Social media listening and Title IX training crisis: Implications for discourse of renewal

Courses: Undergraduate or graduate organizational/crisis communication or public relations courses

Objective: The goal for this single class activity is for students to apply discourse of renewal to an organizational crisis fueled through social media.     

Developing discourse of renewal during a campus crisis

Course: This assignment is a unit activity designed for use in a skills-focused undergraduate public relations, organizational communication, or crisis communication course.

Objective: The goal of this activity is to increase students’ understanding of and ability to apply discourse of renewal in a crisis scenario. Students will work collaboratively to craft responses that affirm an organization’s core values in light of a tragic event.     

The evolution of the operational earthquake forecasting community of practice: the L’Aquila communication crisis as a triggering event for organizational renewal

The scientific community of earthquake experts has long grappled with how to communicate earthquake probabilities successfully to non-scientific publics. Perhaps most central to their concern is the widely held belief that scientists can actually predict earthquakes when, in fact, they cannot. The potential consequences of this miscommunication problem were appallingly realized as a result of the 6 April 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. Failed risk communication among scientists, a public official, and L’Aquila residents prior to the earthquake resulted in 309 deaths, 1500 injuries, and 65,000 people displaced from their homes, as well as the sentencing of six scientists and one public official to six years in prison for manslaughter. This paper examines how and why the L’Aquila Earthquake communication crisis ultimately redefined the international scientific earthquake community of practice and its discourse beyond that of community resilience to organizational learning and renewal.     

A social constructionist approach to crisis management: Allegations of sudden acceleration in the Audi 5000

Although most organizational crises begin with an objective triggering event, we maintain that public relations and management approaches (including introductory public relations textbooks), intentionally or not, often follow the positivistic temptation to treat the many components of crisis communication as objective choices, thus obscuring the distinctively communicative character of crises and their resolutions. Consequently, this monograph asserts that crises are dynamic, social constructions that are both created and resolved terminologically. This approach is rooted in the assumption that all perspectives of reality, from scientific discourse to crisis communication, are socially constructed through communication. The case of Audi, after its automobiles were alleged to suffer from “sudden acceleration,” is then used as an exemplar to illustrate the potential contributions that a social constructionist approach to communication offers crisis management researchers.     

The Discourse of Crisis in Public Meetings: Case Study of a School District's Multimillion Dollar Error

School districts are both big businesses and a form of local governance that is part of American democracy. When a crisis makes a district's democratic face relevant, the organization will experience a dilemma that does not occur in business-only organizations. This study examines the public meetings of a school board in the western United States as it confronted a multimillion dollar error. After reviewing the organizational crisis literature, background is provided on the district, the crisis, and the method—action-implicative discourse analysis. The district's crisis, the paper shows, was constructed through six discursive practices. Each is identified and illustrated. Because school boards are democratic bodies, they depend on having citizens willing to attend and speak out in public meetings, and they depend on a smaller set of citizens willing to run for and serve in these elected, unpaid school board positions. In crises, these two groups of citizens will have partially competing needs. As a result, local governance organizations will experience a dilemma regarding how to design their public participation. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on organizational crisis and public meetings, and practical implications for citizens and elected officials.     

The Discourse of Crisis in Public Meetings: Case Study of a School District's Multimillion Dollar Error

School districts are both big businesses and a form of local governance that is part of American democracy. When a crisis makes a district's democratic face relevant, the organization will experience a dilemma that does not occur in business-only organizations. This study examines the public meetings of a school board in the western United States as it confronted a multimillion dollar error. After reviewing the organizational crisis literature, background is provided on the district, the crisis, and the method—action-implicative discourse analysis. The district's crisis, the paper shows, was constructed through six discursive practices. Each is identified and illustrated. Because school boards are democratic bodies, they depend on having citizens willing to attend and speak out in public meetings, and they depend on a smaller set of citizens willing to run for and serve in these elected, unpaid school board positions. In crises, these two groups of citizens will have partially competing needs. As a result, local governance organizations will experience a dilemma regarding how to design their public participation. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on organizational crisis and public meetings, and practical implications for citizens and elected officials.     

Analyzing Postcrisis Challenges and Strategies Associated With School Shootings: An Application of Discourse of Renewal Theory

In recent years, the need to understand and identify effective data-driven strategies for the communication challenges faced by schools associated with school shootings has become paramount. The current study reports findings from 10 face-to-face interviews conducted with school crisis team members at the P–12 level who experienced school shooting events. The findings, which extend discourse of renewal theory, identify six primary communication-related challenges that districts face postcrisis and offer effective strategies for overcoming these challenges.     

