Measuring Crisis Communication Preparedness Across Different Branches of Government – Sharing Experiences Gained in Finland

Abstract

An audit measurement of crisis communication preparedness was conducted for 67 organizations, mainly on the national level, in Finland. This unique project was one of the ways to implement new crisis communication regulations getting into force a year earlier. Its purpose was to strengthen central government communication in incidents and emergencies. The audit consisted of a digital survey in the participating organizations and a reflection meeting on the level of each of the 14 branches involved. The indicators were customized taking the crisis communication scorecard, developed in an international project, as a basis. In addition, several meetings were arranged to facilitate related interorganizational learning and exchange of practices. The findings showed diversity across the different branches of government and led to an exchange of practices. The evaluation of the measurement tool confirmed that it had been good to include reputation issues in the indicators for the national government level, as crises are diverse and can be initiated by reputation issues, or emergencies may also bring up reputation issues.