Journal of Public Relations Research

Nekmat, Elmie; Kong, Dewei

2019 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2019.1644644

This study expands the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) with rumor theory to examine the influence of online rumors on attribution of organizational crisis responsibility and attitude toward organization during a period of crisis uncertainty. Controlling for crisis issue involvement, findings from a three-group with control online experiment (N = 366) revealed that people tend to believe fact-based rumors more than rumors with subjective claims, leading to greater organizational blame and, consequently, more negative attitudes toward the organization. Findings extend the theoretical premise of rumor as postulated in SCCT with evidence that online rumors pose different levels of crisis attribution and reputational threat to organizations and suggest that organizational responses to fact-based rumors might need to be viewed beyond a victim-type crisis.

Kang, Minjeong; Sung, Minjung

2019 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2019.1680988

This study examined the effects of perceptions of organizational justice on the quality of relationships between employees and organizations, employee job engagement, and subsequent effects on employee turnover intention. Drawing from two complementary approaches (relationship management and human resources management perspectives), the current study proposed a model of employee turnover intention as the ultimate negative outcome of the relationship quality that employees perceive to have developed with their organization, which is predicted by perceptions of organizational justice. Additionally, the current study incorporated employee job engagement as the mediator connecting the EOR with the turnover intention. The results of an in-person survey of 438 salespeople for a South Korean company revealed that organizational justice perceptions had a significant and direct influence on the EOR quality. The findings further revealed that high perceptions of organizational justice by employees affected job engagement, which in turn negatively influenced turnover intention. Employee job engagement was also found to mediate the direct effects of justice perceptions and EOR on turnover intention.

Lemon, Laura L.

2019 Journal of Public Relations Research

doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2019.1704288

This study sought to understand the lived experiences of employees by taking a co-creational approach to examine how employees make meaning of employee engagement. Phenomenological interviews (n = 32) revealed that engagement starts with dialogue supported by active listening. Formal internal communication emerged from the data as a contributor to meaning-making, but not to the extent the previous literature would suggest. Dialogic interactions carried more weight in constructing employee engagement. Thus, the findings demonstrate that the meaning of employee engagement is in fact a paradoxical balancing act between co-creational and functionalistic approaches, offering an alternative theoretical understanding of how employees make meaning of their engagement experiences.