Communication network dynamics during organizational crisis

Communication network is a personal or professional set of relationships between individuals or organizations. In other words, it is a pattern of contacts which are created due to the flow of information among the participating actors. The flow of information establishes various types of relationships among the participating entities. These relationships eventually form an overall pattern that could form a gestalt of the total structure within organizational context. In this paper, we analyze the changing communications structure in order to investigate the patterns associated with the final stages of organizational crisis. Organizational crisis has been defined as organizational mortality, organizational death, organizational exit, bankruptcy, decline, retrenchment and failure to characterize various forms of organizational crisis. We draw on theoretical perspectives on organizational crisis proposed by social network analysts and other sociologists to test 5 key propositions on the changes in the network communication structure associated with organizational crisis: (1) a few actors, who are prominent or more active, will become central during the organizational crisis period; (2) reciprocity within the organizational communication network will increase during crisis period; (3) organizational communication network becomes less transitive as organizations experience crisis; (4) number of cliques increases in a communication network as organizations are going through crisis; and (5) communication network becomes increasingly centralized as organizations go through crisis.     

Exploring Pedagogical and Emotional Response in Higher Education Classrooms During the Boston Marathon Bombing Crisis

Using qualitative interviews, the study explored pedagogy and emotional responses of undergraduate and graduate teaching faculty during and after the Boston Marathon bombing crisis. The study interviewed nine undergraduate and graduate faculty members who were teaching across six Boston area universities and colleges when the Boston Marathon crisis occurred. Results found instructors felt a responsibility to emotionally respond to students during the crisis by acknowledging the crisis and highlighting resources in the classroom. The study further found that instructors often maintain curricular structure and invoke the crisis as a teaching tool to manage the classroom dynamic post-crisis. Limitations, directions for future research, and practical applications are discussed.     

我国青年编辑组织承诺研究

组织承诺是组织行为的一个重要领域。青年编辑的组织承诺就是青年编辑愿意为单位付出心力,并希望留在单位服务的意念。我国青年编辑组织承诺结构模型的维度主要包括：感情承诺、规范承诺、经济承诺、机会承诺和理想承诺5个维度。青年编辑应当通过做好职业规划、发挥个人优势、提高职业素养与研究能力等来提高组织承诺。     

组织承诺理论对图书馆管理的启示

近年来,组织承诺理论已成为国内外学者研究的热点。在介绍组织承诺理论的概念及其研究历程的基础上,结合我国图书馆组织承诺的特点与现状,提出了提高图书馆员组织承诺的具体构想。     

高校图书馆青年馆员“组织归属感”实证研究——调查、分析与对策

高校图书馆青年馆员归属感研究具有重要的现实意义。调查分析表明,工作的挑战性、成就感、个人与组织目标的一致性、进修深造机会等是导致高校图书馆青年馆员归属感缺失的重要因素。高校图书馆应当采取切实有效的措施,通过构建“和谐与共享”的组织文化体系、“针对与实效”的培训体系、“创新与发展”的工作体系、“科学与规范”的制度体系,从而提升青年馆员的归属感。     

当今图书馆员工作满意度对组织承诺影响的研究

本文采用独立t检验、相关分析等统计分析方法，考察了当今图书馆员工作满意度各维度高、低分组在组织承诺各维度上的差异情况，进而探讨了他们的工作满意度对组织承诺的影响。研究发现，他们的公平满意度、获得满意度、工作价值感、组织氛围满意度、管理者满意度与情感承诺和规范承诺呈正相关的趋势，工作量满意度与组织承诺各个指标呈负相关，继续承诺与工作满意度多个指标呈负相关。     

构建适应危机管理的图书馆组织文化

组织文化和危机管理是图书馆界研究的热点。文章论述了图书馆组织文化和图书馆危机管理的内涵、研究内容,并对两种理论进行了比较。认为二者可以结合起来,共同发挥作用,提出构建具有危机管理能力的图书馆组织文化,从精神层、制度层、物质层提出了一些将图书馆危机管理思想融入图书馆组织文化的途径和策略。     

