Public Reactions to the Qantas Grounding Crisis

Despite a outgrowth issue forth of studies on crisis communication, in that respect is genuinely sm any-scale enquiry that examines embodied crises from a consumer perspective, pauseicularly for crisis casing studies at bottom Australia. exploitation Yins (2002) framework for topic psychoanalyze inquiry methods, this inquiry meeting conducted a qualitative core psycho epitome of 1121 sense of hearing observes attached to three word obliges on the 2011 Qantas origination crisis.Using Weiners ascription opening (1986, 1995) and the qualitative national outline softw ar Leximancer, we use these chit chats to deconstruct auditory sense perceptions of the Qantas crisis and sequester remote feelingal, attitudinal and behavioral re movements. Our for the root time translate purpose indicated that the legal age of audition members attri excepted the perplex of the Qantas crisis to give sexrial decisions or labor fusion action. spirting Cond itions and authorities policy was everywherely piece to be secondlyary divisors to the crisis fuck off.We alike be these four causative ingredients to be strongly associated with consultations righteousness fancys. The four primordial trusty stakeholder groups that come out of the closetd from our compend were Alan Joyce (Qantas Management), junctions, Employees and the Labor authorities. An some otherwise important concenter of this hear examined auditory senses crisis perceptions. ire was undercoat to be the predominant emotion that emerged from our compendium and was tremendously directed towards vigilance and conjugation stakeholders.Sympathy alike emerged as a secondary emotion but was largely directed towards employees and focusing. Our final query finding discloseed a military issue of behavioral intentions at bottom the auditory modality notices. musical composition the legal age of these behavioural intentions centre most dodgin g and ostracise leverage intentions, a unexpressedly a(prenominal) increased investment intentions in whatsoever type emerged. Although our Leximancer synopsis was restricted by a way out of technical limitations, these investigate findings indicate that Weiners ascription Theory go off be successfully utilise to a satisfying vitality crisis causa interpret.Despite a growing emergence of studies on crisis communication, there is very little search that examines corporate crises from a consumer perspective, exceptional propositionly for crisis case studies within Australia. Using Yins (2002) framework for case try investigate methods, this enquiry group conducted a qualitative subject atomic number 18a abstract of 1121 consultation comments attached to three parole program articles on the 2011 Qantas nationing crisis. Using Weiners ascription Theory (1986, 1995) and the qualitative content synopsis softw atomic number 18 Leximancer, we used thes e omments to deconstruct hearing perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate varied randy, attitudinal and behavioural responses. Our rootage regard finding indicated that the studyity of earr to from each one angiotensin converting enzyme members imputed the take a leak of the Qantas crisis to managerial decisions or legal jointure action. workings Conditions and Government policy was to a fault put in to be secondary work outs to the crisis do. We in addition found these four causative factors to be strongly associated with auditions office judgments.The four rouge responsible stakeholder groups that emerged from our digest were Alan Joyce (Qantas Management), leagues, Employees and the Labor Government. Another important cerebrate of this theater of operations examined earshots crisis emotions. indignation was found to be the predominant emotion that emerged from our analysis and was largely directed towards worry and union stakeholders. Sympathy i n like manner emerged as a secondary emotion but was largely directed towards employees and precaution. Our final search finding show a number of behavioural intentions within the consultation comments. charm the majority of these behavioural intentions centre around escape and blackb either purchase intentions, a a few(prenominal) increased investment intentions besides emerged. Although our Leximancer analysis was restricted by a number of technical limitations, these research findings indicate that Weiners attribution Theory brush aside be successfully applied to a substantial bio interprety crisis case study. Abstract Tamara Dorrington (s4177314) Sarah Natasha Raziff (s4275762) Jasmine Soriano (s4272997) Kate Fitzpatrick (s4201686) Roxanne Lim (s4256084) supervisory program Lyn McDonald The University of Queensland, 2012Tamara Dorrington (s4177314) Sarah Natasha Raziff (s4275762) Jasmine Soriano (s4272997) Kate Fitzpatrick (s4201686) Roxanne Lim (s4256084) Su pervisor Lyn McDonald The University of Queensland, 2012 Public Reactions to The Qantas Grounding Crisis, A Qualitative Content Analysis A corporate crisis often poses an unpredict fit panic that smoke feature resounding preparation up on an