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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 May 2023

Hogne Lerøy Sataøen and Mats Eriksson

The aim of the study is to deepen the knowledge about municipalities' risk communication for preparedness. This objective was pursued by analyzing how risk communication functions…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the study is to deepen the knowledge about municipalities' risk communication for preparedness. This objective was pursued by analyzing how risk communication functions were organized in municipalities and by scrutinizing tensions in risk communication management.

Design/methodology/approach

The study relies on 19 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with communication practitioners in Swedish municipalities. The sample was purposive and included Swedish municipalities varying in number of inhabitants, geographical location, degree of urbanization, size and risk profile.

Findings

Risk communication is seen as a sub-field of crisis communication in municipalities' communication management. The task of initiating risk communication activities and campaigns is frequently assigned to the municipalities' safety units or emergency coordinators and is normally not part of communication practitioners' duties. Municipal communication practitioners often face challenges in trying to demonstrate the significance of the practitioners' role in risk communication and other risk-related activities within the municipality. The practitioners' work is characterized by four categories of tensions that are identified as follows: constitutional/legal, organizational, cultural and technological.

Practical implications

The identified tensions in risk communication are important for reflexive practitioners to consider, and the paper suggests three steps that municipal communication managers can take to handle them.

Originality/value

The study contributes with novel knowledge about municipal communication management in a context of risk communication. The study challenges the existing and dominant risk communication research and offers a more contextual and reflexive understanding of actual risk communication processes in municipalities.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 January 2024

Mohamed Elkbuli, Nurhidayah Azmy and Chia Kuang Lee

Although there has been an increase in the application of a variety of robust technologies and systems, the oil and gas sector relies on project managers’ soft skills for success…

Abstract

Purpose

Although there has been an increase in the application of a variety of robust technologies and systems, the oil and gas sector relies on project managers’ soft skills for success because of their vital role. Therefore, this study aims to explore the profound influence of project managers’ soft communication skills on successful risk management within Libya’s oil and gas projects.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of relevant literature and a quantitative approach through the administration of a questionnaire were used to determine factors impacting risk management implementation related to managerial communication skills. A total of 246 valid responses were received from the oil and gas companies in Tripoli, Libya. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to examine the direct and moderating relationship drawn by the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings suggest that managerial soft skills may be used to improve continuous risk management processes and intra-project communication. It was found that the experience is strengthening the positive relationship between written communication soft skills and project risk management implementation among Libyan oil and gas construction projects.

Originality/value

This study defines project managers’ soft communication skills and analyzes project managers’ soft communication skills with the role of experience as a moderator. This paper presents a valuable contribution by offering original insights tailored explicitly to the Libyan context. The information presented in this paper is relevant to project managers operating within the oil and gas industry. It also offers a novel approach to risk management in the Libyan oil and gas industry that can improve project efficiency and effectiveness.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 August 2020

Bapon Fakhruddin, Jassodra Kuizon and Craig Glover

Hazard risk communication has arguably been a challenge, especially in communities which are susceptible to multiple hazards. Orewa was specially chosen for this research in order…

Abstract

Hazard risk communication has arguably been a challenge, especially in communities which are susceptible to multiple hazards. Orewa was specially chosen for this research in order to provide a complete assessment of the effectiveness of communicating New Zealand's early warning strategy in a multi-hazard area. Two categories of surveys were undertaken; experts and academics in emergency management and disaster risk resilience and the Orewa community. A semi-qualitative indicator-based analysis was conducted with the normalization of index values which resulted in four (4) categories; risk perception, risk awareness, risk governance and uncertainty, trust and credibility. The resulting vulnerability index indicated that risk perception and uncertainty, trust and credibility ranked the highest, followed by risk awareness and risk governance. Risk perception had stark differences between what the community perceives as being most at risk from to what the experts deem to be the highest risk for Orewa. This has implications for policy directives as well as funding for risk reduction. Uncertainty, trust and credibility was another area which indicated conflicting sentiments between the community and experts. The community generally trusts decision-makers but the experts think they don't. This shows that the community is aware of their risks, but may not necessarily believe that the experts are providing enough efforts in what is of importance to them. Risk governance is not a vulnerable area to the experts as they have been actively engaging in hazards that they deem Orewa was most at risk from. Any breakdown in communication can have detrimental effects if multiple hazards were to occur at once in the case of Orewa.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 February 2024

Christian Schwägerl, Peter Stücheli-Herlach, Philipp Dreesen and Julia Krasselt

This study operationalizes risks in stakeholder dialog (SD). It conceptualizes SD as co-produced organizational discourse and examines the capacities of organizers' and…

Abstract

Purpose

This study operationalizes risks in stakeholder dialog (SD). It conceptualizes SD as co-produced organizational discourse and examines the capacities of organizers' and stakeholders' practices to create a shared understanding of an organization’s risks to their mutual benefit. The meetings and online forum of a German public service media (PSM) organization were used as a case study.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors applied corpus-driven linguistic discourse analysis (topic modeling) to analyze citizens' (n = 2,452) forum posts (n = 14,744). Conversation analysis was used to examine video-recorded online meetings.

