Communication in turbulent times : exploring issue arenas and crisis communication to enhance organisational resilience

Abstract

This book is characterised by a broad approach towards corporate communication, emphasising change and crisis. The focus is not on crises as an exceptional situation but rather on broader volatility in the environment. The purpose of this book is to increase the understanding of multi- stakeholder communication concerning organisational issues and crises. From the perspective of organisational management, this book clarifies how communication contributes to organisational resilience—the ability to adapt to a changing environment and mitigate emergency crises. In todays’ world, change is not the exception but a constant presence. Moreover, issues and risks occur that may grow to become crises. Coping with change and unexpected events, is what the concept of ‘resilience’ is about. Organisational resilience is the basis for the long-term viability of organisations in a turbulent environment. Communication, in various ways, is a bridging activity that supports the capacity of the organisation to function despite risks and disruptive incidents. Attention is needed for a resilient culture and collective mindfulness, in particular, in high reliability organisations. This book explains that the roots of current crises are complex. As many crises combine different kinds of threats, cooperation with other actors is needed for their mitigation. Communication brings such actors together. Communication has often aimed at enhancing dyadic relations between an organisation and its stakeholder groups. The issue arena approach instead focuses on competitive multi-actor interaction and poses that people primarily have a stake in issues that matter to them, rather than in organisations. Issues spread fast in social media and, hence, may result in organisational crises. To understand fast changing public views, developing digital communication and monitoring online discourse are vital. In addition, the diversity of environmental dynamics and crises requires a range of different communication strategies. Research can offer a better understanding of evolving multi-actor interaction concerning issues, risks and crises, and support communicative decision making. This also calls for attention for methodological and ethical constraints in using big data for monitoring purposes. Finally, the book advocates the use of simulations and serious gaming to investigate multi-actor interaction in turbulent environments.