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Purpose: The study focuses on the negative implications that an organizational crisis can have for individual employees. Specifically, it considers job-related uncertainty, negative emotions (anxiety and frustration) and job disengagement. Through the lens of the social exchange theory, it is argued that internal crisis communication needs to provide sufficient socioemotional resources to their employees in order to mitigate these negative outcomes. In particular, the study argues for internal crisis communication that fosters organizational transparency and organizational support to achieve these mitigating effects. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey among employees in Austria was administered one year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – this specific crisis context particularly evoked job-related uncertainty and negative emotions which are considered relevant drivers of job disengagement. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling based on a sample of N = 410. Findings: Results show that employees' perceptions of job-related uncertainty are strongly linked to job-related anxiety and frustration; job-related frustration, in turn, strongly influences job disengagement. Overall, employees' perceptions of organizational transparency and organizational support contribute both to prevent the risk of job disengagement; however, the processes how these effects evolve differ. Whereas organizational transparency works on the cognitive level via a reduction of employees' perceptions of uncertainty, organizational support shows its effect on the emotional level through a reduction of job frustration. Originality/value: The study contributes to the scarce research on how internal crisis communication can address employees' uncertainty, negative emotions and job disengagement during a crisis. Moreover, despite the lack of organizational responsibility for creating the crisis, the study emphasizes organizational accountability to respond to the needs of its employees to mitigate negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the communicative factors that facilitate or hamper the development of an inclusive work environment with an emphasis on the communication about equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), while taking diversity characteristics of employees into account. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 84 persons employed in Austria and Germany, who feature various observable and non-observable diversity characteristics, were interviewed following a problem-centered approach. Findings: The results indicate that employees with (observable) diversity characteristics, who tend to feel less included, observe more excluding and marginalizing communication and practices in their organizations. Moreover, formal interpersonal communication appears to be more important to develop a highly inclusive workplace than informal interpersonal communication and other forms of communication about EDI. Research limitations/implications: The sample was rather imbalanced and comprised only employees in Austria and Germany, which limits the study's explanatory power. However, the findings stress the significance of formal interpersonal communication as the cornerstone of an inclusive workplace, which should be followed up in future research. Practical implications: In terms of the development of an inclusive work environment the findings suggest that strategic (i.e. formal) organizational communication about EDI issues is key to increase the perception of inclusion. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating the importance of interpersonal communication as a key factor that facilitates, but also hampers an inclusive work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate communication increasingly evolves into newsroom-like forms. In such structures, traditional approaches of functional differentiation (i.e., internal coms, media relations, public affairs, etc.) give way to topic- and content-centered approaches to corporate communication. Megatrends like globalization, digitalization, mediatization, and the decline of journalism have facilitated these developments. This study provides insights on agile content management gathered from 32 semi-structured expert interviews with communication professionals working in 13 business organizations in Germany and Austria. Results indicate that on the strategic level, communication management reacts to rising communicative demands in organizational environments by implementing agile-like concepts in communication departments, which are content-driven and not based on departmentalized specialization. Accordingly, the importance of competent and largely autonomous content managers increases, with these experts subsequently serving as conductors of inclusive, collective storytelling that reaches far beyond the communication department, into every relevant stakeholder group. Thereby, business organizations cope with the challenges of increasing complexity in the information society of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: When in the Summer of 2015 unprecedented numbers of refugees traveled through Austria, not only public and governmental authorities were challenged to provide support, but also the business sector. Various companies responded to the challenge by organizing relief actions, among them Austrian Federal Railways (OEBB). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of this initiative on stakeholder perceptions and behavior. Design/methodology/approach: The case of OEBB served as the research context. Data were collected by means of an online survey in May of 2016, about eight months after the initiative. Findings: Almost half of the participants mentioned OEBB's activities for refugees in an unaided recall task. Unaided corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness is related to people's issue involvement and reminiscence of specific activities and communication measures. People unaidedly recalling the initiative expressed a significantly better CSR image and identification with the company; they also expressed a stronger intention to speak positively (positive word of mouth) about the company's CSR activities. CSR image and attitude toward the initiative mediates this effect. Research limitations/implications: The study stresses the importance of CSR awareness and communication. The non-representative sample does not allow general inferences. Originality/value: This research uses an actual case to test the effectiveness of CSR activities and communication in the context of a highly critical situation, and sheds light on the mediating processes that drive the effects. The study extends existing knowledge from experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]