Responding to organizational crisis: The role of crisis communication message framing and communication information processing to protect organizational credibility

Abstract

This research studied the impact of communication message framing (rational vs. emotional) and consumer’s information processing system (systematic vs. heuristic) on organizational credibility during a crisis. The different emotions induced by different message framings influences consumers’ information processing and the credibility towards the company differently. It established a fit between rational-systematic and emotional-heuristic suggesting that rational message framing would be more fluently processed under systematic processing and emotional message framing would be more fluently processed under heuristic processing. The research considered the moderating effect of crisis timing strategies and crisis type as well which are considered significant to assess during such setting. Findings propose an effective communication model for developing corporate response strategies during an organizational crisis. The research would add incremental contribution to practitioners in assisting them design the framing of the communication messages based on their customer profiling post a crisis. In terms of theoretical perspective, the study extends the literature of crisis communication by establishing a matching of rational vs. emotional message framing with systematic vs. heuristic information processing respectively.