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Defending their employer on LinkedIn or attacking their organization on Twitter: a ubiquitous social-mediated environment allows employees of crisis-stricken organizations to reach out to a mass audience with only a few keystrokes. But is such employee social-mediated crisis communication an opportunity or a threat to their organizations? By developing the perspective of employees in contrast to consumers, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of employee social-mediated crisis communication on organizational reputation.

An online survey experiment was conducted among 386 participants constituting the publics of an organization.

The findings demonstrate the importance of moderating effects of message framing (advocacy vs adversary) and medium (blog vs microblog). They show that in comparison to consumers, employees attacking their organization on social media, particularly via media such as blog, cause disproportionally more damage to organizational reputation.

While the significant effects of employees’ adversary message might make them a threat for organizations, it is argued that the fact that employees are equally as effective as advocates for their organizations as consumers also constitutes an opportunity.

Organizations need to be cognizant of the threats posed by employees’ crisis communication as well as aim to reap opportunities offered by these credible communicators by considering strategies such as authentically integrating employees in the official crisis communication response.

By comparing the role of the two groups of stakeholders (employees vs consumers) in crisis communication, the study contributes to an important audience-centered perspective.

This chapter studies crisis communication within the backdrop of tourism social media. The Scandinavian airline SAS is chosen as a case study due to the recognition of the airline’s social media presence during the 2010 ash cloud crisis. The study relies on netnographic and content analysis methods to examine Facebook postings throughout the life-cycle stages of the crisis as well as an interview with a social media representative at the airline. The social mediated crisis communication model is applied to situational crisis communication theory, and the findings show that social media provide a beneficial channel during a crisis. However, it is necessary for organizations to recognize stakeholders’ needs during a crisis as social media presence alone does not ensure success.

The purpose of the study was to explore multidirectional flows of information over the course of an emergency. The following research questions were designed to guide this study: How does social media communication unfold over the course of an emergency at a cultural event? How does the nature and purpose of social media communication between all SM users change once an emergency occurs that affects event operations? How does the sentiment of social media communication change once an emergency occurs that affects event operations?

This study explored how social media was used to communicate about on-site emergencies at community cultural events. Three events were studied before, during and after an on-site emergency that disrupted the event. The Twitter and Facebook posts referencing emergencies that took place at Shambhala, Detonate and Zombicon were explored, and the nature and purpose of the posts revealed how online communication changed throughout the emergencies. The Social Mediated Crisis Communication Model guided this research and findings contribute to the model's ongoing development by incorporating additional theories and models.

The research demonstrates that social media communication shifts during an emergency and how communication moves through a network changes. Once an emergency is underway, communication increases and who is talking with whom changes. The nature and purpose of the social media conversation also evolves over the course of an emergency.

This study examined the social media communication during three on-site emergencies at three different cultural events. The findings contribute to the understanding of the Social Media Crisis Communication Model. Specifically, the research confirms the various actors who engage online but also shows that two-way communication is not common. As this study only examined three events experiencing three different emergencies, we have a limited understanding of how the type of emergencies affects social media communication.

The findings show the need for pre-crisis work by event organizers. It is necessary for the events to build trust with their online communities to ensure that when an emergency occurs the event will be seen as a trusted source. Also, staff training is needed to ensure people are prepared to handle the complexities of communicating online during an emergency. Issues like misinformation, influencers and the rapid pace of social media communication create a challenging environment for staff who are unprepared.

Emergencies can threaten the survival of event organizations and put the health and wellness of attendees, staff and other stakeholders at risk. The study of crisis communication in special event contexts has received little theoretical attention and yet it is an important area of event management practice. Social media is an essential part of communication strategies and should be integrated into emergency planning to best reach people when an emergency threatens the safety of those involved with the event. The Social Media Crisis Communication Model offers some insight, but understanding its relevance is necessary if it is to be integrated into event emergency management.

A number of studies have documented the use and popularity of social networking sites among Millennials and late Millennials, especially in Western countries. However, the usage of these sites by non-Western young adults/late Millennials has just barely begun. Informed by literature and findings of recent research on audience information-seeking behavior and principles governing the usage of social media to obtain and disseminate crisis-related information, the purpose of this paper is to employ survey research to examine how senior PR-track non-Western late Millennial university students use social media to obtain and/or disseminate information on issues they perceived as “crises.”

A combination of survey research and critical communication methods were used to gather and analyze data from a sample of future non-Western budding PR professionals. Survey research was designed and used to investigate social media use among PR-major students studying at a large State University in the Mediterranean region to probe their perceptions of these media as forums for activism during moments of crisis. Questionnaire was designed to elicit responses on social media use and perceptions on a range of crisis-communication related issues, and their responses on the Likert scale that were later analyzed using the SPSS (version 21) program.

