published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

This thesis explores how the legitimacy and reputation of firms that have experienced severe crises can be restored through the means of crisis management and crisis communication strategies. Our focus is on the airline industry, analyzing how three European airlines have communicated and acted towards important shareholders during and following a fatal airline accident. The airlines that have been compared are Air France, Spanair and SAS; an analysis of their press releases, press conferences, annual reports and websites has been conducted. We found that Air France and SAS communicated more information compared to Spanair and also showed that they had a clear strategy to uphold their legitimacy through the crisis. When dealing with a crisis many stakeholders have a high demand for information and if the airline satisfies this need in a satisfactory way they live up to the stakeholders expectations and gain legitimacy. Communicating a clear strategy as to how the airline is working towards improving flight safety can be seen as an important part of upholding the airline's legitimacy and reputation after an airline accident, something that especially Air France has done through clear safety communications through their annual report and website.

I april 2009 upptäcktes en ny typ av influensa som senare fick namnet A(H1N1). Influensan A(H1N1) innebar en internationell kris och krävde särskilda krishanteringsåtgärder. I Sverige innebar detta att den största nationella massvaccineringen i modern tid genomfördes under hösten 2009 till och med början av 2010. Hanteringen ställde myndigheter, landsting och ansvariga individer inför en rad utmaningar, inte minst gällande planering och kommunikation. Syftet med studien var att studera erfarenheter av och planering inför kriskommunikation vid en pandemi utifrån erfarenheter och uppfattningar hos ansvariga aktörer inom ett landsting. Sju personer som arbetade på olika positioner vid ett landsting intervjuades. Studien har identifierat tre huvudområden. Hur de ansvariga aktörerna beskrev planeringen och kommunikationen vid pandemin, vilka svårigheter och utmaningar aktörerna upplevt i och med kriskommunikationen samt vilka lärdomar och implementeringar som gjorts utifrån ansvariga aktörers erfarenheter. Det framkom att hanteringen fungerade enligt de uppsatta planerna trots att det påpekades att dessa endast skulle ses som en vägledning. Vid hantering av pandemin stötte landstinget på en del svårigheter och utmaningar och för att hantera dessa krävdes ett flexibelt tillvägagångssätt. Efter pandemihanteringen har landstinget samlat på sig lärdomar och idéer om förbättringsområden. Vissa av dessa idéer är redan implementerade i landstingets dagliga arbete och andra är nedskrivna i diverse planverk. Det finns dock lärdomar och erfarenheter som inte är dokumenterade, i dessa fall finns det en risk att lärdomar och erfarenheter lämnar organisationen i och med att medarbetare byts ut. En slutsats var vikten av att alla erfarenheter dokumenteras för att viktig information ska föras vidare till nya medarbetare. / In April 2009 a new type of influenza was identified, which was named the A (H1N1). The influenza A (H1N1) resulted in an international crisis and called for specific management actions. In Sweden the largest national mass vaccination in modern times was conducted from autumn 2009 to early 2010. The crisis management posed authorities, county councils and responsible individuals to face a number of challenges, not to mention the current planning and communication. The purpose of this study was to study the experiences and planning for crisis communications during a pandemic based on experiences and perceptions of responsible actors within a county. Seven people who worked in various positions at the county were interviewed. The study has identified three main areas. How the responsible actors described the planning and communication in time of the pandemic, the difficulties and challenges experienced in the crisis communication by the actors and what lessons and implementations made by the responsible actors' experiences. It was revealed that the crisis management went according to the established plan, but it was also pointed out that the plans would only be seen as a guide. When handling the pandemic the County Council faced number of difficulties and challenges and to manage these a flexible approach was required. After the pandemic management the County Council has accumulated lessons and ideas on areas of improvement. Some of these ideas are already implemented in the daily work of the County Council and others are noted in various planning documents. However, there are lessons and experiences that are not documented, in these cases there is a risk that the lessons and experiences might leave the organization as employees are replaced. A conclusion was the importance that all experiences are documented so that important information will be passed on to new employees.

