A case study of the COVID-19 experiences of communication directors for Texas agricultural organizations

by

Katelin Spradley, B.S.

A Thesis

In

Agricultural Communications

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE

Approved

Dr. Lindsay Kennedy Co-Chair of Committee

Dr. Courtney Meyers Co-Chair of Committee

Dr. Erica Irlbeck

Mark Sheridan Dean of the Graduate School

December, 2020

Copyright 2020, Katelin Spradley Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My name standing partially alone at the beginning of this document does not do justice to the people who helped, supported, and pushed me to this point in my life and my educational career. I am a future-thinker by nature but the girl who chose to pursue a degree in agricultural communications in junior high could never have imagined a master’s degree would be part of that plan. Although it is unfathomable to list every single person here that brought me to this point in life, I would like to take some space to give credit to those who have been an essential part of this journey.

Dr. Kennedy, I cannot thank you enough for all you have done to ensure I made it confidently to this point. I am thankful you were willing to take an eager, new master’s student and guide her through this process with patience and assurance. Even in my moments of uncertainty, you always reassured me and encouraged me to forge forward. More importantly, you listened to my goals for after graduate school and helped to ensure the work I did here contributed to my life after graduation.

Thank you to my committee, Dr. Meyers and Dr. Irlbeck, for taking time out of your already full schedules to help put me on the right path. Only now do I appreciate the work that goes into not only writing, but also reviewing and guiding a thesis. I appreciate the guidance you shared and your willingness and positivity toward helping me make this thesis worthy of the department I am graduating from.

As always, I want to say thank you to my parents. You have always supported me, no matter the decisions I made, and you have always pushed me to take advantage of opportunities I may not have directly realized. Thank you for always making me laugh and giving me a loving home to come back to. Thank you, Collen, for pushing

ii Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 me to look at Texas Tech as an option for graduate school and for always coming to my rescue when I need you most.

Colton, thank you for always loving me despite the stressed mess I became during this process. Thank you for walking by my side these past years as I tackled life obstacles I never knew I could handle and for always being supportive of my goals.

Kim, I think God truly had a hand in our meeting. Thank you for being an amazing roommate and a better friend. Thank you for sharing your family with me so

I could have a home away from home. Thanks for the Star Wars marathons, girls’ nights, and late night, you-will-make-it-through-this pep talks. I quite literally would not have made it through this journey without you. Also, thanks for sharing Scout.

Nellie, if I could make you a co-author on this research project, too, I definitely would. Even from a different state, you have provided the encouragement and mentorship I so desperately needed. Thank you for always taking time to help me understand this concept of research and for being a mentor in my academic and personal life. I am so excited to see our friendship grow as you tackle your new journey in New Mexico.

Finally, thank you to my fellow graduate students. Sam, Whitney, Taylor

Belle, TaylorAnn, Sarah, Elise, and Larrah. I am so thankful to have been able to travel this journey with you. Thank you for the mutual support and for the thesis- centered chats at our favorite places.

iii Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... ii ABSTRACT ...... vii LIST OF FIGURES ...... viii I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 Background and Setting ...... 1 COVID-19 Effects on American Agriculture ...... 2 The Effects of COVID-19 on Texas Agriculture ...... 8 Role of Agricultural Organizations in Texas Agriculture ...... 11 Crisis Communications in the Changing Role of Communications Professionals ...... 12 Problem Statement ...... 13 Purpose of the Study ...... 14 Research Objectives ...... 14 Significance of the Study ...... 14 Assumptions ...... 15 Delimitations ...... 16 Limitations ...... 16 Definition of Terms ...... 16 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 18 Overview ...... 18 Organizations ...... 18 Agricultural Organizations ...... 20 Organizational Communication ...... 25 Agricultural Organizational Communication ...... 28 The Communication Director ...... 29 Crisis Management ...... 32 Precrisis ...... 33 Crisis Event ...... 34 Post Crisis ...... 34 Risk and Crisis Communication ...... 36 Crisis Communication Plan ...... 38 Crisis Communication in Food and Agriculture ...... 39 iv Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Theoretical Framework ...... 41 Excellence Theory ...... 41 Contingency Theory of Accommodation in Public Relations ...... 44 III. METHODOLOGY ...... 49 Overview ...... 49 Design ...... 49 Qualitative Research ...... 50 Case Study ...... 51 Population/Sample ...... 52 Participants ...... 53 Instrumentation ...... 57 Interviews ...... 58 Data Collection ...... 59 Rigor ...... 60 Data Analysis ...... 64 IV. FINDINGS ...... 67 Overview ...... 67 Findings in Relation to Objective 1 ...... 68 Communicating with Different Audiences ...... 68 Role Stress ...... 73 Telling the Story of Agriculture’s Producers ...... 75 Findings in Relation to Objective 2 ...... 78 The Basics of Crisis Communication ...... 78 Inter-organizational Collaboration ...... 83 Findings in Relation to Objective 3 ...... 86 The Best We Could Do ...... 86 Findings in Relation to Objective 4 ...... 88 Expanded Opportunities ...... 89 Pre-Crisis Preparation ...... 93 V. CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 96 Overview ...... 96 Conclusions ...... 96

v Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Excellent Agricultural Communication Directors ...... 96 Agricultural Organizations’ Role in Telling Agriculture’s Story ...... 98 Crisis Communication Preparation versus Implementation ...... 99 Inter-organizational and Intra-organizational Collaboration ...... 101 Discussion ...... 102 Mediating Stress during a Crisis ...... 102 Purposeful Crisis Resources ...... 103 Relationships ...... 105 Varying Years of Experience and Organizational Characteristics ...... 106 Recommendations ...... 108 For Practitioners ...... 108 For Future Research ...... 110 For Higher Education ...... 111 REFERENCES ...... 113 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDE ...... 132 APPENDIX B: IRB APPROVAL ...... 134

vi Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the months of February through

May 2020, impacted all facets of Texas agriculture in unprecedented ways. As a result, Texas livestock, commodity, and advocacy groups were called upon to play an active role in managing this crisis. Communication is an integral part of crisis management which meant communication directors for Texas agricultural organizations played an important role in managing the COVID-19 crisis on behalf of their organizations. This qualitative case study sought to explore the experiences of communication directors for Texas livestock, commodity, and agricultural advocacy organizations during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, spanning the months of February to May 2020, and describe the communication directors’ perceived effectiveness of their communication efforts during that time.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven communication directors from Texas agricultural organizations that represented agricultural producers across the supply chain. Inductive coding methods were used to analyze the data.

