Crisis Communication Management Strategies in MH370 Crisis with Special References to Situational Crisis Communication Theory

Abstract

All businesses in the world are vulnerable to the crisis that can give a damaging impact on the organization’s reputation. The peculiar disappearance of flight MH370 has been one of the most highlighted and debated crises in the global perspectives, leaving Malaysia Airlines, the carrier, in a tangled situation. This study aims to bridge the gap in research and provide insights of crisis management strategies employed by Malaysia Airlines in times of the crisis. The Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) is used as a framework in the analysis to explore the alignment of crisis management operated by the airlines and the recommendations of managing a crisis as guided in theory. The methodology used for this study is the qualitative approach. Hence, the data for this study was obtained from a set of fifteen media statements, six newspaper articles and four website articles covering on MH370 crisis have been analyzed using the content analysis approach. It was found that the airline was somehow successful in handling the families of victims but not in delivering the crisis messages as it obeyed and violated the recommendations in the SCCT. It concludes that MAS was fairly productive in implementing strategies as it shows the bad and good ways of handling a major disaster