Findings

Organizers suspended actors' reciprocity in meetings. In the forums, topics emerged autonomously. Citizens' articulation of their identities was more diverse than the categories the organizer provided, and organizers did not respond to the autonomous emergence of contextualizations of citizens' perceptions of PSM performance in relation to their identities. The results suggest that risks arise from interactionally achieved occasions that prevent reasoned agreement and from actors' practices, which constituted autonomous discursive formations of topics and identities in the forums.

Originality/value

This study disentangles actors' practices, mutuality orientation and risk enactment during SD. It advances the methodological knowledge of strategic communication research on SD, utilizing social constructivist research methods to examine the contingencies of organization-stakeholder interaction in SD.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 December 2022

Abyshey Nhedzi and Caroline Muyaluka Azionya

This study answers the call for research and theorising exploring ethical communication and brand risk from the African continent. The study's purpose was to identify the…

1105

Abstract

Purpose

This study answers the call for research and theorising exploring ethical communication and brand risk from the African continent. The study's purpose was to identify the challenges that strategic communication practitioners face in enacting ethical crisis communication in South Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

The researchers conducted ten in-depth interviews with South African strategic communication professionals.

Findings

The dominant theme emerging from the study is the marginalisation and exclusion of the communication function in decision-making during crisis situations. Communicators were viewed as implementers, technicians and not strategic counsel. The protection of organisational reputation was done at the expense of the ethics and moral conscience of practitioners. Practitioners were viewed and deployed as spin doctors and tools to face unwanted media interactions.

Originality/value

The article sheds light on the concepts of ethical communication and decision-making in a multicultural African context using the moral theory of Ubuntu and strategic communication. It demonstrates the tension professionals experience as they toggle between unethical capitalist approaches and African values. The practitioner's role as organisational moral conscience is hindered, suppressed and undermined by organisational leadership's directives to use opaque, complex communication, selective transparency and misrepresentation of facts.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 28 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 August 2023

Xin Tian, Wu He, Yuming He, Steve Albert and Michael Howard

This study aims to examine how different hospitals utilize social media to communicate risk information about COVID-19 with the communities they serve, and how hospitals' social…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how different hospitals utilize social media to communicate risk information about COVID-19 with the communities they serve, and how hospitals' social media messaging (firm-generated content and their local community's responses (user-generated content) evolved with the COVID-19 outbreak progression.

Design/methodology/approach

This research proposes a healthcare-specific social media analytics framework and studied 68,136 tweets posted from November 2019 to November 2020 from a geographically diverse set of ten leading hospitals' social media messaging on COVID-19 and the public responses by using social media analytics techniques and the health belief model (HBM).

Findings

The study found correlations between some of the HBM variables and COVID-19 outbreak progression. The findings provide actionable insight for hospitals regarding risk communication, decision making, pandemic awareness and education campaigns and social media messaging strategy during a pandemic and help the public to be more prepared for information seeking in the case of future pandemics.

Practical implications

For hospitals, the results provide valuable insights for risk communication practitioners and inform the way hospitals or health agencies manage crisis communication during the pandemic For patients and local community members, they are recommended to check out local hospital's social media sites for updates and advice.

Originality/value

The study demonstrates the role of social media analytics and health behavior models, such as the HBM, in identifying important and useful data and knowledge for public health risk communication, emergency responses and planning during a pandemic.

Details

Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 36 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0398

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 October 2023

Tri Lam, Jon Heales and Nicole Hartley

The continuing development of digital technologies creates expanding opportunities for information transparency. Consumers use social media to provide online reviews that are…

Abstract

Purpose

The continuing development of digital technologies creates expanding opportunities for information transparency. Consumers use social media to provide online reviews that are focused on changing levels of consumer trust. This study examines the effect of perceived risk that prompts consumers to search for online reviews in the context of food safety.

Design/methodology/approach

Commitment-trust theory forms the theoretical lens to model changes in consumer trust resulting from online reviews. Consumer-based questionnaire surveys collected data to test the structural model, using structural equation modelling (SEM).

Findings

The findings show when consumers perceive high levels of risk, they use social media to obtain additional product-related information. The objective, unanimous, evidential and noticeable online reviews are perceived as informative to consumers. Perceived informativeness of positive online reviews is found to increase consumers trust and, in turn, increase their purchase intentions.

