Corporate Apologia: Organizational Self-defence in a Crisis

Special issue call for papers from Corporate Communications

Guest Editors: W. Timothy Coombs, Finn Frandsen, Sherry J. Holladay & Winni Johansen

Corporate apologia is a specific approach that has been used in crisis communication. The research has been instrumental in the genesis of crisis communication. It also provided the foundational crisis response strategies - words and actions management uses to respond to a crisis. The special issue will examine corporate apologia in the broad sense of crisis response strategies being used to defend organizations in crisis. This opens the issue up to research that is beyond the scope of traditional corporate apologia and includes any application of crisis response strategies designed to protect an organization after a crisis. But also traditional case studies are of course of interest for this special issue. The manuscripts might include (but are not limited to) case studies, quantitative, qualitative and conceptual work which might (but are not limited to) the following topics:

· What has corporate apologia research contributed to the crisis communication and crisis management literatures?

· What cultural differences exist in perspectives on crisis communication?

· What novel insights in to crisis communication can be gained from new case studies in corporate apologia?

· What are the parameters and limits of corporate apologia?

· What is corporate apologia’s role in the larger realm of crisis communication?

· How should various crisis response strategies be defined/conceptualized for research?

· What are the effects of crisis response strategies on stakeholders, from employees and investors to customers and the media?

· What is the relationship between emotion and crisis response strategies?

· What effect do serial crises have on crisis communication?

· What role might corporate apologia play in responses to rumors?

· What are organizations defending after a crisis

· How do actions by organizations fit with crisis response strategies?

· What impact does religion have on corporate apologia?

Prospective contributors with queries concerning the potential suitability of topics, guest editors' expectations, or additional requirements about this special issues are invited to contact directly by email either W. Timothy Coombs ([email protected]), Finn Frandsen ([email protected]), Sherry J. Holladay ([email protected]), or Winni Johansen ([email protected]). Submission should be between 4000 and 6000 words in length and articles should follow the author guidelines as specified by the journal

(http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/ccij/notes.jsp).

Professor W. Timothy Coombs

Department of Communication

Eastern IllinoisUniversity

Email: [email protected]

Professor Finn Frandsen

ASBccc

Aarhus School of Business,

University of Aarhus

Email: [email protected]

Professor Sherry J. Holladay

Department of Communication

Eastern IllinoisUniversity

Email: [email protected]

Associate Professor Winni Johansen

ASBccc

Aarhus School of Business,

University of Aarhus

Email: [email protected]

Deadlines for submissions: September 15, 2009

Notification to authors: November 2009

Deadline for revisions: January, 2010

Publication: CCIJ Volume 15, issues 2

Submissions to Corporate Communications: An International Journal must be made using ScholarOne's Manuscript Central: http://mc.manuscriptscentral.com/ccij

Wim J.L. Elving

University of Amsterdam/ ASCoR

Editor in Chief.