Crisis Communication Theories In Crisis Management

Situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) was introduced by Coombs in 1995. He pioneered the application of attribution theory to crisis management in public relations literature. It builds on Weiner’s attribution theory (1986) which explained how people make causal attributions. SCCT articulates the variables, assumptions, and relationships in a crisis situation. It holds that crisis managers should consider these in advance when selecting crisis response strategies to protect an organization’s reputation. SCCT is premised on matching the crisis response to the level of crisis responsibility attributed to a crisis. To explain this model, the various relationships in SCCT are presented as propositions. Organizational reputation proposition

However, the threat posed by a crisis extends to behavioral intentions as well. SCCT is an increasingly influential theory in crisis communication research. It assumes an organization’s reputation is a valuable resource that can be seriously damaged by any crisis. Effective crisis management can minimize the damage and may allow an organization to emerge stronger than it was before the crisis. To summarize the guidelines provided by SCCT, the concerned crisis response strategy should be added to any crisis with victims, in order to express compassion for the victims at a loss. SCCT maintains that as attributions of crisis responsibility and/or the threat of reputational damage increases, crisis managers must use crisis response strategies that can reflect a greater concern for victims and take more responsibility for the crisis. SCCT allows crisis managers to understand the effect of choosing a nonmatching strategy by indicating why the effectiveness of the response is reduced. SCCT therefore helps crisis managers to protect reputational assets

This case study was analyzed based on the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), which is premised on matching the crisis response to the level of crisis responsibility attributed to a crisis. SCCT emphasizes that an organization should match the situation and crisis in order to select the most appropriate and beneficial reaction to help it deal with a crisis (Coombs, 2007). This theory holds that the effectiveness of communication strategies depends on: first, identifying the situation an organization is facing ; second, determining whether there is a crisis history, which refers to whether an organization has experienced similar crises or not; last, selecting the right response toward the