Originality/value

The findings contribute to the knowledge of online review-based trust literature and provide far-reaching implications for information system (IS)-practitioners in business.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 November 2023

Qiuwen Ma, Sai On Cheung and Shan Li

Integrated project delivery (IPD) project that does not use multiparty agreement is identified as IPD-ish. The use of IPD-ish arrangement by incorporating integration practices in…

Abstract

Purpose

Integrated project delivery (IPD) project that does not use multiparty agreement is identified as IPD-ish. The use of IPD-ish arrangement by incorporating integration practices in conventional contract can be viewed as the part of the adoption process of IPD. Moreover, inappropriate integration practices invite new forms of risks and the absence of multiparty agreement adds to the challenges of risk management in IPD-ish projects. This study discusses such challenges and proposes the use of joint risk management to address the potential pitfalls in IPD-ish arrangement.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed research method was applied. First, the criticality of IPD-ish general and integration-specific risks was examined through a survey. Second, a real IPD-ish project was used to exemplify the use of joint risk management (JRM) to manage IPD-ish risks.

Findings

Two types of risks, namely integration risks (IRs) and general risks (GRs), are identified in IPD-ish projects. Two major findings for the IRs: (1) the most critical IRs are related to unbalanced incentivization and inefficient multidisciplinary teams; and (2) only team formation related pre-contract JRM strategies affect IRs. As for the GRs, the most critical ones are associated with design issues and can be effectively mitigated by post-contract JRM.

Originality/value

Using IPD-ish arrangement is an inevitable part of implementation of full IPD. This happens as many change-averse owners would like to test the integration principles using a conventional contract that they are familiar with. In fact, success in IPD-ish would pave the path for further adoption of IPD. This study offers insight into categorization of risks in IPD-ish projects. Appropriate use of post-contract and organization related pre-contract JRM would improve the chance of teasing out the values of IPD through IPD-ish arrangements. Care should be taken to introduce some contracting integration initiatives, such as risk/reward sharing incentive.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2023

Carolyn A. Lagoe, Derek Newcomer and Ashley Fico

The purpose of this study is to consider the potential use of social marketing to enhance safety compliance in a biomedical research laboratory.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to consider the potential use of social marketing to enhance safety compliance in a biomedical research laboratory.

Design/methodology/approach

This project used focus group discussions (n = 32) and semi-structured interviews (n = 10) to gather information on occupational health and safety professionals’ perceptions of safety culture, knowledge of barriers and facilitators of safety at the worksite and insights on how to effectively communicate safety information to employees through a campaign effort.

Findings

Results outlined the barriers (e.g. structural obstacles, lack of awareness of policies, perception of occupational safety and health professionals as safety police) and facilitators (e.g. rapport building, partnering with formal leadership and demonstrating the value of services) of safety and safety communication.

Originality/value

Results from this work add to theoretical and practical knowledge regarding how risk may be effectively addressed by using social marketing and health behavior theories to promote voluntary adherence to existing rules and recommendations.

Details

Journal of Social Marketing, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-6763

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 March 2023

Hanene Oueslati, Saloua Bennaghmouch-Maire, Martine Deparis and Marie-Catherine Paquier

The aim of this research work is to consider the relevance of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related social media communication in franchise networks, with a focus on the…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this research work is to consider the relevance of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related social media communication in franchise networks, with a focus on the perceptions and expectations of franchisors and franchisees and franchisors and franchisees' customers.

Design/methodology/approach

Three studies were conducted as part of this research: two qualitative studies with franchisors and franchisees in the first instance (N = 39) and franchisors and franchisees' customers in the second instance (N = 13), as well as an online ethnographic study of customer reactions (N = 871) to different CSR communications from the networks already interviewed.

Findings

The results show that CSR communication remains very important in a context characterised by a growing interest in CSR commitment in companies in general and in franchise networks in particular. However, different conditions of effectiveness of this CSR communication have been identified. The different conditions can avoid CSR's detrimental effects and increase CSR's credibility.

Practical implications

In franchise networks, the task of communicating about CSR is complex. This requires the integration of franchisees, which are very important to CSR's success. CSR communication also requires integrating customers by studying their expectations at this level. This study gives the basic keys to the success of CSR communication in franchise networks, from the point of view of franchisors, franchisees and the customers of franchisors and franchisees.

Originality/value

This study focusses on a topic that has received very little attention, particularly in franchise networks. The various studies conducted allow us to better understand the particularities of CSR communication, particularly in the context of tripartite franchisor–franchisee–customer relations.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 51 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

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