These future PR professionals appreciated the suitability of social media in disseminating crisis-communication messages. They also highlighted challenges that unethical use of such platforms pose to PR professionals. Social network sites were reported to be the most popular social media platforms used during crisis communication. Even though the respondents widely reported using social media to disseminate information during crisis situations – and answered in the affirmative that the use of social media at such times could positively contribute to social change, they did not consider themselves as activists who actively contribute to fostering of peace and justice.

A number of studies have documented the use of social networking sites among Millennials especially in Western countries. However, the usage of these sites by non-Western late Millennials has just barely begun. This paper attempts to do this. The study explored social media usage by the non-Western late Millennial PR-track university students. Attempts were also made to elicit such PR professionals’ perceptions of whether social media contribute to activist movements and social change during crisis, and whether they physically acted as activist on social media to contribute to the improvement of societal ills, and to bring local/global peace or not.

Crisis communication is an essential component of crisis management in hospitality and tourism. Yet few studies have offered a clear impression of the state of knowledge in this area. As one of the early conceptual attempts, this study aims to contribute to the existing knowledge by analyzing, comparing and synthesizing the literature in crisis communication and hospitality and tourism research. This study also proposes a transactional and dynamic crisis communication model that lays the conceptual foundation for future research.

This study was guided by a theory synthesis approach and analyzed the related literature. More specifically, this study conducted a rapid review of the general crisis communication research and a conventional, systematic review of crisis communication research in hospitality and tourism. Based on the review findings, this study further develops a transactive and dynamic crisis communication model in hospitality and tourism, which is fundamental for future studies in this area.

The findings of this study are presented through a literature review of general crisis communication research and crisis communication research in hospitality and tourism and the development of a transactive and dynamic crisis communication model in hospitality and tourism.

This study reviews the literature and develops an integrated model for crisis communication in hospitality and tourism. The findings of this study lay the conceptual foundation for crisis communication in hospitality and tourism and reveal future research venues.

By offering a state-of-the-art review and developing an integrated conceptual model, the findings of this study can help bridge the gaps between academics and practices as well as serve as references for practitioners to identify and develop effective crisis responses.

This paper represents an early effort to review crisis communication research in hospitality and tourism and conceptualize the subject area through an integrated model. The findings of this study contribute to the further conceptual development of crisis communication in hospitality and tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a crisis affects public attitudes toward stigmatized service workers (SSWs) who are blamed by the media for the event.

Hypotheses grounded in two theories, crisis communication and empathic concern, are tested using two experimental design studies of 180 and 107 adult respondents.

The effects of both empathy (positive) and anger (negative) on attitudes toward the SSWs involved in crisis are mediated by controllability of attribution of crisis. Empathic concern mitigates negative public attitudes toward stigmatized workers and appears to remove the effect of anger but only when the crisis severity is not too high. In a severe crisis both empathy and anger are important predictors of public response.

Boundary conditions in terms of severity, nature and victim of crisis and media framing need to be investigated.

Proactive crisis management practice is required by professional associations of SSW. Eliciting empathy and paying attention to prior crisis history and professional reputation offers scope to quell public anger and desire for punishment.

The attrition rates of socially stigmatized workers following crisis events have profound social and financial costs to society. This study sets a foundation for substantive managerial change in crisis response, and how the perception of socially stigmatized workers, is managed.

This study is the first to examine the voracity of two theories which provide informed but different insights to public response to service workers in crisis.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Based on social exchange theory, the study examines the influence of informational and relational internal communication on cognitive and affective responses and job engagement during organizational crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data were collected by means of an online survey among people working in organizations with a minimum of 10 employees (N = 1,033) and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results show that informational and relational communication as organizational resources have a significant but distinct influence on how employees support their employer during the crisis. While informational communication influences employees' acceptance of managerial decisions, relational communication exerts most influence on affective commitment, which is the strongest driver of job engagement.

The cross-sectional design, specific crisis situation and geographic location are limitations of the study.

Delivering relevant information to employees quickly and reliably is important. Yet, relationship-oriented communication that demonstrates appreciation and allows for participation has even stronger effects on job engagement, which is essential to mastering challenges arising from a crisis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations demanded much from their employees. In exchange, organizations should provide the resources information, status and love (Foa and Foa, 1980) by means of internal crisis communication.

The study demonstrates the role of different types of internal communication during organizational crises used to convey organizational resources, and it highlights the mediating role of acceptance and commitment to enhance employees' engagement at work.