Search

• The objectives of instructing information and adjusting information are explicated. • Measures of the degree to which crisis response messages meet the explicated objectives are developed. • The measures predict over 50 % of reputation in an initial test. • Practitioners can use these scales to assess their crisis response messages and prepare for future crises. • Scholars can use these scales to refine and develop theory regarding crisis communication. Substantial research exists to study reputation management messages but far less research exists to consider instructing information and adjusting information during and after a crisis. This research seeks to build tools that assist in the study of base crisis responses. Using a literature review, 18 interviews with people with expertise in public relations, and an experiment with 286 participants recruited from mTurk, this research builds scales that assess the quality of instructing information and adjusting information given during a crisis. The resulting scales are found to be reliable and predict significant change in post-crisis reputation in an initial test. Potential uses of these scales for crisis communication scholars and public relations practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]