had to evacuate, or su�ered property damage. Kellerman (2006) details when it is appropriate to express regret.
Expressions of concern help to lessen reputational damage and to reduce financial losses. Experimental studies by Coombs and Holladay (1996) and by Dean (2004) found that organizations did experience less
reputational damage when an expression of concern is o�ered verses a response lacking an expression of concern. Cohen (1999) examined legal cases and found early expressions of concern help to reduce the
number and amount of claims made against an organization for the crisis. However, Tyler (1997) reminds us that there are limits to expressions of concern. Lawyers may try to use expressions of concern as
admissions of guilt. A number of states have laws that protect expressions of concern from being used against an organization. Another concern is that as more crisis managers express concern, the expressions
of concern may lose their e�ect of people. Hearit (2007) cautions that expressions of concern will seem too routine. Still, a failure to provide a routine response could hurt an organization. Hence, expressions of
concern may be expected and provide little benefit when used but can inflict damage when not used.

Argenti (2002) interviewed a number of managers that survived the 9/11 attacks. His strongest lesson was that crisis managers should never forget employees are important publics during a crisis. The Business
Roundtable (2002) and Corporate Leadership Council (2003) remind us that employees need to know what happened, what they should do, and how the crisis will a�ect them. The earlier discussions of mass
notification systems and the Intranet are examples of how to reach employees with information. West Pharmaceuticals had a production facility in Kinston, North Carolina leveled by an explosion in January
2003. Coombs (2004b) examined how West Pharmaceuticals used a mix of channels to keep employees apprised of how the plant explosion would a�ect them in terms of when they would work, where they
would work, and their benefits. Moreover, Coombs (2007a) identifies research that suggest well informed employees provide an additional channel of communication for reaching other stakeholders.

When the crisis results in serious injuries or deaths, crisis management must include stress and trauma counseling for employees and other victims. One illustration is the trauma teams dispatched by airlines
following a plane crash. The trauma teams address the needs of employees as well as victims’ families. Both the Business Roundtable (2002) and Coombs (2007a) note that crisis managers must consider how
the crisis stress might a�ect the employees, victims, and their families. Organizations must provide the necessary resources to help these groups cope.

We can take a specific set of both form and content lessons from the writing on the initial crisis response. Table 4 provides a summary of the Initial Crisis Response Best Practices. Form refers to the basic
structure of the response. The initial crisis response should be delivered in the first hour a�er a crisis and be vetted for accuracy. Content refers to what is covered in the initial crisis response. The initial
message must provide any information needed to aid public safety, provide basic information about what has happened, and o�er concern if there are victims. In addition, crisis managers must work to have a
consistent message between spokespersons.

A number of researchers in public relations, communication, and marketing have shed light on how to repair the reputational damage a crisis inflicts on an organization. At the center of this research is a list of
reputation repair strategies. Bill Benoit (1995; 1997) has done the most to identify the reputation repair strategies. He analyzed and synthesized strategies from many di�erent research traditions that shared a
concern for reputation repair. Coombs (2007a) integrated the work of Benoit with others to create a master list that integrated various writings into one list. Table 5 presents the Master List of Reputation Repair
Strategies. The reputation repair strategies vary in terms of how much they accommodate victims of this crisis (those at risk or harmed by the crisis). Accommodate means that the response focuses more on
helping the victims than on addressing organizational concerns. The master list arranges the reputation repair strategies from the least to the most accommodative reputation repair strategies. (For more
information on reputation repair strategies see also Ulmer, Sellnow, and Seeger, 2006).

It should be noted that reputation repair can be used in the crisis response phase, post-crisis phase, or both. Not all crises need reputation repair e�orts. Frequently the instructing information and expressions
of concern are enough to protect the reputation. When a strong reputation repair e�ort is required, that e�ort will carry over into the post-crisis phase. Or, crisis managers may feel more comfortable waiting
until the post-crisis phase to address reputation concerns.

A list of reputation repair strategies by itself has little utility. Researchers have begun to explore when a specific reputation repair strategy or combination of strategies should be used. These researchers
frequently have used attribution theory to develop guidelines for the use of reputation repair strategies. A short explanation of attribution theory is provided along with its relationship to crisis management
followed by a summary of lessons learned from this research.

Attribution theory believes that people try to explain why events happen, especially events that are sudden and negative. Generally, people either attribute responsibility for the event to the situation or the
person in the situation. Attributions generate emotions and a�ect how people interact with those involved in the event. Crises are negative (create damage or threat of damage) and are o�en sudden so they
create attributions of responsibility. People either blame the organization in crisis or the situation. If people blame the organization, anger is created and people react negatively toward the organization. Three
negative reactions to attributing crisis responsibility to an organization have been documented: (1) increased damage to an organization’s reputation, (2) reduced purchase intentions and (3) increased
likelihood of engaging in negative word-of-mouth (Coombs, 2007b; Coombs & Holladay, 2006).

Most of the research has focused on establishing the link between attribution of crisis responsibility and the threat to the organization’s reputation. A number of studies have proven this connection exists
(Coombs, 2004a; Coombs & Holladay, 1996; Coombs & Holladay, 2002; Coombs & Holladay, 2006). The research linking organizational reputation with purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth is less
developed but so far has confirmed these two links as well (Coombs, 2007b; Coombs & Holladay, 2006).

Table 4: Initial Crisis Response Best Practices

1. Be quick and try to have initial response within the first hour.
2. Be accurate by carefully checking all facts.
3. Be consistent by keeping spokespeople informed of crisis events and key message points.
4. Make public safety the number one priority.
5. Use all of the available communication channels including the Internet, Intranet, and mass notification systems.
6. Provide some expression of concern/sympathy for victims
7. Remember to include employees in the initial response.
8. Be ready to provide stress and trauma counseling to victims of the crisis and their families, including employees.

REPUTATION REPAIR AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS

Table 5: Master List of Reputation Repair Strategies

1.Attack the accuser: crisis manager confronts the person or group claiming something is wrong with the organization.
2.Denial: crisis manager asserts that there is no crisis.
3. Scapegoat: crisis manager blames some person or group outside of the organization for the crisis.
4. Excuse: crisis manager minimizes organizational responsibility by denying intent to do harm and/or claiming inability to control the events that triggered the crisis.
Provocation: crisis was a result of response to some one else’s actions.
Defeasibility: lack of information about events leading to the crisis situation.
Accidental: lack of control over events leading to the crisis situation.
Good intentions: organization meant to do well
5. Justification: crisis manager minimizes the perceived damage caused by the crisis.
6. Reminder: crisis managers tell stakeholders about the past good works of the organization.
7. Ingratiation: crisis manager praises stakeholders for their actions.
8. Compensation: crisis manager o�ers money or other gi�s to victims.
9. Apology: crisis manager indicates the organization takes full responsibility for the crisis and asks stakeholders for forgiveness.

Coombs (1995) pioneered the application of attribution theory to crisis management in the public relations literature. His 1995 article began to lay out a theory-based approach to matching the reputation
repair strategies to the crisis situation. A series of studies have tested the recommendations and assumptions such as Coombs and Holladay (1996), Coombs & Holladay, (2002) and Coombs (2004a), and
Coombs, (2007b). This research has evolved into the Situation Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). SCCT argues that crisis managers match their reputation repair strategies to the reputational threat of the
crisis situation. Crisis managers should use increasingly accommodative the reputation repair strategies as the reputational threat from the crisis intensifies (Coombs & Holladay, 1996; Coombs, 2007b).

Crisis managers follow a two-step process to assess the reputational threat of a crisis. The first step is to determine the basic crisis type. A crisis managers considers how the news media and other stakeholders
are defining the crisis. Coombs and Holladay (2002) had respondents evaluate crisis types based on attributions of crisis responsibility. They distilled this data to group the basic crises according to the
reputational threat each one posed. Table 6 provides a list the basic crisis types and their reputational threat.

The second step is to review the intensifying factors of crisis history and prior reputation. If an organization has a history of similar crises or has a negative prior reputation, the reputational threat is intensified.
A series of experimental studies have documented the intensifying value of crisis history (Coombs, 2004a) and prior reputation (Coombs & Holladay, 2001; Coombs & Holladay, 2006; Klein & Dawar, 2004). The
same crisis was found to be perceived as having much strong crisis responsibility (a great reputational threat) when the organization had either a previous crisis (Coombs, 2004a) or the organization was known
not to treat stakeholders well/negative prior reputation (Coombs & Holladay, 2001; Coombs & Holladay, 2006; Klein & Dewar, 2004). Table 7 is a set of crisis communication best practices derived from attribution
theory-based research in SCCT (Coombs, 2007b, Coombs & Holladay, 1996; Coombs & Holladay, 2001; Coombs & Holladay, 2006).

In general, a reputation is how stakeholder perceive an organization. A reputation is widely recognized as a valuable, intangible asset for an organization and is worth protecting. But the threat posed by a crisis
extends to behavioral intentions as well. Increased attributions of organizational responsibility for a crisis result in a greater likelihood of negative word-of-mouth about the organization and reduced purchase
intention from the organization. Early research suggests that lessons designed to protect the organization’s reputation will help to reduce the likelihood of negative word-of-mouth and the negative e�ect on
purchase intentions as well (Coombs, 2007b).

In the post-crisis phase, the organization is returning to business as usual. The crisis is no longer the focal point of management’s attention but still requires some attention. As noted earlier, reputation repair
may be continued or initiated during this phase. There is important follow-up communication that is required. First, crisis managers o�en promise to provide additional information during the crisis phase. The
crisis managers must deliver on those informational promises or risk losing the trust of publics wanting the information. Second, the organization needs to release updates on the recovery process, corrective
actions, and/or investigations of the crisis. The amount of follow-up communication required depends on the amount of information promised during the crisis and the length of time it takes to complete the
recovery process. If you promised a reporter a damage estimate, for example, be sure to deliver that estimate when it is ready. West Pharmaceuticals provided recovery updates for over a year because that is
how long it took to build a new facility to replace the one destroyed in an explosion. As Dowling (2003), the Corporate Leadership Counsel (2003), and the Business Roundtable (2002) observe, Intranets are an
excellent way to keep employees updated, if the employees have ways to access the site. Coombs (2007a) reports how mass notification systems can be used as well to deliver update messages to employees
and other publics via phones, text messages, voice messages, and e-mail. Personal e-mails and phone calls can be used too.

Crisis managers agree that a crisis should be a learning experience. The crisis management e�ort needs to be evaluated to see what is working and what needs improvement. The same holds true for exercises.
Coombs (2006) recommends every crisis management exercise be carefully dissected as a learning experience. The organization should seek ways to improve prevention, preparation, and/or the response. As
most books on crisis management note, those lessons are then integrated into the pre-crisis and crisis response phases. That is how management learns and improves its crisis management process. Table 8
lists the Post-Crisis Phase Best Practices.

It is di�icult to distill all that is known about crisis management into one, concise entry. I have tried to identify the best practices and lessons created by crisis management researchers and analysts. While crises
begin as a negative/threat, e�ective crisis management can minimize the damage and in some case allow an organization to emerge stronger than before the crisis. However, crises are not the ideal way to
improve an organization. But no organization is immune from a crisis so all must do their best to prepare for one. This entry provides a number of ideas that can be incorporated into an e�ective crisis
management program. At the end of this entry is an annotated bibliography. The annotated bibliography provides short summaries of key writings in crisis management highlighting. Each entry identifies the
main topics found in that entry and provides citations to help you locate those sources.

Annotated Bibliography

Argenti, P. (2002, December). Crisis communication: Lessons from 9/11. Harvard Business Review, 80(12), 103-109. (http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?
id=R0212H&referral=2342) This article provides insights into working with employees during a crisis. The information is derived from interviews with managers about their responses to the 9/11 tragedies.

