An Exploratory Study of Stakeholder Emotions: Affect and Crises

Abstract

This manuscript reports an exploratory investigation to integrate emotions into the study of post-crisis communication. Using the discussion of the role of affect in Attribution Theory, the research integrates emotion into Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), one approach to post-crisis communication. SCCT uses crisis responsibility, how much people believe the organization is responsible for the crisis, to determine the most effective post-crisis communication strategy for protecting the organization's reputation. The research examines the amount of sympathy, anger, and schadenfreude generated by a variety of crisis types. The focus is on the connection between these three emotions and perceptions of crisis responsibility. The results suggest how emotion can be integrated into post-crisis communication and supports the value of including emotion in future research.

Citation

Timothy Coombs, W. and Holladay, S.J. (2005), "An Exploratory Study of Stakeholder Emotions: Affect and Crises", Ashkanasy, N.M., Zerbe, W.J. and Härtel, C.E.J. (Ed.) The Effect of Affect in Organizational Settings (Research on Emotion in Organizations, Vol. 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 263-280. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1746-9791(05)01111-9