Application of Situational Crisis Communication Theory in the Analysis of Communication Responses on Social Media Before and After a Crisis by Kenya Power Company

Abstract

The study sought to investigate how situational crisis communication theory is applied in the analysis of communication response strategies before and after a crisis at Kenya Power Company. To investigate the phenomenon, the researcher structured four specific objectives: to investigate the application of denial response strategies, evaluate the application of diminish response strategies, assess the application of rebuild response strategies, and finally to determine the most dominant strategy and establish whether application of communication response strategies aligns with the recommendations in the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) framework. A mixed method approach was used to investigate the research questions. The target population included the customers and employees of Kenya Power. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 middle and senior managers. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample size of 370 from a population of 5022 customers who participated in the #SwitchOffKPLC Twitter campaign. Data from middle and senior managers was collected using key informant interviews, while twitter data from customers was collected using a web application called Twitter Archiving Google Sheet (TAGS). Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis while quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. All the findings were presented using tables, accompanied by narrative description. Findings for RQ1 reveal a high level of application of response strategies under the denial cluster. Under the denial cluster, denial response strategy was comparatively more dominant than attack response strategy and scapegoat response strategy. Findings for RQ2 show a high level of application of diminish response strategies during and after the crisis. Under the cluster, strategies are excuse, justification, and minimization. Results reveal that minimization was the most applied strategy, compared to justification and excuse. Findings for RQ3 demonstrate a low level of application of rebuild response strategies. Under the cluster, strategies ranged from ingratiation, concern, compassion, regret, to apology. Apology was the most preferred rebuild strategy, followed by concern and compassion. There was no evidence of the application of ingratiation and regret to respond to the crisis. Findings for RQ4 show that denial and diminish response strategies are the most dominantly applied crisis management strategies at the company. Application of rebuild strategies was less dominant. There was an alignment between the crisis type and response strategy for deny and diminish strategies and a mismatched alignment with rebuild strategies as per the recommendations of the SCCT model. The mismatch implies a negative influence on corporate reputation. The study concludes that while there was a high level of application of denial and diminish response strategies, there was a low level of application for rebuild response strategies. There was a match between the victim and accidental crisis type with the denial and diminish response strategies, but a mismatch between the characterization of the crisis as preventable type with the application of rebuild response strategies. The study recommends increased application of denial strategies, as this denotes a strong responsibility attribution, and can advance the restoration of the firm’s damaged reputation.