Arpan, L.M., & Roskos-Ewoldsen, D.R. (2005). Stealing thunder: An analysis of the e�ects of proactive disclosure of crisis information. Public Relations Review 31(3), 425-433.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-4GH49NJ-
2&_user=2139813&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=da3487f8fece1c49adbfc9a2c2016aec)

Table 6: Crisis Types by Attribution of Crisis Responsibility

Victim Crises: Minimal Crisis Responsibility
Natural disasters: acts of nature such as tornadoes or earthquakes.
Rumors: false and damaging information being circulated about you organization.
Workplace violence: attack by former or current employee on current employees on-site.
Product Tampering/Malevolence: external agent causes damage to the organization.
Accident Crises: Low Crisis Responsibility
Challenges: stakeholder claim that the organization is operating in an inappropriate manner.
Technical error accidents: equipment or technology failure that cause an industrial accident.
Technical error product harm: equipment or technology failure that cause a product to be defective or potentially harmful.
Preventable Crises: Strong Crisis Responsibility
Human-error accidents: industrial accident caused by human error.
Human-error product harm: product is defective or potentially harmful because of human error.
Organizational misdeed: management actions that put stakeholders at risk and/or violate the law.

Table 7: Attribution Theory-based Crisis Communication Best Practices

1. All victims or potential victims should receive instructing information, including recall information. This is one-half of the base response to a crisis.
2. All victims should be provided an expression of sympathy, any information about corrective actions and trauma counseling when needed. This can be called the “care response.” This is the second-half of the
base response to a crisis.
3. For crises with minimal attributions of crisis responsibility and no intensifying factors, instructing information and care response is su�icient.
4. For crises with minimal attributions of crisis responsibility and an intensifying factor, add excuse and/or justification strategies to the instructing information and care response.
5. For crises with low attributions of crisis responsibility and no intensifying factors, add excuse and/or justification strategies to the instructing information and care response.
6. For crises with low attributions of crisis responsibility and an intensifying factor, add compensation and/or apology strategies to the instructing information and care response.
7. For crises with strong attributions of crisis responsibility, add compensation and/or apology strategies to the instructing information and care response.
8. The compensation strategy is used anytime victims su�er serious harm.
9. The reminder and ingratiation strategies can be used to supplement any response.
10. Denial and attack the accuser strategies are best used only for rumor and challenge crises.

POST-CRISIS PHASE

Table 8: Post-Crisis Phase Best Practices

1. Deliver all information promised to stakeholders as soon as that information is known.
2. Keep stakeholders updated on the progression of recovery e�orts including any corrective measures being taken and the progress of investigations.
3. Analyze the crisis management e�ort for lessons and integrate those lessons in to the organization’s crisis management system.

CONCLUSION

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0212H&referral=2342

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-4GH49NJ-2&_user=2139813&_coverDate=09%2F30%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=da3487f8fece1c49adbfc9a2c2016aec

This article discusses an experiment that studies the idea of stealing thunder. Stealing thunder is when an organization releases information about a crisis before the news media or others release the
information. The results found that stealing thunder results in higher credibility ratings for a company than allowing others to report the crisis information first. This is additional evidence to support the notion
of being quick in a crisis and telling the organization’s side of the story.

Augustine, N. R. (1995, November/December). Managing the crisis you tried to prevent. Harvard Business Review, 73(6), 147-158.
(http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=939X&referral=2340) This article centers on the six stages of a crisis: avoiding the crisis, preparing to management the
crisis, recognizing the crisis, containing the crisis, resolving the crisis, and profiting from the crisis. The article reinforces the need to have a crisis management plan and to test both the crisis management plan
and team through exercises. It also reinforces the need to learn (profit) from the crisis.

Barton, L. (2001). Crisis in organizations II (2nd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: College Divisions South-Western. (http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Organizations-II-Laurence-Barton/dp/0324024290/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?
ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195496891&sr=8-1) This is a very practice-oriented book that provides a number of useful insights into crisis management. There is a strong emphasis on the role of communication and
public relations/a�airs in the crisis management process and the need to speak with one voice. The book provides excellent information on crisis management plans (a template is in Appendix D pp. 225-262);
the composition of crisis management teams (pp. 14-17); the need for exercises (pp. 207-221); and the need to communicate with employees (pp. 86-101).

Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration. Albany: State University of New York Press. (http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=53056) This book has a scholarly focus
on image restoration not crisis manage. However, his discussion of image restoration strategies is very thorough (pp. 63-96). These strategies have been used as reputation repair strategies a�er a crisis.

Benoit, W. L. (1997). Image repair discourse and crisis communication. Public Relations Review, 23(2), 177-180. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-45HDB02-
6S&_user=2139813&_coverDate=04%2F01%2F1997&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=4c04974c7c4f9f02e6a81ddce5ec8622)
The article is based on his book Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration and provides a review of image restoration strategies. The image restoration strategies are reputation repair
strategies that can be used a�er a crisis. It is a quicker and easiest to use resource than the book.

Business”>http://www.nfib.com/object/3783593.html.”>Business ( mce_href=) Roundtable’s Post-9/11 crisis communication toolkit. (2002). Retrieved April 24, 2006,
from http://www.nfib.com/object/3783593.html. (http://www.nfib.com/object/3783593.html.)
This is a very user-friendly PDF files that takes a person through the crisis management process. There is helpful information on web-based communication (pp. 73-82) including “dark sites” and the use of
Intranet and e-mail to keep employees informed. There is an explanation of templates, what are called holding statements or fill-in-the-blank media statements including a sample statement (pp. 28-29). It also
provides information of the crisis management plan (pp. 21-32), structure of the crisis management team (pp. 33-40) and types of exercises (pp. 89-93) including mock press conferences.

Carney, A., & Jorden, A. (1993, August). Prepare for business-related crises. Public Relations Journal 49, 34-35. (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9280355_ITM)
This article emphasize the need for a message strategy during crisis communication. Developing and sharing a strategy helps an organization to speak with one voice during the crisis.

Cohen, J. R. (1999). Advising clients to apologize. S. California Law Review, 72, 1009-131. (http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~usclrev/pdf/072402 )
This article examines expressions of concern and full apologies from a legal perspective. He notes that California, Massachusetts, and Florida have laws that prevent expressions of concern from being used as
evidence against someone in a court case. The evidence from court cases suggests that expressions of concern are helpful because they help to reduce the amount of damages sought and the number of claims
filed.

Coombs, W. T. (1995). Choosing the right words: The development of guidelines for the selection of the “appropriate” crisis response strategies. Management Communication Quarterly, 8, 447-476.
(http://mcq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/447?ck=nck)
This article is the foundation for Situational Crisis Communication Theory. It uses a decision tree to guide the selection of crisis response strategies. The guidelines are based on matching the response to nature
of the crisis situation. A number of studies have tested the guidelines in the decision tree and found them to be reliable.

Coombs, W. T. (2004a). Impact of past crises on current crisis communications: Insights from situational crisis communication theory. Journal of Business Communication, 41, 265-289.
(http://job.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/3/265)
This article documents that past crises intensify the reputational threat to a current crisis. Since the news media reminds people of past crises, it is common for organizations in crisis to face past crises as well.
Crisis managers need to adjust their reputation repair strategies if there are past crises-crisis managers will need to use more accommodative strategies than they normally would. Accidents are a good
example. Past accidents indicate a pattern of problems so people will view the organization as much more responsible for the crisis than if the accident were isolated. Greater responsibility means the crisis is
more of a threat to the reputation and the organization must focus the response more on addressing victim concerns.

Coombs, W. T. (2004b). Structuring crisis discourse knowledge: The West Pharmaceutics case. Public Relations Review, 30, 467-474. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-
4DD9GJ1-
1&_user=2139813&_coverDate=11%2F01%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=ba1587b4058cf39aa994cf7427cb4441)
This article is a case analysis of the West Pharmaceutical 2003 explosion at its Kinston, NC facility. The case documents the extensive use of the Internet to keep employees and other stakeholders informed. It
also develops a list of crisis communication standards based on SCCT. The crisis communication standards o�er suggestions for how crisis managers can match their crisis response to the nature of the crisis
situation.

Coombs, W. T. (2006). Code red in the boardroom: Crisis management as organizational DNA. Westport, CN: Praeger. (http://www.amazon.com/Code-Red-Boardroom-Management-
Organizational/dp/0275989127/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195498396&sr=8-1)
This is a book written for a practitioner audience. The book focuses on how to respond to three common types of crises: attacks on an organization (pp. 13-26), accidents (pp. 27-44), and management
misbehavior pp. (45-64). There are also detailed discussions of how crisis management plans must be a living document (pp. 77-90), di�erent types of exercises for crisis management (pp. 84-87), and samples of
specific elements of a crisis management plan in Appendix A (pp. 103-109).

Coombs, W. T. (2007a). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, Managing, and responding (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Sage. (http://www.amazon.com/Ongoing-Crisis-Communication-Planning-
Responding/dp/1412949912/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195498396&sr=8-2)This book is designed to teach students and managers about the crisis management process. There is a detailed discussion
of spokesperson training pp. (78-87) and a discussion of the traits and skills crisis team members need to posses to be e�ective during a crisis (pp. 66-77). The book emphasizes the value of follow-up
information and updates (pp. 147-148) along with the learning from the crisis (pp. 152-162). There is also a discussion of the utility of mass notification systems during a crisis (pp. 97-98).

Coombs, W. T. (2007b). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis:The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10, 1-14.
(http://www.palgrave-journals.com/crr/journal/v10/n3/abs/1550049a.html)
This article provides a summary of research conducted on and lessons learned from Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). The article includes a discussion how the research can go beyond
reputation to include behavioral intentions such as purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. The information in the article is based on experimental studies rather than case studies.

Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (1996). Communication and attributions in a crisis: An experimental study of crisis communication. Journal of Public Relations Research, 8(4), 279-295.
(http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s1532754xjprr0804_04) This article uses an experimental design to document the negative e�ect of crises on an organization’s reputation. The research also
establishes that the type of reputation repair strategies managers use does make a di�erence on perceptions of the organization. An important finding is proof that the more an organization is held responsible
for the crisis, the more accommodative a reputation repair strategy must be in order to be e�ective/protect the organization’s reputation.

Coombs, W. T. and Holladay, S. J. (2001). An extended examination of the crisis
situation: A fusion of the relational management and symbolic approaches. Journal of Public Relations Research, 13, 321-340. (http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1304_03)
This study reports on an experiment designed to test how prior reputation influenced the attributions of crisis responsibility. The study found that an unfavorable prior reputation had the biggest e�ect. People
rated an organization as having much greater responsibility for a crisis when the prior reputation was negative than if the prior reputation was neutral or positive. Similar results were found for the e�ects of
prior reputation on the post-crisis reputation.

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=939X&referral=2340

http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=53056

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-45HDB02-6S&_user=2139813&_coverDate=04%2F01%2F1997&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=4c04974c7c4f9f02e6a81ddce5ec8622

https://instituteforpr.org/crisis-management-and-communications/mce_href=

http://www.nfib.com/object/3783593.html.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9280355_ITM

http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~usclrev/pdf/072402

http://mcq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/8/4/447?ck=nck

http://job.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/3/265

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-4DD9GJ1-1&_user=2139813&_coverDate=11%2F01%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=ba1587b4058cf39aa994cf7427cb4441

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http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s1532754xjprr0804_04

http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S1532754XJPRR1304_03

Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (2002). Helping crisis managers protect reputational assets: Initial tests of the situational crisis communication theory. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 165-186.
(http://mcq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/2/165) This article begins to map how stakeholders respond to some very common crises. Using the level of responsibility for a crisis that people attribute to
an organization, the research found that common crises can be categorized into one of three groups: victim cluster has minimal attributions of crisis responsibility (natural disasters, rumors, workplace violence,
and tampering), accidental cluster has low attributions of crisis responsibility (technical-error product harm and accidents), and preventable cluster has strong attributions of crisis responsibility (human-error
product harm and accidents, management misconduct, and organizational misdeeds). The article recommends di�erent crisis response strategies depending upon the attributions of crisis responsibility.

Coombs, W. T. & Holladay, S. J. (2006). Halo or reputational capital: Reputation and crisis management. Journal of Communication Management, 10(2), 123-137.
(http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=BA4CB945377E41355EA956FAC2E6A84E?contentType=Article&contentId=1550758)
This article examines if and when a favorable pre-crisis reputation can protect an organization with a halo e�ect. The halo e�ect says that strong positive feelings will allow people to overlook a negative event-it
can shield an organization from reputational damage during a crisis. The study found that only in a very specific situation does a halo e�ect occur. In most crises, the reputation is damaged suggesting
reputational capital is a better way to view a strong, positive pre-crisis reputation. An organization accumulates reputational capital by positively engaging publics. A crisis causes an organization to loss some
reputational capital. The more pre-crisis reputational capital, the stronger the reputation will be a�er the crisis and the easier it should be to repair.