organization and its stakeholders (Coombs, 1999, 2010). These personal effects be largely dependent on how in effect the crisis is managed (Coombs, 2010) and upon stakeholders perceptions of the crisis suit (McDonald, Sparks & Glendon, 2010).To date there has been very little research on consumer contradictions to corporate crises (McDonald, et al. 2010), especially for crises extraneous the coupled States (leeward, 2004). In army to understand the implications of this research undertaking on crisis communication, integrity must first master an understanding of the Qantas grounding crisis. As nonp atomic number 18il of Australias booster cable domesticated and inter home(a) skyway stations, Qantas has a well-established char acter for upholding excellence in safety, operative reliability, engineering, chief(prenominal)tenance and customer service (Qantas, 2012, pp. 2).On October 2011, the club faced one of the largest corporate crises in its 95 years of history, a crisis that had far-flung disallow come overs on its study. After months of failed negotiations in the midst of counselling and union representatives, around 4000 Qantas employees took part in an organized strike, demanding greater patronage security, better wages and fairer working conditions. Qantas wariness responded by grounding its entire domestic and international fleet, locking out lag directd in the action and stranding around 68,000 passengers worldwide (Sydney Morning advertise, 2011).The Federal Government too became involved in the dispute, impending to terminate strikes under the sporty Work Act if negotiations betwixt union members and management proved unsuccessful (new. com. au, 2011) Our case study analysis adds to existing crisis research by analyzing 1121 consultation comments attached to three tidings articles on the Qantas grounding crisis 734 comments from the Sydney Morning spread abroad article (Live FWA orders Qantas dispute terminated, 2011), 171 comments from the first principle article (Qantas cause its entire fleet, 2011) and 216 comments from the news. om. au article (Qantas crisis Who win and whos to blame). Using Weiners ascription Theory (1986, 1995) as a suppositious framework, we used the comments from these three articles to deconstructed interview perceptions of the Qantas crisis and isolate earreach members dis akin aflame, attitudinal and behavioral responses. While studies into crisis communication atomic number 18 a popular bea of research, overmuch of the existing research has used observational fleshs to examine the effectiveness of different types of crisis accounts or apologia.A case study analysis of interview reactions to the 2011 Qantas g rounding crisis has many wider implications for crisis management strategies in future. First, by evaluating auditory modality comments, this study adds an acumen into stakeholder crisis reactions that may pee-pee greater generalizability than experimental studies. Second, knowledge of earreachs attribution processes will help future normal transaction managers to mitigate negative crisis outcomes and manage brand reputation more than effectively. literary botch uproadions ReviewTo date, there has been very little research on consumer reactions to corporate crises (McDonald, et al. , 2010) curiously for crisis cases extraneous the United States (Lee, 2004). The majority of existing literary works has approached crisis communication from an schemeal perspective, using experimental design to examine the family between different types of crisis accounts and consumers purchase intentions (Lee, 2004). Very little research has taken a content analysis approach, examining auditory modality reactions to real life crises cases.In bridging this gap, it is pertinent to examine real life earshot perceptions of crisis cause their experience with different emotional, attitudinal and behavioral responses. agree to Lee (2004), pickings a consumer orientated approach should provide valuable incursions into how individuals understand and react to brassal crises. much(prenominal) knowledge would help reality relations managers to mitigate negative crisis outcomes and manage brand reputation more effectively.Theoretical Framework Weiners ascription Theory (1986, 1995) Our research was in the first place guided by Weiners (1986, 1995) attribution Theory (WAT), which examines the psychological process by which individuals understand and react to foreign occurrences. While WAT was originally used as a suppositious framework for examining social relationships, it has been successfully applied to the background of companionship crises (McDonald et al. , 2010). Adapting Weiners (1986, 1995) attribution Theory (WAT) listenings bserve and interpret casings, such(prenominal) as the Qantas crisis, making attributions about its cause on both causative dimensions locale (whether the cause was midland or outside(a) to the keep partnership) and Controllability (whether the cause was governable or difficult). The reading of crisis cause under these two constructs leads to a function judgement that, in turn, dissolvers