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En fallstudie av Karlstads kommuns vattenläcka 2011
Crisis communication in today's society is an important element for organizations. Whether an organization makes it through a crisis, good or bad is largely based on their crisis communication work. Crisis communication is about how the organization works to repair or maintain the organization's external image, the image that society has about the organization. When a crisis occurs stakeholders lose confidence in the organization or change their mind about it.This case study is about exploring how a municipality handles crisis communication through the various phases of a crisis. The study is also to examine how the municipality communicates with its stakeholders in specific communication channels during a crisis.The case study makes use of theories circulating crisis communication, such as: theories of how crisis communication should be handled, how a crisis is recognized, the different phases of a crisis, the communication channels that can be used and who may be interested in an organization when a crisis reveals itself. This is addressed in the study and all these theories gathers under the framework of crisis communication.This case study is based on two qualitative methods, interview method and text analytic method. By applying these methods to the case of the water leak in Karlstad?s municipality 2011 we were able to get all the relevant information about the case that we needed to build our case study. Text analysis was done on two specific communication channels that the municipality used the during the water leak and interviews were conducted with three individuals who possessed all the relevant information about the case they were also working actively with crisis communication during the water leak.The purpose of the case study was to examine how the municipality handled its crisis communication before, during and after a crisis, in this case the water leak in 2011. The study also examined how the municipality communicated in specific communication channels during this specific crisis. Our results demonstrate how the municipality of Karlstad worked before, during and after the water leak in 2011 with crisis communication and the result also shows how they communicated with their stakeholders through social media and press releases.The results of the case study are also related to Coombs five step plan for better crisis communication and the combination between Coombs plan and the results of the case study produced a new, modified five step plan for improved crisis communication.