CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AS A BASIS FOR SUCESSFUL ORGANIZATIONAL CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

Contents

Introduction 3
1. Crisis Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility 6
1.1 Organizational Communications and their connection to CSR and Crisis communications 6
1.2 Crisis and Crisis Communications 8
1.3 Crisis and Reputation 9
1.4 Situational Crisis Communications Theory 10
1.5 Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication 12
2. Corporate Social Responsibility 15
2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Reputation 15
2.2 Corporate Social Responsibility and its Perceived Sincerity 16
2.3 Corporate Social Responsibility and Crisis Communications Interconnection 18
3. SPEAKING Grid by Dell Hymes 20
4. Case Study 23
4.1 Pfizer case 23
4.2 Situational Crisis Communication Theory Implementation 26
4.3 Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Theory Implementation 28
4.4 SPEAKING Grid by Dell Hymes Implementation 31
5. Artificial Case Study Analysis 36
5.1 Artificial Case Study Design 36
5.2 Results Interpretation 39
Conclusion 43
References 46
Appendix 1 53
Appendix 2 57

1.1 Organizational Communications and their connection to CSR and Crisis communications
This research tackles various issues of multicultural corporate communications and aims at tracking the interconnection between such notions as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and crisis communications. In order to sufficiently navigate the topic, it is crucial to establish the definitions and link those definitions to the existing framework of organizational communications.
Yet before moving forward to corporate communications, we should agree upon the notion of communications in general. Various definitions of communications have been presented in the course of the field development, yet the researches are still working at designing the most precise and contemporary definition of communications.
...

1.2 Crisis and Crisis Communications
Contemporary organizations encounter various types of crises during their life cycles. There are natural disasters, major changes in the economy, or any other events which threaten organizational existence and development. In this research, we refer to crisis as to an event that threatens organizational reputation, undermines its relationship to the stakeholders and occurs due to the real or perceived fault of the organization.
As a mean to tackle those reputational threatening events, organizations are to indulge in crisis communications which have been defined by Hansen-Norn & Neff as "communications aimed at softening the adverse consequences of a reputational threat and maintaining high-quality relationships with the customers" (Hansen-Norn & Neff, 2007).
D.
...

1.3 Crisis and Reputation
Before moving on to the SCCT and CERC models it is important to establish a solid link between crisis and reputation of an organization. W. Benoit and A. Pang define image as "a subjective impression of an organization formed through one's experience with that organization and interpreted are based on other past experiences". Their work "Crisis Communication and Image Repair Discourse" will be further used here to describe the connection that exists between crisis communications and reputation(Benoit & Pang, 2008).
Reputation due to Benoit and Pang is a huge asset in organizational performance, it influences the stock prices, the amount of attention an organization receives from the government, and the possibilities of aligning with new partners and attracting new customers. Reputation heavily depends on what an organization does and says. It also depends on what other people do or say in regards to the organization.
...

1.4 Situational Crisis Communications Theory
So far, various accommodative crisis response strategies have been put forward by scholars. Many of those works propose public apology and acceptance of the crisis responsibility (e.g., Benoit, 1995; Sellnow, Ulmer, & Snider, 1998). Yet, even though the open approach may show the responsibility of an organization, it is still dangerous for many organizations to accept any misdeeds publicly, as there is a danger of a weakened legal stance in a case of a lawsuit and further reputation loss (Fitzpatrick, 1995; Tyler, 1997). Situational Crisis Communications Theory (SCCT), firstly proposed by Coombs in 1995, however, argues for a personalized approach to crisis communications, distinguishing several types of crisis with several corresponding response strategies.
In an event of a reputational threat, Coombs claims it to be unethical to set reputation as an organization’s first priority (Coombs, 2002).
...

2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Reputation
Before moving on to defining corporate social responsibility it is crucial to understand the general importance of socially responsible organizational behavior among the stakeholders of various organizations. The research shows that consumers nowadays are more and more concerned with the ethical part of an organization's behavior. 87 % of American consumers report choosing a brand associated with ethical behavior. Likewise, 85 % of consumers consider switching from one brand to another if the second one appears to be more socially responsible. 66 % of the respondents have reported boycotting the brand if associated with unethical behavior (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010). Reputation is crucial for an organization to maintain its customers and conduct productive communications, while customers tend to care more and more about an organization's stance on social responsibility.
...

2.2 Corporate Social Responsibility and its Perceived Sincerity
The main assumption of this research of CSR having a potential to influence the outcomes of crisis communications has been, to a great extent, inspired by the work of Yeosun Yoon, Zeynep Giirhan-Canli, and Norbert Schwarz "The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities on Companies With Bad Reputations". The main idea of the research is that the effectiveness of CSR communication mostly depends on the perceived sincerity of organizational motives. CSR communications being perceived as sincere and honest would add to the organizational reputation, whereas CSR communications perceived as aiming for pure publicity would backfire and create more tension and mistrust in the course of organizational communications.
...

2.3 Corporate Social Responsibility and Crisis Communications Interconnection
The main purpose of this research is to analyze the interconnection between the success or failure of crisis communications and corporate social responsibility stance of a certain organization. Both spheres have received a significant amount of attention from the scholars, however, not much information is yet available on the way they influence each other.
The most applicable research has been conducted by Y. Yoon with colleges. The research has been already cited in the above sections of this paper, yet it is crucial to relate again to the research findings in order to establish a strong theoretical base for our own research. Y. Yoon posits that CSR communications are the most successful when the stakeholders can relate to the CSR message and believe in the altruistic motives of an organization.
...