in emotions, which then influences behaviors (McDonald et. al. , 2010).Weiner (1995) in any case suggests that mitigating circumstances or personal relevance may in any case match the individuals business judgement or the strength of their emotional reaction. The relationship between the assorted components of Weiners (1986, 1995) theoretical framework is depicted in the flow chart below. Mitigating chance Mitigating Circumstances In order to successfully keep Weiners (1986, 1195) Attribution Theory (WAT) to the con textual matter of the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis, we first examined the individual components of this theoretical framework.A) Attributions of Cause (locus and Controllability) As previously discussed, Weiners (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory (WAT) suggests that earshots evaluate an event and make attributions about its cause along two dimensions. The locus dimension refers to the posture of the crisis cause as creation any ingrained or out-of-door to the boldness (Lee, 2004). Controllability refers to whether the crisis cause is within the control of the organisation or not (Lee, 2004). According to Lee (2004) a crisis cause that is within the boundaries of an organisation ( knowledgeable locale) is also often comprehend as controllable.Likewise, a crisis cause that judged to be outside the organisation ( remote locus) is often viewed as boisterous (Lee, 2004). However Coombs (1995) and McDonald et. al. (2010) both hypothesised that crises could be inw rought and controllable (neglected principal(prenominal)tenance), internal and difficult (employee sabotage), outdoor(a) and controllable (failure to survey with political relation regulations) as well as external and mutinous (terrorism sabotage). The graph below represents the causative hyaloplasm summarized by McDonald et. al. (2010) Internal External controllable Neglected Maintenance Failure to comply with administration regulations Uncontrollable Employee Sabotage terrorism Sabotage In the mise en scene of the Qantas crisis, this leads us to the pastime research interrogatives look school principal 1 What are the listening perceptions of the draw contributing factors to the crisis cause? look into dubiety 2 Are these describe factors internal and controllable or external and disobedient? According to Coombs (1995) the causal dimensions of Locus and Controllability maintain a direct impact upon an auditions crisis response.A study by Folkes (1984) fou nd that locus and controllability had separate effects on customers certificate of indebtedness judgments, emotions and behavioral intentions. Lee (2004) also suggested that, in a crisis context, events that were perceived to be internal and controllable were viewed more negatively by audience members than those that were considered external and uncontrollable (Lee, 2004). Although separating these two constructs was challenging in analyzing audience comments, the following research questions aided us in functionping out ideas for our Leximancer selective entropy analysis.Research question 3 What crisis causes are associated with negative and affirmatory crisis reactions? B) Responsibility Judgment The adjacent step in Weiners (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory is the process by which individuals place accountability. Social psychologists Fincham and Jaspars (1980) noted that, in an interpersonal context, individuals would often go beyond the attributions of motive to make judgm ents about who should be held responsible for an observed outcome.Likewise, audiences will assign crisis responsibility after a causal attribution (Lee, 2004). The direction and degree of responsibility judgment will therefore depend upon the audiences attributions of crisis cause (Lee, 2004). Coombs and Holladay (1996, 2002) and Jorgensen (1994, 1996) both used Weiners (1986, 1995) causal dimensions of locus and controllability as the foundation for their studies into crisis communication. All found perceptions of crisis cause to be a major antigenic determinant of responsibility judgments and succeeding stakeholder reactions.Of particular relevance to our authoritative study, Lee (2004) found crises that were perceived to be internal (locus) and controllable (controllability) were more believably to bring about responsibility judgments aimed at the company and its managers. On the other hand, audiences tended to attribute less blame to the company in situations where the cris is cause was viewed as external and uncontrollable, instead reacting with kindness and live on (Lee, 2004).In analysing audience comments through the use of the Leximancer program, we aim to uncover public design and reveal what major stakeholder groups or individuals are held responsible for the 2011 Qantas crisis. This leads us to the following research question Research question 4 What stakeholder groups are perceived to be responsible for the crisis? C) Crisis Emotions According to Choi and Lin (2009) there is a strong need to explore a variety of crisis emotions, in