Analysis revealed participants used basic crisis communication strategies to communicate on behalf of their agricultural producer members during COVID-19 and mitigate future crises. Communication directors struggled to define their roles and felt overwhelmed by the sudden change in their responsibilities, which suggests communication directors in agricultural organizations should have a role in the strategic planning of an organization outside of a crisis. This study is especially significant to practitioners as it provides a record of actions taken by communication directors during a major crisis they were not prepared for.

vii Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 Timeline of Events Affecting American Agriculture (February – May 2020) ...... 8

2.1 Stages of a Crisis ...... 35

2.2 Four Models of Publics Relations ...... 43

2.3 Contingency Theory of Accommodation Continuum ...... 48

viii Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background and Setting

The impact of COVID-19 on agriculture is one no industry could have prepared for, but one in which valuable lessons were learned. Every facet of the supply chain – from the producers raising crop and livestock commodities, to the processor and distributor who turned those commodities into consumer goods, to the retailer who sold those goods directly to consumers – was affected by COVID-19 and measures to control its spread. These impacts were not just evident to producers but reached recognition from consumers as “Impacts of COVID-19 on the food sector are among its most visible and important economic consequences” (Masters, 2020, para.

1).

The World Health Organization [WHO] announced on February 11, 2020,

COVID-19 was the official name for the disease causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak (WHO, 2020). The disease was first identified in Wuhan, China, and the first identified case in the United States was found on January 22, 2020 (Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, 2020a). Nearly every country in the world reported cases of COVID-19 within their borders (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

2020b). By March 11, the WHO had classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic

(WHO, 2020). The total cases of COVID-19 in America had risen to more than two million by June and more than 100,000 deaths had been reported (Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 2020a). COVID-19 impacted more than just the health of

1 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

America, but the economy as well, as unemployment rates rose to the highest they had been since records began (Rushe, 2020).

Like all of America, agriculture saw economic losses as well. Early estimates dropped the 2020 net farm income in America by $20 billion (Westhoff et al., 2020).

The arrival of COVID-19 in America further added to years of a troubled farm economy plagued by weather disasters, a trade war, and commodity prices below the cost of production (Duvall, 2020). For an industry already struggling with mental health concerns (Peterson et al., 2020), increased calls to farmer assistance hotlines during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the intensity of the crisis American agriculture and its producers faced (West, 2020).

COVID-19 Effects on American Agriculture

One of the most immediate effects of COVID-19 on American agriculture was the shift of American spending to at-home meals rather than meals prepared outside the home. On March 13, 2020, President Trump declared a nationwide emergency under the Stafford Act, which declared all 50 states, four territories, and the District of

Columbia under a state of emergency for the first time in U.S. history (Federal

Emergency Management Agency, n.d.) As a result, 42 states, the District of Columbia,

Puerto Rico and various counties and cities declared stay-at-home orders for their residents (Mervosh et al., 2020), which greatly impacted Americans’ food spending

(Economic Research Service, 2020). The United States Department of Agriculture

Economic Research Service [ERS] found expenditures on food away from home were

39.3% lower in February 2020 and 51% lower in March 2020 compared to the corresponding months in 2019 (ERS, 2020). Spending at grocery stores, supercenters,

2 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 convenience stores, and other food at home retailers rose 6.5% in February 2020 and

18.8% in March 2020 compared to the previous year (ERS, 2020).

This dramatic shift in how Americans’ fed themselves during COVID-19 resulted in stresses on supply chains to accommodate demand spikes (Goetz et al.,

2020). Extra demand from shoppers stockpiling food, also known as panic buying, early in the pandemic caused a rapid surge that left many grocery stores’ shelves empty and higher prices or purchase limits for food essentials (Johnson, 2020).

Consumers were assured there was not a shortage of food within the country (USDA, n.d.a), but rather a problem with how food supplies were redistributed (Munisamy,

2020). The supply chain faced multiple obstacles in redirecting supplies originally intended for establishments like restaurants because food was not easily repackaged for individual use and, in some cases, regulatory frameworks prevented the sale of that food to consumers (Lusk, 2020a). Time played a major role in redistributing commodities such as fruits, vegetables, and milk, which tend to be more perishable and labor-intensive (Munisamy, 2020). Widely distributed American news outlets attempted to reconcile dairy farmers dumping millions of gallons of milk and farmers plowing under ripe fields to consumers who were facing empty shelves, purchase limits, and food banks struggling to meet new demands (Marshall, 2020; Schneider,

2020; Weiner-Bronner, 2020; Yaffe-Bellany & Corkery, 2020).

Labor logistics also played an important role in stresses on supply chains, especially for fruit and vegetable producers. A majority of farmworkers, more than

60%, are foreign born and around 51% acquire work authorization (Hernandez &

Gabbard, 2018). On March 20, 2020, all routine visa services at U.S. Embassies and

3 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Consulates were suspended to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 from spreading (Bureau of Consular Affairs, 2020). However, realizing the importance of foreign workers for the food supply chain, some restrictions on H-2A visas were temporarily lifted to allow workers to complete work on farms (Temporary Changes to Requirements

Affecting H-2A Nonimmigrants Due to the COVID-19 National Emergency, 2020).

Farmers of labor-intensive crops with a short harvesting window also had to contend with the implications of farm workers becoming ill and the steps necessary to prevent that. Around one-third of all farm workers classified their housing as “crowded”

(Hernandez & Gabbard, 2018), which made social distancing and hygiene recommendations from the CDC difficult to adhere to (Garcia, 2020). Farmworkers were considered essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, but undocumented immigrants were not covered under the CARES Act, causing many who relied on farm work as their primary income to continue to work while ill, despite recommendations to stay home (Garcia, 2020).

