Crisis presents a rhetorical exigency for organizations to respond (Heath, 2004). Organizations need to fill the information vacuum to share its perspective (Pang, 2013). Crisis responses have, thus far, examined rhetorical responses, i.e., what is said. Silence is not recognized as a type of crisis response in crisis research hence not studied. In the key crisis theories, namely the Contingency theory of Strategic Conflict Management (Pang, Jin, & Cameron, 2023a/b/2021/2010a/b), Situational Crisis Communication Theory and Image Repair Theory, silence is not examined as a strategy. Yet, silence is often used as a strategy in some contexts. For instance, keeping silent is argued to be one of the golden rules in Chinese crisis management (Ye & Pang, 2011). During a crisis, Chinese organizations believe that if the organization is not sure what comments should be made or if there is no better way to put the organization in a position of agreement with public opinions, keeping silent is better than ‘‘making blatant comments’’ (Xu, 2006, p. 21). Do not speak unless one can improve the silence, says a Chinese proverb.
This presentation first discusses the frameworks on verbal crisis responses. Next, it examines non-verbal crisis responses, specifically harnessing strategic silence in crisis communication.
The presentation is focuses on two studies in the stream of research conducted by the speaker in collaboration with researchers. The first study won the Best Theoretical Paper at the 17th annual Conference on Corporate Communication organized by Corporate Communications International (US) in 2018. It was published in 2019 in Corporate Communications: An International Journal. It won the Outstanding Article on Business Communication in Non-ABC Journal in 2021, awarded by the Association for Business Communication (ABC, US). The second study was published in the International Journal of Business Communication in 2022 won the 2023 Outstanding Article of the Year award, also awarded by the Association for Business Communication (ABC, US).
Collectively, these studies suggest crisis responses can be manifested in both verbal and non-verbal communication. If silence is used, the presentation suggests when and how it should be used.