Paracrisis

Internet communication channels, especially social media, created many new dynamics for crisis communication. One of those is a convenient tool that stakeholders can use to publicly challenge the social responsibility of an organization's actions thereby creating a challenge crisis (Lerbinger, 1997). A challenge crisis can be initiated when stakeholders identify a problematic behavior and consequently request an organization to change that behavior. Petitioning is the technical term for when stakeholders present demands for change to organizations. The petition is a crisis threat. The threat is based on the potential of the petition, the charge of irresponsible behavior damaging an organization's reputation. Any action that can seriously erode the company's reputation is a threat and becomes a crisis if their reputation is damaged. Petitions have the potential to spark the interest of more stakeholders and create negative impressions of the organization. This is a unique situation where a crisis threat emerges and is managed in public.

When petitioning occurs online, a wide variety of stakeholders can view the event. People frequently confuse these public crisis threats as actual crises because they “look like” crisis, but actually require no crisis teams to address the threat. These events are called paracrises because para means “like.” Paracrisis can be defined as “a publicly visible crisis threat that charges an organization with irresponsible or unethical behavior” (Coombs & Holladay, 2012, p. 409). It is the visibility/public nature of the threat that makes paracrises unique. Other stakeholders can scrutinize the petition and may join in the challenge because the petition is online. Conversely, even though other stakeholders encounter the message, they might disagree with or simply ignore the challenge.

Whether or not the petition evolves into a true crisis depends in large part on how well or poorly [Page 638]the threat is managed. Paracrises place additional pressure on crisis managers because the threat is managed in view of interested stakeholders. Crisis managers must determine if the petition (threat) warrants a response and what type of response should be utilized if one is required. As with any crisis threat, paracrises are assessed for impact and likelihood. Likelihood and impact are a function of the power of the stakeholder supporting the petition, the legitimacy of the petition (likelihood other stakeholders view it as acceptable), and urgency (willingness and skill of stakeholders to push for the petition).

There are three basic response strategies for a paracrisis: reform, refute, and refuse. Reform embraces the petition and makes the desired changes or similar changes to those requested in the petition. Refute argues against the need to make any changes. Refuse involves ignoring the petition and not engaging stakeholders about the petition. Two organizational constraints, the costs and strategy consistency must be factored into the decision on how a company responds to a challenge. If the requested change costs the organization too much or is inconsistent with organizational strategy, the likelihood of addressing the petition decreases.