Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and rukun: Managing the trans-boundary haze crisis in Indonesia

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

10-2017

Abstract

Indonesia is home to more than 200 ethnicities who speak more than 300 local languages. This chapter examines how Indonesian cultural characteristics surfaced in the face of government's crisis response in the 2013 transboundary haze crisis when forest fires that raged in Riau, Indonesia, caused the haze to spread to its neighboring countries including Singapore and Malaysia, hitting high levels of air pollution in those countries. The key to tackling the fires in Riau was for the government to determine the cause of the fires, and enforce the law by prohibiting the firms and farmers from burning the forests and peat lands. This crisis showed that the Indonesian government did not exhibit collectivist culture as it did not achieve consensus before making a decision and disseminating messages, in contrast to Hofstede's study. The 2013 transboundary haze episode pressured Indonesia to ratify the haze agreement with ratification finally occurring in September 2014.

Keywords

Haze crisis, collectivist culture, crisis communication, transboundary haze crisis, Indonesia

Discipline

Asian Studies | Business and Corporate Communications | Environmental Policy | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Corporate Communication

Publication

Culture and Crisis Communication: Transboundary Cases from Nonwestern Perspectives

Editor

A. George, & K. Kwansah-Aidoo

First Page

136

Last Page

152

ISBN

9781119081807

Identifier

10.1002/9781119081708.ch8

Publisher

Wiley

City or Country

Hoboken, NJ

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119081708.ch8

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