Ethical responses to organizational crisis: Lessons from three successful cases

Present research lacks adequate examples of successful and ethical approaches to organizational crisis management. Much of this research determines the effectiveness of organization's post-crisis responses by examining obvious failures. This dissertation takes an alternative approach by examining ethical post-crisis communication through obvious successes. This study examined ethical responses by applying stakeholder concepts and ethical perspectives to the corporate discourse of Malden Mills, after a plant explosion, Schwan's Sales Enterprises, after a salmonella outbreak, and General Motors, in response to accusations by Dateline NBC about the safety of GM C/K trucks.; The study suggests that ethical responses to organizational crises can help organizations achieve effective responses. First, when an organization takes initial responsibility for a crisis they can meet the difficult objective of responding quickly and accurately to a crisis. Second, the organization can use established values as a repertoire of response to respond to crisis. Third, this research contends that if organizations establish strong relationships with stakeholders before a crisis they can establish strong networks of support that can help an organization recover from a crisis.