Bet kuri organizacija savo veikloje anksčiau ar vėliau susiduria su įvairaus pobūdžio krizėmis. Sparčiai vystantis ir modernėjant technologijoms, krizinių situacijų kiekis bei jų įvairovė didėja. Krizinė situacija organizacijai gali atnešti didelių finansinių nuostolių, padaryti daug žalos jos reputacijai ar netgi sužlugdyti organizacijos veiklą. Tačiau tinkamai suvaldyta krizė gali tapti ir naujų postūmių pradžia. Krizių komunikacija yra vienas pagrindinių krizių valdymo elementų. Magistrinio darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti organizacijų komunikacinę elgseną krizės metu teoriniu bei praktiniu aspektais ir pateikti pasiūlymus organizacijų komunikacijos krizių metu veiksmingumui didinti. Tyrimo objektas – organizacijos komunikacija krizinės situacijos metu. Teorinėje darbo dalyje nagrinėjama krizės samprata, priežastys ir ypatybės. Aptariami pasiruošimo krizinėms situacijoms etapai, svarbiausi krizių komunikacijos žingsniai. Pateikiamos galimos krizių komunikacijos strategijos bei modeliai ir jų taikymo ypatumai, taip pat Situacinė krizių komunikacijos teorija ir jos reikšmė organizacijos reputacijai. Tiriamojoje darbo dalyje, remiantis žiniasklaidos analize, nagrinėjamos trys skirtingo pobūdžio organizacijų krizinės situacijos ir šių organizacijų taikytos komunikacinės priemonės, vertinamas jų veiksmingumas. Taip pat pateikiama atliktos ekspertų anketinės apklausos, kuria siekta atskleisti viešųjų ryšių specialistų nuomonę apie krizinių situacijų valdymo ir komunikacijos ypatumus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Later or sooner each organization in its activity meets various kinds of crisis. The amount and variety of critical situations is increasing in a rapid development and enhancement of technologies. Critical situation can bring big financial losses to an organization, cause much damage to reputation or even ruin its activity. However a proper management of a crisis may become a new push forward. Crisis communication is one of the key elements of crisis management. The aim of the Master’s thesis is to analyse the communicational behaviour of organizations during the crisis employing both theoretical and practical dimensions. The object of the research is the communication of the organization in a critical situation. The theoretical part deals with crisis concept, causes and characteristics. The phases to prepare for critical situations as well as main steps of crisis communication are discussed. Possible crisis communication strategies and models, peculiarities of their application as well as Situational crisis communication theory and its importance to the reputation of organization are introduced. With reference to the analysis of the media three critical situations of organization bearing different manner and communicational means that have been applied by these organizations as well as their efficiency has been dealt with in the research part of the thesis. The analysis of the results of conducted expert questionnaire polls, which aimed at disclosing the point of view of... [to full text]

In a crisis managers are confronted with a dilemma between an ethical responsibility to respond to victims and their fiduciary responsibility to protect shareholder’s wealth. This study provides empirical evidence that a company apology made during a crisis can have a positive or negative effect on stock price depending on the level of responsibility for a crisis born by the firm. We use Coombs’ (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory to classify crises and appropriate re-sponse type for 235 unique crises between 1983 and 2013. We use event study methodology to study the effect of an apology on returns. The results show that managers apologizing to those affected for a victim or accidental crisis jeopardize shareholder wealth; however offering an apology for a preventable crisis offsets this negative effect.

The researcher conducted a case study analysis of China Airlines' crisis management during its 1998 crash in Taiwan, the worst in the airport's history.The researcher looked for evidence of Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt's crisis theory in China Airlines' crisis management by identifying the following parts of the theory: issue management, planning prevention, the crisis, and the post-crisis.The researcher sought to suggest the use of Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt's crisis theory in the formative research of China Airlines crisis management and to help public relations planners in the airline industry understand how crisis management incorporating Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt's crisis theory could be presented and disseminated.Procedures began with collection of facts and interviews with the key public relations personnel of China Airlines. Next, the researcher applied Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt's crisis theory to the China Airlines case for analysis. In addition, by viewing the other two airlines crash cases, this study provided a comparison of their crisis management strategies.The researcher followed Miles and Huberman's (1994) guidelines for addressing reliability and validity.Recommendations for improving China air's crisis management would be to use issue management, planning prevention, the crisis, and the post-crisis, the four steps of Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt's crisis theory, for managing crises. The researcher also recommends periodical internal drills for different crises, and establishment of organizational legitimacy and authority.Limitations of the study included the legitimacy of qualitative research, that the study included the legitimacy of qualitative research, thus the study may not be considered a case study in the strictest sense, and that crisis management did not intentionally incorporate the process of Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt's crisis theory in China Airlines' crisis management because of the company's culture issue.Further research on the China Airlines' crisis management should be conducted to evaluate its effectiveness and the culture issue. / Department of Journalism

There have been a number of studies that examine how public relations professionals respond during a crisis including use of traditional legal response and traditional public relations response strategies. The degree of use of either can be influenced by the relationship between legal and public relations professionals. Thus, a pre-crisis relationship between the two groups is important for successful crisis communications. The purpose of this study was to examine media coverage of the Missouri drug dilution case to determine how many of Eli Lilly and Company's public relations messages were carried by the three major media outlets covering the crisis, if there was a difference among the outlets, and whether there was a significant difference in response strategy messages were reported.A content analysis of articles during the crisis period from the Indianapolis Star, the Kansas City Star, and The Associated Press were obtained through a Factiva search and were used to gather responses made by spokespersons. The search yielded 64 usable articles and 254 sentences from company spokespersons.Coders were trained to identify the response strategies defined as traditional public relations strategy, traditional legal strategy, mixed strategy and diversionary strategy. A chi-square test was used to test the hypotheses.The first hypothesis which stated "the number of sentences attributed to Lilly spokespersons in The Indianapolis Star, The Kansas City Star, and the Associated Press in the Missouri drug dilution case will differ significantly" was supported. The second hypothesis which stated "there will be a significant difference in response strategy sentences as defined by Fitzpatrick and Rubin and attributed to Lilly spokespersons in The Indianapolis Star, The Kansas City Star, and the Associated Press during different time periods of the case" was also supported. / Department of Journalism

