What elevates a leader’s competency in communicating effectively during a
crisis is his or her ability to connect emotionally and psychologically with an
audience and influence the latter’s opinion of the organization in such a way that
opinions are the same or more favorable in the midst of and following a crisis than
they were at precrisis times (Sturges, 1994). Moreover, effective crisis leaders will
be proactive and forthcoming in their communication during a crisis and will
adopt a posture of acknowledgment and accountability (James & Wooten,
2006)—actual fault notwithstanding. What often hurts a firm in crisis is a lack of
transparency and communication messages that are interpreted as defensive. For
example, in the Coca-Cola crisis, leaders conveyed a denial stance regarding discriminatory treatment of minority employees, despite mounting evidence to the
contrary. Coca-Cola’s brand and reputation suffered in the press because of its
denial stance