A model of crisis and issues management excellence (CIMEx): Conceptualizing and testing the RAPIDS principles

James E. Grunig (2001) proposed four conceptual principles that guide public relations professionals in managing issues and crises. Different from existing popular theories and models in crisis communication which focus on organizations’ crisis responses to restore organizational reputation (i.e., the symbolic-interpretive paradigm of public relations), the four principles (i.e., relationship, accountability, disclosure, symmetry) that he proposed to focus on the participation of public relations professionals in facilitating communication between and managing the behaviors of both the organizations and affected publics in a crisis or an issue (i.e., the behavioral-strategic paradigm). However, the four principles are yet tested. This study conceptualized a model of crisis and issues management excellence (CIMEx) and proposed two additional principles to create the RAPIDS (relationship, accountability, promptness, inclusivity, disclosure, and symmetry) assessment tool. The scale was empirically tested with a total of 436 survey responses collected from U.S. participants on Amazon M-Turk. Reliability tests and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) reflected the reliability and construct validity of the scale. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed