Reputation management during a public health crisis: Overcompensating when all else fails

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• Author: Samanta Varela Castro,Edgar O. Bustos,Daniel Saldivia Gonzatti
• Date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13638

SYMPOSIUM ARTICLE

Reputation management during a public health crisis:

Overcompensating when all else fails

Samanta Varela Castro

1

| Edgar O. Bustos

2

| Daniel Saldivia Gonzatti

3

1

Technology & Information Policy Institute,

The University of Texas at Austin, Austin,

Texas, USA

2

Public Administration Department, Centro de

Investigaci

on y Docencia Econ

omicas (CIDE),

Aguascalientes, Mexico

3

Center for Civil Society Research, WZB Berlin

Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany

Correspondence

Edgar O. Bustos, Public Administration

Department, Centro de Investigaci

on y Docencia

Econ

omicas (CIDE), Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Email: edgar.bustos@cide.edu

Abstract

Although reactions to reputational threats have been studied before, there is still

an opportunity to understand the dynamics of reputation management facing a

crisis. This study seeks to understand how the legal-procedural, moral, performa-

tive, and technical dimensions of reputation change during the management of

an extended crisis in a public health organization. We explore the communication

of the Mexican Health Secretariat by analyzing its press conferences and releases

before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on the situational crisis com-

munication theory and considering public interest, we conducted two exploratory

examinations based on text-as-data methods to capture reputation-related

language. Our analysis suggests that factors influencing reputational threat, such

as crisis severity, legitimacy, leaders’individual reputation, and coalition support,

may be important for choosing between strategies. We argue that the Secretariat

radically changed its reputation management strategy during the pandemic—they

first stressed the technical and, as damage rose, the performative dimensions.

Evidence for practice

•Public organizations should integrate insights from crisis and reputation man-

agement as critical tools to deal effectively with a public health crisis.

•Public organizations have incentives to manage threats to their reputation dur-

ing and after a crisis. However, public interest should be considered a priority.

•Initial communication strategies impact long-term dynamics.

Reputation management and crisis communication are

closely related and have been bridged from different

stances. The situational crisis communication theories

(Coombs, 2007; Coombs & Holladay, 2002) and the

image repair theories (Benoit, 2018) help us understand

that, facing disruptive times, organizations will perceive

threats and try to protect and improve their reputation.

Literature has studied variations in strategies. Several

factors have been identified as influencing reputation:

attribution of responsibility (Coombs, 2007), the need to

deflect blame or claim credit (Hood, 2011), legitimacy,

trust (Cairney & Wellstead, 2021; Christensen &

Lægreid, 2020; Robinson et al., 2020), old and new

media (Boin et al., 2005; Benoit, 2018), politics, culture,

symbolism (Wæraas & Maor, 2014), and even the indi-

vidual traits of a spokesperson (Maor, 2016). Because

the changing duration and magnitude of a crisis can

reveal different dynamics, temporality is also important.

Some studies have observed variation through time,

such as Carpenter’s(

2010) study on the history of the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an organization

actively managing its reputation through crises to build

power successfully.

However, there is still an opportunity to contribute to

this literature. First, previous studies still leave the ques-

tion open of how different dimensions of bureaucratic

reputation (Carpenter, 2010; Maor, 2010) are emphasized

to shape audiences’perceptions. Second, delving into a

case of a crisis that was singular in its duration and that

occurred at times when risk-related issues are redefining

boundaries between science, politics, and public opinion

(Innerarity, 2013) can add to our understanding of crises

and reputation. This article asks two questions: How does

multidimensional reputation management evolve during

a prolonged crisis? And what factors might be associated

with changes in reputation over time? The answers origi-

nate from a context severely damaged by COVID-19, led

by a populist government and a president that denied

Received: 15 April 2022 Revised: 27 March 2023 Accepted: 29 March 2023

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13638

1234 © 2023 American Society for Public Administration. Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:1234–1245.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar