Care in Crisis: An Applied Model of Care Considerations for Ethical Strategic Communication

Abstract

Crises ranging from organizational wrongdoings to natural disasters cause destruction and even deaths. Communication is crucial for reducing harm and protecting public interest. This work forms foundations for ethical public interest communications (PIC) based organizational communications throughout the crisis lifecycle and across contexts. The Applied Model of Care Considerations (AMCC) is proposed and developed. The AMCC presents cross-cutting care considerations (i.e., relationships, interdependence, vulnerability, reciprocity) and four landscapes of care (i.e., physical, cultural, political/economic, human). Model constructs are applied to: (1) Nestlé’s decades-long global baby-formula-promotion controversy, and (2) #DeleteUber consumer outrage surrounding the ride-sharing app’s perceived profiting from travel-ban protests. Rooted in feminist normative philosophies, this research addresses literature’s lack of: (1) general crisis ethics theory, (2) applied crisis communications ethics, and (3) feminist-theory-oriented crisis communication.

More Than a “Bad Apple”: Expanding Care Considerations for Strategic Communication in a Collective Crisis

“…To summarize, a care perspective in crisis prevention allows for opportunities for people to voice concerns and for those concerns to be acted upon by those with the ability to prevent crisis situations. Fraustino and Kennedy (2018) advanced previous theorizing related to ethics of care to formulate the AMCC, which can be used before, during, and after crises across contexts, organizations, and geographies. Drawing on feminist geographies (Dias & Blecha, 2007), the authors ground studies of care "in a specific time, place, and geopolitical landscape" (Fraustino & Kennedy, 2018, p. 23), meaning there is no one size fits all crisis prevention or response.…”

“…Put another way, an ethics of care is about fulfilling responsibilities toward people rather than resolving claims of conflicting rights (Simola, 2003). This type of ethical approach focuses not on issues of fairness but on issues of care given toward vulnerable populations (Fraustino & Kennedy, 2018). Bauman (2011) explored three different ethical approaches to crisis leadership, concluding that an ethics of care offers the best approach for dealing with crises that involve harm because people attribute intentionality to organizations and people who allow harm to occur.…”

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“…4-5). Issue frames are typical examples of the substantive attribute dimension used in prior agenda-building studies, as framing involves the process of promoting certain aspects of issues more than other aspects in messages (Entman, 1993;McCombs, 1997). According to Weaver et al (2004), "Journalists can present only a few aspects of any object in the news," which they termed "agendas of attributes," which can be considerably salient (p. 259).…”

Balancing Transparency and Privacy in a University Sexual Misconduct Case: A Legal Public Relations Case Study

“…An ethic of care emphasizes nurturing relationships and expressing values such as compassion and empathy (Fraustino & Kennedy, 2018;Kim et al, 2016;Tao & Kim, 2017). This approach entails "concern about how to fulfill conflicting responsibilities to different people, as opposed to questions of how to resolve claims of conflicting rights among them" (Simola, 2003, p. 354).…”

“…The University's heavy use of the justification and excuse strategies, along with its reliance on legal reasoning, impeded it from acknowledging stakeholders who questioned its actions. Fraustino and Kennedy (2018) proposed that organizations should "communicate with these publics from a stance of care, " particularly when dealing with "vulnerable populations" (p. 25). An organization should acknowledge and respectfully engage with all publics, but it may need to prioritize certain stakeholders, such as survivors, during these situations.…”