Review Journal of "Understanding Image Restoration Strategies from a Stakeholder Approach" and "Impact of Past Crises on Current Crisis Communication"

Dea Cindy P.S.

135120207121003

Understanding Image Restoration Strategies from a Stakeholder Approach

In this journal, author generally discussed about how we can understanding image restoration strategies through theory of social construction of reality and stakeholder analysis approach in order to regain positive organization image. At first, the journal talked about Thai crisis which was mostly is political crisis. She has an opinion that, we can not applied image restoration carelessly due to Thai context is eastern perspective which has different belief, values, attitudes, and also different expectations among stakeholders. Kessadayurat said, By adding social construction of reality, it was hoped to understand how an organization’s image restoration strategies function in constructing its image, as social reality, for people (Kessadayurat, 2011).

Secondly, the journal discussed about crisis communication and organization image. In organizational image, crisis is perceived as a threat. We will understand what kind of crisis that being faced through variables that are normally found in the examination of a crisis and the organization’s response. That is the reason communication within organization is considered as a means to communicate organizational crisis response strategies to its various publics. Threat arises from the extreme discrepancy between the desired status of an organization, and the status under which it is being. So, the organization have to monitor various possible outcomes and responses. Also, the crisis manager should be able to give a credible explanation within short time towards publics, stakeholders, and related parties in order to save the organization’s image.

To reach an effective way, crisis management needs to consider the importance of publics by shifting and categorizing public. Generally, the way organization manage its crisis is through preventive and restorative approaches. Kessadayurat (2011) said, In preventive approach, issue management by an organization allows two-way communication between organization and public to create mutual understanding. But, restorative approaches is needed when an organization fails to detect issues and it becomes a crisis.

Communication is considered as the essential means to restore a person’s or organization’s image after the crisis. image restoration strategy focuses primarily on the message factor, image restoration deals with the process of communication. to understand the image restoration message as communication process is through the perspective of social construction; particularly, the theory of social construction of reality. reviewing the original concept of social construction of reality would provide a better understanding of how the theory may be applicable to the study of image restoration. It’s regarding with how image is considered as socially constructed reality through communication. language is used to influence one’s understanding and perception towards an organization’s image. Through interaction, communication plays an important role in assigning, reinforcing and maintaining the social meaning for each individual based on common knowledge. theory of social construction of reality will provide a clear understanding of how strategic image restoration messages are communicated to different group of stakeholder as to restore its image. theory of social construction of reality can provide a clear understanding of how communication influences and maintains one’s perception towards a subjective fact towards an organization, socially-created reality, image or how image is considered as socially constructed reality through communication.

            Regarding with stakeholder theory, there are 3 perspective in it. First is broad, focuses on the stakeholder in terms of the mass of public opinion. Second,  narrow a priori, view the stakeholder as objective, or predetermined set of stakeholders categories. Thrid, narrow situational approach which is more fluid and flexible not fixed, depending on the situation. So the purpose of  this journal is develop a deeper understanding on image restoration.

Impact Of Past Crises On Current Crisis Communication

            In this journal, author discussed about a deadly blast ripped in Phillips Petroleum Company facility in Pasadena, Texas and how to overcome using Situational Crisis Communication Theory. SCCT argues that whether people knowabout past crises is an important consideration for crisis managers. Attribution theory holds that people will make judgments about the causes of events, especially unexpected events with negative outcomes. Attributions are perceptions of the causality or the perceived reasons for a particular event’s occurrence. crisis managers can use crisis response strategies in their attempts to shape attributions of the crisis and/or perceptions of the organization itself. Attribution theory provides the link necessary to match crisis response strategies with a crisis situation. SCCT uses the attributions of responsibility to forge a connection between crisis response strategies and the crisis situation.

Crisis responsibility, the degree to which stakeholders attribute responsibility for a crisis to an organization, is the centerpiece of SCCT. Attributions of crisis responsibility are directly related to the reputational threat posed by a crisis. A history of similar crises can indicate that a crisis is stable rather than unstable, thereby increasing attributions of crisis responsibility. Most people receive information about corporations through indirect experiences such as the news. The use of newspaper articles as a stimulus matches well with how nonvictim publics generally encounter a crisis. Areputation is developed through direct and indirect experience with an organization. The information reported in the media is given salience when the reputation is formed, that is, media coverage can shape a reputation. What is reported about the crisis can have a profound effect on the organization’s reputation.

When crises involved product tampering and technical-error product recalls, respondents perceived the reputation of the organization with a history of such crises as significantly more negative than the reputation of an organization without past crises or with an unknown history. The information indicating no past crises manipulation was minimally successful and must be considered when interpreting the results. The product tampering and workplace violence crisis scenarios were shown to generate high attributions of external control and low perceptions of personal control. When news media provide no information about past crises, stakeholders are likely to assume there were no past crises. An organization wants to maintain a clean crisis record because similar past crises will complicate the management of the current crisis. A crisis originally considered a mild reputational threat moved to the moderate threat level and a crisis originally considered a moderate reputational threat moved to the severe threat level when the organization had a history of crises.

The results showed a direct, negative relationship between crisis history and organizational reputation. A history of similar crises lowered perceptions of an organization’s reputation. The results support an indirect relationship between crisis history and organization reputation, too. The crisis history audit would provide reliable information on the crisis history that could help to more accurately evaluate the reputational threat posed by the current situation. Crisis managers always have the option of trying to fight stakeholder attributions, using crisis response strategies in an effort to alter attributions of crisis responsibility. An organization is served better by accepting and working within the constraints of crisis responsibility attributions. Future research should consider the difference between crisis types and crisis clusters. Future research should consider the difference between crisis types and crisis clusters. To exercise control, a researcher has to select a set of variables to use and exclude. SCCT suggest that crisis history should result in crisis managers selecting response strategies that accept greater responsibility.

References:

Coombs, W. T. (2006). Impact of past crises on current crisis communication. Journal of Business Communication, 41 (3), 265-289.

Kessadayurat, C. (2011). Understanding image restoration strategies from a stakeholder approach. Bu Academic Review, 10 (1), 282-287.