Communication and Attributions in a Crisis: An Experimental Study in Crisis Communication

This study provides a partial test of a symbolic approach to crisis management. The symbolic approach examines the strategies used to respond to crises. The study concentrated on the match between crisis type and crisis response strategy. An experimental design was used to explore how crisis type, organization performance history and crisis response were associated with the image of an organization. Additional analyses explored how causal attributions varied according to crisis type. For the cases tested, the results supported the use of the crisis response strategies recommended by the symbolic approach. The results of the experiment supported the basic assumptions of the approach. The implications and directions for future investigations using the symbolic model are discussed.