Contingency theory of strategic conflict management: Directions for the practice of crisis communication from a decade of theory development, discovery and dialogue

Author

Augustine PANG, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Yan JIN
Glen. T. CAMERON

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

1-2010

Abstract

The dilemma facing crisis scholars could not be more paradoxical: How does one explain and predict the outcome of a phenomenon – characteristics which Chaffee and Berger (1987) argued to be the foundation of a theory – that is so contextual-dependent, where the twists and turns of unfolding events often frus-trate the natural ebb of what one could reasonably surmise as logical trajectory? Admittedly, the bête noire for many in the field is that our powers of deductive reasoning, often woven from threads of foraged facts surrounding the unpredictability of crises, are often tragically compromised and encumbered by myriad complex-ities that one can be forgiven to consider crisis communication, which Fearn-Banks (2002) defined as " dialogue between the organization and its public prior to, dur-ing, and after the negative occurrence " (p. 9), being borne out of experience of dealing with uncertainty than erudition to capture a certain semblance of certainty. More art than science. Without doubt, there is a science behind the finesse of crisis communication.

Discipline

Business and Corporate Communications | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Corporate Communication

Publication

Handbook of Crisis Communication

Editor

W. T. Coombs, and S. J. Holladay

First Page

527

Last Page

549

ISBN

9781444361902

Identifier

10.1002/9781444314885.ch26

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

City or Country

Malden, MA

Citation

PANG, Augustine; JIN, Yan; and CAMERON, Glen. T.. Contingency theory of strategic conflict management: Directions for the practice of crisis communication from a decade of theory development, discovery and dialogue. (2010). Handbook of Crisis Communication. 527-549.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6047

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444314885.ch26