The livestock industry was not without its own challenges related to human labor and COVID-19. At the end of March, the JBS plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania, announced they would close until mid-April due to several senior management team members expressing flu-like symptoms (Torres, 2020). This marked the beginning of meatpacking plant closures across the country. By May 2020, 38 meatpacking plants had ceased operations at some point, including being closed for one day and sometimes longer (Bagenstose & Chadde, 2020). Using figures released by the CDC and numbers included in news reporting, Chadde (2020) estimated by June 12, 24,000 positive COVID-19 cases were tied to meatpacking facilities with 86 worker deaths at

4 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

38 plants in 23 states. John Tyson, Chairman of the Board at Tyson Foods, released a statement on April 27 claiming the food system was vulnerable and that, “As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close, even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain.” (Tyson, 2020, para.

4). Within days, President Trump signed an executive order to ensure meat and poultry processing facilities remained open as critical infrastructure under the Defense

Production Act (Exec. Order No. 13,917, 2020). Utilizing guidelines developed by

OSHA and the CDC, meatpacking facilities were able to return to 95% capacity by

June 9 (USDA, 2020).

The closure and reduced capacity of meatpacking facilities affected all facets of the livestock industry in a variety of ways. The cattle industry specifically is estimated to have lost $13.6 billion from COVID-19 (Peel et al., 2020). Cow-calf producers were hit the hardest with an $8.1 billion loss accounting for 59.7% of the total impact on the cattle industry (Peel et al., 2020). This was followed by a loss of $3 billion by the feedlot sector accounting for 22.2% of the total loss and ended with the stocker and background sector losing $2.5 billion accounting for 18.2% of the total economic loss for the cattle industry (Peel et al., 2020). Reduced slaughter capacity among beef packers and processors resulted in a buildup of market ready cattle, which was estimated to have substantial long-term effects for cattle prices (Knight & Davis,

2020).

Many producers in the cow-calf segment of the beef industry expressed frustrations about low cattle prices and rising meat prices at grocery stores believing that “the system provides too much leverage to the four major beef packers and

5 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 generates too much volatility from CME cattle futures” (Henderson, 2020a, para. 1).

Twenty-three state cattle groups sent a collective letter to the Department of Justice requesting the USDA conduct an official investigation into the cattle markets

(Henderson, 2020b). President Trump stated in early May he had asked the

Department of Justice to take a look into the cattle markets (Henderson, 2020b). The marketing margin resulting in higher beef prices for consumers but lower prices for cattle producers was a result of lower demand from meatpacking facilities due to unforeseen closures and reduced capacity, which resulted in less available beef, more consumer demand and higher prices from grocery stores (Lusk, 2020b). It is unknown whether an increased marketing margin due to COVID-19 resulted in more profits for packers or whether costs of closures and reduced capacity resulted in a profit loss for packers as the 40% decrease in Tyson and JBS stock since January 2020 suggested

(Lusk, 2020b).

The pork industry shared in the problems of the cattle industry due to barriers faced by meatpacking facilities. Through most of April, pork processing facilities operated at 78% of normal capacity (Haley, 2020). As a result, April hog slaughter and production fell more than 11% compared to 2019 (Haley, 2020). Estimates for 2020 commercial hog production dropped by 1.6 billion pounds from April to May (Haley,

2020). Coupled with an increased export demand from China to account for their decreased pork production as they battled African Swine Flu, negative effects from

COVID-19 on the pork industry were expected to be felt most prominently in the latter half of 2020. Lower supplies of pork in the remaining half of 2020 were expected to result in increased retail prices for the consumer (Haley, 2020).

6 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Realizing the havoc COVID-19 was wrecking on agriculture and the importance of food to the nation during the pandemic, the U.S. government took numerous steps to mitigate the harm. The largest and most direct of these aid programs was the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program [CFAP], which provided a total of $19 billion in relief for farmers and ranchers (Farm Service Agency, 2020). Authorized through the CARES Act and the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act, CFAP outlined direct payments of up to $250,000 for individuals and legal entities and up to

$750,000 for corporate entities totaling $16 billion in relief (Farm Service Agency,

2020). The remaining $3 billion was allotted to the USDA Farmers to Families Food

Box Program, which allowed the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to partner with impacted national, regional, and local suppliers to purchase and distribute $461 million in fresh fruits and vegetables, $317 million in dairy products, $258 million in meat products, and $175 million in combination boxes of fresh produce, dairy, or meat products (Agricultural Marketing Service, n.d.a). The food purchased through the

USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program was then packaged and distributed to food banks, community and faith-based organizations, and non-profits from May 15 through June 30, 2020 (Agricultural Marketing Service, n.d.a).

Other forms of aid available to producers included the Payment Protection

Program [PPP] and Economic Injury Disaster Loan [EIDL] program through the Small

Business Administration. The PPP allowed farms, small businesses, non-profits and others to take out forgivable loans to cover up to eight weeks of payroll costs (Farm

Aid et al., 2020). The EIDL program changed on April 24 to allow small agricultural enterprises and businesses under 500 employees to take out loans and emergency

7 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 advances of up to $10,000 (Farm Aid et al., 2020). Although not targeted specifically to agriculture, the Economic Impact Payments and Pandemic Unemployment

Assistance were sources of aid for the country as a whole that benefited producers

(Farm Aid et al., 2020).

U.S. Embassy suspends routine visas

Feb. 11 Mar. 13 Mar. 31 Apr. 28

Mar. 11 Mar. 20 Apr. 17

COVID -19 the U.S. President JBS meatpacking U.S. President Trump official name Trump declares a plant in PA is first signs an executive given the disease nationwide to close due to order to ensure meat caused by SARS- emergency COVID-19 and poultry packing CoV2 plants remain open

Figure 1.1

Timeline of Events Affecting American Agriculture (February – May 2020)

The Effects of COVID-19 on Texas Agriculture

The agricultural industry in Texas contributes significantly to the American agricultural economy as a whole. Texas ranks first in the nation for the total number of farms with more than 248,000 farms accounting for 127 million acres (Hundl, 2019;

National Agriculture Statistics Service, 2017). In 2017, Texas agriculture contributed

$25 billion to the U.S. economy in products sold (Hundl, 2019) and only ranked behind California and Iowa in terms of cash receipts from agriculture in 2018

(Economic Research Service, 2020b). As a result, agriculture within Texas is an important part of the state’s success. One in seven jobs within Texas are agriculture related (Texas Department of Agriculture, 2017). During the COVID-19 pandemic,

8 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared agriculture as an essential business exempt from the stay-at-home order (Reid, 2020). No matter how important, Texas agriculture was not spared from the effects of COVID-19 as it was estimated Texas producers could see losses ranging from $6 billion to $8 billion due to the pandemic (Outlaw et al., 2020).

