Threat Assessments and Organization Resources for DEI and Ethics: Practitioner Insights on Sticky Crises

Abstract: Organizations need to respond to sticky crises with speed and timeliness; this speed depends onhow communication practitioners assess threats and their organizations’ resources for the threats. Based on theoretical components from the threat appraisal model and sticky crises, this study measured how practitioners (n= 246) assessed threats and organizational resources for two specific sticky crisis complicating factors—specifically, ethics and DEI. Practitioner demographics were the most significant predictors for assessing threats and organizational resources.