Corporate Leadership Council. (2003). Crisis management strategies. Retrieved September 12, 2006, from http://www.executiveboard.com/EXBD/Images/PDF/Crisis%20Management%20Strategies . [Now
available here (http://www.opscentre.com.au/resources/pdfs/Whitepapers/Whitepaper%20-%20Corporate%20Leadership%20Council%20-%20Crisis%20Management%20Strategies%20-%202003 )]
This online PDF file summarizes key crisis management insights from the Corporate Leadership Council. The topics include the value and elements of a crisis management plan (pp 1-3), structure of a crisis
management team (pp. 4-6), communicating with employees (pp. 7-9), using web sites including “dark sites” (p. 7), using pre-packaged information/templates (p. 7), and the value of employee assistance
programs (p. 10). The file is an excellent overview to key elements of crisis management with an emphasis on using new technology.

Dean, D. H. (2004. Consumer reaction to negative publicity: E�ects of corporate reputation, response, and responsibility for a crisis event. Journal of Business Communication, 41, 192-211.
(http://job.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/2/192)
This article reports an experimental study that included a comparison how people reacted to expressions of concern verses no expression of concern. Post-crisis reputations were stronger when an organization
provided an expression of concern.

Dilenschneider, R. L. (2000). The corporate communications bible: Everything you need to know to become a public relations expert. Beverly Hills: New Millennium. (http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-
Communications-Bible-Robert-Dilenschneider/dp/1893224082/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195499096&sr=8-1) This book has a strong chapter of crisis communication (pp. 120-142). It emphasizes how
a crisis is a threat to an organization’s reputation and the need to be strategic with the communications response.

Downing, J. R. (2003). American Airlines’ use of mediated employee channels a�er the 9/11 attacks. Public Relations Review, 30, 37-48. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-
4BH6JC4-
4&_user=2139813&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=46a6d403d4ac95852d9b1db88ba77e43)
This article reviews how American Airlines used its Intranet, web sites, and reservation system to keep employees informed a�er 9/11. The article also comments on the use of employee assistance programs
a�er a traumatic event. Recommendations include using all available channels to inform employees during and a�er a crisis as well as recommending organizations “gray out” color from their web sites to
reflect the somber nature of the situation.

Fearn-Banks, K. (2001). Crisis communications: A casebook approach (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. (http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Communications-Casebook-Approach-
Communication/dp/0805857729/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195499133&sr=1-1) This book is more a textbook for students using case studies. Chapter 2 (pp. 18-33) has a useful discussion of elements
of the crisis communication plan, a subset of the crisis management plan. Chapter 4 has some tips on media relations (pp. 63-71).

Hearit, K. M. (1994, Summer). Apologies and public relations crises at Chrysler, Toshiba, and Volvo. Public Relations Review, 20(2), 113-125. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?
_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-45P4P2T-
C4&_user=2139813&_coverDate=04%2F01%2F1994&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=b411cc64a0486a105d910dec3f36f13e)
This article provides a strong rationale for the value of quick but accurate crisis response. The focus is on how a quick response helps an organization to control the crisis situation.

Hearit, K. M. (2006). Crisis management by apology: Corporate response to
allegations of wrongdoing. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Management-Apology-Allegations-Communication/dp/0805837892/ref=sr_1_1?
ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195499190&sr=1-1)
This book is a detailed, scholarly treatment of apologies that has direct application to crisis management. Chapter 1 helps to explain the di�erent ways the term
apology is used and concentrates on how it should be treated as a public acceptance of responsibility (pp. 1-18). Chapter 3 details the legal and liability issues involved when an organization chooses to use an
apology.

Kellerman, B. (2006, April). When should a leader apologize and when not? Harvard Business Review, 84(4), 73-81. (http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?
id=R0604D&referral=2340) This article defines an apology as accepting responsibility for a crisis and expressing regret. The value of apologies is highlighted along with suggestions for when an apology is
appropriate and inappropriate. An apology should be used when it will serve an important purpose, the crisis has serious consequences, and the cost of an apology will be lower than the cost of being silent.

Klein, J. & Dawar, N. (2004). Corporate social responsibility and consumers’ attributions of brand evaluations in product-harm crisis. International Journal of Marketing, 21, 203-217.
(http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0198-208355_ITM)
This article reports on an experimental study that compared how prior information about corporate social responsibility (a dimension of prior reputation) a�ected attributions of crisis responsibility. People
attribute much greater responsibility to the negative corporate social responsibility condition than to the neutral or positive conditions. There was no di�erence between the attributions in the positive and
neutral conditions.

Lackluster online PR no aid in crisis response. (2002). PR News. Retrieved April 20, 2006, from http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe (http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe)
This short article notes how journalists and other interested parties are using web sites during crises to collect information. The article highlights the value of having a “dark site” ready before a crisis. A sample
of various criteria for a crisis web are discussed by reviewing Tyco’s web site as a case study.

Lerbinger, O. (1997). The crisis manager: Facing risk and responsibility. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. (http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Manager-Facing-Responsibility-
Communication/dp/0805823875/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195499377&sr=8-1)
This book centers on seven types of crises: natural, technological, confrontation, malevolence, skewed management values, deception, and management misconduct. There is a strong focus on the role of
media relations in crisis management (pp. 27-29 and pp. 31-34).

Mitro�, I. I., Harrington, K., & Gai, E. (1996, September). Thinking about the unthinkable. Across the Board, 33(8), 44-48.
This article reinforces the value of creating and training crisis management teams by having them conduct various types of exercises.

Sonnenfeld, S. (1994, July/August). Media policy–What media policy? Harvard Business Review, 72(4), 18-19. (http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?
id=94407&referral=2340)
This is a short article that discusses the need for spokesperson training prior to a crisis.

Sturges, D. L. (1994). Communicating through crisis: A strategy for organizational survival, Management Communication Quarterly, 7, 297-316. (http://mcq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/3/297)
This article emphasizes how communication needs shi� during a crisis. The first need is for instructing information, the information that tells people how to protect themselves physically from a crisis. The next
need is adjusting information, the information that helps people to cope psychologically with the crisis. The initial crisis response demands a focus on instructing and adjusting information. The third and final
type of communication is reputation repair. Reputation repair is only used once the instructing and adjusting information have been provided.

http://mcq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/2/165

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=BA4CB945377E41355EA956FAC2E6A84E?contentType=Article&contentId=1550758

http://www.opscentre.com.au/resources/pdfs/Whitepapers/Whitepaper%20-%20Corporate%20Leadership%20Council%20-%20Crisis%20Management%20Strategies%20-%202003

http://job.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/2/192

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-4BH6JC4-4&_user=2139813&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=46a6d403d4ac95852d9b1db88ba77e43

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-45P4P2T-C4&_user=2139813&_coverDate=04%2F01%2F1994&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=b411cc64a0486a105d910dec3f36f13e

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0604D&referral=2340

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0198-208355_ITM

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=94407&referral=2340

http://mcq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/3/297

Taylor, M., & Kent, M. L. (2007). Taxonomy of mediated crisis responses. Public Relations Review, 33, 140-146. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-4MP5KM1-
2&_user=2139813&_coverDate=06%2F30%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054276&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=2139813&md5=91d647b1ca43a2883cde24abeaf999ed)
This article summarizes the best practices for using the Internet during a crisis and advocates more organizations should be using the Internet, especially web sites, during a crisis. The six best practices are: (1)
include all your tradition media relations materials on your web site; (2) try to make use of the interactive nature of the Internet for your crisis web content; (3) provide detailed and clear information on web sites
during for a product recall; (4) tell your side of the story on the crisis web site including quotations from managers; (5) when necessary, create di�erent web pages for di�erent stakeholders tailored to their
interests in the crisis; and (6) work with government agencies including hyperlinks to relevant government agency web sites.

Tyler, L. (1997). Liability means never being able to say you’re sorry: Corporate guilt, legal constraints, and defensiveness in corporate communication. Management Communication Quarterly, 11(1), 51-73.
(http://mcq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1/51)
This article discusses the legal constraints that prevent apologies during a crisis. It is a hard look at the choices crisis managers must make between addressing victims in a particular way and financial
constraints. The article is a reminder that crisis management occurs within the larger context of organizational operations and is subject to financial constraints.

Ulmer, R. R., Sellnow, T. L., & Seeger, M. W. (2006). E�ective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Thousand Oaks: Sage. (http://www.amazon.com/E�ective-Crisis-Communication-Moving-
Opportunity/dp/1412914183/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195500576&sr=8-1)This book is mix of lessons and case studies. Many of the cases focus on large scale crises or what some would call
disasters. Large scale crises/disasters are unique because they require multiple agency coordination and are o�en managed by government agencies. Chapter 12 (pp. 177-187) on renewal as a reputation repair
strategy a�er a crisis in unique and informative. Renewal focuses on optimism and an emphasis on moving to some new and better state a�er the crisis. Not all organizations can engage in renewal a�er a
crisis. Renewal requires that an organization have performed ethically before the crisis and have had strong stakeholder relationships before the crisis.

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JOY NATH 25 days ago

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Crisis

Communication & Emergency Response

The Application of Crisis Communications: Theory, Management, and Response

Leon Lewis Jr.

Ball State University

August 15, 2016

Related Topics: Public Relations, Crisis Management, Emergency Management, Crisis Communication,
Homeland Security

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response

Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………4

2.0 “Crisis” Defined: An Overview………………………………………………………………………5

2.1 Crisis Management vs Crisis Communication……………………………………………..6

2.1.1 Crisis Management………………………………………………………………6

2.1.2 Crisis Communication…………………………………………………………..7

3.0 Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT)………………………………………………..8

3.1 The Crisis Situation (Clusters)………………………………………………………………9

3.2 Crisis Response Strategies (Postures)……………………………………………………..10

3.3 Matching Crisis Situations to Crisis Response Strategies……………………………….11

4.0 Crisis/Emergency Response Command Structure………………………………………………..12

4.1 The National Incident Management System (NIMS)………………………………….…12

4.2 The Incident Command System (ICS)…………………………………………………….13

4.3 Crisis Communication and The Public Information Officer (PIO)……………………..16

5.0 Best Practices for Handling the Media and Public………………………………………………..16

6.0 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………18

Bibliography

………………………………………………………………………………………………20

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
3

Abstract

Crisis communications play a critical role in crisis management and emergency response. Due to current

events involving such incidents as terrorist attacks, mass shootings, chemical facility accidents, etc., the

application of effective crisis communication is of dire importance in protecting an organization from

reputational damage while simultaneously addressing the concerns of the public. Serving as an effective

crisis communication strategy, Coombs’ Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) attempts to

resolve the issues which emerge as a result of a given crisis. In this analysis of crisis communication and

management, the role of SCCT as a communications strategy for Public Information Officers (PIOs)

within the emergency response team will be examined. In understanding how to implement SCCT into

this component of the crisis management continuum, PIOs will gain an invaluable public relations tool by

which to address the media and public in crisis situations.

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
4

1.0 Introduction

In wake of the events surrounding September 11, 2001 attacks, the relevancy of crisis

communications among emergency response personnel in addressing public concern and outrage has risen

to vital importance (in the 21st century) regarding situations of high unpredictability, threat and

uncertainty. As it is the duty for emergency responders and political leaders alike to address and inform

the public, the issue of crisis communication poses a challenging and daunting task in an attempt to return

the day-to-day affairs of the masses to a state of normalcy (Boin, 2003). Derived from a multidisciplinary

approach, crisis communication utilizes the principles of management, psychology, and rhetorical theory

for the purpose of establishing crisis response stratagem and post crisis communication. Functioning

within the larger scope of crisis management, the activities involved in the crisis communication process

attempts to establish “protective factors” for its intended audiences by providing clarification of “the

specific event, the identification of consequences and outcomes, and the provision of specific harm-

reducing information to affected communities in an honest, candid, prompt, accurate, and complete

manner” (Reynolds, 2005). In doing this, the power obtained by the general public from wielding

information is now utilized as a community resource, in contrast to it being accessed by only a narrow

and privileged segment. This, in turn engenders a sense of trust and cooperation among the larger

population by allowing them to make informed decisions surrounding actions which must be taken on

their part as countermeasures to ensure their safety on both an individual and communal level. Likewise,

for organizations that fear reputational damage, they will be able to present their account of the crisis,

their degree of accountability, and an opportunity to apply the required corrective actions (if needed) to

the public. In this analysis of crisis communication, the application of Situational Crisis

Communication

Theory (SCCT), as it relates to Public Information Officers (PIOs) in times of crisis will be examined.

