This experiment study used a 2 × 3 between-subjects design to assess two factors in crisis communication and reputation management-prior corporate reputation (good and bad) and crisis response strategies (apology, sympathy, and compensation)on an organization facing high crisis responsibility. Results indicate that stakeholders prefer apology to compensation response strategies. Organizations with a prior good reputation have better postcrisis reviews that those with a prior bad reputation. Crisis managers facing crises that generate high attribution of crisis responsibility and anger are advised to rely on apology rather than compensation strategy. It would also be advantageous for an organization with prior good reputation to highlight its past achievements when responding to a crisis. Corporations, just like politicians and celebrities, are constantly in the public eye and often find themselves in crisis situations. At stake when a corporation is faced with a crisis is its reputation. Corporate digitalcommons.unl.edu

This pioneer study explores the public relations models that inform the practice of public relations in Kenya, and the cultural values that influence this practice. Results show the personal influence model as the most used by practitioners in Kenya, while individualism is the most experienced cultural value. The strong correlation between personal influence model and Hofstede's cultural value of femininity points to the practitioners' strong desire for good interpersonal relationships with colleagues, supervisors, clients and key publics.

This study extends the development of country reputation measurement to other cultural contexts, specifically among sub-Saharan African countries that have shown the desire to improve their reputation in the United States and other Western nations. Although effective management of a country's reputation lies in its ability to measure the perceptions of its target publics, there is currently no established scale that can be relied upon for such measurement of sub-Saharan African countries. In this study, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using second-order latent variables, and based on the goodness-of-fit indices, it was established that all four models for measuring the reputation of four countries-Angola, Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria-met the data fit criteria, thus validating the instrument. Validation of this scale provides empirical evidence that contributes to public diplomacy and country reputation management. Because the CFA process used in this study allows for replication of measurements across independent samples, practitioners interested in measuring the reputation of sub-Saharan African countries can use this scale to evaluate the reputation of these countries across samples of interest.

This study examines the level of knowledge of Kenyan political reporters on a few key concepts of empirical research and opinion polling. Although data from this study are from a nonrepresentative sample, it offers important insights into levels of knowledge on an important topic in journalism. Results indicate that 63.4 percent of the reporters did not know that survey findings from a nonrandom or nonprobability sample cannot be generalized to the population. Another 63.4 percent did not know that sampling error cannot be computed from data that were collected using a nonrandom sample, while 49. 3 percent did not get it correct that the main difference between a nonrandom and random sample was that a random sample ensures that each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected as a study participant. Editors interviewed for this study were in agreement that majority of the reporters were ill-prepared when it comes to interpreting results from an opinion poll and accurately reporting on them. This analysis finds that structural factors, such as ownership, government control, political power, and lack of resources impact a journalist's level of knowledge on opinion polling. Most immediate interventions such as the need for universities and colleges to incorporate 1 Dane Kiambi in Journalism (2019) 2 research methods courses in their curriculum and sponsoring journalists to workshops and fellowships on opinion polling with a view to bridging the knowledge gap are recommended.

So far, analyses of apologetic rhetoric strategies as used by individuals or organizations to respond to accusations of wrongdoing have been concentrated in the West. An analysis of political apologia in an African setting -in this case Kenya -reveals that while Kenyan politicians have used denial, victimization, mortification, and counterattacking among other self-defense strategies, one particular strategy emerges as the most commonly used by Kenyan politicians -ethnic appeal.