ISU faculty publish research advising business professionals on public relations crises

POCATELLO — Faculty from Idaho State University’s Department of Communication, Media and Persuasion published the article “Exploring the Alignment of Image Repair to Audience Type” in the edited volume “Putting Image Repair to the Test.”

The study is the first of a series of quantitative tests designed to provide proscriptive advice to organizational public relations professionals when dealing with organizational crises.

The study found that when organizations face a crisis, the most effective image repair tactics include apologies, promises of corrective action that will fix or prevent the recurrence of the crisis and compensation to the victims. The least effective tactics include attempts to shift the blame for the crisis, attacking the accuser such as the press or activist groups, or simply denying the crisis exists.

“Although there have been hundreds of case studies of organizational image repair, including BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the National Football Leagues’ response to the Ray Rice domestic violence case, few studies have attempted to quantitatively test the effectiveness of various tactics,” said Professor John Gribas, the lead researcher on the project. “The book is an attempt to fill that gap.”

Other contributing authors include Chair and Professor James DiSanza, Professor Nancy Legge, Assistant Professor Karen Hartman and ISU Lecturer Casey Santee. The edited volume is published by Lexington Books and will be available at the end of this month.

For additional information, visit: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498517744/Putting-Image-Repair-to-the-Test-Quantitative-Applications-of-Image-Restoration-Theory