Texas’ top agricultural commodity is cattle, which at $12.3 billion totaled half the value of market products sold in Texas in 2017 (Hundl, 2019). The number of beef cattle in Texas and the U.S. peaked in 2019 and beef production was expected to peak in 2020 (Outlaw et al., 2020). Like producers from around the country, Texas cattle producers suffered economic losses due to the market volatility, meatpacking closures, and supply chain shocks induced by COVID-19. Market reports for Texas referenced the effects downturns in financial markets had on cattle prices and buyers in Texas

(Agricultural Marketing Service, 2020).

Along with a vast amount of livestock, Texas is home to meatpacking plants for national companies such as Cargill, Tyson, and JBS USA (James, 2020). Spikes in the spread of COVID-19 in the rural Texas counties of Moore, Shelby, and Potter were linked to meat processing plants (Garrett, 2020; Elswick, 2020; Ura, 2020). On

May 4, Governor Abbott released Surge Response Teams consisting of the Texas

National Guard and Texas Emergency Medical Task Force to the Amarillo area to increase testing and effectively deal with COVID-19 cases in the region (Spectrum

News, 2020).

Other major agriculture commodities for Texas were broilers, cotton, milk and corn (National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2017). Texas ranked sixth in the nation

9 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 for broiler production (National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2019). Without sporting events or restaurants, chicken breast and wing sales dropped dramatically in

April and eliminated profits for East Texas producers (Outlaw et al., 2020).

Nationwide data from hatcheries indicated broiler producers intended to scale back production due to lower demand and to ease pressure on processors (Ha & Grossen,

2020). A Tyson poultry processing plant on the Texas-Louisiana border was one of the first meatpacking plants in Texas to be connected to a COVID-19 outbreak and closed temporarily (Collins & Novack, 2020), further impacting Texas’ broiler industry.

Cotton is the second largest commodity in terms of market value, bringing in

$2.6 billion to the Texas economy in 2017 (Texas Department of Agriculture, 2017).

Cotton was uniquely impacted by COVID-19 as retail apparel sales dropped 79% from

March to April (Russell, 2020). Cotton experienced a 20% decline in near term and harvest future prices, which was more than any other row crop commodity in Texas

(Outlaw et al., 2020). Although most of the cotton produced in 2019 had been sold by the time the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, about one quarter of the 2019 crop suffered from the 20% loss in market value (Outlaw et al., 2020). With a 20% reduction in expected revenue from the 2020 cotton crop, few Texas cotton producers were expected to break even (Outlaw et al., 2020).

The dairy industry received a national spotlight for milk dumping during the pandemic, and as the fifth largest milk producing state in U.S., Texas agriculture was greatly impacted by dairy industry losses (Texas Department of Agriculture, 2017).

The loss of milk demand from schools and food services, along with the approaching milk peak season, overwhelmed milk processing plants and forced many to dump the

10 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 highly perishable product (Outlaw et al., 2020). It was estimated milk supply exceeded demand by 10% and dairy farmers around the country were dumping as much as 3.7 million gallons of milk a day (Yaffe-Bellany & Corkery, 2020). Dairy producers were able to take advantage of multiple aid programs including Dairy Margin Coverage,

CFAP, Food Purchase and Distribution Program, Dairy Revenue Protection Program, and Livestock Gross Margin for Dairy Cattle Program (Cessna, 2020).

Corn, like cotton, is another one of Texas’ top agriculture commodities uniquely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Corn producers struggled as the two main demand markets of their product, ethanol and livestock feed, saw declines

(Dorsett, 2020). Stay-at-home orders put in place during COVID-19 dropped gasoline demand in early April by 48% compared to 2019, which is the lowest reported demand since 1969 (Rapier, 2020a). From March 13 to April 27, ethanol production dropped by 46% as 44 ethanol plants idled and 62 additional plants reduced output rates by 10 to 50%, dragging the total idled or reduced production capacity at ethanol plants to almost 50% of normal (Hubbs, 2020; Rapier, 2020b). Near term corn future prices fell

17%, which was estimated to affect 40% of the 2019 Texas corn crop (Outlaw et al.,

2020). Data suggested that by Mid-April, 63% of the Texas corn crop had already been planted, leaving Texas corn producers and the 2020 corn crop at the mercy of future COVID-19 effects (Outlaw et al., 2020).

Role of Agricultural Organizations in Texas Agriculture

Agricultural organizations, both private and public, have played an important role in shaping American agriculture through its trials and tribulations, and the

COVID-19 pandemic was no exception. The gathering of like-minded people for the

11 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 purpose of working together is deeply rooted in American heritage, and although farmers were historically slow to organize, they quickly realized the benefits of associating together (Wiest, 1923). Today, agricultural organizations serve the same purpose as they did when they were just beginning, “In a direct way they bring their influence to bear upon their members, and through appeal to Congress and state legislatures they seek to secure benefits for their respective groups in an indirect way,”

(Wiest, 1923, p. 2). This type of group action lies at the heart of democracy (Wiest,

1923).

Texas’ broad agricultural industry is reflected in the numerous agricultural organizations it hosts. The Texas Agriculture Council, which consists of 72 agriculture organizations representing industries such as livestock, natural resources, wildlife, equine, and commodities, is one representation of the vast group of organizations lobbying for Texas producers’ interests (TAC, n.d.). These organizations represented the cattle, dairy, poultry, pork, and grain producers and rural communities who were greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crisis Communications in the Changing Role of Communications Professionals

The role of agricultural communicators has changed drastically since its first inception as agricultural journalism in the early 1900s (Irani & Doerfert, 2013).

Today’s agricultural communicator must possess skills such as journalistic writing, print and web design, social media, public relations, advertising, and marketing (Irani

& Doerfert, 2013). This reflects broader trends as the corporate communicators’ role continues to grow beyond core responsibilities to include new responsibilities such as

12 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 social media and internal communication (Swerling et al., 2012). Among other responsibilities, crisis communication is part of agricultural communicators’ roles.

A crisis can be defined as, “a sudden and unexpected event that threatens to disrupt an organization’s operation and poses both a financial and a reputational threat” (Coombs, 2007, p. 164). Agriculture has faced nationwide crises, including numerous food recalls resulting in consumer deaths, BSE in cattle, the Dust Bowl, and avian influenza, to name a few. The COVID-19 pandemic was a unique crisis for agriculture in that it affected the entire industry as a whole rather than just affecting segments as previous crises had done. Coombs (2007) stated, “A crisis creates a need for information” (p. 165). Technical communication professionals play an ever- increasing role in helping to shape an organization’s crisis management and outcome

(Troester & Warburton, 2001). Crisis management can bring about desired effects such as minimizing reputational damage and preventing negative word-of-mouth

(Coombs & Holladay, 2013).

Problem Statement

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a unique crisis unlike any other in the widespread effects it had on all facets of the Texas agricultural industry (Outlaw et al.,

2020). Agricultural communication professionals have increasingly expanding roles in telling their organization’s story to organizational stakeholders during a crisis (Irani &

Doerfert, 2013; Irlbeck et al., 2013; Troester & Warburton, 2001; Ulmer et al., 2007).

Professionals in agricultural communications likely did not plan for a crisis as unique and unprecedented as COVID-19, but still may have been called upon to play a role in helping their organization manage it. This unique situation provided an opportunity to

13 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 study how communication directors for Texas agricultural organizations experienced an unplanned, major crisis affecting their stakeholders and document what communication efforts were unsuccessful or successful so agricultural communications professionals can better prepare for future crises.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of communication directors for Texas livestock, commodity, and agricultural advocacy organizations during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, spanning the months of February to

May 2020, and describe the communication directors’ perceived effectiveness of their communication efforts during that time.

Research Objectives

1. Describe the processes and actions enacted by the organizations’

communication directors.

2. Describe the organizations’ crisis communication plan and the communication

directors’ crisis communication efforts.

3. Explore the communication directors’ perceptions of the effectiveness of their

organization’s communication efforts in response to COVID-19.

4. Identify the lessons the communications directors learned as a result of their

COVID-19 experiences.

Significance of the Study

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented crisis for agriculture in Texas.

Estimations projected the loss of 2020 net farm income in America at $20 billion

(Westhoff et al., 2020). Texas agriculture alone was estimated to lose anywhere from

14 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

$6 to $8 billion as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (Outlaw et al., 2020). This study provided a foundation for a deeper understanding of how Texas agricultural organizations adapted their organizational processes and communication efforts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study served as a record of successful and unsuccessful actions taken by communication directors during an unprecedented crisis and contributed to future agricultural professionals understanding of the COVID-19 crisis and approach to future crises. The historical significance of this study is also notable because it documented the personal experiences of communication directors of Texas agricultural organizations at a time when the ordeals faced February through May

2020 were still current and relevant. This study contributed to the body of literature related to membership organizational communication, agriculture organizational communication, and crisis communication in agriculture and raised awareness among other agricultural communication practitioners about the actions of their peers during an unprecedented crisis.

Assumptions

It was assumed the communication directors interviewed were honest and forthcoming in their interviews about the role they played in their organization’s response to COVID-19 and correctly remembered and reported the details of their experiences during the timeframe of February to May 2020. The researcher also assumed the participants selected were the best to interview for this study and would provide data that would produce a good understanding of the phenomena being studied. It was also assumed participants had a general interest in participating in the research and were not motivated by other factors such as recognition at work.

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Delimitations

This study was limited to communication directors of Texas livestock, commodity, and agriculture advocacy organizations who took part in communicating about COVID-19. Communication directors had to be employed by the same organization throughout the duration of the time frame studied. Although almost all agricultural organizations across the state of Texas dealt with COVID-19, the communication directors included in this study were chosen for their direct experience with the pandemic and the activeness of their communication department during

February through May 2020 as determined by an informal search of the organizations’ websites and social media platforms.

Limitations

Due to research restrictions, interviews with research participants were conducted over Zoom rather than meeting with them face-to-face. Another limitation is the time lapse between the time of interest and the one-on-one interviews with research participants. The COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing at the time of the interviews so participants may not have fully remembered details about the time period being studied or may have mixed knowledge of more recent events with past events in their answers.

Definition of Terms

CDC – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention works to protect Americans from health, safety, and security threats, and is one component of the Department of

Health and Human Services. The CDC served as the main information authority for the COVID-19 pandemic in America.

16 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

CFAP – The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program provided financial relief to agriculture producers who faced a five percent or greater price decline and/or had losses due to supply chain disruptions as a result of COVID-19.

CARES Act – The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was passed by Congress on March 27 and provided $2 trillion to help the American economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 – The official name given to the 2019 novel coronavirus by the World

Health Organization on February 11, 2020. Although there are many types of human coronavirus, COVID-19 refers to a new disease that has not previously been seen in humans.

Pandemic – A pandemic is defined as “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people,” (Last, 1993, p. 131). The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11 (WHO, 2020).

USDA – The United States Department of Agriculture provides leadership to food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development and nutrition using public policy, science and effective management (USDA, n.d.b). Secretary of Agriculture Sonny

Perdue and the USDA guided agriculture during the COVID-19 pandemic and dealt with financial aid for producers.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

Overview

The purpose of this chapter is to review relevant literature and provide an overview of the theoretical framework used to guide this study. This chapter begins with a review of literature related to the purpose of this study, which includes organizations, organizational communication, and the role of communication directors, along with specific agricultural components of each of those topics. COVID-

19 was a crisis so relevant literature in crisis management and communication is also included. The theoretical framework used to guide this study consisted of Excellence

Theory and Contingency Theory of Accommodation. A summary of these theories and their relevancy in this study is provided at the conclusion of this chapter.