Allowing for the proper preparation and planning of crisis communication, SCCT enables the Public

Information Officer to create an accurate assessment of a situation by matching the extent of crisis

severity with its respective response. Moreover, the assessment obtained (generated through SCCT)

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
5

allows one to obtain an accurate estimation of the type of damage (i.e. public safety, financial, and

reputational) created by the given crisis.

2.0 “Crisis” Defined: An Overview

Originating from the Greek word ‘krisis’, translated to mean ‘decisive moment’, the word “crisis”

has assumed a multitude of definitions in an effort to describe the phenomena. Orgizek (1999) defines a

crisis as confusion, a trial, a break, or an opportunity (Ogrizek, 1999) whereas Cloudman (2006) asserts

that crisis is “the state of uncertainty resulting from a triggering event that disrupts an organization’s

routine activities” (Cloudman, 2006). Providing the most functional definition to date, Lagadec (1984)

denotes the most critical and relevant characteristics of the given construct within this statement,

“Crisis: a situation in which numerous organizations are faced with critical
problems, experience both sharp external pressure and bitter internal tensions, and
are the brutally and for an extended period thrust to the center stage and hurled
against one another….all in a society of mass communication, in other words, in
direct contact with the uncertainty of being at the top of the news on radio and
television and in the press for a long time.” (Ogrizek, 1999)

Although no universal definition on what constitutes a crisis can be agreed upon among scholars,

general characteristics defining the phenomena have been noted. Within the domain of Public Relations,

in particular a crisis communications context, Wekesa (2013) lists four defining characteristics,

1. A crisis is perceptual. Defined by the perceptions that are held by the stakeholders
about the crisis, it is the organization’s responsibility to alter its crisis communication
based on their beliefs.

2. A crisis is unpredictable. While the nature of a crisis can be anticipated, this is not the
same as in the instance of something being unexpected.

3. A crisis disrupts stakeholder expectations. A crisis can disturb the operations of an

organization, causing a interruption in expectations.

4. A crisis disrupts organizations. Having severe impact on operations, a crisis should
naturally be taken with the utmost seriousness (Wekesa, 2013).

Moreover Kent (2010), in reference to the works of Coombs, provides an alternate definition for

the meaning of a “crisis” which expounds on its unpredictability and threatening nature to organizations.

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
6

Expanding on this definition and its relationship in the area of crisis communications, Kent Cites

Coombs’ 1999 book, Ongoing Crisis Communication: Planning, managing, and responding, he notes two

distinct definitions,

• “A major occurrence with a potentially with a potentially negative outcome affecting an
organization, company, or industry as well as its publics, products, services, or good name”;

• “A major unpredictable event that has potentially negative results. The event may significantly
damage an organization, its employees, products, services, financial condition, and reputation.”
(Kent, 2010)

It is through the summation of these definitions that commonalities indicative of the construct

known as a ‘crisis’ can one form the basis for implementing crisis communication strategies within the

larger scope of crisis management. Generated from the unpredictability and uncertainty resulting from

crisis, the possible formation of three related threats, (public safety, financial loss, and reputational loss)

can take place and must be addressed. The application of effective crisis communication seeks to address

these threats and lessens the impact it will have upon the affected organizations, stakeholders, and the

general public.

2.1 Crisis Management vs Crisis Communication

In the event of a crisis, the terms “crisis management” and “crisis communication” are

occasionally mistakenly used interchangeably. However upon further examination of both terms, it

becomes obvious that crisis communication is a component of the larger crisis management process. This

section provides clarification on the meaning of the two definitions, and the capacity in which they

perform within an emergency response scenario.

2.1.1 Crisis Management

As a critical component to organizational functioning in times of emergency and crisis, Crisis

Management is a corrective procedure devised to mitigate or lessen the damage a crisis (by proposing

strategies for and the preparation for and handling crisis events) can impose on an organization and its

stakeholders. Centering around several components: crisis prevention and preparation, formal crisis

management plans and teams, actions during a crisis, media relations, internal/external communication

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
7

with key publics, and post crisis activities (Gainey, 2006), these activities, which are condensed into

three distinct phases, are intended to manage the elements of the involved threat utilizing a sequential

series of steps,

1. Precrisis. Comprising of actions designed for the preparation or prevention of a crisis, the
precrisis phase designs then implements a crisis management plan, in addition to conducting tests
to determine the effectiveness of the crisis management plan/team.

2. Crisis Response. In the steps taken by the management team after the crisis occurs, this phase of
Crisis Management deals with public relations and the dissemination of information to various
publics/audiences. This phase involves two parts, an initial crisis response and reputational repair
and behavioral intentions.

3. Post Crisis. During this phase of the continuum, the organization stakeholders, are returning to a

state of normalcy where follow-up communications and reputation repair may be initiated
(Coombs, Crisis Management and Communications, 2007). Although there is no longer a feeling
of immediate threat, ongoing communication as it relates to the discoveries learned as a result of
the crisis along with procedures and policies for the future prevention of a crisis may be
addressed.

Serving as a means of evaluation in the activities involved in crisis management (in order to

observe what is effective and what items needs improvement), serve as a learning experience for crisis

management teams. It is through these activities that teams will discover ways in which organizations

can make improvements on the prevention, preparation, and response resulting from a crisis which are

critical to the effective operations within an organization. As a subset of crisis management, crisis

communication facilitates the actual correspondence between the organization and its public, thus making

the Public Relations practitioner an essential part of a crisis management team. Those involved in the

crisis communication process must not only be able to disseminate facts over a public platform, but also

handle and answer questions from the news media, as well as inform the public about on given incident in

a way that is timely, concise and factual towards its audience.

2.1.2 Crisis Communication

Crisis communication is defined as the correspondences that take place between the organization

and its audience before, during, and after the crisis (Gainey, 2006). As a primary function of crisis

management, crisis communication conveys the information relevant to its audience, defines the crisis at

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
8

hand, and places it in a context then conveys the organization’s stance to its various publics (Cooley,

2011). Moreover, being essential to an organization’s survival, the ability to effectively communicate in

the event of a crisis not only enables organizations to recover from its aftereffects, the advantage of

effective crisis communications also allows for the analysis of various dangers and consequences that can

be used to plan and enact future corrective actions (Wekesa, 2013).

As a primary theme of Public Relations, crisis communication is devised with both the avoidance

and/or recovery of a crisis as the ultimate objective. It is also the primary means in which organizations

are able to manage stakeholder perceptions, thus enabling the defense and preservation its reputation

(David, 2013). Utilizing community leaders’ efforts as a potential resource to inform and alert the public

during specific incidents (Centers For Disease Control, 2012), crisis communication accounts for the

majority of communication activities of any organization or agency facing a crisis. Overall, the

management of crisis within organizations and society in general would not be complete without a

communications component that not only takes action in correcting the issue at hand, but one that

contains an effective crisis communications which articulates, “warnings, risk messages, evacuation

notifications, messages regarding self-efficacy, information regarding symptoms and medical treatment,

towards it intended audience” (Reynolds, 2005). While the nature of a crisis may assume variant forms, it

is important to note that these disparate events also demand their own unique forms of management along

with communications to regulate the flow of information.

3.0 Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT)

Developed and refined by Coombs, Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), is

comprised of three elements: the crisis situation, crisis response strategies, and a system for matching the

crisis situation with the crisis response strategies (Coombs, The Development of the Situational Crisis

Communication Theory, 2008). As a result, crisis planners are able to identify the factors which pose

threats to the reputation of an organization then utilize them to determine the most appropriate

communication strategies to be implemented during a crisis response endeavor. In addition to

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
9

determining crisis response, SCCT (Figure 1) strives to outline post-crisis communications in an attempt

to apply crisis response strategies to alleviate any reputational damages. Being an important tool which

addresses the needs of planners who are responsible for the creation and implementation crisis

management plans, SCCT permits the crisis management team to accurately analyze a given crisis

situation then, based on its findings, enables one to appraise the extent of the reputational threat imposed

by the crisis. In doing so, crisis planners are able to pinpoint the elements responsible for the threats to

reputation (initial responsibility for the crisis, crisis history, and the relation between history and previous

reputation) and use them to establish the appropriate communication strategies to be utilized in a crisis

response effort.

3.1 The Crisis Situation (Clusters)

In a crisis situation, it is the place of the crisis management team or organization to determine the

extent of accountability that will be incurred during the assessment of threat process (Table 1).

Consequently, this degree of responsibility will ultimately serve as an indicator as to what degree of threat

Crisis Response Strategy

Perceived Control Crisis Responsibility Organizational Reputation Potential Supportive Behavior

Severity Performance History

• Crisis History
• Relationship History

Situational Crisis Communications Theory Model

Figure 1: The Situational Crisis Communications Theory Model (SCCT) was developed as a means
of matching crisis types with the appropriate crisis response strategies (Coombs, 2008)

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
10

does the crisis impact the reputation of the organization along with the appropriate crisis response

strategies required for its resolution. It is within the crisis situation component, that several “clusters” are

noted (Cooley, 2011),

The victim cluster. This includes instances of natural disaster, rumors, workplace violence, product
tampering. In addition to people, a company can be perceived as a victim of the crisis.

The accidental cluster. In this cluster, challenges, mega-damage, technical breakdown accidents and
recalls are included. Also noted in this cluster is the organization does not have crisis intentions in its
actions.

The preventable cluster. Incidents within this category include human breakdown accidents and recalls,
misdeeds within the organization with or without injuries, organizational misdeed and misdeed among
management. The company deliberately places people at risk, takes inappropriate actions, or participates
in the violation of laws and regulations.

3.2 Crisis Response Strategies (Postures)

The second component of SCCT deals with crisis response strategies. Used in instances of the

repairing of reputation, diminishing negative affect, and the prevention of negative behavioral intentions,

the response strategies shown in this component places emphasis on the victims’ perception of an

organization in assuming their rightful responsibility in their part of the crisis (Coombs, The Development

of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory, 2008). In a series of response types, this component is

further categorized by the following response strategies,

Deny posture. Options in this strategy involves attack the accuser; the crisis manager or organization
confronts the individual or group claiming an error in the organization, denial; the crisis manager or
organization denies the existence of a crisis, and scapegoat; the crisis manager or organization places the
onus of blame on another group outside of the crisis.

Diminish posture. The following strategies in this includes, excuse; the crisis manager or organization
denies the intent of any wrongdoing and claims a lack of control of the events causing the crisis, and
justification; the crisis manager or organization attempts to minimize perceived damages incurred by the
victims.

Deal posture. A tactic the places emphasis on the expression of compassion, options in this posture are
comprised of these strategies: ingratiation the organization or crisis manager laud their stakeholders
and/or reminds them of their past good work of the organization, concern crisis manager express concern
for their victims, compassion; crisis manager or organizations attempt offer monetary and other gifts to
their victims, regret; the organization or crisis manager expresses guilt about the crisis, and apology; The
organization or crisis manager assumes full responsibility for the crisis (Coombs, 2008).+

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
11

3.3 Matching Crisis Situations to Crisis Response Strategies

The final component of SCCT involves a system for pairing the crisis situation with one of its

corresponding crisis response strategies. Matching the organization’s response strategy to the magnitude

of the crisis situation (Table 1), SCCT theory maintains that as the chances for reputational damage

increases, the organization or crisis managers must assume a heightened responsibility for the crisis and

Rumor: Use any of the denial

strategies

Natural disaster: Use instructing information

Workplace violence: Use instructing information

Product tampering: Use instructing information

Product recall, technical error, megadamage, and accidents: Use excuse and or justification

Product recall, technical error, megadamage, and accidents: If there is a negative crisis history,

relationship history and/or severe damage: Use any of the deal strategies

Organizational misdeeds: Use any of the deal strategies

When victims occur: Use the concern crisis response strategy in combination with other recommended

strategies

greater concern for its victims (Cooley, 2011). As determined by the reputational damage, crisis

responsibility, and crisis situation, the chosen response strategies are based according to the perception of

acceptance of responsibility for a crisis by an organization or crisis manager (Coombs, 2008).

