The Applicability of the Transparency Principle by Organizations in Crisis Situations

Transparentnost kao općeprihvaćen princip društvene odgovornosti u teoriji odnosa s javnostima većina autora preporučuje i u kriznim situacijama. Preporuke organizacijama da otvoreno komuniciraju sa svim utjecajnim javnostima, posebice sa žrtvama krize, među najvažnijim su uputama za upravljanje krizama. Ipak, pojedini autori smatraju da je potpuno otkrivanje informacija o organizaciji i okolnostima krize ne samo nerealan nego i komunikacijski nedjelotvoran, financijski neisplativ, pa čak i neetičan pristup. Polazeći od zahtjeva za transparentnošću kao neupitno vrijednog načela profesionalnih odnosa s javnostima, a osvrćući se na recentna istraživanja iz područja kriznog komuniciranja, autorica preispituje ograničenja tog principa. Traga za faktorima koji determiniraju stupanj otvorenosti organizacije imajući u vidu kompleksnost odnosa s različitim, nerijetko interesno suprotstavljenim utjecajnim javnostima. Kritički propitujući koncept dvosmislene komunikacije kao mogući model komuniciranja u kriznim situacijama, autorica naglašava važnost konteksta pri odlučivanju o komunikacijskoj strategiji.As a generally accepted principle of social responsibility in public relations theory, transparency is also recommended during crisis situations by most authors. The recommendations for organizations to communicate openly with all stakeholders, especially crisis victims, are among the most important instructions for managing crises. However, some authors believe that the full disclosure of information about the organization and the crisis circumstances is not just an unrealistic, but also communicatively ineffective, financially disadvantageous and even an unethical approach. Starting from the transparency requirements as a set of unquestionably valuable principles in professional public relations, as well as from the benchmark research on crisis communication, the author examines the limits of this rule. The paper is focused on the factors that determine the degree of an organization’s openness, keeping in mind the complexity of relationships with different stakeholders who often have conflicting interests. By critically considering the concept of ambiguous communications as a possible communication model in crisis situations, the author emphasizes the importance of context when deciding on a communication strategy