Internal Publics’ Perceptions on Crisis Communication Preparedness at The Technical University of Mombasa, Kenya with a Focus on 2019 Crisis

Abstract

In 2019, the Technical University of Mombasa, Kenya faced three crises that had an impact on the reputation of the university and raised questions on the leadership abilities of top management. This study set to analyze internal publics’ perceptions on crisis communication preparedness at the University through how the university’s management utilized the crisis communication plan, the preferred tools of communication, and determine internal public’s perceptions of crises communications preparedness. The study which was grounded on post-positivist philosophical paradigm was guided by the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (Coombs, 2007). Through a descriptive survey design, self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of 267 comprising of 222 staff members and 45 students drawn from all the Universities faculties. 158 respondents representing 59.2% participated in the study. Findings indicated that many internal publics (77.8%) did not know of the existence of a crisis awareness plan, about half (49.3%) of the internal publics were not satisfied with how TUM had handled the crises. Only about 37.3% of the respondents considered the channels used to communicate to students effective. The majority of internal publics at TUM were not satisfied with the way TUM handled crisis communication with many (53.5%) having the view that TUM was not always ready to handle a crisis. The study recommended that TUM improve on its crisis communication preparedness by adopting a more proactive strategic approach to its communication. TUM should approach communication in general and crisis communications in particular as a management function.