Predicting that organizations confronted by crisis have an increased risk of reputational damage

due to the possibility that the burden of blame is attributable to the company itself, the SCCT model

attempts to extend the foundation of crisis communication theory by identifying the nature of a crisis,

then by determining the proper response strategy based on crisis severity. Drawing from theories such as

attribution and neoinstitutional theories, SCCT relies on relevant matching points when a link between

Table 1: List of Crisis Response Recommendations

Table 1: List of Crisis Response Recommendations. Source: The Development of Situational Crisis
Communication Theory by T. Coombs (2008)

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
12

crisis type and crisis response can be noted. As a model that seeks to correspond the two (crisis and

response), SCCT presents itself as an attractive solution to crisis management in the protection of the

public, financial, and reputational status which can incur due to the effects of a crisis.

4.0 Crisis/Emergency Response Command Structure

In the event of the occurrence of a crisis such as a chemical facility accident, terrorist attack, or

natural disaster, the successful deployment of management in such instances rely on the participation of

multiple jurisdictions, sections of government, and varying emergency response agencies. Due to the

events over recent, increased attention to crisis/incident response extending across jurisdictional levels

and coordinated on a national level has been established with the objective of improving cooperation and

coordination among public and private agencies. Resulting from this need arose entities such as the

National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command System (ICS).

4.1 The National Incident Management System (NIMS)

Through an inclusive approach to crisis/incident management by federal, state, and local

responders, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) was created by the United States Federal

Government under Homeland Security Presidential Directive #5. Establishing a series of protocols and

procedures uniform across emergency responders at every level of government, NIMS is composed of six

components: command and management, preparedness, resource management, communications and

information management, supporting technologies, and ongoing management and maintenance (Pichtel,

2011). Adaptable to any incident, NIMS is a flexible emergency response system designed to coordinate

multiagency and multidisciplinary responders across jurisdictions. In addition to the feature of flexibility,

the NIMS structure allows for scalability, thereby meeting the needs of the crisis management team in

handing the incident. Providing an organized and practical approach in guiding departments and agencies

across various levels of government, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) manages and

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
13

Includes a combination of assessment, planning,
procedures and protocols, training and exericises.

The presence of a standardized communciation
system emphasizing a common use of terminolgy
across jusidictions.

Includes personnel, equipment and supplies used
in the support of incident management
objectives.

Designed to allow for efficeint and effective
incident management, coordination through a
standardized incident management platform.

This includes 2 componenents: the National
Integration Center (NIC) and Supporting
Technologies.

coordinates non-government agencies in the collaboration of the management of incidents involving

threats and hazards of disparate sources, magnitudes, localities, or varying levels of difficulty with the

goal of protecting public safety, property, and the environment.

4.2 The Incident Command System (ICS)

Designed to manage issues in response to a crisis, the Incident Command System (ICS) is a crisis

management strategy which integrates and facilitates equipment, personnel, procedures and

communications within a unified organizational structure (Centers For Disease Control, 2012). Intended

to enable the process of domestic incident management to operate efficently, ICS (Figure 2) is organized

to assist in crisis management activities in five primary areas: command, operations, planning, logistics,

intelligence and investigations, finance and administration. Considered an essential structure for crisis

management, the Incident Command System facilitates the recognition and classification of the principle

concerns connected with the crisis/incident without compromising any component of the command

system. The Command Staff and leadership structure of the ICS is listed as the following positions,

National Incident Management System Components

Preparedness

Communication

Resource Management

Command and Management

Ongoing Management and Maintenance

Table 2: Displays the six major components of the National Incident Management System which work
together to create a comprehensive structure for crisis management.

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
14

Incident Commander. The Incident Commander is the person who assumes command of all operations

at the scene of the incident. Responsible of the management for all activities which take place during a

crisis, they oversee the activities of Safety, Liaison, and Public Information Officers.

Public Information Officer. The Public Information Officer disseminates communications among the

media, public, and other agencies. Releasing information about an occurrence to the news media,

incident personnel, and other agencies and organizations, the Public Information Officer may have

additional supporting Public Information Officers representative of other emergency response agencies or

jurisdictions.

Safety Officer. The Safety Officer supervises incident operations and guides the Incident Commander on

all the concerns related to the safety of an operation. This also includes the health and safety of

crisis/emergency responder personnel.

Incident Commander

Public Information Officer

Safety Officer

Liaison Officer

Operations Planning Logistics Finance/Admin

Figure 2: The Incident Command System organizational structure. Command Staff underneath the
Incident Commander are separated into Public Information, Safety, and Liaison Officers (Pichtel,
2011).

Command Staff

Sections

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
15

Liaison Officer. The Liaison Officer connects other agencies from governmental and non-governmental

organizations, along with those of the private sector. Their responsibility includes offering input on their

agency’s policies, the availability of resources, and other concerns related to the incident.

In managing the ICS functional areas, the Incident Commander typically assigns one or more

section leaders to operate within the four areas of the organizational structure,

Operations. The Operations Section of the Incident Command System controls the “on-scene” tactical

operations in order to meet the incident objectives as established by the Incident Commander.

Planning. The Planning Section collects, evaluates, and circulates incident information to the Incident

Commander along with other incident management personnel.

Logistics. The Logistics Section completes all the service and support needs regarding the incident. This

includes the provision of services, personnel, and materials in order to effectively respond to the incident.

Finance/Administration. The Finance/Administration Section includes the tracking of financial matters

regarding the incident. Dealing with the financial reimbursement to individuals, agencies, and

departments, this section becomes extremely relevant when confronting issues that result in a Presidential

Declaration (Pichtel, 2011).

The National Incident Management System (NIMS), along with the Incident Command System

(ICS) allows for the management of agencies spanning multiple jurisdictions, levels of government, and

emergency responder types. Coordinated on a national level with the objective of improving

communications and crisis across both public and private agencies, the installation of such a crisis

management system within our infrastructure enables the crisis response/management process to

successfully be set into motion without any complications which may further compound a crisis.

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
16

4.3 Crisis Communication and The Public Information Officer (PIO)

Requiring the need for trained communicators to tactfully defend and clarify an organization’s

position in the face of criticism, threat, and uncertainty provoked by a crisis, the crisis communication

aspect of Public Relations may encounter a hostile and enquiring press in an attempt to provide accounts

for the nature of the mishap, its origins, and the corrective actions being taken in response to the incident.

In addition to representing the organization in times of crisis, duties of the public information officer

includes the development of guidelines for the distribution of communications and defining a set of

procedures to follow in times of crisis. As the face an agency or organization, one of the public

information officer’s unending tasks is to institute a functioning relationship between the organization,

media, and the public by keeping the lines of communication open and promptly answering questions in

addition to and conducting press conferences to announce major news releases or to deliver critical

information in relation to a crisis. Often serving as the buffer, and the designated spokesperson of

information, the role of Public Relations, as it relates to crisis communications has expanded as the

prevalence of crises have become more common in our society.

5.0 Best Practices for Handling the Media and Public

In the event of a crisis, the Public Information Officer is obligated to the organization and public

to disclose information in a complete, timely, and accurate approach. Sharing any information to the

media regarding the cause, magnitude, and resources committed to managing the crisis, it is the duty of

the PIO to galvanize awareness and inform the stakeholders and public on new developments. In this

section, the seven best practices for PIOs are listed as follows,

Understand the value of a crisis management plan. Effective crisis management plans offers the

response team an essential outline for the preparation, predetermination of best practices, and efficiency

in the event of a crisis (Cloudman, 2006). The establishment of a crisis plan should contain an action

plan, a summary of policy and procedures, and a list of key people containing the names of employees,

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
17

media, and other stakeholders with accurate contact information that is periodically updated in advance.

Furthermore, organizations with crisis management plans are two to three times faster to recover with less

human and financial costs than organizations without one set in place (Cohn, 2000).

Become the sole authority for all communications. Positioned to conduct all crisis communication

activities, the PIO has the advantage of ultimately controlling and coordinating the flow of information

that is presented to the public though media outlets, government officials, etc. thus making it the

“official” source of information for the crisis (Amber Alert, 2006). As the sole resource for information

regarding a crisis, those operating from within this position must first deliver all communication

directives to its subordinate agencies and secondly explain those directives to officials and other decision

makers for their approval (Doob, 1995).

Address the problem immediately. Quoted by Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda Joseph Gobbels,

“Whoever speaks the first word to the world is always right”, meaning that communication must reach the

masses ahead of its competing communication sources (Doob, 1995). With the advent of social media

platforms, citizen-journalists are capable of generating parallel (often conflicting) narratives of an

incident before the “official” crisis communications are established. The timeliness of an organization’s

response denotes credibility, as the transmission of timely and accurate information to the public is the

best countermeasure for dealing with competing sources (Amber Alert, 2006).

Acknowledging accountability. An organization accepting accountability on their part in a crisis can

impact public perception based on the organization’s response. Contrary to the belief of “good vs bad”,

public perceptions are not formed by the errors made, but in their visible efforts to correct the crisis

(Cohn, 2000). Conversely, this perception can shift unfavorably if the crisis is either denied, not admitted

to, or not corrected.

Controlling rumors and misinformation. Rumors and misinformation can (and will) emerge during a

crisis. In the attempt to gather information for a newsworthy story, news media, and other journalists will

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
18

collect their data from a variety of sources thereby causing the proliferation of rumors and other

misinformation to spread quickly. It is the duty of the PIO to monitor such information released to the

public in order to counter potential problems that may arise during the crisis communication process.

Avoid the “no comment” response. By saying this, it leaves the organization (or individual) susceptible

to two things, 1) it presumes the admission of guilt in the public’s perception, and 2) it relinquishes

control of the narrative to other entities (Fink, 1986). In the event of a crisis and the organization is

viewed as culpable to the public, it is best practice to present the facts concerning the incident, followed

by immediate corrective actions.

Utilizing social media platforms to supplement traditional crisis communications. As an emerging

tool for organizations to communicate with journalists and the public alike, a 2004 study estimated that

half of all organizations have integrated the use of the internet during times of national crisis (Taylor,

2005). Recently, in the era of social media, this has changed the landscape of crisis communications, as

anyone with internet access (through PC, tablets, or smartphones) can communicate to an audience of

millions. Allowing crisis managers to communicate with tremendous speed, social media as a medium

for crisis communications cannot be overlooked as a viable resource for crisis communications due to its

features of immediacy through instant sharing, global reach (hundreds of millions of people use social

media worldwide), and its ease of availability (Husain, 2014).

6.0 Conclusion

As a vital component to crisis management and emergency response, crisis communications

delivers pertinent information to the public occurring before, during, and after a crisis. With the goal of

either recovering from a crisis to avoiding it altogether, the effective use of crisis communications strives

to convey, notifications, warnings, and other information associated with the crisis. This is best

exemplified through the implementation of a crisis management plan in which crisis management teams

should have established within in every organization. While a crisis management plan provides a series

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
19

of generalized protocols by which to handle a crisis, crisis communications (and crisis communications

theory) forms the heart of any communications (and responses) which can transpire either internally

within the crisis management team or externally with the media and general public. Coombs Situational

Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) refines the flow of crisis communications by creating a structured

response strategy (postures) based on crisis severity (clusters). Used as an analysis tool for crisis

management teams, SCCT specifically targets the precipitating elements posing a reputational threat on

an organization or individual then generates a suitable response strategy to ameliorate the given issue.

While crisis communication is applicable to a diverse range of settings and scenarios, due to

events affecting national security and public safety as highlighted by the media, its applications for

emergency responders on a local, state, and national level (through NIMS) demonstrates a desperate need

for crisis communications in the form of the Public Information Officer (PIO) to keep its public aware of

any current or future issues which can arise. In doing this, the achievement of public awareness along

with any corrective actions undertaken by emergency personnel will assist in facilitating the confidence

and cooperation between the government, its officials, and the public.

