Reimagining crisis management with an organizational learning framework

Abstract

Technological advancements have altered the landscape of crisis management, making many crises potentially preventable and controllable. Moreover, these technological advancements have provided opportunities for organizations to implement an informed learning approach in crisis responses. The interconnectedness and complementary aspects of three theories within crisis management, including the situational crisis communication theory's base crisis response strategies, image repair theory's corrective action, and discourse of renewal theory's organizational learning, were assessed and integrated into a proposed framework for understanding a comprehensive approach to crisis management. In this research, technology is regarded as both an asset for facilitating organizational learning (e.g., informed decision-making through data analytics), and a potential source of challenges in crisis communication (e.g., Zoombombing and negative social amplification). The proposed framework aims to bridge proactive risk and reactive crisis management efforts through organizational learning. Findings from this 4 × 2 between-subjects experimental design study explore the effectiveness of organizational learning to address crisis responsibility in an evolving technological landscape.