Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

9-2016

Abstract

Ethical communication during crisis response is often assessed by external perceptions of the organization's intentions, rather than an assessment of the organization's communicative behaviors. This can easily lead researchers to draw editorial conclusions about an organization's ethics in crisis response rather than accurately describing its communicative behaviors. The case of BP's 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico provides a prime example for the importance of accurately assessing the ethical content of an organization's crisis response because the ethics of BP's response have been discussed in news and academic sources; yet little direct examination of the ethical content in BP's response has occurred. The findings have implications for communication ethics, social media engagement, and crisis communication more generally.

Keywords

Crisis communication, image repair

Discipline

Business and Corporate Communications | Organizational Behavior and Theory | Organizational Communication

Research Areas

Corporate Communication

Publication

Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management

Volume

24

Issue

3

First Page

148

Last Page

161

ISSN

0966-0879

Identifier

10.1111/1468-5973.12110

Publisher

Wiley: 24 months

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12110

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