Research on bureaucratic reputation has found that public organizations respond strategically to reputational threats. To understand better the way public organizations should communicate with their external audiences, upon which they depend for necessary resources and democratic legitimacy, this study examines the effectiveness of various communication strategies that agencies often use in response to a crisis. The results of a series of vignette experiments involving US adults show that an agency's communication strategy in response to crises does indeed influence citizens' reputation judgments. Specifically, compared with remaining silent, organizations that offer the public explanations of crises mitigate their reputational losses more effectively. Further, this study finds that people's prior reputation judgments and the nature of the crisis itself are important factors involved in the formation of reputation judgments, although these findings contradict communication theories. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

中文翻译：

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面对危机管理官僚声誉：战略沟通效果的实验检验

对官僚声誉的研究发现，公共组织对声誉威胁做出战略性反应。为了更好地理解公共组织应该与外部受众沟通​​的方式，它们依赖于必要的资源和民主合法性，本研究检验了机构在应对危机时经常使用的各种沟通策略的有效性。一系列涉及美国成年人的小插曲实验结果表明，一个机构应对危机的沟通策略确实会影响公民的声誉判断。具体而言，与保持沉默相比，公开解释危机的组织更有效地减轻了声誉损失。此外，本研究发现，人们 先前的声誉判断和危机本身的性质是影响声誉判断形成的重要因素，尽管这些发现与传播理论相矛盾。讨论了对理论和实践的影响。