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Stakeholder perceptions in organizational crisis management: exploring alternative configurations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2022

Orlando E. Contreras-Pacheco Open the ORCID record for Orlando E. Contreras-Pacheco [Opens in a new window] ,
Cyrlene Claasen  and
Fernando J. Garrigós-Simón
Orlando E. Contreras-Pacheco*
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Calle 9 Carrera 27, Ciudad Universitaria, Edificio de Ingeniería Industrial, 3er. piso. 680003, Bucaramanga, Colombia Department of Management and Organization, Rennes School of Business, 2 Rue Robert D'Arbrissel 35000, Rennes, France
Cyrlene Claasen
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Calle 9 Carrera 27, Ciudad Universitaria, Edificio de Ingeniería Industrial, 3er. piso. 680003, Bucaramanga, Colombia
Fernando J. Garrigós-Simón
Affiliation:
Department of Business Organization, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camí de Vera, s/n 46022, Valencia, Spain
*
Author for correspondence: Orlando E. Contreras-Pacheco, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Crises are socially constructed. Affected stakeholders of an organizational crisis conceive complex associations between their perceptions of the implicated company's response and about the company itself. The study moves away from a simple cause–effect view by deriving alternative configurations of these associations. This approach allows for a better understanding of how stakeholders attribute responsibility for a critical event and the resulting crisis faced by the company that caused it. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we analyze insights of 325 families affected by an environmental incident in 2018 involving Colombia's largest company. We establish a correlation between stakeholders' perceptions of crisis response timeliness and credibility. Accordingly, we expand on how perceptions affect organizational judgments. Finally, we propose that trustworthiness and reputation are antecedents to how organizational crisis response is perceived and how these antecedents affect the degree of the severity of the company crisis.

Keywords

Credibilitycrisis communicationcrisis responseorganizational reputationorganizational trustworthinessperceptionstimeliness
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , First View , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management

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