APOLOGIES AND PUBLIC-RELATIONS CRISES AT CHRYSLER, TOSHIBA, AND VOLVO

This analysis asserts that most crisis management research tends to neglect the communication component of crisis situations. As a corrective, this study suggests that a terminological approach is useful to studying public relations crises, particularly those in which the organization is guilty of wrongdoing and delivers an apology. This study analyzes the corporate apologetic discourses of three paradigmatic cases-at Chrysler, Toshiba, and Volvo-and examines the use of persuasive descriptions and strategic dissociations preferred by these corporate apologists. The author is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northern Illinois University.