Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the study of internal crisis communication, not only the communication from the management to the employees, but also the employees’ communication with each other, in order to highlight the role of communication in the employees’ sensemaking during a crisis situation. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted as interviews with both managers and employees at a municipality in the Stockholm region, where a former employee had just been accused of embezzling approx. 25 million SEK. The interviews were analysed with particular interest to descriptions of how information was communicated, and how the sensemaking process developed. Findings – The crisis communication was successful when it came to informing external stakeholders and media. But the management and the employees had different views on the communication. The employees felt that management did not present all the information they needed, which made their sensemaking based on assumptions and rumours, and on the culture in the unit. Management interpreted that the crisis was not due to a culture problem, while the employees felt that there was a shared responsibility. Blaming the former employee was perceived as a way of dodging the cultural problems. Practical implications – Conclusions can be generalized into three points: first, differences between external and internal crisis communication need to be taken into account. Second, a crisis can strengthen existing patterns within a dysfunctional culture. Third, do not use single employees as scapegoats, putting all blame on them. Originality/value – The study shows the significance of culture and rumour as components of sensemaking in a crisis situation. The results should be applicable to most kinds of organizations, commercial or not.

Humour and irony are normally not recommended within crisis communication. So when the main Swedish rail company SJ in January 2011 issued three short videos taking an ironical stance on the company and its damaged reputation, it attracted a great deal of attention. But the good will generated by this unexpected irony was apparently never fully understood by the management, and was thus lost or directly undermined by their subsequent communication. This article addresses the specific case of SJ’s crisis communication in early 2011, with particular interest in the question of the use of humour and irony in a crisis situation.

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The present article investigates two questions: What determines citizens' use of different media to seek information in a crisis situation, and what influences their evaluation of the information found. The case analysed is a major fire at a chemical storage facility in the harbour of Halmstad in Sweden, where there was a risk of toxic fumes reaching the city and its approximately 60,000 inhabitants. The study is part of a larger project, financed by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, and in this part, focus group interviews are analysed. The results point to an interaction between citizens' perception of the world, the perceived information, and the development of how the situation is regarded, where sensemaking is the pivotal concept.

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