Who says what during crises? A study about the interplay between gender similarity with the spokesperson and crisis response strategyHannelore Crijns, An-Sofie Claeys, Veroline Cauberghe and Liselot Hudders Journal of Business Research, 2017, vol. 79, issue C, 143-151 Abstract: This study examined the relative importance of verbal and visual cues in organizational crisis communication, focusing on the importance of gender similarity between an organizational spokesperson and stakeholders and the moderating role of the crisis response strategy used. The findings indicate that gender similarity is beneficial for organizational reputation because it enhances stakeholders' empathy toward the spokesperson. However, this effect is only found when the spokesperson uses an appropriate crisis response strategy based on the guidelines of situational crisis communication theory. More specifically, when a spokesperson offers a rebuild strategy in the context of a preventable crisis, gender similarity results in more empathy toward the spokesperson and, subsequently, in improved organizational reputation. However, the effect of gender similarity on organizational reputation through empathy toward the spokesperson was not found when a deny strategy was used. Keywords: Crisis communication; Gender similarity; Empathy; Organizational reputation; Crisis response strategy; Apologies (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:79:y:2017:i:c:p:143-151 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.06.010 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.