Organizations

Organizations, in their simplest form, is the state of man organizing

(Cartwright, 2013). As such, it can be argued organizations date back to ancient times when groups, such as the Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks, organized among themselves to accomplish architectural feats, develop sophisticated militaries, and celebrate complex religions (Dwyer, 2005). The study of organizations spans multiple disciplines including sociology, anthropology, management, economics, political science, and psychology (Cartwright, 2013). The complexity of organizations and the world in which they interact today is reflected in the development of organizational theory through the years.

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Classical theorists who laid the foundation for early studies of organizations viewed organizations through the lens of the machine metaphor, which stated organizations were similar to machines in the way that different components, workers for instance, could be managed to produce the most efficient results (Fayol, 1949;

Taylor, 1911; Weber, 1946; Weber et al., 1949). Those leaning toward the systems view saw organizations as complex organisms made up of system components, input- throughput-output processes, and system properties that allowed them to interact with their environment and survive (Farace et al., 1977; Katz & Kahn, 1978). Weick (1969) proposed people organize to reduce equivocality in an environment through assembly rules and communication cycles that aid in sensemaking and use retention processes to preserve those rules and cycles that prove to be effective. Silverman (1968) introduced the social action approach, which focused on the ends sought by different groups within an organization, rather than those of the organization itself, and the actions chosen to pursue these ends with the means available.

As a result of the diversified views of scholars about how organizations exist and what role they play in society, many definitions for the term “organization” exist

(Dwyer, 2005). Miller (2015) synthesized the diverse landscape of organizational theory to propose a modern definition of organizations to include the critical features of the existence of social collectivity, organizational and individual goals, coordinating activity, organizational structure, and the embedding of the organization within an environment of other organizations. It is then justified to define organizational communications as the internal and external communication functions of an organization or company (Gillis, 2006).

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Agricultural Organizations

The family nature of early farms, ranches, and rural communities laid a foundation for the necessity of organizing (Carter, 2004; Rondot & Collion, 1999).

Out of this early, primitive organizing came more formal types of organization

(Hobbs, 1995, as cited by Carter, 2004; Rondot & Collion, 1999). Modern agricultural organizations seek solutions to problems producers face through organized efforts

(Tontz, 1964). Wiest (1923) stated organizations are limited by public opinion but can exert some influence on it. There is no standard typology across the agricultural industry for classifying agricultural organizations, but organizations can typically be differentiated into governmental or non-governmental categories (Swanson & Samy,

2002).

Public agricultural organizations are those typically associated with the government in some way. Examples of public agricultural organizations include the

USDA and its various bureaus and offices, state departments of agriculture, land-grant colleges, experiment stations, and the extension service (Wiest, 1923). The public extension service is also an example of public organization (Swanson & Samy, 2002).

The extension service strives to change agricultural producers’ attitudes, skills and knowledge through education and communication (Al-Sharafat et al., 2012). Cash

(2001) studied the utilization of the agricultural extension service as a way to straddle the perceived boundary between politics and science.

Non-governmental organizations comprise another form of agricultural organizations. Swanson & Samy (2002) stated non-governmental organizations often look to develop social capital by organizing and empowering agricultural producers.

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The roots of non-governmental agricultural organizations lie in those associations organized in Philadelphia, South Carolina, Maine, New York, Massachusetts, New

Hampshire, Georgia, and Maryland (Wiest, 1923). The Philadelphia Society for

Promoting Agriculture, founded in 1785, claims to be the oldest private agricultural society in the United States and boasts George Washington and Benjamin Franklin as prominent early members (Wiest, 1923; Philadelphia Society for Promoting

Agriculture, n.d.). Early agricultural societies sought to popularize technical advancement in agriculture, import purebred livestock, promote agriculture among the public through fairs, and create a social medium for rural populations (Wiest, 1923).

Examples of early private agricultural organizations include the Grange, the Farmer’s

Alliance, the Farmer’s Union, and the American Farm Bureau Federation (Wiest,

1923). Today, credit societies, self-help groups, farmer associations, and livestock cooperatives are examples of non-governmental organizations (Swanson & Samy,

2002). These organizations can provide general information, training, access to technology, input and output marketing, and access to credit (Mercoiret & Mfou’ou,

2006).

Private organizations are another form of agricultural organization that exert influence on the industry. The private sector typically provides producers with inputs for their operations and play an indirect role in the transfer of technological innovation in crop management, livestock management, and farming systems (Swanson &

Swamy, 2006). Like non-governmental organizations, private agricultural organizations contribute to agricultural policy as part of the “Iron Triangle” including

Congress, the USDA, and producer interest groups (Brasier, 2002).

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Following World War II, agriculture shifted from general farming to specialized commodity production (Hobbs, 1995, as cited in Carter, 2004). This was reflected in the shift from less effective general agricultural organizations to new organizations specialized by commodity (Carter, 2004). General agricultural groups still exist today, as is the case for the American Farm Bureau Federation; however, they are often seen as less influential than commodity organizations due to their broad scope and the broad needs of their members (Browne, 1995, as cited in Carter, 2004).

Rondot and Collion (2001) viewed private agricultural organizations as functioning primarily to organize producer relations with the external world instead of managing relations among the producers themselves. These hybrid organizations are “structures for mediation between rural producers and others who act in their economic, institutional, and political environment” (Rondot & Collion, 2001, p. 2).

Membership associations, which are a major focus of this study, are an example of hybrid organizations that act as mediators between producers and their external world. These associations are primarily made up of agricultural producers who voluntarily choose to join and participate (Sulak, 2000). A major function of membership associations is legislative lobbying, especially in issues like the Farm Bill

(Sulak, 2000). Membership associations often represent their producer members in commodity, agricultural, regulatory, rural, and economic issues affecting them (Sulak,

2000). Some organizations could be classified as special interest groups due to their focus on providing information to policy makers (Browne, 1995, as cited in Carter,

2004; Catchings et al., 2005). Because membership associations are more member focused than anything else, this can affect the effectiveness of their lobbying

22 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 depending on whether their membership is general or commodity specific (Sulak,

2000). General membership organizations that represent members from multiple facets of agriculture often have a difficult time taking one stance on legislative issues while commodity-specific membership associations are often more effective due to their ability to support more specific policy recommendations (Sulak, 2000).

