Pub Date : 2021-04-21DOI: 10.1177/2046147X211001350
Wouter Jong, P. Broekman
This study assesses the so-called effect of crisis history, based on two crashes with the new Boeing 737-Max. While Boeing’s responsibility was not clear cut after the first crash, the developments in the second crash led to a reinterpretation of initial responsibility for the first crash. This reinterpretation intensified the threat on Boeing’s reputation, and raised doubts on the appropriateness of the initial response. This case study illustrates the importance for organizations to be wary and to anticipate developments when selecting and creating a crisis response. Otherwise, statements can backfire when new information comes to light as similar events occur.
{"title":"Crisis history and hindsight: A stakeholder perspective on the case of Boeing 737-Max","authors":"Wouter Jong, P. Broekman","doi":"10.1177/2046147X211001350","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X211001350","url":null,"abstract":"This study assesses the so-called effect of crisis history, based on two crashes with the new Boeing 737-Max. While Boeing’s responsibility was not clear cut after the first crash, the developments in the second crash led to a reinterpretation of initial responsibility for the first crash. This reinterpretation intensified the threat on Boeing’s reputation, and raised doubts on the appropriateness of the initial response. This case study illustrates the importance for organizations to be wary and to anticipate developments when selecting and creating a crisis response. Otherwise, statements can backfire when new information comes to light as similar events occur.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"185 - 196"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2021-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X211001350","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41795053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-10DOI: 10.1177/2046147X21999972
J. Macnamara
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, requiring emergency management by health authorities and providers, it created flow-on crises and “crisis contagion” for organizations ranging from international airlines and tourism operators to local businesses, schools, and universities. In addition to the risks directly associated with the health emergency, many organizations were plunged into crisis because of severe restrictions to their operations and income losses. This analysis examines crisis communication in an organization faced with major financial losses, staff redundancies, and disruption. It analyses how these and necessary crisis responses were communicated to stakeholders, using situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), as its analytical framework. While noting alternative perspectives such as crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) theory, SCCT is identified as the most widely applied theory of crisis communication, and thus warrants ongoing review in an era of media fragmentation, disinformation, and low public trust. Furthermore, this analysis provides a relatively rare “inside” (emic) perspective through ethnography and autoethnography conducted by a senior decision-maker in the organization studied, which expands traditional outside (etic) perspectives and offers new insights into crisis communication.
{"title":"New insights into crisis communication from an “inside” emic perspective during COVID-19","authors":"J. Macnamara","doi":"10.1177/2046147X21999972","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X21999972","url":null,"abstract":"As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world, requiring emergency management by health authorities and providers, it created flow-on crises and “crisis contagion” for organizations ranging from international airlines and tourism operators to local businesses, schools, and universities. In addition to the risks directly associated with the health emergency, many organizations were plunged into crisis because of severe restrictions to their operations and income losses. This analysis examines crisis communication in an organization faced with major financial losses, staff redundancies, and disruption. It analyses how these and necessary crisis responses were communicated to stakeholders, using situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), as its analytical framework. While noting alternative perspectives such as crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) theory, SCCT is identified as the most widely applied theory of crisis communication, and thus warrants ongoing review in an era of media fragmentation, disinformation, and low public trust. Furthermore, this analysis provides a relatively rare “inside” (emic) perspective through ethnography and autoethnography conducted by a senior decision-maker in the organization studied, which expands traditional outside (etic) perspectives and offers new insights into crisis communication.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"237 - 262"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2021-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X21999972","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42346708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1177/2046147X211008388
E. Ciszek, Richard A. Mocarski, Sarah Price, E. Almeida
Pushing the bounds of public relations theory and research, we explore how institutional texts have produced and reified stigmas around gender transgression and how these texts are bound up in moments of activism and resistance. We considered how different discursive and material functions get “stuck” together by way of texts and how this sticking depends on a history of association and institutionalization. Activism presents opportunities to challenge institutional and structural stickiness, and we argue that public relations can challenge the affective assemblages that comprise and perpetuate these systems, unsettling the historical discourses that have governed institutions by establishing new communicative possibilities.
