‘Onze excuses.’: Over de rol van verontschuldigingen in crisiscommunicatie

In dit artikel onderzoeken we de rol van excuses in crisiscommunicatie. In een 2x2-experiment zijn we nagegaan of excuses effect hebben op crisisverantwoordelijkheid, reputatie, en woede en gedragsintenties van stakeholders in een opzettelijke en een niet-opzettelijke crisis. Crisistype bleek een sterk direct effect te hebben, excuses niet. Mediatieanalyses lieten zien dat emoties (i.c. woede) een centrale rol spelen in crisiscommunicatie. Ook bleek dat excuses een modererend effect hadden op de relatie tussen woede en reputatie.

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In this paper we investigate if and how apologies affect perceived crisis responsibility, organizational reputation and stakeholders anger and behavioral intentions in an intentional and non-intentional crisis. 156 men and women participated in a 2 (apologies versus non-apologies) x 2 (intentional versus non-intentional) experiment with a full factorial, between-subject design. The participants read an online news article about a product defect in which apologies and intentionality were manipulated. Intentionality had a significant effect on all dependent variables. The presence or absence of apologies had no direct effect on any of the dependent variables.

Mediation analyses revealed that emotions (i.c. anger) play a more central role in crisis communication than is predicted by Coombs Situational Crisis Communication Theory. Furthermore, crisis responsibility was unrelated to reputation and behavioral intentions. Finally, moderation analyses showed that apologies moderate the relationship between anger and reputation. When stakeholder read apologies, they seem less inclined to let anger lead their evaluations.