Crisis Communication & Emergency Response
20

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Bibliography

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The Journal of General Psychology

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vgen20

The effectiveness of supervisor support in
lessening perceived uncertainties and emotional
exhaustion of university employees during
the COVID-19 crisis: the constraining role of
organizational intransigence

Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol & Tipnuch Phungsoonthorn

To cite this article: Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol & Tipnuch Phungsoonthorn (2020): The
effectiveness of supervisor support in lessening perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion
of university employees during the COVID-19 crisis: the constraining role of organizational
intransigence, The Journal of General Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/00221309.2020.1795613

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2020.1795613

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The effectiveness of supervisor support in lessening
perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of
university employees during the COVID-19 crisis: the
constraining role of organizational intransigence

Peerayuth Charoensukmongkola and Tipnuch Phungsoonthornb

aInternational College, National Institute of Development Administration; bWebster
University Thailand

ABSTRACT
Despite the severity of the COVID-19 crisis, which has affected
organizations worldwide, there is a lack of research on the
organizational factors that affect the psychological wellbeing
of the employees of an organization affected by the crisis.
This research uses the case of employees at two international
universities in Thailand that have been directly affected by the
COVID-19 crisis. Grounded in social support theory and the
job-demand resource model of job stress, this research exam-
ines the role of supervisor support in explaining the degree of
perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion that
employees experience due to the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover,
this research examines whether the effect of supervisor sup-
port on the perceived uncertainties of employees can be
moderated by organizational intransigence, that is, a prevail-
ing climate of resistance to change at the workplace. The
questionnaire survey data were obtained from a sample of
300 employees at two private international universities, and
the partial least squares structural equation model was used
for data analysis. The results significantly confirm that super-
visor support has a negative effect on the perceived uncer-
tainties of employees. Perceived uncertainties also significantly
mediate the negative effect of supervisor support on the
employees’ emotional exhaustion. More importantly, the mod-
erating effect analysis shows that the negative effect of super-
visor support on the perceived uncertainties of employees
presents only for employees who work in a workplace climate
where there is low intransigence; in a workplace climate
where there is high intransigence, supervisor support does
not lower the perceived uncertainties of employees.

ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 14 April 2020
Accepted 4 July 2020

KEYWORDS
Crisis; organization; social
support; stress; wellbeing;
COVID-19; coronavirus

Introduction

The COVID-19 crisis has had significant impacts on society and business
sectors at a global level. Particularly for business sectors, the impacts of the

CONTACT Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol peerayuth@outlook.com International College, National
Institute of Development Administration, 118 Moo3, Sereethai Road, Klong-Chan, Bangkapi, Bangkok
10240 Thailand.
� 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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COVID-19 pandemic have brought about tremendous disruption to the
activities and operations of businesses in almost every industry (McKibbin
& Fernando, 2020). Not only does the crisis pose financial threats to organ-
izations, it also affects the work and psychological wellbeing of their
employees affected by the crisis (Hamouche, 2020). The negative impacts of
the crisis also exist in the educational sector (DePietro, 2020; Sahu, 2020):
According to UNESCO (2020), the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is caus-
ing widespread disruption to education globally. In particular, private inter-
national universities tend to be a sector of the educational industry that are
among those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, as their operations and
revenues heavily depend on the enrollment of overseas students. The sharp
decline in new student enrollment not only affects the universities finan-
cially, but also causes many uncertainties for faculty and staff members
(DePietro, 2020). In addition to focusing efforts on migrating to online
learning, it is expected that some institutions may need to reduce the finan-
cial strain caused by the crisis by cutting their staff numbers, or by merging
with other institutions (DePietro, 2020). These changes generate pressure
on and insecurity among the workforce in the academic sector. Given the
high levels of stress and anxiety that employees inevitably experience from
the COVID-19 crisis, it is important for research to investigate organiza-
tional factors that might alleviate the impact of the crisis on the psycho-
logical stress levels of employees. At this stage, given that the COVID-19
crisis is still a relatively new phenomenon, research areas of management
attempt to clarify the impact of the crisis on the psychological wellbeing of
employees, as well as interventions to address this problem in organiza-
tions, is still very sparse.
This research is based on the case of two private international univer-

sities in Thailand that have been significantly affected by the COVID-19
crisis. The research’s first objective is to analyze the effect of the perceived
uncertainties of the universities’ employees regarding the impacts for them
of the COVID-19 crisis on their level of emotional exhaustion. The second
objective is to examine the role of supervisor support as an organizational
variable that could reduce the degree of employees’ perceived uncertainties.
As prior research has found that supervisors tend to play a crucial role in
reducing the uncertainties and ambiguities that employees experience in an
organization (Blanco-Donoso, Moreno-Jim�enez, Pereira, & Garrosa, 2019;
Skiba & Wildman, 2019), the role of supervisor support might be essential
to alleviate the level of uncertainties that employees experience during the
COVID-19 crisis. Theoretically, this research is grounded in social support
theory (Amason, Allen, & Holmes, 1999) and the job demand-resource
(JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) to explain the benefits of super-
visor support in lowering the perceived uncertainties of employees, as well

2 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

as its subsequent effect on the emotional exhaustion employees experience
arising from the crisis. In addition, the final objective of this research is to
explore the moderating effect of organizational climate, in terms of
intransigence, which might limit the effectiveness of supervisors in provid-
ing the support needed to reduce employees’ uncertainties. This type of
organizational climate basically reflects the tendency of an organization to
cling to tradition and established ways of doing things in the workplace
(Patterson et al., 2005), which can be counterproductive for organizations
in dealing effectively with changes and uncertainties in a dynamic environ-
ment (Moussa, McMurray, & Muenjohn, 2018), such as the COVID-
19 crisis.
The overall results from this research are expected to make a contribu-

tion to knowledge regarding the roles of social support and organizational
ethos regarding change in influencing the levels of psychological stress
experienced of employees during the COVID-19 crisis. From the manager-
ial perspective, the results of this research provide crucial insights for man-
agement regarding policy and implementation that might mitigate the
psychological effects of this crisis on employees.

Perceived uncertainties of university employees during the COVID-19 crisis

Coombs and Holladay (2005, p. 264) define a crisis as “a sudden and unex-
pected event that threatens to disrupt an organization’s operation and poses
a financial and reputational threat.” Not only does a crisis create financial
and reputational threat, it also affects individuals psychologically. The psy-
chological impacts of a crisis usually present in the form of uncertainties
that individuals perceive when they are living through a crisis. In a general
sense, uncertainty is defined as “an individual’s perceived inability to pre-
dict something accurately” (Milliken, 1987, p. 136). In particular, the
COVID-19 situation is regarded as a crisis that threatens the financial sta-
bility of organizations and the psychological wellbeing of employees in
almost every sector throughout the world. In the educational sector, private
international universities tend to be the sector affected directly and most
significantly by the COVID-19 crisis.
The crisis generates uncertainties for employees at the universities in sev-

eral ways. Firstly, the crisis has caused student enrollment to drop sharply.
Given that the revenues of private international universities depend heavily
on the enrollment of new students from abroad, this sharp decline in
enrollment has the potential to create a sense of job insecurity among
employees due to the possibility of the university to downsize (that is,
reduce the number of staff). Moreover, the management, as well as faculty
members and staff, must develop plans to maintain student engagement

THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 3

during the crisis. Furthermore, university departments must frequently
address students’ and parents’ questions and concerns, which increases
employees’ workload and their emotional strain. University personnel can
also experience difficulties in providing immediate responses to questions
because the university authorities need to assess the situation and take time
to make decisions. Considering that the faculty and staff interact with peo-
ple from partner institutions and students from various nations, health
uncertainties can be created among those anxious about the spread of the
virus. Overall, the COVID-19 situation has the appearance of being a crisis
for employees at private international universities because it creates a sense
of insecurity, uncertainty, and wariness, and poses overwhelming concerns
for them. Thus, the employees at these universities are highly susceptible to
psychological stress as a result of the uncertainties the crisis creates
for them.

The effect of perceived uncertainties on emotional exhaustion

Research has shown that an organizational crisis can be harmful to the psy-
chological wellbeing of employees (Charoensukmongkol, 2016, 2017;
Claeys, Cauberghe, & Vyncke, 2010; Hurt & Abebe, 2015; Liu, Austin, &
Jin, 2011). One particular type of psychological impact that employees
experience from a crisis is emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is
the core aspect of job burnout, which happens when employees suffer from
stress for a prolonged period of time (Lambert, Qureshi, Frank, Klahm, &
Smith, 2018; Moyer, Aziz, & Wuensch, 2017). People who experience emo-
tional exhaustion tend to lose motivation to come to work, and feel that
they have no power or control over what happens in the workplace
(Seriwatana & Charoensukmongkol, 2020). Emotional exhaustion can
greatly affect work motivation, performance, and the mental health of
employees, thereby lowering their engagement with their work and result-
ing in absenteeism and the intention to quit their job.
The degree of the perceived uncertainties that university employees have

regarding the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis can increase their level of
emotional exhaustion. In particular, uncertainty about events that occur
during the crisis, as well as its consequences, tend to make employees feel
skeptical about the organization’s likelihood of survival, as well as the
impact that it may have on them as a result (Bordia, Hunt, Paulsen,
Tourish, & DiFonzo, 2004). In addition, Bastien (1987) has argued that
perceived uncertainty can lead to fear of loss due to its adverse effects on
one’s locus of control. In this respect, employees who are uncertain about a
situation can neither prepare for nor deal with the unknown effectively
(Bordia et al., 2004). Because the COVID-19 crisis has caused many

4 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

unpredictable events that interrupt the work and operations of the staff
and faculty members at universities, and because the length of time
required for the situation to be resolved or to become better is not known,
it is quite common for employees to be anxious about the consequences
for them, thereby resulting in a higher chance that they develop emotional
exhaustion. Therefore, the following hypothesis is offered: The perceived
uncertainties of university employees regarding the impacts of the COVID-
19 crisis will increase their emotional exhaustion.

The effect of supervisor support on perceived uncertainties and
emotional exhaustion

This research proposes that the degree of perceived uncertainties and emo-
tional exhaustion caused by the COVID-19 crisis among employees can be
alleviated by the level of supervisor support. Supervisor support indicates
the degree to which subordinates receive support from their supervisor
(Maertz et al., 2007). Supervisor support reflects the employees’ perception
of the quality of their relationship with supervisors (Stinglhamber &
Vandenberghe, 2003); and it represents the degree to which employees real-
ize that their supervisor cares about their personal concerns and wellbeing
(Ru Hsu, 2011). Scholars have asserted that supervisor support plays a role
in fostering positive attitudes regarding their organization among employ-
ees (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades,
2002). In particular, the role of supervisor support is important in sustain-
ing employees’ work morale and psychological wellbeing during a time of
crisis (Cole, Bruch, & Vogel, 2006). For example, a study of Cole et al.
(2006), which was based on the case of a medical technology company in
Switzerland, found that the supervisor tended to play a supporting role in
lessening the cynicism of employees during an organizational crisis.
From the theoretical perspective, the role of supervisor support in reduc-

ing the perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of employees dur-
ing the COVID-19 crisis can be explained by social support theory, which
suggests that social support protects people from the harmful effects of
stressful events by influencing what they think about and how they cope
with events (Shumaker & Brownell, 1984). Social support refers to a social
network’s provision of psychological and material resources intended to
benefit an individual’s capacity to cope with stress (Amason et al., 1999).
Supervisors are considered as the main source of social support for employ-
ees because they are in a position to provide rewards, protection, encour-
agement, and motivation to employees (Phungsoonthorn &
Charoensukmongkol, 2019). Supervisors also support employees through
providing information that eases their concerns about uncertainties (Skiba

THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 5

& Wildman, 2019). This idea is supported in the study of Skiba and
Wildman (2019), which found that the quality of the relationship that
employees develop with their supervisors plays a crucial role in reducing
the workplace uncertainty of employees, thereby lowering turnover inten-
tion. For this reason, the authority of the supervisor in providing key
resources and information to employees can play a critical supporting role
in reducing the perceived uncertainties of employees regarding the impacts
of a crisis (Tummers, Steijn, Nevicka, & Heerema, 2018), as well reducing
the emotional exhaustion that might follow (Charoensukmongkol, Murad,
& Gutierrez-Wirsching, 2016).
In addition to social support theory, the role of supervisor support in

reducing emotional exhaustion can be explained by the JD-R model of
work stress (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). The JD-R model describes the
balance between job demands and job resources that determines the level
of work stress that employees experience. Job demands can be described as
psychological and quantitative workloads that create psychological strains
on employees. Job resources means facilitating conditions, favorable work
characteristics, and social support that help employees cope with the job
demands they face. The JD-R model postulates that employees’ level of
stress perception can be attenuated when they have sufficient job resources
to deal with their job demands (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). In particular,
the literature on the JD-R model indicates that one crucial aspect of job
resources that significantly helps employees cope with job demands is
supervisor support (Hu, Schaufeli Wilmar, & Taris Toon, 2016). In the case
of the COVID-19 crisis in organizations, the high level of employees’ per-
ceived uncertainties can be regarded as a job demand that affects their well-
being. The perception of uncertainties makes employees feel insecure and
anxious about the unpredictability of their work situation, which, in turn,
makes them feel emotionally exhausted (Skiba & Wildman, 2019). On the
other hand, support from supervisors is regarded as a job resource in that
it is social support that can lessen the concerns that employees have about
uncertainties caused by the crisis. For example, this role of the supervisor
is discussed in the study of Blanco-Donoso et al. (2019), which found that
supervisor support plays a crucial role in helping employees deal effectively
with ambiguity at work. When employees receive more support from their
supervisor, their level of uncertainties should be lessened as they can feel
greater confidence that they can rely on their supervisor to help them deal
with the uncertainties (Skiba & Wildman, 2019).
Overall, from the theoretical perspective of social support theory and the

JD-R model, it can be expected that supervisor support can directly reduce
the perceived uncertainties of universities employees during the COVID-19
crisis. Considering that perceived uncertainties can determine the

6 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

emotional exhaustion of employees, supervisor support could also reduce
employees’ emotional exhaustion through the mediating role of perceived
uncertainties. Thus, the following hypotheses are presented: supervisor sup-
port will lessen the perceived uncertainties of university employees regard-
ing the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, and the negative effect of
supervisor support on the emotional exhaustion of employees is mediated
by perceived uncertainties.

The moderating effect of organizational intransigence

Although supervisor support is postulated to reduce the perceived uncer-
tainties of employees, it is plausible that this benefit might be limited by
characteristics present in the work climate in the organization. In particu-
lar, this research focuses on the role of resistance to change climate in a
workplace namely organizational intransigence, that might limit the ability
of the supervisor to provide support to reduce employees’ uncertainties. At
root, an organization characterized by great intransigence tends to cling to
traditional ways of managing activities in the workplace (Døjbak
Haakonsson, Burton Richard, Obel, & Lauridsen, 2008). Moreover, senior
managers in this type of workplace tend to have levels of interest in trying
out new ideas, preferring to keep to established and traditional ways of
workplace practices and processes (Patterson et al., 2005). Moreover,
changes in how things are done in the organization tend to happen very
slowly (Patterson et al., 2005). Research has shown that organizations and
work units that are characterized by intransigence tend to be less effective
in dealing with changes and uncertainties in a dynamic environment
(Moussa et al., 2018). Particularly during a crisis in which decision latitudes
and the managerial flexibility of the management are required to help
organizations deal promptly with expectations (Weisaeth, Knudsen, &
Tønnessen), this type of workplace climate militate against the organ-
ization’s ability to respond effectively to the uncertainties that exist during
a crisis (Gill, 2002).
Given the characteristics of workplaces with a climate that resists change,

which create constraints for supervisors in executing their work and
authority when they deviate from organizational tradition, this research
hypothesizes that the benefit of supervisor support in lowering the per-
ceived uncertainties of employees might not be effective in workplaces
characterized by such a climate. In particular, the nature of senior manage-
ment in the such a climate that has a strong attachment to established and
traditional ways of doing things can potentially limit the autonomy and
effectiveness of supervisors in making decisions that are necessary to help
employees lessen the uncertainties raised by a crisis (Giberson et al., 2009).

THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 7

Given that the discretion of supervisors is strongly bounded by the influ-
ence of this organizational climate (Dov, 2008), it is difficult for them to
implement any activity to deal with novel challenges that deviates from the
traditional methods usually followed by the organization. Moreover, consid-
ering that changes in the way things are done in the workplace tend to
happen very slowly in this type of organizational climate, supervisors can
face obstacles in exercising their authority to address the concerns of
employees promptly in order to reduce uncertainties. Even though supervi-
sors are motivated to provide support to help employees deal with a crisis,
their support may not be effective when the change initiatives are not sup-
ported by the organization. Thus, it is plausible that the negative effect of
supervisor support on perceived uncertainties will present in a workplace
that is characterized by low organizational intransigence, but not in the
workplace characterized by high organizational intransigence. This leads to
the following hypothesis: the effect of supervisor support on the perceived
uncertainties of the university employees is moderated by the level of
organizational intransigence.

Methods

Research context and sample selection procedure

This research collected data from employees, including lecturers and staff
members working at two private international universities in Bangkok,
Thailand. These two private international universities were a suitable con-
text for studying the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis because they are
among the universities that have been adversely affected by it. Both univer-
sities have a high percentage of overseas students. Because the COVID-19
crisis has caused the enrollment rate of their overseas students to drop
sharply, it has led to a tremendous decline in their revenues. This drop in
revenues and the ongoing expenses that the universities need to bear have
posed significant threats to the job security of the employees. In particular,
many employees are uncertain about their job security as downsizing has
been applied to some positions and work units in order to reduce expenses.
The COVID-19 crisis has also made faculty and staff members uncertain
about their work procedures and has caused their workloads to increase.
Given that teaching and many of the routine work activities of the faculty
and staff members now have to be carried out online, it has created ambi-
guity and difficulties for the preponderance of the faculty and staff, who
are not familiar with online teaching or online working. Nonetheless,
although teaching and some of the work processes have been shifted online,
some of the faculty and staff members are still required physically to go to
the universities to perform certain administrative tasks, thereby causing

8 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

them to be concerned and feel uncertain about the chance of contracting
the virus when they travel. All of the uncertainties that the employees have
experienced due to the COVID-19 crisis make them highly susceptible to
emotional exhaustion.
In total, the sampling frame for this research covers 438 employees

from both universities. All 438 employees were invited to participate in
the survey data collection, for which a self-administered questionnaire sur-
vey was used. Data collection was undertaken in April 2020, which was
the month in which the COVID-19 situation was at its most severe in
Thailand. Permission to conduct the survey was given by the management
of each university prior to the data collection. The researcher visited each
department to distribute the questionnaire packages in person, and the
respondents participated in this study on a voluntary basis. The English
version of the questionnaire was used, given that all faculties and staff at
the two international universities use English for day-to-day communica-
tion. The cover letter that was included in each questionnaire package
advised about the objectives of this research and its ethics policy, and
they were assured of the confidentiality and anonymity of the data collec-
tion. In addition to the paper questionnaires, participants were given the
option to complete the questionnaire online by using a link and QR code
provided in the cover letter. The questionnaire data collection was admin-
istered during weekdays; the order of the scale items was randomized; it
took approximately 15 minutes for participants to complete the question-
naire; and data collection took about four weeks. The researcher then
took a secure container to collect the questionnaires from the participants
in person a few days later. At the end of the data collection period, the
research obtained 300 usable questionnaires for data analysis, which is a
68.49% response rate. Table 1 report the demographic characteristics of
the respondents.

Table 1. Characteristics of the respondents.
Demographic factors Descriptive statistics

Gender Male: 147 (49%)
Female: 153 (51%)

Age Mean: 43.04
S.D.: 10.14

Job tenure Less than 1 year: 16 (5.3%)
1–2 years: 31 (10.3%)
3–4 years: 57 (20%)
5–6 years: 57 (19%)
7–8 years: 34: (19%)
9–10 years: 31 (11.3%)
More than 10 years: 74 (24.7%)

Job type Faculty: 210 (70%)
Staff: 90 (30%)

THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 9

Measures

Because the COVID-19 crisis at the universities is an unprecedented phe-
nomenon, and consequently there is no existing scale that measures per-
ceived uncertainty in this specific context, the present study used a measure
of perceived uncertainty adapted from the study of Allen, Jimmieson,
Bordia, and Irmer (2007), which was originally designed to measure the
degree of perceived uncertainty of hospital employees during organizational
change. This scale was chosen because it contains questions that reflect the
uncertainties that employees had about their job security, compensation,
welfare, and work processes that were affected by the organizational change
crisis; these aspects of uncertainties are similar to the situations that the
university employees are facing due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Questions from the original scales that were unrelated to the context of the
COVID-19 and not relevant to the university employees were removed.
Some new questions were added, which were derived from information the
researchers obtained from informal interviews with some employees at the
universities regarding their concerns about the unknowns they face due to
the COVID-19 crisis. The respondents were asked to evaluate how
uncertain they were about the effects of ten aspects of the crisis. The items
comprised the following “The likelihood that the problem will be solved;”
“The likelihood that the problem will not be prolonged;” “The likelihood
that the problem will come to an end;” “The possibility of achieving a solu-
tion to the problem;” “The certainty about the scope and time frame of the
problem;” “The effectiveness of the university’s actions to prevent the prob-
lem;” “The fear that you will get COVID-19 infection;” “Whether your job
will be secure;” “Whether your pay, salary, and possibility of a promotion
will be affected;” and “The extent to which your job roles/tasks will
change.” All of the items were measured using a five-point Likert scale
ranging from 1 (very certain) to 5 (very uncertain).
Supervisor support was measured using the scale of Cole et al. (2006),

which has four items. The scale was rated on 5-point Likert scale ranging
from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The respondents were asked
to evaluate the supervisor at their department or work unit. Sample items
included “Management shows active concern for my feelings” and
“Management assures us that help is available if it is needed.”
Emotional exhaustion was measured using the scale of Maslach and

Jackson (1981), which has five items. The items were rated on 5-point
Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Sample
items included “I feel emotionally drained from my work” and “I feel
burned out from my work.”
Organizational intransigence was measured using the scale of Patterson

et al. (2005), which contains five questions, all of which were assessed on a

10 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Sample items included “Senior management likes to keep to established,
traditional ways of doing things” and “Changes in the way things are done
here happen very slowly.”

Control variables

This research considered some of the demographic factors and work char-
acteristics of the employees as control variables, namely age, gender, job
tenure, and job type. Age was measured as actual age in years; gender was
measured as a categorial variable (Male ¼ 1; Female ¼ 0); job tenure was
measured as a ranked variable (1 ¼ less than 1year; 2 ¼ 1–2 years;
3 ¼ 3–4 years; 4 ¼ 4–5 years; 6 ¼ 6–7 years; 7 ¼ 8–9 years, 8 ¼ 10 years or
more; and Job type was measured as a categorial variable (Faculty ¼ 0;
Staff ¼ 1).

Statistical analyses

The statistical analysis was performed using Partial least Squares Structural
Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). PLS-SEM is a statistical technique that
combines principal component analysis, path analysis, and a set of regres-
sions to generate estimates of the standardized regression coefficients for
the model’s paths, and factor loadings for the measurement items. PLS-
SEM is a recommended for analyzing models with less consecrated theoret-
ical support (Hair, Hult, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2014). PLS-SEM also offers
more flexibility than covariance-based SEM because it produces less bias
estimation when data are not distributed normally, and when the sample
size is small (Chin & Todd, 1995). Because the Jarque-Bera and the Robust
Jarque-Bera tests of normality indicated that the majority of the variables
included in the analysis were not distributed normally, PLS-SEM was
appropriate for this research. Moreover, PLS-SEM is suitable given the rela-
tively small sample size used in this this research. The PLS-SEM analysis
was performed using WarpPLS software.

Results

Validity and reliability assessment

Prior to model estimation using PLS-SEM, the study ensured that all of the
constructs had satisfactory psychometric properties. Firstly, convergent val-
idity was analyzed using factor loadings, which must be above .5 to confirm
a satisfactory degree of convergent validity (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson,
& Tatham, 2006). All the factor loadings of the latent constructs were

THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 11

above .5, confirming satisfactory convergent validity. Secondly, discriminant
validity was analyzed by comparing the square root of the average variance
extracted (AVE) with its corresponding correlations with other constructs.
To support discriminant validity, the square root of the AVE for each con-
struct must exceed its correlation with any other construct (Fornell &
Larcker, 1981). Table 2 reports the square roots of the AVEs and the corre-
lations among the variables. The results reported in Table 2 confirm that
all of the square roots of the AVEs met this requirement; thus, discrimin-
ant validity was satisfactory. Thirdly, the quality of construct reliability was
evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and a composite reliability
coefficient. All of the alphas were .90 or above; thus, the reliability of all
the constructs was adequate.