{"title":"Discursive stickiness: Affective institutional texts and activist resistance","authors":"E. Ciszek, Richard A. Mocarski, Sarah Price, E. Almeida","doi":"10.1177/2046147X211008388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X211008388","url":null,"abstract":"Pushing the bounds of public relations theory and research, we explore how institutional texts have produced and reified stigmas around gender transgression and how these texts are bound up in moments of activism and resistance. We considered how different discursive and material functions get “stuck” together by way of texts and how this sticking depends on a history of association and institutionalization. Activism presents opportunities to challenge institutional and structural stickiness, and we argue that public relations can challenge the affective assemblages that comprise and perpetuate these systems, unsettling the historical discourses that have governed institutions by establishing new communicative possibilities.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"295 - 310"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X211008388","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46800928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-02-23DOI: 10.1177/2046147X21996015
Diana Zulli, Kevin Coe, Z. Isaacs, Ian Summers
Public relations research has paid considerable attention to foreign terrorist crises but relatively little attention to domestic ones—despite the growing salience of domestic terrorism in the United States. This study content analyzes 30 years of network television news coverage of domestic terrorism to gain insight into four theoretical issues of enduring interest within the literature on news framing and crisis management: sourcing, contextualization, ideological labeling, and definitional uncertainty. Results indicate that the sources called upon to contextualize domestic terrorism have shifted over time, that ideological labels are more often applied on the right than the left, and that definitional uncertainty has increased markedly in recent years. Implications for the theory and practice of public relations and crisis management are discussed.
{"title":"Media coverage of the unfolding crisis of domestic terrorism in the United States, 1990–2020","authors":"Diana Zulli, Kevin Coe, Z. Isaacs, Ian Summers","doi":"10.1177/2046147X21996015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X21996015","url":null,"abstract":"Public relations research has paid considerable attention to foreign terrorist crises but relatively little attention to domestic ones—despite the growing salience of domestic terrorism in the United States. This study content analyzes 30 years of network television news coverage of domestic terrorism to gain insight into four theoretical issues of enduring interest within the literature on news framing and crisis management: sourcing, contextualization, ideological labeling, and definitional uncertainty. Results indicate that the sources called upon to contextualize domestic terrorism have shifted over time, that ideological labels are more often applied on the right than the left, and that definitional uncertainty has increased markedly in recent years. Implications for the theory and practice of public relations and crisis management are discussed.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"357 - 375"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2021-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X21996015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42587355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2046147x20964601
{"title":"Corrigendum to ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’. A qualitative study of ethical PR practice in the United Kingdom","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/2046147x20964601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x20964601","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"129 - 129"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147x20964601","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41905758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2046147X20987337
Alexander Buhmann, Dennis Schoeneborn
In a recent article in Public Relations Inquiry, Jenny Hou has fittingly argued for a stronger focus on agency and actorhood in PR research. We point to two crucial aspects in which we think her arguments need to be extended, namely: (a) embracing the constitutive role of communication for organizational actorhood and agency, and (b) rethinking the role of PR in the constitution of organizational actors. We argue that such extension would allow for an important and radical twist in perspective that highlights a widely neglected question in PR research: What if the collective actorhood status of organizations is not treated as a given but rather arises from communicative attributions of such actorhood status to social entities? Finally, we develop key implications from this shift in perspective for PR scholarship, education, and practice.
{"title":"Envisioning PR research without taking organizations as collective actors for granted: A rejoinder and extension to Hou","authors":"Alexander Buhmann, Dennis Schoeneborn","doi":"10.1177/2046147X20987337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20987337","url":null,"abstract":"In a recent article in Public Relations Inquiry, Jenny Hou has fittingly argued for a stronger focus on agency and actorhood in PR research. We point to two crucial aspects in which we think her arguments need to be extended, namely: (a) embracing the constitutive role of communication for organizational actorhood and agency, and (b) rethinking the role of PR in the constitution of organizational actors. We argue that such extension would allow for an important and radical twist in perspective that highlights a widely neglected question in PR research: What if the collective actorhood status of organizations is not treated as a given but rather arises from communicative attributions of such actorhood status to social entities? Finally, we develop key implications from this shift in perspective for PR scholarship, education, and practice.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"119 - 127"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X20987337","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48867258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1177/2046147x20929670
Melissa L. Janoske McLean, Kelly Vibber
This exploratory qualitative study looks at Death Week, the annual commemoration of Elvis Presley’s death at Graceland in Memphis, TN, as a uniquely important part of tourism-based strategic public relations with a specific focus on the distinctive needs and considerations for dark tourism. Graceland, the second-most visited private home in the United States, offers a unique perspective on relationship building and maintenance, where the focus is less on awareness of Graceland and Elvis, and more on the continuation and generation of relationships to maintain interest across generations. Interviews were conducted with three public relations practitioners connected to Memphis or Elvis Presley Enterprises and 17 Death Week Candlelight Vigil participants, to better understand the promotion, delivery, and evaluation of a dark tourism experience. The impact of neo-tribes, a specific type of fandom, is also discussed as an important factor in continual relationship building with Death Week participants. The article concludes with suggestions for deepening the theoretical connection between dark tourism and public relations, and offers best practices for practitioners engaged in dark tourism relationship building.