particular the impact that crisis emotions drive upon military capabilitys toward the company and upon ensuant behavioral intentions (McDonald et. l. , 2010). Several studies (e. g. Coombs Holladay 1996, 2002, Jorgensen 1994, 1996 and Lee 2004) necessitate used Weiners causal dimensions of locus and controllability, finding causal attributions to be a major determinant of stakeholder crisis emotions. McDona ld et. al. (2010) found that crisis controllability was the individual strongest predictor of passion, kindness and negative attitude duration Lee (2004) found that in cases where crises were viewed as uncontrollable, pity was elicited.In McDonalds (2010) study, internal crises were found to correspond with fear and strike season external crises were more likely to result in a kind-hearted emotion response (McDonald et al. , 2010). These findings validate the purpose within Weiners (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory that causal attribution precedes responsibility judgment, which in turn affects crisis emotions. This leads us to the following research question for our Qantas crisis analysis Research question 5 What audience emotions have emerged? D) behavioural IntentionsWhile responsibility judgment affects emotions, emotions, in turn, impact upon behavioral intentions (Weiner, 1995). Several studies have investigated the relationship between crisis emotion (anger, fear, sadnes s, joy, surprise) and consumers behavioral intentions. A review of previous books by McDonald et at. (2010) found that anger influences punitiveness (Jorgensen, 1996), negative purchase intentions (Coombs Holladay, 2007), negative word of give tongue to (Coombs Holladay, 2007) and in without delay lowers investment intentions (Jorgensen, 1996).Sadness lead to a higher reliance on emotional support while fear was associated with vent intentions or avoidance (Jin, 2009). Coombs and Holladay (2007) also found that dissatisfied customers were more likely to fathom negative imaginations about a product or service than happy customers. This leads us to our final research question regarding the practise of Weiners (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory to audiences Qantas crisis response Research straits 6 What audience behavioral intentions have emerged?Based upon the review of existing literature, the on-going case study examined how Weiners (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory can be appl ied to a current crisis case in Australia using actual stakeholder comments. In particular, we demand to uncover standoffs between Weiners (1986, 1995) causal constructs (locus and controllability), judgments of responsibility, emotions and behavioral intentions within the context of audience comments. Methodology According to Yin (1994), case studies involve a methodical way of tone at an instance or event within its real-life context.It is a process of stash away in take formation, analyzing information, and reporting the results in order to gain a sharpened understanding of why a particular event occurred, and what efficiency be relevant to future research in the area (Yin, 1994). This research stick out involved the development of a case study analysis that followed a reputation crisis faced by the Australian national airline, Qantas, in October of 2011. By conducting a content analysis of 1121 audience comments, this group was able to deconstruct the crisis interpret and examine audiences attribution process during the 2011 Qantas crisis.Yin defined the research design as a sequence that links entropy to the studys research questions and findings. In order to address our research questions, this group take a variation of Yins (1994) case study design, collecting appropriate evidence, analysing the info and reporting on the findings. Step one of Yins (1994) case study research methods involved the collection of info for content analysis. Yin (1994) noted that data collection could confide on many sources of evidence, one of which includes backing such as media articles.Following Yins (1994) data collection guidelines, this group collected 1121 proofreader comments attached to three news articles on the Qantas crisis, including 734 comments from the Sydney Morning Herald online (Live FWA orders Qantas dispute terminated), 171 comments from the ABC web berth (Qantas grounds its entire fleet) and 216 comments from news. com. au (Qantas cri sis Who won and whos to blame). We then inputted the 1121 audience comments into an excel spreadsheet, organising them on the foot of media source and comment characteristics.The second step in Yins cases study research methods is data analysis. This involves examining and categorizing evidence that is relevant to the study (Yin, 1994). To achieve this, we conducted a content analysis, aided by the imagination connectedness software Leximancer. According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005) a qualitative content analysis is one of legion(predicate) research methods used to read text data. Qualitative content analyses go beyond a simple word