The Role of Public Relations in Crisis Management in Libyan Companies.

Abstract

Crisis management cannot be complete without considering the impact of public relations during a crisis. This research aims to assess the impact of public relations on crisis management in Libyan firms and to propose a practical framework. These firms operate in unstable environments subject to economic changes, security threats, reputational issues, and disruptions. Moreover, there is little development in crisis communication among Libyan firms. Two approaches were used to conduct this study: the first was a literature review of crisis management, public relations, and literature on Libya and similar countries. The second method involved a quantitative study conducted among 204 employees and managers from Libyan firms. The regression analysis indicated that crisis preparedness (β = 0.214), public relations practices (β = 0.328), and effective crisis communication (β = 0.391) are significant predictors of the organization's performance, with the total model explaining 62.6% of the variance in performance. Effective crisis communication and public relations practices had a very high correlation (r = 0.742, p < 0.001). The theoretical model combines the three crisis phases, namely pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis phases, with appropriate public relations practices during each phase. The conclusion is that integrating public relations into decision-making increases an organization's performance and crisis resilience. Accordingly, Libyan companies need to incorporate crisis communication strategies, spokesperson training, and stakeholder relations management.