Internal organizational communication in a crisis context : The influence of generation gap

Abstract: Nowadays crisis management is a major topic for all organizations. Both external and internal communication can play critical roles in coping with organizational crisis. Compared to external communication, there is a lack of consideration toward internal communication in both theoretical and practical field.With the increasing number of Generation Y members within organizations, the coexistence of many generations within companies can have influences on internal crisis communication because of their different characteristics, living backgrounds, and experiences.The purpose of this thesis is to explore what is the influence of the generation gap on the internal organizational communication during a crisis context. The analytical approach has been used to conduct our study.We used an online questionnaire to gather the opinions from 162 respondents from different generations and countries. By exploring theoretical framework and by analysing the data, we found that both "old" generations and Generation Y, agree that internal communication is important for dealing with crises, because it can unite the members and improve the trust. By building good relationships with employees and managers, encouraging employees to take more initiatives, and by providing enough information, the effectiveness and efficiency of internal crisis communication can be promoted.Another result of this research is that the generation gap exists within organizations, and both Generation Y and "old" generations think that this gap can affect the internal crisis communication. The influence of the generation gap on the internal crisis communication can be reflected in some aspects including: the communication way (Vertical VS Horizontal), communication tool preference (New technologies VS Conventional), and values (Group oriented VS Individual oriented). However the generation gap can also bring opportunities concerning the internal crisis communication.