Religion in crisis communication: Examining the impact of stakeholder religiosity and religious language in organizational crises

Abstract

People turn to religion during times of crisis; however, our understanding of how religious organizations should respond to crises remains limited. To address gaps in the literature concerning religious crisis communication and advance theorizing on Situational Crisis Communication Theory, this study examined the impact of religious language in SCCT crisis response strategies as well as the influence of stakeholders’ religious identity on trust and support towards the offending organization. Results from an experiment with 660 respondents in the United States suggests that stakeholders’ religious identity, religious language in crisis messages, and utilizing the prescribed SCCT response strategy predicts trust in the offending organization for preventable crises. Additionally, trust acts as a mediator between religious language, religiosity, and message strategy in supportive intentions towards the offending organization. Findings advance crisis communication theorizing regarding the use of identity-activating language in post-crisis responses and its influence on positive outcomes for the organization, and results of this study provide guidance for religious organizations embroiled in preventable crises.