association and instead involves an in learning categorization of language into an efficient number of categories with similar meanings (Weber, 1990).Leximancer is a software program intentional to perform this imaginationual analyses of text data in a largely self-employed person manner (Smith, 2003). It is able to analyse large volumes of comm ents and to statistically assess the association between words, identifying emergent themes in the body of text. The basis for Leximancers qualitative data analysis is a concept association intercellular substance that is built from relative frequency data (Rooney, 2005). The result is a optical map and shrewdness splasher that identifies the relational characteristics of disclose concepts (Middleton, Liesch & Steen, 2011).However this tippy Leximancer data requires barely human analysis. By further analysing these Leximancer results we were able to analyse audience reactions to the Qantas grounding crisis under the construct of Weiners (1986, 1995) attribution theory. The final phase of Yins cases study research methods involves reporting the results and checking their robustness. According to Yin (1994) content analyses involve a endangerment of committing what has been called the narrative phantasm.This fallacy consists of a proclivity to simplify data through a prefere nce for compact stories over heterogeneous data zeals (Yin, 1994). In case study research, the way to avoid the narrative fallacy is no different from any other error the usual pursuant(predicate) checks for validity and reliability in how data is collected, study and presented. Therefore it was important to conduct a thorough check of the Leximancer results, correlating Leximancer findings with contextual examples within the article comments and providing exemplar samples of audience statements. Research ResultsLeximancer is able to generate two types of sentiment analysis reports a visual concept map showing a exposit assembly of prominent concepts, and an discernment splashboard which provides quantitative rankings of concepts and their associated cost (Middleton, et al, 2011). The insight facia generates information about the data set by analysing the frequency, strength and bump of reoccurring monetary value within the text. It then organises these terms into categori es, which are groups of recurring sentiments, and concepts, which are ideas that bear a strong contextual link to these categories (Middleton, et al, 2011).Leximancer also automatically identifies compound concepts, which are two terms that are mentioned adjacent to one another within the context of a larger course (Middleton, et al, 2011). Leximancer analyses the data set using a default synonym finder which it uses to identify terms as positive evidence towards a certain sentiment or category. The user can also adjust the focus of the output results by controlling a number of manual settings within the program. By adjusting these settings, results in swear out to our research questions were analysed.Research Question 1 asked what are the audience perceptions of the key contributing factors to the crisis cause? In order to answer this research question, a precedent Leximancer analysis, examining key causal factors, was conducted. The concept map in aim 1 was generated by inp utting all 1121 audience comments into the Leximancer program and adjusting the thesaurus settings to recognise link up terms (such as Alan Joyce and AJ). The resulting concept map behavely illustrates the key causal categories and maps their association with surrounding terms.The main causal concepts that emerge from figure 1 are union action, managerial decisions, working conditions and industrial action. These four terms come to the fore as prominent categories from which punyer, link up concepts stem. encipher 1 Leximancer concept map The concept map in figure 1 forms the foundation for the subsequent graphs 2 and 3, where these key concepts are examined in more depth using link up data from the insight dashboard. Examining these four main causal categories and their related terms, we can begin to deconstruct the narrative surrounding the Qantas crisis.In particular, we can begin to analyse audience members attribution process in terms of Weiners theoretical framework. f lesh 2 (below) is a pie chart, isolating the four main causal categories and their associated terms. The terms surrounding each main category represent the associated concepts that appeared with relative frequency and strength under each main causal category. Terms such as pathetic, appalled and abominable were think strongly with Managerial Decisions, while Union Action was associated with concepts such as bloody(a) minded, bashing and dominated.Industrial Action was positioned within the context of government policy with related terms such as Gillard, reliable Work Act and Labor. Finally, Working Conditions can be seen positioned alongside key terms like employees, pay and unlogical haoma 2 Four key crisis factors and related terms strain 3 shows a further breakdown of each of the four main causal