Crisis communication and crisis management are dominated by research in image repair and restoration, but much has to be done to address the lack of research that engages relational perspectives in these fields. Adopting the investment model (Rusbult, 1980) as a theoretical framework and using structural equation modeling, the study develops a crisis relational maintenance model to explain how organizations can (re)build relationships with publics. Survey results show that publics’ commitment and publics’ trust are two significant mediators that influence publics’ relational behaviors post-crisis. The investment model provides a suitable framework to explain publics’ commitment to an organization, with explained variance more than 90 percent, and an organization’s relationship maintenance strategies during and post-crisis significantly affect publics’ trust. Whether an organization’s relationships with the publics can be maintained or repaired depends on whether an organization engages in these relationship maintenance strategies that prioritize publics’ need, which can be reciprocated from publics as publics reorient themselves along with the long-term goals and well-being of the relationships. Results of this study call for further attention on relationship maintenance approaches in crisis communication and management research.

Introduction

The recent decade has witnessed a rise in crisis communication research and the field has become more interdisciplinary (Ha & Riffe, 2015). Crises are defined as events that “involve a radical departure from the status quo and a violation of general assumptions and expectations, disrupting the ‘normal’ and limiting the ability to anticipate and predict” (Sellnow & Seeger, 2013, p. 6). Crisis communication and crisis management research focus on mitigating damage brought by such events, and is heavily focused on message options to protect an organization’s reputation and image (e.g., image repair theory, Benoit, 1997; situational theory of crisis communication, Coombs, 2006, 2012; Coombs & Holladay, 2002). However, crisis communication research has overlooked relationships (Avery, Lariscy, Kim, & Hocke, 2010; Coombs, 2000; Liu & Fraustino, 2014). Indeed, Palenchar (2010) pointed out that there is a dire need for crisis communication and management research from relational perspectives. Investigating how organizations can potentially rebuild their relationships with the publics during and after crises not only adds to relational perspectives in crisis communication and management literature, but also provides a foundation to develop theories that embrace the perspective of treating a crisis as an opportunity. Adopting a relational approach, the current study aims to understand factors that influence publics’ behaviors towards organizations involved in crises and strategies available to organizations to repair potentially damaged relationships.