(In)Implementation of Crisis Communication and Prevention in Practice

The authors of the study intend to highlight the importance of planning and prevention in crisis communication within local government institutions and their communication practices with the public. Although there are a number of relevant publications in the field of crisis communication in crisis situations that reflect the fundamental issues and offer best practices to address them, it turns out that the practice is diametrically opposed. In particular, the authors focus on identifying the situation in the field of local government units, which they consider to be fundamental institutions within a pluralistic democratic society. This is why the authors ask themselves whether the institutions studied at the level of self-government units in Slovakia are familiar with the issue at hand, whether they are prepared for the possibility of a crisis situation and whether they have a crisis communication plan. Through a questionnaire survey on a sample of 300 towns and municipalities in Slovakia, the authors are looking for answers to what extent the responsible representatives of towns and municipalities perceive the so-called prodromes, whether they know how to create an environment to identify such signals and whether they consider communication important not only in identifying a crisis situation, but also in solving and managing it. The authors also find out what situations Slovak municipalities and cities consider to be crisis situations. Based on the findings and their interpretation, it is concluded that crisis communication and its prevention at the level of leading and responsible representatives of local government units is not sufficiently appreciated and practiced. The authors see the problem in the representative’s lack of orientation on the principles of crisis communication. This is also the reason for their lax approach to the issue of crisis communication.