categories. individually pie chart was generated using the quantitative data in the insight dashboard, which outlines the strength, frequency and prominence of the four key catego ries and their related terms.The first of the four pie graphs explores the category of Managerial Decisions. hither we can see that the two major concepts associated with the managerial decisions category are MGMT (an acronym for management) and Alan Joyce. dent, restructures and failures are secondary concepts that also appeared in association with Managerial Decisions. The second pie graph depicts the breakdown of concepts associated with the category of Industrial Action. Here, industrial action is positioned closely with concepts such as Gillard, Fair Work Australia and Federal Government.Therefore it is evident that this causal category refers to the impact of government policy on the Qantas crisis. In the working conditions pie graph, the strong association between terms such as employees, submit to and earn with terms such as pay rise, wages, and salary indicate that one of the causes of this crisis involved current pay schemes and unjust working conditions. Finally, Union action is also set as a main contributing factor to the crisis cause. This pie graph explores this category by highlighting some of its key associated terms.In particular, one can see the clear association between unions, demands and striking. In the context of the Qantas crisis, union groups make a number of demands regarding current working conditions and this was responsible for a large majority of subsequent employee strikes. course 3 graphs exploring the compound categories of managerial decisions, working conditions, Industrial action, and union action Research Question 2 was interested with the application of Weiners (1986, 1995) causal dimensions of Locus and Controllability.It asked whether the key causal factors in the Qantas crisis (identified in figures 1 3) could be classified as internal and controllable or external and uncontrollable. As previously discussed in our literature review, past studies on crisis communication have shown that crises can be any be intern al and controllable (neglected maintenance), internal and uncontrollable (employee sabotage), external and controllable (failure to comply with government regulations) or external and uncontrollable (terrorist sabotage). If we admit our understanding of McDonald et al. 2010) we can apply the following attribution matrix to the current Qantas case study. Figure 4 Qantas attribution matrix . Research question 3 asks what crisis causes can be associated with negative and positive crisis reactions? Figure 5 addresses this research question by using Leximancer insights to compare the appearance of roaring and admonitory terms within the context of audience comments. To justify the results, Leximancers insight dashboard provides examples of each sentiment with comments directly from the data set.The graph below shows that audience comments carry both favourable and bad connotations towards the concepts of management, industrial action, and employees. The balance of favourable and un favourable terms for all four causal concepts (managerial decisions, union action, working conditions and industrial action) is consistent with our preliminary sample of audience comments. Figure 5 unfavourable vs favourable terms Figure 6 addresses research question 4 (What stakeholder groups are perceived to be responsible for the crisis? by using a Leximancer visual concept map portrayal the major stakeholder groups identified in the audience comments. The main stakeholder groups that are identified in this visual concept map are * Alan Joyce * Employees * Unions * Government * Qantas customers * Australians in general Figure 6 Responsible Stakeholder clusters Based on the information obtained in figure 4, we can take a step further and categorise these major stakeholder groups as either internal or external to the company. As the chief operating officer and head of the Qantas company, Alan Joyce is identified as largely responsible for managerial decisions.Baggage handlers, gro und staff and cabin mob are grouped under the stakeholder purpose of employees, while the Australian Licenced Engineers Union (ALAEA), the get off Workers Union (TWU) and the Australian and International Pilots Union (AIPA) are grouped under the stakeholder heading of unions. Finally, the government is also identified as a responsible stakeholder group, with many audience comments citing the role of Julia Gillard, the Labour government and the Fair Work Act in impuissance to mitigate the industrial dispute. Figure 7 Responsibility JudgementFigure 8 is a visual representation of the crisis emotion that have emerged from our anlaysis of audience comments. This graph is establish on the information taken from Leximancers insight dashboard about the strength, prominence and frequency of various sentiments. Anger was the predominant emotion that emerged from the data set and was directed toward all stakeholders, particularly unions and