Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Employee Reactions to Leader-Initiated Crisis Preparation: Core Dimensions

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Crisis prevention plans are usually evaluated based on their effects in terms of preventing or limiting organizational crisis. In this survey-based study, the focus was instead on how such plans influence employees’ reactions in terms of risk perception and well-being. Five different organizations were addressed in the study. Hypothesis 1 tested the assumption that leadership crisis preparation would lead to lower perceived risk among the employees. Hypothesis 2 tested the conjecture that it would also lead to a higher degree of well-being. Both hypotheses were supported. The results and their implications are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Barton, L. (2001). Crisis in organizations II. Cincinatti: College Divisions South-Western.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, D. C. (2010). Evaluating ethical approaches to crisis leadership: Insights from unintentional harm research. Journal of Business Ethics, 98, 281–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beehr, T. A. (1995). Psychological stress in the workplace. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breaugh, J. A., & Colihan, J. P. (1994). Measuring facets of job ambiguity: Construct validity evidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 191–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brief, A. P., & Weiss, H. M. (2002). Affect in the workplace. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 279–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coombs, W. T. (2006). Code red in the boardroom. Westport: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coombs, W. T. (2007a). Crisis management and communications. Gainesville: Institute for Public Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coombs, W. T. (2007b). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coombs, W. T. (2007c). Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of situational crisis communication theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 10, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, L. L., & Anton, R. J. (1990). The logical and appreciative dimensions of accountability. In S. Shrivastrva, D. L. Cooperrider, & Associates (Eds.), Appreciative management and leadership: The power of positive thought and action in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cvetkovich, G., & Lofstedt, R. E. (1999). Social trust and the management of risk. London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das, T. K., & Teng, B. S. (2004). The risk-based view of trust: A conceptual framework. Journal of Business and Psychology, 19, 85–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dilenschneider, R. L. (2000). The corporate communications bible: Everything you need to know to become a public relations expert. Beverly Hills: New Millennium.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirks, K. T. (2006). Three fundamental questions regarding trust in leaders. In R. Bachmann & A. Zaheer (Eds.), Handbook of trust research (pp. 15–28). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. I. (2001). The role of trust in organizational settings. Organization Science, 12, 450–467.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. I. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for organizational research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 611–628.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egelhoff, W. G., & Sen, F. (1992). An information-processing model of crisis management. Management Communication Quarterly, 5, 443–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fearn-Banks, K. (2001). Crisis communications: A casebook approach. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Francis, R., & Armstrong, A. (2003). Ethics as a risk management strategy: The Australian experience. Journal of Business Ethics, 45, 375–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frewer, L. J. (2003). Trust, transparency, and social context: Implications for the social amplification of risk. In N. Pidgeon, R. E. Kasperson, & P. Slovic (Eds.), The social amplification of risk. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frone, M. R., Russel, M., & Cooper, M. L. (1995). Job stressors, job involvement, and employee health: A test of identity theory. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 68, 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H. (1963). A conception of, and experiments with “trust” as a condition of stable concerted actions. In O. J. Harvey (Ed.), Motivation and social interaction (pp. 187–238). New York: Ronald Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillespie, N., & Dietz, G. (2009). Trust repair after an organization-level failure. Academy of Management Review, 34, 127–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Boston: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberger, D. B., & Strasser, S. (1991). The role of situational and dispositional factors in the enhancement of personal control in organizations. In L. L. Cummings & B. M. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 13). Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herbane, B., Elliot, D., & Swartz, E. M. (2004). Business continuity management: Time for a strategic role? Long Range Planning, 37, 435–457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermann, C. F. (1963). Some consequences of crisis which limit the viability of organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 8, 61–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodson, R. (2004). Organizational trustworthiness: Findings from the population of organizational ethnographies. Organization Science, 15, 432–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hosmer, L. T. (1996). The ethics of management (Vol. 3). Chicago: Irwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ilies, R., Schwind, K. M., & Heller, D. (2007). Employee well-being: A multilevel model linking work and nonwork domains. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16, 326–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, E. E., & Davis, K. E. (1965). From acts to dispositions: The attribution process in social psychology. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lester, S. W., Kickul, J., & Bergmann, T. J. (2007). Managing employee perceptions of the psychological contract over time: The role of employer social accounts and contract fulfillment. