Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 2022 Open Access

Communicating During COVID-19 and Other Acute-Event Scenarios: A Practical Approach

Christian A. Vukasovich ; Marko N. Kostic

Abstract

Successfully adapting to organizational changes during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis necessitated the effective deployment of technical communication texts delineating the expectations and structures for guiding behavior and interactions. A dearth of system-wide familiarity with changes in modalities has disrupted expectations and impacted engagement. During acute events, business and technical communicators will probably not be the initial source of transition messaging. Instead, this task will fall on managers, faculty, and other front-line communicators. The authors present pragmatic recommendations for adapting familiar discourses, semiotics, and mental scripts so that communicators can more effectively intervene during crises to ease organizational transitions and decrease uncertainty.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2022-10-01
DOI
10.1177/10506519221105493
Open Access
OA PDF Green
Topics
writing across the curriculum multimodality technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Lambrecht (2025)
    Risk Revisited: The Role of Technical Communication in Negotiating Barriers to …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. St.Amant et al. (2025)
    Expanding Communication Expectations: Examining Audience Understanding of Scrip…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (3)

  1. Grace et al. (2021)
    Adapting Uncertainty Reduction Theory for Crisis Communication: Guidelines for …
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Lambrecht (2021)
    Tracking the Differentiation of Risk: The Impact of Subject Framing in CDC Comm…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. St.Amant (2021)
    Creating Scripts for Crisis Communication: COVID-19 and Beyond
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
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CrossRef global citation count: 2 View in citation network →

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