Abstract (eng)
In corporate crisis communication mass media carry out the function to inform the recipients about how the crisis has occurred, the damage caused by the crisis, the crisis responsibility, the victims and other consequences. The recipients processes the information in order to make attributions and judge a company and its performance. Due to their judgments, reputational or financial damage can
be caused and the company’s image may suffer. By using effective crisis response strategies, the recipients’ perception and their attributions toward the company may change as long as the company’s crisis response is not dubious in the recipients’ point of view. Depending on the crisis response doubts on truth, truthfulness, intelligibility and legitimacy of the company may occur. The primary objective of the work is an audience-oriented evaluation of a company’s crisis communication in consideration of the communication oriented toward reaching an understanding (Verständigungsorientierte Kommunikation) and the situational theory of crisis communication. To measure the cognitive and emotional effects of crisis communication on recipient’s perception, a two (Causal Attribution: Internal and External) x two (Crisis response strategy: Denial+Shifting the Blame, Apology+Corrective Action) between subject expeirmental design was used.(cf. Lee, 2004, p.605) Four different combinations were created, each with one variation of a crisis scenario, a crisis cause and a company’s crisis response. Results showed that regardless of the groups or causal attribution participants showed less trust in the company. Especially in the „Excuse and Corrective Action” condition (ENT2X) the amount of trust was significantly higher than in the „Denial and Shifting the Blame” condition (LEUGSCHULD). Moreover, participants of the ENT2X condition had less smypathy toward the company than participants of the LEUGSCHULD condition. No significant effects were found on the judgment of the company’s responsibility for the crisis, the potential reputational damage and the impression of the company. Further results showed, that participants of the LEUGSCHULD condition expressed more doubts on truthfulness, truth and legitimacy than participants in the ENT2X condition, However, corporate crisis communication is more effective and causes less doubts on validity claims if the company acts honest, accepts the responsibility for the crisis and does not shift the blame.