Study
Robert R. Ulmer
Management Communication Quarterly 2001 14: 590
DOI: 10.1177/0893318901144003
The online version of this article can be found at: http://mcq.sagepub.com/content/14/4/590 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Management Communication Quarterly can be found at:
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“This article emphasizes the important relationship between precrisis stakeholder relationships and
EFFECTIVE CRISIS
MANAGEMENT
THROUGH
ESTABLISHED
STAKEHOLDER
RELATIONSHIPS
Malden Mills as a Case Study
postcrisis responses. MAY 2001
MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION QUARTERLY /
Ulmer / EFFECTIVE CRISIS MANAGEMENT
”
ROBERT R. ULMER
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article is based on the author’s doctoral dissertation titled Ethical Responses to Organizational Crisis: Lessons From Three Successful Cases, directed by Matthew W. Seeger. A version of this article was presented at the 2000 National Communication Conference in Seattle, Washington. The author would like to thank Ted
Zorn and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful
Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 4, May 2001 590-615
© 2001 Sage Publications, Inc.
590
Downloaded from mcq.sagepub.com at SAGE Publications on February 10, 2011
Ulmer / EFFECTIVE CRISIS MANAGEMENT
591
This article investigates the postcrisis communication of Aaron
Feuerstein, chief executive officer of
Citations: http://mcq.sagepub.com/content/14/4/590.refs.html Downloaded from mcq.sagepub.com at SAGE Publications on February 10, 2011 590 Downloaded from mcq.sagepub.com at SAGE Publications on February 10, 2011 n December 11, 1995, Malden Mills, a textile manufacturing plant located in Lawrence, Massachusetts, erupted into flames injuring 36 workers has sought to provide a greater understanding of the role of communication in both the onset of and recovery from a crisis. Seeger, Sellnow, and Ulmer (1998) define crisis as “a specific, unexpected examines the development of crises over stages (Fink, 1986; Downloaded from mcq.sagepub.com at SAGE Publications on February 10, 2011 Turner, 1976), crisis planning (Gonzalez-Herrero & Pratt, 1995; Newsom, Turk, & Kruckeberg, 2000), crisis decision making (Gouran, Hirokawa, & Martz, 1986; Williams & Olaniran, 1994), and the communication strategies available to organizations in the aftermath of a crisis (Allen & Caillouet, 1994; Benoit, 1995; Coombs, 1995; Hearit, 1995) link precrisis and postcrisis communication (Coombs, 1999b; Gonzalez-Herrero & Pratt, 1996; Heath, 1997; Pauchant & Mitroff, 1992; Seeger & Bolz, 1996; Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 2001; Sturges, 1994).