Examining organization-public relationships in crises: A thematic meta-analysis of updated literature from 1997 to 2019

In crises, relationships between organizations and publics are under pressure. Building or managing relationships in crises has attracted heated discussions among scholars in the field of public relations and business communication over the past few decades. To provide an updated systematic analysis of this area, this study presents a review of 131 published journal articles from 1997 to 2019. Findings identified theoretical and methodological trends in current relationship management research in crises. In addition, five themes of relationships in crises were demonstrated. These included the antecedents, outcomes, mediating/moderating role, networks and the process of relationships. Results also indicated that crisis communication strategies, crisis types and prior crisis history were key precursors of (re-)building relationships in the literature. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.