3. SPEAKING Grid by Dell Hymes
As a part of the current research, we will implement the SPEAKING grid – the model of communication developed by Dell Hymes to analyze CSR and crisis communications of a pharmaceutical organization Pfizer. Thus, before we continue with the analysis, we should again summarize the main notions of the SPEAKING Grid and explain the way the given model will be implemented.
SPEAKING Grid was introduced by a professor of Anthropology Dell Hymes (Hymes, 1972). SPEAKING is a mnemonic code used to represent the following components of a communicative event: settings, participants, ends, act sequence, key, instrumentalities, norms, and genre. It is important to note, however, that the SPEAKING abbreviation serves the purely mnemonic purposes and can be implemented for various types of communication and not speaking exclusively.
...

4. Case Study
4.1 Pfizer case
For the research part of this paper, we would analyze the case of an international organization involved in a huge scandal which was followed by a reputational crisis and further crisis communications. The organization in question claims to act out of social responsibility principles in any of its enterprises and its reputation relies heavily on CSR politics and communications(BBC, 2007).
We will conduct our case study analysis in the following manner: first of all, the case will be presented in more detail with attention to the CSR stance of the organization and the course of crisis communications. The main participants and stakeholders of the case will be presented as well. As the overall case is presented, we will further proceed to the case analysis based on the three communications theories, namely: SCCT, CERC, and the SPEAKING grid. Certain conclusions on the influence of CSR to crisis communications will be then drawn.
...

4.2 Situational Crisis Communication Theory Implementation
We will start the analysis of the case with the implementation of the SCCT theory presented by W. Coombs and colleges, which was explained in detail in the theoretical chapter of this paper(Coombs & Holladay, 2001, 2002).
First of all, to start the analysis we are to attribute the given crisis to one of the thirteen crisis types presented in SCCT as well as determine its cluster (victim cluster, accidental cluster, and intentional cluster). After doing this, we shall attribute the crisis response strategy to one of the eight presented in SCCT. For the purpose of the research, it is essential to keep paying attention to the CSR strategies presented in the case and track their role in crisis development and resolution.
The Pfizer case does not fall into the victim cluster as no external forces have ever damaged the organization in the case.
...

4.3 Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Theory Implementation
To expand the analysis of the Pfizer case we will further implement the CERC model in order to track the development of the conflict (Reynolds et al, 2005). CERC is mostly applied in analyzing communication concerning natural disasters or disease spread, as well as in the health care realm of organizational communications. Thus, since the situation in the case has developed on the ground of epidemy and further medical experiments, CERC will be an asset for us to further analyze the case.
The transition from risk to a crisis is essential for the CERC model, thus, we should start with defining the risks Pfizer had faced before they started their trial, and tracking the point of transition of risk into a crisis. Moving forward, we will analyze the case based on the five stages crisis development model introduced by CERC.
...

4.4 SPEAKING Grid by Dell Hymes Implementation
As the final step of the case analysis, we will implement the SPEAKING grid to fully study the course of crisis communications and their causes and consequences. Before moving on to the analysis part it is, however, crucial to define participants as well as the frames of the communicative event. Even though we have participants as one of the elements of the SPEAKING grid, it would be logical to define the parties involved before analyzing any of their interrelations.
The first and foremost participant is, of course, Pfizer who had to face the legal accusations as well as many customers' criticism. As for the other party, it would be reasonable to think that the Nigerian accusers, as well as the Nigerian government, would be the other party in question. They, however, had rarely spoken out publicly and, thus, there is still little to discover about their stance in the process of communications as most of the correspondence was privet.
...

5.1 Artificial Case Study Design
As of the next part of our research, we will design an artificial case with a set of related questions aimed at grounding the data we have received from analyzing the case of Pfizer. In order to make the newly designed case close to the original Pfizer one, we will implement Pfizer behavior patterns drawn out from the analysis based on SCCT, CERC, and the SPEAKING grid. Moreover, the questionnaire results are to answer the research questions from the introduction to this paper:
1. What is CSR role in organizational communications?
2. What is Corporate Social Responsibility influence on the success or failure of organizational crisis communications?
3. Does CSR perceived as insincere inhibit the course of crisis communications?
To answer the questions above, the artificial case ought to describe an organization with a clear CSR position and an opportunity to communicate this position to the customers.
...

5.2 Results Interpretation
As a result, 96 answers were collected to the questionnaire with an artificially designed case and 93 to the control group questionnaire. Answers to the two questionnaires generally prove the impact initial CSR has on the outcomes of crisis communications (customers decide to stay with the brand or switch to another one).

Figure 2

Figures 1 and 2 represent the likeliness of the customers to blame the organization for the data leakages on the scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is Phoenix are responsible for the data leakage and 10 is Phoenix are not responsible for the data leakage. Figure 1 represents the focus group results (with the CSR stance explicitly stated), whereas Figure 2 represents the control group where the CSR stance of the organization was omitted. As we can see from the bar charts, customers are more likely to attribute the crisis responsibility in the case where no CSR stance was presented.
...

Conclusion

In this research, we have studied the interconnection between the organizational CSR politics and the role they play in organizational crisis communications. The research is built on the three major communication theories namely SCCT, CERC, and the SPEAKING grid. Previous findings of those studies as well as their implementation of the case-study analysis have helped us to deeply analyze the interconnection between CSR and crisis communications.
First of all, we assumed that CSR perceived as sincere and honest would benefit an organization during their crisis communications. The following research questions were stated:
1. What is CSR role in organizational communications?
2. What is Corporate Social Responsibility influence on the success or failure of organizational crisis communications?
3. Does CSR perceived as insincere inhibit the course of crisis communications?
We have started the work by laying the theoretical grounds for the research.
...