Are All Crises Opportunities? A Comparison of How Corporate and Government Organizations Responded to the 2009 Flu Pandemic

Abstract

Through a quantitative content analysis, this study applies situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) to investigate how 13 corporate and government organizations responded to the first phase of the 2009 flu pandemic. The results indicate that government organizations emphasized providing instructing information to their primary publics such as guidelines about how to respond to the crisis. On the other hand, organizations representing corporate interests emphasized reputation management in their crisis responses, frequently adopting denial, diminish, and reinforce response strategies. In addition, both government and corporate organizations used social media more often than traditional media in responding to the crisis. Finally, the study expands SCCT's response options.