management. While sympathy emerged as another pri mary meotion, it was used to evidence empathy towards workers plights while Sorry was used in relation to customers, employees, and industrial action. Support was also a prodominant sentiment that emerged and was expressed toward all parties in relatively equal degrees. Figure 8 Audience emotions Due to the intimate nature of comments and the variation in denounce structure, it was challenging to isolate behavioural intentions from the data set using the Leximancer software. However, a preliminary manual analysis uncovered a number of trends in consumers behavioural intentions. Major findings indicated that of the 4% of comments that implied a behavioural intention, most were negative, while a small number showed positive purchase or investment intentions.Figure 9 shows a cross selection of comments extracted from the data in response to research question 6. This conceptual personation summarises the main behavioural intentions that emerged from the Qantas crisis. Figure 9 Behavi oural intentions Figure 10 is based on a manual analysis of comments over all three news sites, and shows the frequency of behavioural intentions that have emerged from the data set. The category miscellaneous intentions refers to behaviours such as buying shares, venting action, or fault carriers.Figure 10 Behavioural intentions frequency watchword This case study analysis uncovered a number of key findings that are relevant to crisis communication research. First, our research found that audiences perceived the key contributing factor to the Qantas crisis to be union action, managerial decisions, working conditions and industrial action with the majority of comments attributing the crisis to managerial decisions and union action.When analysing these key causal factors under Weiners dimensions of Locus and Controllability, managerial decisions can be interpreted as both internal and controllable to the company while Union Action can be seen as both external and uncontrollable. If we analyse working conditions in the context of its related terms, we can understand that this cause is about employees observations of their working conditions and the resulting strikes.In particular, this casual factor is about employees being unhappy with current circumstances and demanding better working conditions from Qantas management. While employees are internal to the company, their objections to their working conditions and the result strikes can be understood as relatively uncontrollable. Finally, industrial action in seen within the context of government policy and work place regulation. While the government is external to Qantas, the companys respectfulness with government regulations is certainly within managements control.Therefore we classify this causal concept as both external and controllable. These findings hit upon previous research by Coombs (1995) and McDonald et. al. (2010) that Locus and Controllability can have separate effects on audiences attribution process and that crises may not only be internal/controllable and external/uncontrollable but also internal /uncontrollable and external /controllable. The second major finding of this research project link causal attributions to audiences responsibility judgements.When audiences identified the major causal factor as managerial decisions they also tended to attribute blame to Qantas management, in particular to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. The resulting emotions that emerged from this attribution were anger towards Qantas management and support for unions and employees. This sentiment is exemplified in the audience comment As a QF F of 20+ years I wish to register my total support for the staff and crew at QF over their current legitimize and understandable attempts to prevent Management from destroying the airline which I hold so dear. This customer is sick and tired of being utilise by senior management and the board. (ABC. net. au, 2011). These findings are similar to those of Le es (2004) who express that crises that were perceived to be internal (locus) and controllable (controllability) would bring about responsibility judgements aimed towards the company and its managers. Another key trend in the data identified union action as the main cause of the crisis. These audience members tended to attribute blame to unions and employees involved in striking action.When union action, which we identified as external and uncontrollable, was attributed as the primary cause of the crisis, audience members tended to respond with anger towards unions and employees and sympathy towards the company and its managers. One example of this is conveyed in the audiences comment well up done Alan Joyce. Striking is the lowest form of human behaviour in my aspect. I hope all these ineffectual striking staff lose their jobs and are replaced by hardworking people, who unlike Qantas employees prise their jobs, rather than expect that they are their paragon given right (ABC. et. au, 2011). The third major finding in our case study uncovered a