This study was a replication of Fitzpatrick and Rubin's study of response strategies used in crisis communication. It differed though, in the type of crisis analyzed. While Fitzpatrick and Rubin studied cases of sexual harassment, this study examined oil spills of two supertanker groundings. Both the Exxon Valdez and the Sea Empress groundings, and especially Acomarit and Exxon, the companies responsible were examined by using content analysis. Units of analysis were statements by each company's spokesperson covered in either four American or four Norwegian newspapers. These statements were then categorized as one of four response strategies defined by Fitzpatrick and Rubin which were as follows: (1) The traditional public relations strategy, (2) The traditional legal strategy, (3) Mixed strategy, and, (4) Diversionary strategy.On behalf of these response strategies the study stated two hypotheses:H1: The spokespersons of Acomarit used the traditional public relations strategy significantly more than the traditional legal strategy, as defined by Fitzpatrick and Rubin, in Norwegian newspapers.The hypothesis was accepted.H2: The spokespersons of Exxon used the traditional legal strategy significantly more than the traditional public relations strategy, as defined by Fitzpatrick and Rubin, in American newspapers.The hypothesis was partially accepted.The study used an American and a Norwegian coder to secure reliability. Holsti's coder reliability test yielded eighty percent for the American statements, and seventy percent for the Norwegian statements.The study also indicated that the traditional public relations strategy was the most used response strategy. This was different to what Fitzpatrick and Rubin found in their study. They found the traditional legal strategy was used the most in cases of sexual harassment.However, both Exxon and Acomarit used the traditional public relations strategy more than the traditional legal strategy, but differed significantly in their use of mixed strategy and diversionary strategy. Exxon was found to have used the diversionary strategy significantly more than Acomarit. The researcher indicated that this may have been one of the contributing factors which lead to Exxon's public relations nightmare. In addition, Exxon was found to have used more spokespeople than Acomarit, which in turn may have made it difficult to centralize the information flow. / Department of Journalism

Purpose This thesis aims to provide guidelines for cosmetic companies on how to use social media in times of crisis. Background In today’s society, cosmetic companies can face crises that can vary according to their level of impact and their level of controllability. These crises can go viral and reach a huge amount of stakeholders since social media can take on many different forms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It is important to know how to manage these different com-   munication tools and it is even more crucial in times of crisis. However, social media and the cosmetic industry have not been combined in previous studies. Therefore, it is beneficial for cosmetic companies to have guidelines on how to use social media in times of crisis. Method The method is based on an inductive approach. Benchmarking case studies reflect crises that occurred in industries other than the cosmetic industry. The findings from the case studies are then complemented with a chosen company representative from the cosmetic industry. Finally, a semi-structured interview has been conducted to balance the research and add new valuable information to the investigation. Conclusion Based on the results of the analysis, the authors of the thesis have been able to provide guidelines to cosmetic companies on how to use social media in times of crisis. These guidelines are divided into two parts: the first part advises guidelines to follow while the second part recommends factors to avoid on social media.

De senaste åren har det skett en nedprioritering av risk- och krisföreberedande arbete på kommunal nivå, främst gällande naturkatastrofer. En av anledningarna till detta är att de kommunala medlen prioriteras mot andra saker som exempelvis skola, vård och omsorg. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka lärdomar och förmåga rörande hanteringen av naturkatastrofer på olika myndighetsnivåer i Sverige. Lärdomar studeras utifrån ett verkligt exempel: skogsbranden i Västmanland sommaren 2014. Huvudfokus för uppsatsen är att studera Uppsala kommuns förmåga att hantera en eventuell framtida naturkatastrof. För att undersöka syftet används två teoretiska modeller: Framgångsfaktorer för krishantering samt DROP-modellen. Framgångsfaktorerna används sedan för att se om lärdomar har inhämtats ur skogsbrandskatastrofen. Uppsala kommuns förmåga analyseras genom DROP-modellen, som delas in i ett antal steg. Den kommunala förmågan analyseras i varje steg i modellen för att diskutera om motståndskraft mot en eventuell naturkatastrof finns. Resultatet av undersökningarna visar att lärdomar kan inhämtas från skogsbrandsstudien, men det som är avgörande för om lärdom verkligen tas är om myndigheterna själva aktivt väljer att ta åt sig av erfarenheterna. Dock är det osäkert om Uppsala kommun har förmåga att klara en eventuell naturkatastrof, då det finns prioriterings- och tolkningsproblematik i det beredskapsförebyggande arbetet.