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Public Relations Autonomy, Legal Dominance, and Strategic Orientation as Predictors of Crisis Communicative Strategies

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Abstract

This article investigates the factors affecting how public relations autonomy, legal dominance, and strategic orientation affect crisis communicative response in corporate contexts. Communication managers, crisis managers, public affairs managers, and/or public relations managers were solicited from Taiwan’s top 500 companies to participate in a survey. The results revealed that, in contrast to public relations autonomy being the strongest and sole predictor of concession strategy, legal dominance could predict defensive and diversionary responses in crisis events. The article concludes with a discussion of practical applications and theoretical implications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

    Yi-Hui Huang

  2. Lion Travel Group, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shih-Hsin Su

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  1. Yi-Hui Huang
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  2. Shih-Hsin Su
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Correspondence to Yi-Hui Huang.

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Huang, YH., Su, SH. Public Relations Autonomy, Legal Dominance, and Strategic Orientation as Predictors of Crisis Communicative Strategies. J Bus Ethics 86, 29–41 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9791-3

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