Internal Crisis Communication

We live in a crisis society, with traditional media responding on a minute-by-minute basis on daily, seemingly inevitable, organizational crises. Whether crises have become more prevalent or we're simply more aware of them, they are now of great concern to organizations and crisis management and communication is a priority. Most organizations have a crisis response plan; many have dedicated crisis and security management staff. Yet much of the emphasis has been on action outside of the organization. Neglecting communication between managers and employees, they risk poor, inconsistent crisis management and the very real possibility of crisis escalation. Crisis management, like charity, begins in the home.

Internal Crisis Communication is one of the first guides to communication inside organizations, before, during and after a crisis - not just on the acute crisis phase - to provide a complete and holistic guide for managers that will help them manage and contain crises. It includes an in-depth real-life case study, referred to throughout, from the author's own experience, which makes practical application explicit and the methodology clear.

Strengthened by rigorous academic research and tested in real-life crisis situations, the methods included in this book will be invaluable for communication professionals, security officers and crisis managers, as well as valuable reading for students and researchers interested in crisis and risk management.

About the authors, Foreword, Introduction, Large focus on the external perspective, The important internal perspective, Something exceptional or integrated into development? Case organization, Target group for the book, Chapters of the book, 1 Crises and communication, Crises, Organizations and crises, Crisis management, Overconfidence in crisis plans, Phases of a crisis and previous research in crisis communication, 2 Perspectives on crises and crisis communication, Perspectives in research, Approaches in practice, 3 Internal crisis communication, What is internal crisis communication? Previous research on internal crisis communication-an overview The employees-a special and important actor, The goals of internal crisis communication, Different phases require different types of internal communication, 4 Leaders and coworkers-perspectives and roles, Divided research, Sensemaking through framing, The importance of the coworkers, 5 Anticipation-the art of looking for weak signals, Everyone makes mistakes, Mistakes at the hospital and error management, What does the research say? The normal accident theory (NAT), The HRO theory, Organizational silence and upward negative information, The great importance of leadership, 6 Resilience-the art of managing crises and learning, Resilience, Organizational resilience, Crises and organizational learning, 7 What can we learn, and how? Crisis communication-a research field in flux, Both-thinking, Lessons about internal communication before, during and after the crisis, 8 A note on methodology, References, Index