Multicollinearity and common method bias assessment

Next, multicollinearity was assessed by using full variance inflation factor
(VIF) statistics. A value lower than 3.3 confirms that multicollinearity is
not a serious issue (Kock, Lynn, & Texas A&M International University,
2012). The results showed a range of the full VIFs with latent variables
between 1.078 and 1.759, which confirmed that multicollinearity is not a
serious issue in this study. Additionally, the study also used Harman’s sin-
gle-factor test to assess common method bias (CMB). The study analyzed
all indicators in the model by extracting a single factor in the principal
component analysis. The result showed that the one-factor solution
explained only 35.13% of the variance, which was substantially smaller than
the 50% threshold. The one-factor confirmatory factor analysis model did
not fit the data well (v2¼4,542.001; d.f.¼1,529; p<.001). Overall, the results confirmed that CMB was not a major problem in the data collection.

Table 2. Variable correlations and square root of average variance extracted.

Variables
Cronbach’s a
coefficient

Composite
reliability
coefficient SP PU EMX OI AGE GEN TEN TYPE

SP 0.958 0.966 (0.937) �0.046 �0.024 0.055 0.092 0.145� �0.032 �0.105
PU 0.904 0.916 (0.724) 0.436�� 0.289�� 0.035 0.028 0.134� �0.003
EMX 0.955 0.965 (0.920) 0.453�� 0.165�� 0.147� 0.279�� 0.11
OI 0.939 0.955 (0.917) �0.098 0.146� 0.169�� 0.068
AGE n/a n/a (1) �0.038 0.391�� 0.435��
GEN n/a n/a (1) 0.063 0.132�
TEN n/a n/a (1) �0.205��
TYPE n/a n/a (1)

Notes: �p-value <.05; ��p-value < .01. Square root of AVE is presented in parentheses. SP: supervisor support; PU: perceived uncertainties; EMX: emotional exhaustion; OI: organizational intransigence; AGE: age of employees; GEN: gender of employees (male ¼ 0; female ¼ 1); TEN: job tenure of employees; TYPE: job type of employees (faculty ¼ 0, staff ¼ 1).

12 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

Hypothesis testing

Figure 1 reports the results from PLS-SEM estimation. The factor scores of
the latent variable were calculated using PLS algorithm; they were calcu-
lated as an exact linear combination of the indicator scores (Kock, 2019).
Regarding the hypothesis suggesting that the perceived uncertainties of the
university employees will increase their emotional exhaustion, the results
from the model assessment show that perceived uncertainties and emo-
tional exhaustion were positively associated (b ¼ 0.31; p < .001; Effect size ¼ 0.135). Regarding the hypothesis suggesting that supervisor support will lessen the perceived uncertainties of university employees, the results from the model assessment show that supervisor support and perceived uncer- tainties were positively associated (b ¼ �0.096; p ¼ .026; Effect size ¼ 0.024). The hypothesis suggesting that the negative effect of supervisor sup- port on the emotional exhaustion of employees is mediated by perceived uncertainties was confirmed using the Sobel test (Baron & Kenny, 1986). The results show that perceived uncertainties positively mediate the linkage between supervisor support and emotional exhaustion (t ¼ �1.983; p ¼ .041; Effect size ¼ 0.025). Considering the direct correlation between supervisor support and emotional exhaustion in Table 2, which was not statistically significant (r ¼�0.024; p ¼ .684), it can be concluded that per- ceived uncertainties fully mediate the effect of supervisor support on emo- tional exhaustion. The hypothesis suggesting that the effect of supervisor support on per-

ceived uncertainties is moderated by the level of organizational intransi-
gence was confirmed by the beta coefficient of the interaction between
supervisor support and perceived uncertainties. The results show that the
beta coefficient of the interaction demonstrated a positive sign (b ¼ 0.265;
p<.001; Effect size ¼ 0.064), which was also statistically significant. This result implies that the negative effect of supervisor support on perceived

.265*** .283*** .299***

.31*** -.096*

R
2
= .153 R

2
= .39

Supervisor

support
Perceived

uncertainties

Organizational

intransigence

Emotional

exhaustion

Control variables
• Gender of employees
• Age of employees
• Job tenure of employees
• Job type of employee

Figure 1. Results from hypotheses testing. Notes: ��p<.001; �p<.05. Standardized coefficients are reported.

THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 13

uncertainties can be suppressed by organizational intransigence. Figure 2
presents the interaction effect. The regression lines were plotted using
standardized values suggested by Aiken and West (1991). The line graph,
which represents the association between supervisor support and perceived
uncertainties moderated by organizational intransigence was constructed by
plotting supervisor support scores one standard deviation above and below
the mean across the high organizational intransigence (þ1.00 SD) and low
organizational intransigence (�1.00 SD). The illustration confirms that the
negative effect of supervisor support on perceived uncertainties present
only when there is low organizational intransigence. Conversely when
organizational intransigence is high, supervisor support was not seen to be
related to perceived uncertainties.

Discussion

The results of hypothesis testing support the role of supervisor support in
explaining the perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion that
employees experience from the COVID-19 crisis. Firstly, the results con-
firm the negative effect of perceived uncertainties on employees’’ emotional
exhaustion. This result adds evidence to prior research, which showed that
uncertainties during a crisis are a key factor in employees experiencing psy-
chological distress and anxiety (Bordia et al., 2004). This also supports the
nature of a crisis, which normally generates fear of loss, and adversely
affects employees’ locus of control (Bastien, 1987), thereby limiting their
ability to deal with the unknown effectively (Bordia et al., 2004). This is
also common in the case of the COVID-19 crisis, which has caused

Figure 2. Moderating effect of organizational intransigence.

14 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

university employees to face many uncertainties regarding their job security
and wellbeing, thereby causing them to develop emotional exhaustion.
Secondly, the results confirm that supervisor support is negatively associ-
ated with employees’ perceived uncertainties. In addition, the analysis
shows that perceived uncertainties significantly mediate the negative effect
of supervisor support on emotional exhaustion. This result suggests that
supervisors can help employees lower emotional exhaustion by reducing
the degree of the perceived uncertainties they feel regarding the impact of
the COVID-19 crisis. Overall, the findings regarding the role of supervisor
support during the crisis is in congruence with prior research and literature
showing that supervisors play a crucial role in reducing psychological
impacts on employees (Charoensukmongkol et al., 2016; Tummers et al.,
2018). This is in line with the study of Skiba and Wildman (2019), which
found that supervisors can reduce employees’ intention to leave their jobs
by reducing workplace uncertainty. Especially in the context of a crisis, this
result is in accordance with the finding of Cole et al. (2006), which asserted
the importance of supervisors in addressing employees’ concerns during an
organizational crisis.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the analysis shows that the negative effect

of supervisor support on the perceived uncertainties of employees is signifi-
cantly limited by organizational intransigence—its climate of resistance to
change. In particular, the results show that the negative association between
supervisor support and the employees’ emotional exhaustion exist only for
employees working in a workplace that has low resistance to change, while
in workplaces where resistance to change is high, supervisor support is not
negatively associated with employees’ emotional exhaustion. This result
regarding the moderating effect of organizational intransigence is consistent
with prior research that showed that the effectiveness of supervisors can be
significantly constrained by the influence of an organizational climate that
does not help supervisors execute their roles and authority to support
employees (Dov, 2008; Giberson et al., 2009). This result is also in con-
formity with prior studies that found that the actions of supervisors that
are misaligned with the organizational climate can significantly weaken
their performance (Døjbak Haakonsson et al., 2008; Stirpe, Bonache, &
Trullen, 2015).

Contributions to theory

The results from this research provide contributions to both social support
theory and the JD-R model. The results particularly contributed to social
support theory by showing that the support from supervisors during the
COVID-19 crisis also plays a crucial role in providing psychological and

THE JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 15

material resources that help employees cope with the stress caused by
uncertainties arising from the crisis (Amason et al., 1999). Given that the
authority of supervisors can directly influence the allocation of important
resources and support that can promote employees’ wellbeing, they are the
main source of social support in an organization, which can significantly
lessen the uncertainties that employees perceive during the crisis.
Furthermore, from the JD-R perspective, this research adds that support
from supervisors can serve as a critical job resource that employees can
depend on to help them alleviate the negative impacts of job demands
caused by the uncertainties they experience due to the COVID-19 crisis
(Skiba & Wildman, 2019). With benevolent support and caring from super-
visors in the form of psychological and material resources, employees tend
to be more confident about situations and tend to have less concern about
uncertainties associated with COVID-19 impacts; this also eased the level
of emotional exhaustion that followed. However, even though supervisors
were willing to provide support in order to lessen the concerns and uncer-
tainties of the employees regarding the impacts of the crisis, their effective-
ness in providing this support was completely limited by the influence of
workplace resistance to change, which does not help the supervisors exer-
cise their authority in a way that deviates from organizational tradition
(Giberson et al., 2009). Therefore, this research contributes to theories by
clarifying that the role of supervisors from the perspective of social support
theory and the JD-R model can be bounded by the influence of the organ-
izational macro environment that governs the behaviors of members of the
organization (Døjbak Haakonsson et al., 2008; Stirpe et al., 2015). This in
turn limits the potential of supervisors to provide support that benefits
employees. This contribution makes a recommendation for future research:
to explore the role of supervisors in taking the role in the organizational
macro environment, such as organizational culture and organizational cli-
mates, into consideration. This recommendation is essential to generate a
more complete understanding of some of the boundary conditions that can
act as enabling or limiting factors regarding the effectiveness of supervisors
in the performance outcomes that they demonstrate.

Contributions to management and the organization

This research provides recommendations for top management regarding
policies that may need to be implemented during the COVID-19 crisis in
order to alleviate some of the harmful psychological impacts that the crisis
causes for employees. Regarding the role of supervisor support, which was
found to reduce the uncertainties and emotional exhaustion of university
employees during the crisis, it is important for management to allow and

16 P. CHAROENSUKMONGKOL AND T. PHUNGSOONTHORN

encourage the supervisors of all work units or departments to provide the
support necessary to address the concerns of their employees during the
crisis. However, it is also very important for top management to realize
that characteristics of the workplace climate in the organization may mili-
tate against the ability of the supervisors to exercise their authority to help
employees effectively. This is especially true when an intransigent work-
place climate—one that prevents supervisors from taking actions in a way
that deviates from the organization’s traditions—renders it difficult for
them to exercise their authority effectively to provide prompt support that
helps employees lessen their concerns about the crisis. Given that it is cru-
cial for supervisors to have sufficient autonomy to take prompt action to
address the uncertainties of employees during a crisis, top management
should grant greater flexibility and autonomy to supervisors so that they
can take their own actions in addressing the skepticism of employees and
to ease their concerns. This policy recommendation may be crucial for
organizations to be able to alleviate the psychological impacts that employ-
ees experience as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

Limitations

Some research limitations must be noted. Firstly, the findings of this
research are based on the case of two private international universities in
Thailand. Moreover, the sample size for the data collection is quite small,
and this can limit the generalizability of the findings. Secondly, the cross-
sectional data collection that was implemented in this research limits the
potential to interpret the results in terms of causality, and the results are
more likely to be interpreted as associations. Nonetheless, this limitation is
inevitable given the short time period that the COVID-19 situation has had
to create uncertainties among the university employees – it was difficult to
design and conduct a longitudinal study within the short time limit.
Thirdly, because the data were collected using a self-reporting question-
naire, some subjective bias may be present in the results.

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Abstract

Introduction
Perceived uncertainties of university employees during the COVID-19 crisis
The effect of perceived uncertainties on emotional exhaustion
The effect of supervisor support on perceived uncertainties and emotional exhaustion
The moderating effect of organizational intransigence
Methods
Research context and sample selection procedure
Measures
Control variables
Statistical analyses
Results
Validity and reliability assessment
Multicollinearity and common method bias assessment
Hypothesis testing
Discussion
Contributions to theory
Contributions to management and the organization
Limitations
References

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