The impact of tone of voice and culture in crisis communication.
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2022-07-29
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en
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This study investigated whether a tone of voice (human and organizational) and culture (Dutch and Belgian) influenced the evaluation of crisis communication in terms of trust, empathy and behavioral intentions. Previous studies on tone of voice have yielded conflicting results and mainly occurred in commercial contexts. In addition, not much research has been done into the influence of culture on crisis communication. This while (crisis)communication in the current globalized world is becoming increasingly international. An experimental survey was conducted with a factorial between-subject design for the present study. Two different types of tone of voice, namely the human voice and the organizational voice, were tested in two different cultures, among Dutch and Belgian (i.e., Dutch-speaking) participants. Each participant read either a text with a human tone and the associated cultural aspects or a text with the organizational tone and the associated cultural aspects. Based on Belgium's higher score on Hofstede's cultural dimensions of power distance, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, which corresponded to the characteristics of an organizational voice, it was hypothesized that Belgian participants would evaluate the organizational tone of voice more positively than the human tone of voice. Based on the lower score of the Netherlands on Hofstede's cultural dimensions of power distance, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, which corresponded to the characteristics of a human tone of voice, it was hypothesized that Dutch participants would evaluate the human tone more positively than the organizational tone of voice. The results point out that the tone of voice in crisis communication does partly influence the trust, empathy and behavioral intentions of people from the Netherlands and Belgium. The Belgian culture in particular seems to respond better to the organizational tone of voice. However, not all variables were considered equally important in both cultures.
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