Checkoff programs, on both the state and national level, are typically funded either voluntarily or involuntarily by commodity producers and handlers who receive a direct benefit from the sale of an agricultural commodity (The National Agricultural

Law Center, n.d.). The word “checkoff” originated from the voluntary origins of the programs when producer would check a box to indicate whether they would like to make a financial contribution to their industry’s program (The National Agricultural

Law Center, n.d.). Checkoff programs promote specific agricultural commodities without mentioning a specific brand or producer (The National Agricultural Law

Center, n.d.). Today, 21 checkoff programs exist for a variety of commodities

(Agricultural Marketing Service, n.d.b). The USDA, more specifically the Agricultural

Marketing Service [AMS], provides oversight to checkoff programs to ensure fiscal responsibility, program efficiency, and the fair treatment of stakeholders (AMS, n.d.b). A board of stakeholders is typically selected, by the Secretary of Agriculture in the case of federal checkoff programs, to allocate funds and run each checkoff program (AMS, 2020b). State and regional programs typically fall under state statutes

(AMS, 2020b).

Agricultural producers are also commonly members of co-operatives. (Altman,

2015). By nature, small farm operations involved in co-operatives find it easier to

23 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 remain viable because they are able to leverage buying and selling power comparable to larger, corporate farms (Altman, 2015). A defining characteristic of co-operatives is their democratic structure allowing producer members to have some portion of control in the organization’s direction (Altman, 2015; Osterberg & Nilsson, 2009). Attending to the broad and varied views of co-operative members can result in passivity of the organization (Osterberg & Nilsson, 2009).

As of April 2019, there were approximately 146 national agricultural and natural resource organizations in the United States (Agricultural Marketing Resource

Center, 2019). This list includes national checkoff organizations covering commodities such as eggs, beef, dairy, lamb, and mushrooms (Agricultural Marketing

Resource Center, 2019). Besides checkoff programs, current American agricultural organizations include advocacy organizations such as the American Farm Bureau

Federation and the National Grange. Also included are breed associations, e.g.

American Angus Association, service-based associations, e.g. American Society of

Agricultural Appraisers, and natural resource organizations, e.g. Society of American

Foresters (Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, 2019).

Partially representative of the wide array of agriculture and natural resource organizations in Texas is the Texas Agriculture Council [TAC]. The TAC is comprised of members from Texas agricultural and natural resources organizations who are active in lobbying at the Texas legislature (TAC, n.d.). TAC members include member associations representing each of the major Texas agriculture commodities

(Texas Department of Agriculture, 2017). Texas Farm Bureau, Texas Cattle Feeders

Association, Plains Cotton Growers, Inc., Texas Poultry Federation, Texas

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Association of Dairymen, Texas Corn Producers Association, Texas Nursery and

Landscape Association, and many other associations representing the wide array of agriculture and natural resource entities in Texas are members of TAC (TAC, n.d.).

Organizational Communication

Communication was recognized early on as being important to organizations albeit somewhat limited in how it was utilized. Classical views of organizational communications viewed communication as being largely asymmetrical, task focused, and flowing downward from managers to employees (Fayol, 1974; Taylor, 1911;

Weber, 1946; Weber et al., 1949). This view of organizational communication reflected the simplicity of early models of communication, like the social-media- channel-receiver [S-M-C-R] model (Miller, 2015).

Human relations and human resource perspectives developed in the early 20th century, along with the systems thinking that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century, more clearly recognized the utility of organizational communication (Miller,

2015). Communication was more informal, incorporated social and innovation content, and flowed in all directions instead of only from manager to employee

(Miller, 2015). The systems metaphor explicitly acknowledges the role of communication networks that emerge from the activity of organizations (Miller,

2015). Weick (1969) thought of communication as central to the process of organizing. Barnard (1938) stated communication played a central role in organizational theory as the structure, extensiveness, and scope of an organization is determined by communication.

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Organizational communication can be broken down into both internal and external communication. Welch and Jackson (2012) defined internal communication as “strategic management of interactions and relationships between stakeholders within organizations across a number of interrelated dimensions” (p. 184). Internal communication occurs constantly within organizations. Internal communication can become external as soon as it leaves the boundaries of the organization, for example an email forwarded to the media (Welch & Jackson, 2012).

Internal communication is important for organizations. Goals of internal communication can include contributing to the establishment of internal relationships that strengthen employee commitment, promoting a sense of belonging among employees, and bringing awareness to the need for adaptability due to environmental influences on the organization (Welch & Jackson, 2012). Communication managers are expected to communicate with employees, providing context and interpretation in channels including one-on-one communication (Whitworth, 2006). Organizations that practice effective internal communication are more economically successful and have lower employee turnover (Yates, 2006). A common finding among internal communication studies was the need for employee’s voices to be heard, including the availability of channels that would allow employee feedback to reach upper management (Robson & Tourish, 2005; Yates, 2006).

In regard to crisis communication, internal communication can help to prevent crises, minimize damage, support appropriate reactions, and lead to positive outcomes

(Mazzei et al., 2012). Internal communication can provide value in dealing with rumors, especially during a crisis (Dolphin, 2005). Employees of organizations that

26 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 plan for crises by having a predetermined crisis management team and crisis manager are less likely to feel frustrated, insecure, and afraid, and are less likely to leave the organization during a crisis (Johansen et al., 2012). In his study of United Kingdom practitioners and their views on internal communication, Dolphin (2005) stated, “A crisis can sink an organization: perhaps internal communication might lay claim to be a corporate lifeboat” (p. 183).

External communication is communication originating from an organization that focuses on external stakeholders, such as neighbors, competitors, consumers, and regulatory bodies (Saunders, 1999). The goal of external communication is to link an organization with its publics (Ristino, 2007). Modern external public relations focus on creating mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics

(Meyers et al., 2011). Strategic or tactical goals of public relations can include managing public perceptions of an organization’s purpose and mission, guiding reactions to organizational crisis, influencing public policy that could affect an organization’s operations, and encouraging volunteer support (Ristino, 2007). External communication also has a role in the construction of organizational identity (Dhalla,

2007).