{"title":"Remembering the King: Understanding strategic management of and participation in Elvis’ Death Week","authors":"Melissa L. Janoske McLean, Kelly Vibber","doi":"10.1177/2046147x20929670","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147x20929670","url":null,"abstract":"This exploratory qualitative study looks at Death Week, the annual commemoration of Elvis Presley’s death at Graceland in Memphis, TN, as a uniquely important part of tourism-based strategic public relations with a specific focus on the distinctive needs and considerations for dark tourism. Graceland, the second-most visited private home in the United States, offers a unique perspective on relationship building and maintenance, where the focus is less on awareness of Graceland and Elvis, and more on the continuation and generation of relationships to maintain interest across generations. Interviews were conducted with three public relations practitioners connected to Memphis or Elvis Presley Enterprises and 17 Death Week Candlelight Vigil participants, to better understand the promotion, delivery, and evaluation of a dark tourism experience. The impact of neo-tribes, a specific type of fandom, is also discussed as an important factor in continual relationship building with Death Week participants. The article concludes with suggestions for deepening the theoretical connection between dark tourism and public relations, and offers best practices for practitioners engaged in dark tourism relationship building.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"31 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147x20929670","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47351006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-18DOI: 10.1177/2046147X20982524
Laura L. Lemon, Chalise Macklin
This paper conceptually draws the connections between complexity theory and employee engagement. Instead of the tendency to adhere to a binary, dichotomous approach, complexity theory helps move employee engagement forward as a process that is rooted in multiplicity, intricacy, and variance. This approach provides a more sustainable future for employee engagement scholarship by reimagining the ways in which scholars investigate the phenomenon. In providing future research suggestions rooted in complexity, scholarship and practice can transition away from prescriptive, normalized processes and solutions for employee engagement to welcome various approaches that lead to more fluid and organic understanding. The goal is to set a standard of encouraging employee engagement scholars to challenge how they explore employee engagement and to welcome new and innovative ways of examining the phenomenon to provide a sustainable and enriching scholarly conversation.
{"title":"Enriching employee engagement using complexity theory","authors":"Laura L. Lemon, Chalise Macklin","doi":"10.1177/2046147X20982524","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20982524","url":null,"abstract":"This paper conceptually draws the connections between complexity theory and employee engagement. Instead of the tendency to adhere to a binary, dichotomous approach, complexity theory helps move employee engagement forward as a process that is rooted in multiplicity, intricacy, and variance. This approach provides a more sustainable future for employee engagement scholarship by reimagining the ways in which scholars investigate the phenomenon. In providing future research suggestions rooted in complexity, scholarship and practice can transition away from prescriptive, normalized processes and solutions for employee engagement to welcome various approaches that lead to more fluid and organic understanding. The goal is to set a standard of encouraging employee engagement scholars to challenge how they explore employee engagement and to welcome new and innovative ways of examining the phenomenon to provide a sustainable and enriching scholarly conversation.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"221 - 236"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X20982524","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47599133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-12-15DOI: 10.1177/2046147X20979292
Albert A. Anani-Bossman
The study examines the current state of public relations practice in Ghana. The study applied the four principle of generic public relations theory to determine whether PR practice in Ghana was strategic. A mixed mode of survey and in-depth interviews were used to gather data from 108 respondents and 15 interviewees respectively. Findings show PR in Ghana is seldom managed strategically, is practiced more at the technician level than managerial, and is bound to cultural norms of the country.
{"title":"An exploration of strategic public relations management in Ghana","authors":"Albert A. Anani-Bossman","doi":"10.1177/2046147X20979292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20979292","url":null,"abstract":"The study examines the current state of public relations practice in Ghana. The study applied the four principle of generic public relations theory to determine whether PR practice in Ghana was strategic. A mixed mode of survey and in-depth interviews were used to gather data from 108 respondents and 15 interviewees respectively. Findings show PR in Ghana is seldom managed strategically, is practiced more at the technician level than managerial, and is bound to cultural norms of the country.","PeriodicalId":44609,"journal":{"name":"Public Relations Inquiry","volume":"10 1","pages":"73 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2020-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/2046147X20979292","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42944338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}