Power Distance as a Cultural Dimension of Government Crisis Communication Strategy Design

Abstract

Government crisis communication is a multidimensional field, at the crossroads of journalism, public relations, strategic communications, and management. The increasing number of global challenges and crises calls for effective government crisis communications approach. However, the research question to be addressed is whether cultural peculiarities of a certain country, and political context in particular, should be considered when designing government crisis response strategies. The study aims to define the influence of culture on the choice of government crisis strategy and crisis communication campaign implementation. The author considers one of Hofstede’s cultural parameters – power distance – as an important parameter for developing government crisis communications. The analysis of press-releases and social media posts from official government accounts in three countries (Japan, Pakistan and the USA), published while responding to natural disasters, demonstrates the dependence of crisis communication style on the power distance index, and thus on national culture peculiarities. The results assert the need to include cultural factors in theoretical paradigms of crisis response strategies.