An Assessment of Crisis Communication Preparedness: the Case of Selected Ministries of fdre
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Date
2021-07
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Abstract
Crises can occur in any organization or individual at any place and time. Since they attract media attention and public scrutiny, an organization must be prepared to react and communicate quickly and effectively to protect their reputations and survivals. However, Ethiopian organizations are striking by an unceasing wave of crisis which heavily affects their reputation and relationship with their stakeholders. Therefore, this study was intended to assess the Crisis Communication Preparedness of Ministries of FDRE. To achieve this objective, the researcher employed Explanatory Sequential Methods Design with a mixed-method research approach. The necessary data were collected through a survey questionnaire and in-depth interview. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the number of Ministries used for the study. From the total of 20 Ministries, 10 Ministries were chosen as a representative sample. A sample of 50% was considered adequate to be able to generalize about the nation's ministries. There were 125 PR experts in the selected Ministries. All of them were selected purposefully for the questionnaire. PR directors of each Ministry were chosen as key informants purposefully for the in-depth interview. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 23. The qualitative data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis methods. Accordingly, the findings of this study show that Ministries of FDRE have very poor preparation for crisis communication. Specifically, there is no system of assessing early warning signal detection mechanism before the actual occurrence of a crisis in the majority of Ministries of FDRE. Moreover, the study found the absence of a crisis communication plan, trained crisis communication management team, trained crisis time spokesperson, and Pre-draft crisis management messages including content for dark websites and templates for crisis statements in almost all Ministries of FDRE. Regarding channels of communications, the study found that all Ministries of FDRE are ready to use both traditional and new media for crisis communications. But, there is no Ministry that has created a separate website for crisis communication only. The thesis forwarded recommendations focusing on the findings for Ministries of FDRE. Finally, the researcher suggested a further study on the effectiveness of crisis communication strategies, the effectiveness of the crisis communication practices, and stakeholders‟ readiness for crisis communication.
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Crises; Crisis Communication Plan; Crisis Communication; Crisis Management Plan; Crisis Management; Crisis Preparedness