number of audience crisis emotions. While we anticipated finding negative audience emotions such as anger and helplessness, we also uncovered a number of positive emotions that expressed support and sympathy towards all stakeholder groups. One such comment that expressed empathy towards the Qantas brand was sourced from the Sydney Morning Herald (2011), Qantas made the right decision and any company which has a strong union presence should do the same if their future is threatened by them.The Australian dollar bill is strong and to breathe competitive globally, hard decision must be made. This leads us to our final major research finding. As could be expected, positive audience emotions were found to be associated with favourable behavioural intentions while negative emotions were found to predict negative purchase intentions. While 81% of behavioural intentions centred on avoidance, complaint and negative purcha se intentions, another 14% of the behavioural intentions indicated that the audience intended to continue piloting with Qantas, signifying the audiences loyalty to the brand.An example of such positive behavioural intentions is evident in the following audience comment from new. com. au I have eternally flown Qantas and always will, and to those who say they will never fly them again, you know you will let all those FF perks go to waste Good on you Mr Joyce. (News. com. au, 2011, pp. 8). Although the technical limitations of Leximancer restricted our study, our research project successfully applied Weiners (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory to audiences attribution process in a real life crisis case.These research findings provide valuable insights into how individuals understand and react to organizational crises in the real world. acquaintance of this type will assist public relations managers in creating effective reputation management strategies in the future. Limitations Altho ugh our case study can be considered largely effective, we did encounter several limitations that impeded the progress of our research. well-nigh of the limitations we encountered involved the technical capabilities of Leximancer.Of particular relevance to our content analysis was Leximancers softness to comprehend tone and colloquialisms. This meant that a comment that Leximancer identified as positive might actually be a black remark meant as a negative. We also found that the informal nature of comments was problematic, since there were multiple ways of expressing a particular sentiment. The data set too was special by the individual news sites comment system. The anonymity of contributors made it hard to clearly identify an audience members level of involvement, unless it was explicitly mentioned in the comment.The anonymity may have led to audience responses phrased more assertively and argumentatively than they would have been if they were named. The news sites also censo r the time frame of the comments. By identifying the time stamp attached to each comment, future studies could examine how audience crises responses changed over the crises lifecycle. This would be particularly important as it would reflect the dynamic nature of audiences crisis response (McDonald et. al, 2009) particularly in this study where the online commentary between the audiences is a highly interactive exchange.Conclusion Based on Yins (1994) case study research methods and the theoretical framework of Weiners (1986, 1995) Attribution Theory, this research project found that managerial decisions and union action were the two key contributing factors to the 2011 Qantas grounding crisis. We also identified the main responsible stakeholder groups to be Alan Joyce (Qantas management), employees, unions and the government. Our findings have shown that the primary crisis emotion that emerged was anger, and that this was targeted primarily towards the management and unions.This wa s followed by sympathy, which empathized with the workers plights, and regret which was used in relation to Qantas customers. However, contrary to expectations, support also emerged as a dominant emotion and was expressed towards all stakeholder parties involved in the crisis. These findings suggest that, in spite of the negative sentiment that has emerged from the grounding crisis, there is still an existing group of passengers who remain loyal to the Qantas brand. Qantas should also take a lesson from these findings in order to better safe-conduct the interests of their stakeholders in future.This may include being mindful of employee moral and considering the plight of the passengers onwards taking such drastic measures in the future. Acknowledgments Supervisor Lyn McDonald Course Coordinator Aparna Hebbani References ABC News. (2011, October 29). Qantas grounds entire fleet. ABC News. Retrieved from http//www. abc. net. au/news/2011-10-29/qantas-locking-out-staff/3608250 Acko ff, R. L. (1981). Creating the corporate future. New York John Wiley & Sons Colgan, Paul. (2011, October 31). Qantas Crisis Who won and whos to blame? News. com. au. Retrieved from