scholarly journals Operational dilemmas in safety-critical industries: The tension between organizational reputational concerns and the effective communication of risk

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Ambisisi Ambituuni ◽  
Chibuzo Ejiogu ◽  
Amanze Ejiogu ◽  
Maktoba Omar

AbstractOrganizations involved in safety-critical operations often deal with operational tensions, especially when involved in safety-critical incidents that is likely to violate safety. In this paper, we set out to understand how the disclosures of safety-critical incidents take place in the face of reputational tension. Based on the case of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), we draw on image repair theory and information manipulation theory and adopt discourse analysis as a method of analyzing safety-critical incident press releases and reports from the NNPC. We found NNPC deploying image repair as part of incident disclosures to deflect attention, evade blame and avoid issuing apologies. This is supported by the violation of the conversational maxims. The paper provides a theoretical model for discursively assessing the practices of incident information disclosure by an organization in the face of reputational tension, and further assesses the risk communication implications of such practices.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ramzy Hasibuan ◽  
Irwansyah Irwansyah

The use of Image Repair Theory for companies during crisis communication is an interesting study. It is also applied when several PT HM Sampoerna Tbk factory employees are known to have died due to suffering from COVID-19. This event affected the company's image, especially the negative sentiment on the quality of the products produced due to employees affected by COVID-19. This study analyzes the image repair strategy used by PT HM Sampoerna Tbk through press releases published on the company's official website. The research objective is to analyze message options for organizations to use in times of crisis. The study uses a qualitative content analysis method by analyzing text written in press releases, then putting it into categories that have been determined in the image repair strategy. The results showed PT HM Sampoerna Tbk's inconsistency in using the Reducing Offensiveness strategy, which is often used in types of accident and/or challenge crises, including product damage situations. Excessive use of Reducing Offensiveness must be an organization's concern when conducting crisis communication, especially when the audience has a critical view of the organization. Reducing Offensiveness can be more optimally used by neutral third parties than the organization itself; however, the research results show that PT HM Sampoerna Tbk carries out all strategy delivery.


2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1018-1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Cantarella Lima ◽  
Andrea Bernardes ◽  
Priscila Lapaz Baldo ◽  
Vanessa Gomes Maziero ◽  
Silvia Helena Henriques Camelo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective: The goal of this study is to analyze nurses’ leadership in intensive care units at hospitals in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, in the face of positive and negative critical incidents. Method: Exploratory, descriptive study, conducted with 24 nurses by using the Critical Incident Technique as a methodological benchmark. Results: Results were grouped into 61 critical incidents distributed into categories. Researchers came to the conclusion that leadership-related situations interfere with IC nurses’ behaviors. Among these situations they found: difficulty in the communication process; conflicts in the daily exercise of nurses’ activities; people management; and the setting of high quality care targets. Final considerations: Researchers identified a mixed leadership model, leading them to the conclusion that nurses’ knowledge and practice of contemporary leadership theories/styles are crucial because they facilitate the communication process, focusing on behavioral aspects and beliefs, in addition to valuing flexibility. This positively impacts the organization’s results.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Ramesh Nair ◽  
Shairah Hana Sulaiman ◽  
Nor Azyyati Md Saad ◽  
Puspalata Suppiah ◽  
Maizura Lin

This article examines rhetorical strategies as well as the linguistic construction of those strategies in press releases put out by Cadbury Malaysia in response to accusations that it has failed to comply with halal certification standards. Drawing on image repair theory and the concept of the ideological square, six press releases were analysed to identify the rhetorical strategies as well as semantic structures that were used to repair the organization’s image and minimize reputational risk. The analysis reveals how the organization moved beyond denial to also employ the rhetorical strategies of attacking one’s accuser and bolstering. Despite early media reports naming government agencies as the accusers, the press releases put out by Cadbury Malaysia determined the source of accusations as unnamed individuals within the agencies, thereby avoiding confrontations with the relevant authorities. The analysis shows how language is used in press releases to construct the positive self and negative other as Cadbury Malaysia promoted a discourse of renewal to reassert its position within a highly lucrative halal market. This article provides novel insights into understanding how language works within rhetorical strategies of image repair.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Eriksson ◽  
Mats Eriksson

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend the image repair theory by focusing on the largely ignored context of the face‐to‐face communication. The paper offers an exploratory study of how image repair work is carried out in interviews with politicians in the context of press conferences.Design/methodology/approachThe paper combines theoretical reflections with two qualitative case studies of press conferences of Swedish politicians. These press conferences were held to manage the challenge posed to the politicians’ public image by the media criticism. The analytical frame employed in this study is Conversation Analysis (CA).FindingsThe way journalists act during interviews and how they pose questions have noticeable consequences for the accused actor's image repair work. Image repair strategies like “apologizing” and “mortification” during the speech section of a press conference tend to be more effective as they give the accused greater opportunities to take control of the interaction.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the exploratory nature of this interactional approach and the fact that the analysis involves only two cases, the findings must be seen as provisional.Practical implicationsThe knowledge of how journalists construct a question is of high relevance for crisis communication and image repair work, and therefore of high value of public relations practitioners.Originality/valueThe interactional approach to image repair offers a new theoretical frame for the understanding of crisis management in interview situations. The approach especially highlights the importance of journalists’ questions in image repair work.


