Volume 15, Issue 10 · IJARST · ISSN 2319-1783 / 2320-1126

Public Relations, Stakeholder Trust and Crisis Communication: Lessons from Turbulent Business Environments in Kenya

Public Relations, Stakeholder Trust and Crisis Communication: Lessons from Turbulent Business Environments in Kenya is an open-access, peer-reviewed research paper by Dr. Tonny Odhiambo, published in Volume 15, Issue 10 of the International Journal of Advanced Research in Science and Technology (IJARST), a UGC-approved journal (Print ISSN 2319-1783, Online ISSN 2320-1126).

Author

Dr. Tonny Odhiambo

Abstract

Organisations in Kenya operate amid regulatory shocks, currency and price volatility, political contestation and digitally amplified scrutiny. In such conditions public relations (PR) is less a publicity function than a boundary-spanning capability through which firms earn, protect and repair stakeholder trust. This paper makes a theoretical and methodological contribution. First, it integrates strategic PR, stakeholder salience, the ability-benevolence-integrity model of trust, situational crisis communication theory and legitimacy theory into one framework with seven structural hypotheses and one serial indirect-effect hypothesis. Second, it specifies a five-phase explanatory-exploratory sequential mixed-methods protocol covering case selection, instrument design, sampling, analytic decision rules and trustworthiness criteria. Third, it supports the protocol with computed power analyses for multiple regression and a Monte Carlo study of indirect-effect power: 385 stakeholder responses give power of .93 for f² = .05 and about .80 for a small-to-medium mediated effect. Fourth, it translates the framework into a time-phased crisis communication protocol for practitioners. No primary field data are reported; figures labelled stylised or illustrative are theory-derived, and the power and simulation results are computational. The framework is intended to guide empirical work in Kenya and comparable emerging economies.

Keywords: Public relations; Stakeholder trust; Crisis communication; Environmental turbulence; Situational crisis communication theory; Mixed methods; Kenya

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62226/ijarst20262835

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DOI

10.62226/ijarst20262835

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How do you cite this paper?

Dr. Tonny Odhiambo — “Public Relations, Stakeholder Trust and Crisis Communication: Lessons from Turbulent Business Environments in Kenya.” International Journal of Advanced Research in Science and Technology (IJARST), Volume 15, Issue 10. DOI: 10.62226/ijarst20262835.

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