Internal Communication and Employee Engagement

Chapter EightDealing with Employees in Crises: Examining Contingent Organization–Public Relationships (COPR) for Internal Communication

Yang Cheng, Peiyao Liu, and Callie Burnette

DOI: 10.4324/9781003195580-12

Introduction

Among the various definitions of crises, many focus on the inherent negative outcomes the organization must face in a crisis. In this chapter, researchers argued that a crisis could be defined as an event that “is not necessarily a bad thing. It may be a radical change for good as well as bad” (Friedman, 2002, as cited in Coombs, 2010, p. 18), such as in the case of Activision Blizzard, a company that was sued for gender discrimination and sexual misconduct in 2021. As a global entertainment holding company, Activision ...