Examining the interplay of an organization's prior reputation, CEO's visibility, and immediate response to a crisis

• Published in: Public relations review 2012-11, Vol.38 (4), p.574-583
• Main Authors: Turk, Judy VanSlyke, Jin, Yan, Stewart, Sean, Kim, Jeesun, Hipple, J.R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Business; CEO visibility; Chief executive officers; Communication; Corporate reputation; Crisis response; Executives; Management of crises; Public opinion; Public relations; Reputation management; Reputations; Stakeholders; Studies
• ISSN: 0363-8111; 1873-4537
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.06.012

► We used actual organizations and crises they faced to test findings of a previous study conducted with hypothetical crisis situations. ► We confirmed that both reputation and response to a crisis influenced publics’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward an organization. ► We added a new variable, CEO visibility in a crisis, and tested the interaction of visibility, reputation and crisis response type. ► Our findings were counter-intuitive: a defensive response was just as acceptable as an apology given good reputation and CEO visibility. In one of only a few crisis communication research studies taking a relational approach, examining the effects of a company's prior reputation in publics’ responses to a given crisis situation, Lyons and Cameron (2004) found that both reputation and response profoundly affected publics’ attitude and behavioral intentions toward an organization involved in a crisis situation, using hypothetical, fictitious organizations and crises. Using actual organizations and crises, our research team designed a 2 (reputation: good vs. bad)×2 (crisis response: apologetic vs. defensive)×2 (CEO visibility in immediate crisis response: visible vs. invisible) within-subjects experiment (N=102) to examine the variances in stakeholders’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a company after being exposed to online video that delivered a corporate crisis response. Findings were counter-intuitive: a defensive response to a crisis is as acceptable to crisis stakeholders as an apologetic response if the CEO is visible (or audible) in the response and if the pre-crisis company-stakeholder reputation is positive. Good reputation, defensive crisis response and CEO visibility in immediate response to a crisis resulted in the best stakeholder attitudes and purchase intentions.