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28, 191–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lind, E. A., & Van den Bos, K. (2002). When fairness works: Toward a general theory of uncertainty management. In B. M. Staw & R. M. Kramer (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 24). Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maule, A. J. (2008). Risk communication in organizations. In G. Hodgkinson & W. H. Starbuck (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organizational decision making. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrated model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20, 709–734.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGregor, I., Zanna, M. P., Holmes, J. G., & Spencer, S. J. (2001). Compensatory conviction in the face of personal uncertainty: Going to extremes and being oneself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 472–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKnight, D. H., Cummings, L. L., & Chervany, N. L. (1998). Initial trust formation in new organizational relationships. Academy of Management Review, 23, 473–490.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitroff, I. I. (2001). Managing crises before they happen: What every executive & manager needs to know about crisis management. New York: American Management Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitroff, I. I. (2005). Why some companies emerge stronger and better from a crisis: 7 essential lessons for surviving disaster. New York: American Management Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quarantelli, E. L. (1988). Disaster crisis management: A summary of research findings. Journal of Management Studies, 25, 373–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renn, O. (1998). The role of risk communication and public dialogue for improving risk management. Risk, Decision, and Policy, 3, 5–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, G., & Frewer, L. J. (2005). A typology of public engagement methods. Science, Technology and Human Values, 30, 251–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaubroeck, J., Ganster, D. C., Sime, W. E., & Ditman, D. (1993). A field experiment testing supervisory role clarification. Personnel Psychology, 46, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schenker-Wicki, A., Inauen, M., & Olivares, M. (2010). Unmastered risks: From crisis to catastrophe. An economic and management insight. Journal of Business Research, 63, 337–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, P. (2000). When good companies do bad things. Strategy & Leadership, 28, 4–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeger, M. W., & Ulmer, R. R. (2001). Virtuous responses to organizational crisis: Aaron Feuerstein and Milt Cole. Journal of Business Ethics, 31, 369–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selart, M., & Johansen, S. T. (2011). Ethical decision making in organizations: The role of leadership stress. Journal of Business Ethics, 99, 129–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simola, S. K. (2003). Ethics of justice and care in corporate crisis management. Journal of Business Ethics, 46, 351–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simola, S. K. (2005a). Organizational crisis management: Overview and opportunities. Consulting Psychology: Practice and Research, 57, 180–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simola, S. K. (2005b). Concepts of care in organizational crisis prevention. Journal of Business Ethics, 62, 341–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sims, R. R., & Brinkman, J. (2002). Leaders as role models: The case of John Gutfreund at Salomon Brothers. Journal of Business Ethics, 35, 327–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sivertsson, T. (2000). Debriefing—Krisstöd—En väg till bättre arbetsmiljö (Debriefing—Crisis support—A path to a better worklife environment). Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slovic, P. (2000). The perception of risk. London: Earthscan Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snyder, P., Hall, M., Robertson, J., Jansinski, T., & Miller, J. S. (2006). Ethical rationality: A strategic approach to organizational crisis. Journal of Business Ethics, 63, 371–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thau, S., Aquino, K., & Wittek, R. (2007). An extension of uncertainty management theory to the self: The relation between justice, social comparison orientation, and antisocial work behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 250–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tronto, J. H. (1993). Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, T. R., & Degoey, P. (1996). Trust in organizational authorities: The influence of motive attributions on willingness to accept decisions. In R. Kramer & T. R. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research (pp. 331–356). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ulmer, R. R., & Sellnow, T. L. (2000). Consistent questions of ambiguity in organizational crisis communication: Jack in the box as a case study. Journal of Business Ethics, 25, 143–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Bos, K., & Lind, A. E. (2002). Uncertainty management by means of fairness judgments. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 1–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warshaw, L. J. (1979). Managing stress. Reading: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitener, E. M., Brodt, S. E., Korsgaard, M. A., & Werner, J. M. (1998). Managers as initiators of trust: An exchange relationship framework for understanding managerial trustworthy behavior. Academy of Management Review, 23, 513–530.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

We are grateful to Frida Ehn and Valla Helgadottir for the collection and analysis of the data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Strategy and Management, Norwegian School of Economics, Breiviksveien 40, 5045, Bergen, Norway

    Marcus Selart & Synnøve Nesse

  2. Harstad University College, Harstad, Norway

    Svein Tvedt Johansen

Authors
  1. Marcus Selart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Svein Tvedt Johansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Synnøve Nesse
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus Selart.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Selart, M., Johansen, S.T. & Nesse, S. Employee Reactions to Leader-Initiated Crisis Preparation: Core Dimensions. J Bus Ethics 116, 99–106 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1448-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1448-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation