Evolution of hoteliers' organizational crisis communication in the time of mega disruption

This research note explores the evolutionary process of corporate crisis communication to understand how international hotel enterprises respond to the present pandemic. Corpus linguistics was used as a computer-aided approach in assessing a large collection of naturally occurring texts. Press releases from hotel corporations listed in Fortune 500 within the period of January to April 2020 were curated and built into three corpora. Lexical patterns that evolved over the course of the first quarter of 2020 reveal that the lodging industry did not fully prepare for the crisis until March, while management was still dwelling on their past achievements even in February 2020. The overall tone, pre-crisis, reflected top management's demonstration of success and performance, attributed to the CEOs themselves; while it completely changed during the crisis. This study draws upon crisis management and organizational communication streams of work to advance prevailing theoretical accounts of organizational crisis communication.

Automated summary

This research examines the evolution of corporate crisis communication in response to the pandemic, using corpus linguistics to analyze press releases from Fortune 500 hotel corporations. The study found that the lodging industry was not fully prepared for the crisis until March, with management focusing on past achievements even in February. The overall tone shifted from demonstrating success and performance to a more crisis-response approach.