earticle

영어

This study aimed to identify the key components of crisis preparedness and understand the relative importance of public relations (PR) categories to suggest efficient ways to prepare for a pandemic crisis, such as the COVID-19. This study highlights the process-oriented approach of crisis preparedness in addition to the static readiness in response to the crisis. We conducted an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) involving PR experts in academics, corporations, and local governments, using a focus group interview and a pairwise comparison questionnaire. In total, 25 experts completed the final survey responding to the three-level hierarchical structure of crisis preparedness. Results showed that issue management (43.3%) was relatively important than crisis management (30.4%) and risk communication (26.3%) at the highest-level criteria. Overall, this study observed that process-oriented crisis preparedness, such as monitoring issues, forming positive issues, resolving negative issues, and reporting crisis, are relatively more important than the static prepared system, including budget and printing periodicals or the classical offline PR tactics, such as communication with different stakeholders and interest groups. The discussion of this study highlights the importance of pre-crisis readiness over post-crisis readiness, preemptive PR over the past offline PR activities, and intangible trust-building based on systematic information monitoring.