Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Media coverage about organisations in critical situations Analysing the impact on employees

Media coverage about organisations in critical situations Analysing the impact on employees Purpose – This research aims to investigate how critical media coverage of an organisation affects its employees. The authors expect the effects to be similar to the way media coverage about an individual would affect this person, termed “reciprocal effects”. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on a framework for the analysis of reciprocal effects of mass media by Kepplinger and qualitative interviews among employees of 14 different organisations undergoing a crisis, the authors develop an employee‐model of reciprocal effects for the context of organisational crises. Findings – This qualitative research shows that employees are affected by media coverage on a critical issue about their employer. Mass media are an important source of information for employees in critical situations. The data indicate interpersonal conversations with colleagues are also important for obtaining information and coping with the situation. Employees show emotional reactions, such as helplessness or shame, and a tendency to defend their employer. The better employees feel informed by their organisation's internal communication, the better they know how to cope with the situation. The data indicate that the effects vary with the employees' level of organisational identification. Practical implications – The findings imply that open and constant internal communication with employees during a crisis fosters reactions that stabilise the organisation in critical situations. Originality/value – The study presented here is the first systematic analysis of the impact of media coverage of an organisation on its employees. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Corporate Communications An International Journal Emerald Publishing

Media coverage about organisations in critical situations Analysing the impact on employees

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/media-coverage-about-organisations-in-critical-situations-analysing-h11JA0IgmQ

References (72)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1356-3289
DOI
10.1108/CCIJ-04-2012-0036
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This research aims to investigate how critical media coverage of an organisation affects its employees. The authors expect the effects to be similar to the way media coverage about an individual would affect this person, termed “reciprocal effects”. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on a framework for the analysis of reciprocal effects of mass media by Kepplinger and qualitative interviews among employees of 14 different organisations undergoing a crisis, the authors develop an employee‐model of reciprocal effects for the context of organisational crises. Findings – This qualitative research shows that employees are affected by media coverage on a critical issue about their employer. Mass media are an important source of information for employees in critical situations. The data indicate interpersonal conversations with colleagues are also important for obtaining information and coping with the situation. Employees show emotional reactions, such as helplessness or shame, and a tendency to defend their employer. The better employees feel informed by their organisation's internal communication, the better they know how to cope with the situation. The data indicate that the effects vary with the employees' level of organisational identification. Practical implications – The findings imply that open and constant internal communication with employees during a crisis fosters reactions that stabilise the organisation in critical situations. Originality/value – The study presented here is the first systematic analysis of the impact of media coverage of an organisation on its employees.

Journal

Corporate Communications An International JournalEmerald Publishing

Published: Oct 4, 2013

Keywords: Employee behaviour; Identification; Mass media; Crisis management; Internal communications

There are no references for this article.