Author(s):  
Alexsandro de Oliveira Dias ◽  
Andrea Bernardes ◽  
Lucieli Dias Pedreschi Chaves ◽  
Helena Megumi Sonobe ◽  
Cintia Magalhães Carvalho Grion ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: To analyze two hospital emergency services, one in a public institution and another in a philanthropic one, from the perspective of rapid response team professionals in the face of positive and negative critical incidents. Method: Descriptive, exploratory, qualitative study carried with 62 health professionals. Critical Incident Technique was employed as the theoretical-methodological framework, along with Content Analysis for analyzing data. Results: Sixty-two health professionals - including 23 nurses, 20 physiotherapists and 19 doctors - took part in this study. Clusters for 89 critical incidents were obtained; 66 of them were considered positive, whereas 23 were negative. The situations associated to the provided services were discriminated in three categories: recognition of patient clinical deterioration; rapid response team activation in the unit; and time until rapid response team arrival at the ward. Conclusion: In spite of the difficulties faced by such professionals while providing care to patients who become severely ill in non-critical wards, positive reports were predominant in all categories, what legitimized this service's importance as a contribution to quality and safety of hospitalized patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1905-1923
Author(s):  
Darko Dimitrovski

Purpose This paper aims to determine the influence of travel fair selection factors on exhibitor intention to attend, in conjunction with the role of political risk within that relationship. Design/methodology/approach Following the basic premises of image repair theory, this quantitative study examines the perceptions of 205 exhibitors – both domestic and international – at Belgrade Travel Fair. Findings Two variables – travel fair customer acquisition and retention orientation and market orientation – were found to influence travel fair intention in a statistically significant manner, while multi-group structural equation modeling indicates a positive statistically significant correlation between travel fair customer acquisition and retention and travel fair market orientation and travel fair intention for exhibitors that place higher importance on political risk in the region. Research limitations/implications The limitations of the research are its regional focus and its small sample size. Practical implications Travel fair organizers should consider market orientation and customer acquisition and retention orientation as important antecedents of travel fair intention. Exhibitor perception of political risk enhances image repair efforts. Social implications The study focuses on the perception of travel fair exhibitors when attending a travel fair in a region which is continually exposed to political risk. Thus, travel fairs can act as image repair instruments for companies affected by political risk in a region, as they have the capacity to present a positive image to a specific audience. Originality/value The study enhances the existing work related to image repair theory by observing how travel fairs can be used as image repair instruments. The originality of the study lies in its provision of further understanding of the reasons for exhibitor attendance at travel fairs and, more specifically, the role of political risk in this context. The study’s findings extend the applicability of the image repair theory in the context of the behavioral nature of travel fair attendance.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNISA

Implementation of Public Relations or Public Relations is the entire implementation and application of the role of public relations in an organization / agency / company that has been planned, and organized with the aim of creating and maintaining mutual understanding and connecting between companies and their communities. These objectives can be applied through various programs / programs that benefit companies and the public in supporting them with information openness. This research aims to study and describe the Public Relations Implementation of the PSDA Office to foster good relations with external publics such as the press, agreements, and others. information. In a good relationship made by the Public Relations Department of the PSDA to reporters in the disclosure of information through the form of activities of forming personal contacts, press releases, and contingency plans. The good relations of PSDA Public Relations with Cross-Chancellors in information disclosure are coordinating activities, inviting the Governor, providing assistance, and holding social activities. The good relations of PSDA Public Relations with Universities in information disclosure are through apprenticeship / job training / street vendors, as well as holding World Water Day seminars.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuka Onwumechili ◽  
Koren Bedeau

This study analyzes the response by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) after its top officials were arrested for corruption early in 2015. FIFA’s response included President Sepp Blatter’s brief address to FIFA Congress. In the days that followed, Mr. Blatter also gave a television interview and appeared in other media events where he attempted to repair the organization’s image. The analysis focuses on the effectiveness of FIFA’s attempt at image repair. First, it uses Benoit’s image repair theory (IRT) to analyze FIFA’s rhetoric. Second, it conducts a thematic analysis of content from 215 publications in eight newspapers selected from four continents during three crises stages. The results indicate that FIFA failed in its attempt to repair its image following the corruption crisis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 156 (A2) ◽  

Most serious accidents at sea are caused by minor incidents that escalated into an uncontrolled situation. This study is aiming to develop a model to investigate the likelihood of fatal accidents, given that a critical incident has already occurred. The focus of the study is on human behaviour, adopting a hardware reliability perspective. The vessel is considered as a safety-critical system to be protected by several barriers. The crew role is modelled as active barriers and distinguishing between different functions: perception, decision and action. A Markov approach is proposed to model different situations on the vessel. A mathematical model to estimate the probability of failure in an emergency situation is formulated. A new parameter is defined for the survivability of a vessel, given that a critical incident has taken place. The methods were applied to examine ship-platform collisions cases and the results show strong benefits for diagnosing and evaluating accidents from a human factors perspective as well as for training purposes.


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