William Timothy Coombs

Topic: Crisis Research - Situational Crisis Communication Theory as a Foundation for Evidence-based Crisis Communication.

Synopsis: Crisis communication research provides a vast resource for practitioners. One problem with this research is that is largely simple case studies of past crises. These simple case studies offer speculation about what did or did not work in a particular crisis. Crisis communication is too important to be based primarily on speculation. Crisis communication needs to follow medicine and management with the evidence-based approach. An evidence-based approach searches for the best available evidence to support a particular course of action. The best evidence for crisis communication is derived from theoretically-based and empirically tested recommendations.

Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) was at the forefront of creating theory-based and empirically tested recommendations for crisis communication. SCCT focuses on understanding what shapes the stakeholders' reactions to crisis and to crisis response strategies, what an organization says and does after a crisis. Crisis responsibility is the pivotal aspect of SCCT. Increased attributions of crisis responsibility result in a greater reputational threat, increased anger, decreased purchase intention, and increased likelihood of negative word-of-mouth. SCCT has uncovered a number of key factors that shape stakeholder attributions of crisis responsibility. This presentation reviews the key principles and findings from over a decade of SCCT research and distills the information into a set of evidence-based crisis communication guidelines. The presentation begins with a review of the key elements of SCCT and concludes with the guidelines developed from SCCT.

William Timothy Coombs, PhD in Public Affairs and Issues Management (Purdue University), is a teaching Professor in the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida. He is the 2002 recipient of Jackson, Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize from the Public Relations Society of American for his crisis research. His research has lead to the development and testing of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). He has also won PRIDE Awards for best article, best textbook (twice), and best research book from the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association.

He has published widely in the areas of crisis management including articles in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Affairs, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Business Communication, Journal of Communication Management, and Corporate Reputation Review.

His research includes the award-winning book "Ongoing Crisis Communication". He has co-authored the award winning books "It’s Not Just Public Relations" with Sherry Holladay and "Today’s Public Relations" with Robert Heath. He is also co-editor of "The Handbook of Crisis Communication" and co-author of "PR Strategy and Application: Managing Influence".

Dr Coombs had delivered presentations around world including Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
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