Communication, Culture and Crisis in a Transboundary Context

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to fill the gap in an area of crisis communication that is now getting some attention from scholars by examining the role that culture plays in crisis communication in nonwestern settings. It describes a crisis as a major occurrence that can potentially have a negative effect on the individual, organization, or industry experiencing it, as well as its publics, products, goods, services, and reputation. The book examines how the specific culture impacts communication and response to crisis, using a case study or two as illustration. The aim is to show how different nonwestern cultures perceive crisis, how they manage all aspects of crisis within and across national, political, and ideological boundaries, and lessons that organizations and others that wish to operate or are operating in those cultures could use in preparing for and managing crisis.