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Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media / Chedza Simon

Swansea University Author: Chedza Simon

DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.62812

Abstract

Post-millennial crises in the digital age have become more challenging and difficult for unprepared organisations and public relations (PR) practitioners to manage. As such, organisations in Botswana, including global conglomerates with operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, have not been spared from the...

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Published: Swansea 2023
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Rees, Sian F. ; Thomas, Richard H.
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62812
first_indexed 2023-03-06T17:35:29Z
last_indexed 2023-03-07T04:18:01Z
id cronfa62812
recordtype RisThesis
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With social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest, to mention a few, spreading crisis information at lightning speed, organisational crises can become global and multicultural in nature, further threatening the organisation&#x2019;s reputation. To manage such complex exigencies, PR practitioners must understand the factors influencing the types of their crisis messages and how to use Facebook to persuade their audience. Currently, the lack of crisis communication research in Botswana to guide practitioners on appropriate response strategies and how language is used on Facebook to persuade audiences has attracted academic interest. Botswana&#x2019;s crisis communication ecosystem is still new and there is need for adjustments for PR practitioners to scale up to international standards. As such, this study investigates crisis communication in Botswana using the case studies of the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) Fengyue Glass Manufacturing Project crisis of 2011, and the Botswana Railways (BR) passenger train derailment crisis of 2019. This research conducted a detailed content analysis of Facebook posts and identified themes and categories of how these organisations and their audiences communicated during these emergencies. To complement this quantitative data, selected Facebook posts were subjected to critical discourse analysis to establish how PR practitioners used language to dominate and persuade their audiences. Further explanations on how and why practitioners respond the way they do on Facebook were developed from semi-structured interviews with senior PR practitioners in Botswana. The study finds that crisis communication in Botswana is distinctive due to cultural factors. This thesis has developed a crisis information flow and relationship model (the Cross Cloverleaf Relationship Matrix) between Facebook and Botswana&#x2019;s cultural offline communication platform, the kgotla system. The model helps to facilitate Facebook in a non-western setting where it is culturally resisted for its liberalism and promotion of Western values. 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spelling 2023-03-06T18:18:07.4513708 v2 62812 2023-03-06 Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media 779cc8f164233bbe11752e1d4f4eefab Chedza Simon Chedza Simon true false 2023-03-06 CACS Post-millennial crises in the digital age have become more challenging and difficult for unprepared organisations and public relations (PR) practitioners to manage. As such, organisations in Botswana, including global conglomerates with operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, have not been spared from these emergencies. With social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest, to mention a few, spreading crisis information at lightning speed, organisational crises can become global and multicultural in nature, further threatening the organisation’s reputation. To manage such complex exigencies, PR practitioners must understand the factors influencing the types of their crisis messages and how to use Facebook to persuade their audience. Currently, the lack of crisis communication research in Botswana to guide practitioners on appropriate response strategies and how language is used on Facebook to persuade audiences has attracted academic interest. Botswana’s crisis communication ecosystem is still new and there is need for adjustments for PR practitioners to scale up to international standards. As such, this study investigates crisis communication in Botswana using the case studies of the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) Fengyue Glass Manufacturing Project crisis of 2011, and the Botswana Railways (BR) passenger train derailment crisis of 2019. This research conducted a detailed content analysis of Facebook posts and identified themes and categories of how these organisations and their audiences communicated during these emergencies. To complement this quantitative data, selected Facebook posts were subjected to critical discourse analysis to establish how PR practitioners used language to dominate and persuade their audiences. Further explanations on how and why practitioners respond the way they do on Facebook were developed from semi-structured interviews with senior PR practitioners in Botswana. The study finds that crisis communication in Botswana is distinctive due to cultural factors. This thesis has developed a crisis information flow and relationship model (the Cross Cloverleaf Relationship Matrix) between Facebook and Botswana’s cultural offline communication platform, the kgotla system. The model helps to facilitate Facebook in a non-western setting where it is culturally resisted for its liberalism and promotion of Western values. Additionally, this thesis confirms Coombs (2006)’s cluster of crisis response strategies as valid and robust for non-western contexts, provided the corrective strategy is introduced as a cluster to accompany them. E-Thesis Swansea Crisis communication in Botswana, social media, Botswana Development Corporation Fengyue glass project, Botswana Railways train derailment 1 3 2023 2023-03-01 10.23889/SUthesis.62812 ORCiD identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4479-1150 COLLEGE NANME Culture and Communications School COLLEGE CODE CACS Swansea University Rees, Sian F. ; Thomas, Richard H. Doctoral Ph.D Commonwealth Scholarship Commission 2023-03-06T18:18:07.4513708 2023-03-06T17:32:06.3205650 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Chedza Simon 1 62812__26770__e051633eeda9422c89b9423f730cd6c9.pdf Simon_Chedza_PhD_Thesis_Final_Redacted_Signature.pdf 2023-03-06T17:46:20.4844891 Output 8255914 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The author, Chedza Simon, 2023. true eng
title Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media
spellingShingle Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media
Chedza Simon
title_short Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media
title_full Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media
title_fullStr Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media
title_full_unstemmed Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media
title_sort Organisational crisis communication in Botswana: Investigating the crisis response strategies and the role of social media
author_id_str_mv 779cc8f164233bbe11752e1d4f4eefab
author_id_fullname_str_mv 779cc8f164233bbe11752e1d4f4eefab_***_Chedza Simon
author Chedza Simon
author2 Chedza Simon
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publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.62812
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR
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description Post-millennial crises in the digital age have become more challenging and difficult for unprepared organisations and public relations (PR) practitioners to manage. As such, organisations in Botswana, including global conglomerates with operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, have not been spared from these emergencies. With social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest, to mention a few, spreading crisis information at lightning speed, organisational crises can become global and multicultural in nature, further threatening the organisation’s reputation. To manage such complex exigencies, PR practitioners must understand the factors influencing the types of their crisis messages and how to use Facebook to persuade their audience. Currently, the lack of crisis communication research in Botswana to guide practitioners on appropriate response strategies and how language is used on Facebook to persuade audiences has attracted academic interest. Botswana’s crisis communication ecosystem is still new and there is need for adjustments for PR practitioners to scale up to international standards. As such, this study investigates crisis communication in Botswana using the case studies of the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) Fengyue Glass Manufacturing Project crisis of 2011, and the Botswana Railways (BR) passenger train derailment crisis of 2019. This research conducted a detailed content analysis of Facebook posts and identified themes and categories of how these organisations and their audiences communicated during these emergencies. To complement this quantitative data, selected Facebook posts were subjected to critical discourse analysis to establish how PR practitioners used language to dominate and persuade their audiences. Further explanations on how and why practitioners respond the way they do on Facebook were developed from semi-structured interviews with senior PR practitioners in Botswana. The study finds that crisis communication in Botswana is distinctive due to cultural factors. This thesis has developed a crisis information flow and relationship model (the Cross Cloverleaf Relationship Matrix) between Facebook and Botswana’s cultural offline communication platform, the kgotla system. The model helps to facilitate Facebook in a non-western setting where it is culturally resisted for its liberalism and promotion of Western values. Additionally, this thesis confirms Coombs (2006)’s cluster of crisis response strategies as valid and robust for non-western contexts, provided the corrective strategy is introduced as a cluster to accompany them.
published_date 2023-03-01T02:18:25Z
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