Ethical responses to organizational crisis: lessons from three successful cases

Present research lacks adequate examples of successful and ethical approaches to organizational crisis management. Much of this research determines the effectiveness of organization's post-crisis responses by examining obvious failures. This dissertation takes an alternative approach by examining ethical post-crisis communication through obvious successes. This study examined ethical responses by applying stakeholder concepts and ethical perspectives to the corporate discourse of Malden Mills, after a plant explosion, Schwan's Sales Enterprises, after a salmonella outbreak, and General Motors, in response to accusations by Dateline NBC about the safety of GM C/K trucks. The study suggests that ethical responses to organizational crises can help organizations achieve effective responses. First, when an organization takes initial responsibility for a crisis they can meet the difficult objective of responding quickly and accurately to a crisis. Second, the organization can use established values as a repertoire of response to respond to crisis. Third, this research contends that if organizations establish strong relationships with stakeholders before a crisis they can establish strong networks of support that can help an organization recover from a crisis.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Year dc:date.available

1998

Author dc:creator

• Ulmer, Robert R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Matthew W. Seeger

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1270

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wayne.edu:oa_dissertations-2269