Testing the role of corporate social responsibility and crisis response messaging in corporate reputational recovery

Abstract

The practice of public relations is complex, fluid, and multifaceted (Cancel et al., 1997): Job skills range from relationship building (Wood, 2015), to media relations and crisis communications. Crises draw intense attention from media and publics, and often require immediate crisis communication from public relations practitioners (Augustine Pang, Fritz Cropp, and Glen T. Cameron, 2006). Corporate crises happen every day, (Gonzalez-Herrero and Pratt, 1995) and the frequency of crises coupled with the need for immediate response from crisis communicators is quickly making crisis communication one of the most widely studied areas of public relations (Austin, Liu, and Jin, 2014). While PR practitioners could greatly benefit from a decisive 'roadmap' of the right crisis communication tactics, the process of public relations is far too complex to be placed into any decisive boxes or give one right answer for all crises (Cancel et al., 1997).