The coronavirus crisis—crisis communication, meaning-making, and reputation management
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Accepted version
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2760865Utgivelsesdato
2020Metadata
Vis full innførselSamlinger
- Department of Government [443]
- Registrations from Cristin [9489]
Originalversjon
International Public Management Journal. 2020, 23(5), 713-729 10.1080/10967494.2020.1812455Sammendrag
This article addresses the Norwegian government’s meaning-making, crises communication and reputation management during the Corona pandemic crisis. It argues that reputation management can be seen as a combination of governance capacity and legitimacy reflected in a well performing crisis communication and meaning-making. Under the slogan “working together” the government emphasized the need for a supportive and cohesive culture in order to to balance efforts at increasing governance capacity as well as governance legitimacy, through shaping a common understanding and broad consensus on what the crisis was about and what needed to be done to deal with it. A main lesson learned from the Norwegian case is that the effectiveness of the government in controlling the pandemic was enhanced by successful meaning-making and communication with the public, and to the high level of citizens’ trust in government.