Browsing by Author "Tuomela, Maria"

This thesis examines crisis communications at the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) during the intensified influx of asylum seekers in 2015-2016, which is commonly referred to as the ‘refugee crisis’. The study aims to uncover what kind of a self-narrative Migri constructed in its press releases about the refugee crisis and its own role as the government body in charge of crisis management. The work also examines how the organization’s crisis communications evolved during the crisis. The data consists of 98 press releases published between May 2015 and late December 2016. The data was analyzed through narrative theme analysis. The theoretical background is based on literature about crisis communications in the Finnish and Nordic government sector. Literature conceptualizing organizational crisis communications through theoretical frameworks was used to examine the temporal aspect of Migri’s crisis communications. The study identified five main narrative themes contributing to Migri’s self-narrative: efficiency, exceptionality, security, humanity and responsibility. All themes reinforced a self-narrative of a law-abiding and efficient, yet humane organization, which has successfully surmounted challenging circumstances. The narrative themes fortified either operational or strategic communication. The former refers to communication about the day-to-day management of the crisis, while the latter addresses legitimacy and organizational survival. Operational communication unitized themes of efficiency and exceptionality. Strategic communication appeared mostly in conjunction with themes of security, humanity and responsibility. Three temporal stages of crisis communication were identified; a pre-crisis stage, an active stage and a lingering stage. Early stages of the crisis focused on operational communication, while the active and lingering stages of the crises emphasized strategic communication. The prominence of strategic communication in the press releases suggests that maintaining a favorable organizational identity and ensuring legitimacy amid public scrutiny were some of the most important drivers for Migri’s crisis communications in the refugee crisis. Migri’s self-narrative negotiated organizational identity in relation to the surrounding society and took part in the narrative struggle about interpretations of the refugee crisis. The findings indicate that at the end of the studied period, Migri’s crisis communications had not returned to a ‘normal’ pre-crisis state, contrary to what theoretical crisis communication frameworks assume. Furthermore, crises in the government context can be understood as dynamic and complex processes. Crisis preparedness in the government sector could better consider the longevity and complexity of societal crises, especially since public organizations have an important responsibility in managing said predicaments.