Conceptualizing Financial Crisis Communication: Central Bank’s Reputation Management Strategies During a Crisis

Abstract

Research suggests that financial crises are inherently and mostly communication problems, making it crucial to study how central banks deploy crisis communication strategies for reputation management. This study proposed financial crisis communication conceptual framework to examine how the Central Bank of Ghana communicatively managed the financial industry reputation during the Ghanaian banking crisis. Findings revealed that whereas the Central Bank of Ghana deployed justification, differentiation, shifting blame, and attacking the accuser strategies to manage its own reputation, it used corrective action, good intentions, and minimization strategies to manage the reputation of the financial industry at large. Implications for practice are discussed.