Crisis Communication in Public Organisations: Dimensions of Crisis Communication Revisited

TLDR

Research on crisis communication has focused on private organisations' reputation and blame avoidance, leaving a gap in understanding public organisations' crisis communication, which is crucial given their responsibilities for large‑scale crisis events. The study introduces a typology of public organisations' crisis communication and discusses how its dimensions relate to their priorities, processes, and practices. The typology defines four dimensions—reputation‑oriented vs.

Abstract

Research on crisis communication has traditionally focused on private organisations' reputation and blame avoidance strategies. As a result, there is limited knowledge on crisis communication from the perspective of public organisations. This is troublesome as public organisations have substantial responsibilities for preparing, communicating and managing large‐scale crisis events. In order to be able to better conceptualise public organisations' crisis communication, a typology based on communication aims and orientations is introduced. According to the typology, public organisations engage in two dimensions of crisis communication: reputation‐oriented vs. resilience‐oriented and strategic vs. operational. These dimensions are illustrated and discussed by empirical examples from the Q ueensland floods of 2010/2011. The paper ends with a discussion on how to understand these dimensions of crisis communication in relation to public organisations' priorities, processes and practices.