Diagnosing shared crises as acute intractability: Organizing crises and intractable issues in public relations theory

Abstract

This paper addresses the gap between crisis communication scholarship and the growing research on intractable issues and wicked problems in public relations. By synthesizing these literatures, the concept of intractability more clearly connects issues, risks, and crises within a community-oriented mindset. The literature review organizes crisis communication scholarship into rhetorical, perceptual, risk-oriented, and conflict-oriented categories, then introduces intractable issues and wicked problems as supplementary and beneficial frameworks. There are similarities and differences among crises and intractable issues, with distinctions mainly arising in terms of urgency and perceived proximity to organizations. Issues, risks, and crises can be mapped using the continua of immediacy/temporal urgency and organizational or societal issue centrality. This creates four quadrants: A zone of reputational crises, a zone of intractability, a zone of wicked problems, and a zone of organizational responsibility.