An Extended Examination of the Crisis Situations: A Fusion of the Relational Management and Symbolic Approaches

TLDR

Relationship history shapes perceptions of the crisis and the organization in crisis. The study integrates relational management and symbolic crisis communication perspectives and proposes a model linking relationship history to crisis variables. The authors fuse the two approaches by centering relationship history within an organization’s performance history and developing a model that incorporates these variables. The experiment confirmed that only negative relationship history produced a velcro effect, linking it to organizational reputation and crisis responsibility.

Abstract

This article begins to integrate ideas from the relational management perspective of public relations with the symbolic approach to crisis communication. The fusion centers on the relation history as part of an organization's performance history. The belief is that relationship affects the crisis situation by shaping perceptions of the crisis and the organization in crisis. The experimental study found support connecting relationship history to the crisis situation. The results are termed the velcro effect because only a negative relationship history produced an effect on organizational reputation and crisis responsibility. The article offers a model of the crisis situation to explain how relationship history fits with the variables used in the symbolic approach.