工作资源对高校图书馆员敬业度影响机制的实证研究

[目的/意义]探讨工作资源对高校图书馆员敬业度的影响与机制，以期为高校图书馆实施人力资源管理和提升图书馆员的敬业度提供参考。[方法/过程]选取湖南各高校图书馆的358名馆员为研究对象，考察工作资源对高校图书馆员敬业度的预测作用以及心理资本与组织承诺在两者之间的中介作用。[结果/结论]描述性统计与差异分析、相关分析和逐步回归分析的结果表明，不同性别的高校图书馆员在组织承诺量表得分上存在显著性差异，男性馆员组织承诺得分显著高于女性，不同性别馆员在其余得分上均不存在显著性差异。不同婚姻、年龄、学历、职位、职称者在各量表得分上均不存在显著性差异。高校图书馆员工作资源、心理资本、组织承诺与敬业度的两两相关都达到统计显著性水平。工作资源对高校图书馆员的敬业度具有正向预测作用，心理资本和组织承诺能够在工作资源对高校图书馆员敬业度的影响中起部分中介作用。丰富高校图书馆员工作资源，增进其组织支持感，增强其心理资本和组织承诺，是促进高校图书馆员敬业度提升的有效路径。     

A network under stress: using embeddedness to understand uncertainty management and resilience in campus emergencies

Persistent school shootings have generated ongoing pressure to assess and enhance crisis communication effectiveness via strategies such as resilience-building and post-crisis restoration. A network perspective offers a robust, multilevel approach for examining complex information flows among community, campus, and individual actors affected by crises. Drawing on relational and structural embeddedness and Uncertainty Management Theory, we offer nine propositions that help explain structural and relational changes in a network over time. Although theoretically driven, these propositions are primarily functional, offering practical implications for safety officials and administrators trying to understand, prepare for, and respond to crises. Thus, we suggest measures and recommendations to improve information flow, uncertainty management, and resilience before, during, and after a crisis.     

人口统计学变量下的高校图书馆员组织承诺调查研究

通过对广东省高校图书馆员问卷调查,探讨人口统计学变量下的组织承诺状况。研究结果表明:年龄、婚姻、本单位工作时间和所在岗位四个方面因素对组织承诺具有显著的影响;性别、学历及职称三方面因素对组织承诺不具有显著影响。根据以上结论,对高校图书馆人力资源管理提出建议。     

Paradoxes of Strategic Renewal in Traditional Print-Oriented Media Firms

This article continues and extends the emerging scholarship of strategic media management by examining the day-to-day challenges that media managers face when managing strategic renewal in traditional print-oriented media firms. The aim, in particular, is to shed light on the tensions and paradoxical situations that middle managers need to deal with in contexts where taken-for-granted industry recipes and well-established business practices have become problematized as a result of industry-wide technological and cultural change. Based on an empirical case study, the article identifies and elaborates on three interconnected paradoxes, rooted in the history of the company and past decisions of its top-management: (1) balancing employees’ needs for stability with organizational needs for change; (2) bridging employees’ needs for security and tradition and the organizational need for learning and taking risks; as well as (3) reconciling employees’ needs to “focus on themselves” with organizational needs to collaborate for collective success. Theoretically, the article contributes to the literature by working toward a new paradox perspective on managing strategic renewal in media organizations. This theoretical perspective is offered as an interpretive framework for empirically exploring and critically examining the dynamics and complexities of strategic media management in the continuously changing business environments of the industry.     

图书馆馆长群体现状的实证研究

以当今图书馆馆长为研究重点,对调查所得的数据进行分析比较,在主观幸福感、工作满意度两项指标中,馆长们的满意度高于总体水平。在对组织承诺水平的测评中,馆长们的情感承诺高于总体水平,而继续承诺明显低于总体水平。当今馆长群体存在三个方面的问题:高学历馆长缺乏;工作量大;高工作满意度与低继续承诺水平的矛盾。     

Implications of Stealing Thunder for the Impact of Expressing Emotions in Organizational Crisis Communication

This study examines if and when spokespersons of an organization in crisis can express their genuine emotions as opposed to appearing rational. The impact of emotional (sadness) versus rational message framing on perceptions of an organization in crisis is studied by means of a 2 (crisis timing strategy: ex-antecrisis timing strategy vs. ex-postcrisis timing strategy)×2 (message framing: rational vs. emotional) between-subjects factorial experimental design with 168 participants. The findings first show that organizations can restore their reputation in times of crisis better by means of an ex-antecrisis timing strategy than by means of an ex-postcrisis timing strategy. In addition, the study illustrates that an ex-antecrisis timing strategy leads to more effective use of organizational message framing. In the case of an organizational self-disclosure, expressing sadness as a discrete negative emotion results in a better postcrisis reputation than rational message framing, whereas no impact of message framing is found for an ex-postcrisis timing strategy. Finally, the results indicate that organizations can benefit from allowing their spokespersons to express sadness because consumers will consider them more sincere.