Jones et al. (2004) stated external communication is important because “the boundaries between organizations are now more fluid, both between organizations and their environments and between work and nonwork domains” (p. 731). External communication can involve collaboration among outside entities, such as the media or other organizations (Jones et al., 2004; Troester, 1991). Ties to other organizations can help to reduce the impact of uncertainty through information sharing (Kaatz, 1998).

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Organizations have ties to their communities and have a right and obligation to communicate with those communities (Troester, 1991). Organizational spokespeople have an important role in communicating on behalf of an organization with the press, during a crisis, and as part of issues management and advocacy (Troester, 1991).

Public relations in crises can incorporate other areas of interest, such as reputation management, corporate social responsibility, and issues management. An organization is expected to communicate with external publics during a crisis

(Troester, 1991; Ulmer et al., 2007). During a crisis, public relations practitioners manage the strategic flow of information to reduce uncertainty and protect the image and identity of the organization as it handles the crisis (Ristino, 2007).

Agricultural Organizational Communication

Organizations derived from the desires and actions of their members have an inherent need to communicate effectively with members (Telg & Barnes, 2012). An effective communication program is essential for agricultural producer-based organizations to access external information, circulate information to members and other agricultural organizations, and to access national and international market and policy information (Rondot & Collion, 2001).

Internal communication in agricultural organizations contributes to organizational success and affects employee morale (Settle et al., 2017).

Communication practitioners in agricultural organizations use social media for communicating to internal publics, including members, but do not use social media extensively for media relations (Haller et al., 2019). The organizational structures of non-profit, for-profit, and governmental organizations result in varied efforts among

28 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 agricultural organizations to communicate with external publics resulting in varied levels of trust in these organizations (Settle et al., 2017).

There is limited research related to organizational communication in membership-based organizations (Findley et al., 2007). Organizational communication research often focuses on the relationship between employee and organization, making no distinction between an organizational employee and an organizational member

(Peterson & McNamee, 2016). Peterson and McNamee (2016) found this misleading as they studied the communication that constituted organizational relationships for those who are involuntarily members, like agricultural producers required to contribute to mandatory checkoff programs. Ki and Hon (2007) suggested communication directors communicate positive messages designed to make publics feel favorably about the organization to help establish trust early on and strengthen organization-public relationships. Once trust is developed, communication programs can encourage long-term relationships and commitment to the organization (Ki &

Hon, 2007). Checkoff programs play an important role in communicating with consumers (Nolden, 2018). They also play an important role in producer communication, although there is some room for improvement (Findley et al., 2007).

The Communication Director

Communication directors are those who have been assigned the role of managing an organization’s communication function (Shatshat, 1980). Katz and Kahn

(1978) define a role as the behavior patterns of an individual and typically guides an individual’s actions. Early research viewed organizational communication

29 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 practitioners as consultants to senior management who either played a role in services provided or processes influenced (Dozier, 1992).

Dozier (1992) stated that practitioners within organizational communication may suffer from role ambiguity due to an inconsistency between the practitioner’s role expectations and the expectations of others within the organization about the practitioner’s role. Role ambiguity can often lead to role stress (Dozier, 1992). Besides role ambiguity, role stress can include role overload, role conflict, and role preparedness (Bunnell, 2006). Pettegrew & Wolfe (1981) defined role overload as the absence of sufficient resources to perform the role, role conflict as the presence of two or more incompatible work demands, and role preparedness as stress due to feeling of a lack of competency or preparation. In general, workplace stress is a common occurrence in America’s workforce (Singh, 2020). COVID-19 has impacted workplace stress immensely as nearly seven in 10 American employees reported

COVID-19 as being the most stressful point in their careers (Mayer, 2020).

Scholars divide the roles of practitioners into either a technical or managerial role (Brønn, 2001; Dozier, 1992). Technical roles focus mainly on the production of communication materials while managerial roles are based more on responsibility, expertise, planning, and decision making (Brønn, 2001). Dozier and Broom (1995) argue the four theoretical roles public relations practitioners take can be managerial as expert prescribers, communication facilitators, and process facilitators, or technical as communication technicians. The two roles are not exclusive of one another as any practitioner involved in organizational communications likely fills both roles to some extent (Dozier & Broom, 1995). Grunig (2006) called for the institutionalization of

30 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 strategic communication as an accepted part of normal organizational process. By being institutionalized in an organization, communication is infused into the organizational rules and processes, so it persists regardless of changing situations or the ideologies of leaders (Brønn, 2014). Practitioners can contribute to this institutionalization by actively partaking in executive strategizing and decision making

(Brønn, 2001; Dozier, 1992; Durutta, 2006).

Today’s communication director is led to play a strategic role as a member of the senior level leadership team, sometimes called the dominant coalition, rather than a practitioner called upon solely to create materials (Dozier & Broom, 1995; Durutta,

2006). As part of the dominant coalition, practitioners should be in constant contact with all parts of the organization (Durutta, 2006). Participation in strategic decision making can lead communication directors to play a bridging role by developing relationships with stakeholders (Brønn, 2014; Grunig, 2006). Communication directors serve as the center of organizational communication networks and facilitate communication flow, so all members receive necessary information (Shatshat, 1980).

Research, business, and information systems are areas besides traditional public relations that communication directors can lend their expertise (Gillis, 2006; Harris &

Bryant, 1986). Communication directors should have a multi-disciplinary background to avoid being held back by a reliance on media relations or public relations skills alone (Watson & Sreedharan, 2010). Today’s communication director can expect to utilize writing, editing, design, speaking, listening, research, measurement and planning skills to thrive in their role (Durutta, 2006).

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Crisis Management

A crisis is defined as “the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization’s performance and generate negative outcomes” (Coombs, 2012, p. 2). Although admittedly dangerous, crises can present organizations with opportunities (Ulmer et al., 2007). Crises can be identified as those happening from natural, uncontrollable factors, such as a natural disaster or a disease outbreak, and those happening from intentional actions, such as terrorism or unethical leadership (Ulmer et al., 2007).

The stakeholder part of Coombs’ (2012) crisis definition is important. Coombs

(2012) defined a stakeholder as anyone who has an interest, right, or claim in an organization. Stakeholders can be internal or external to an organization (Ulmer et al.,

2007). Most crisis communication scholars recognize there are two types of stakeholders (Coombs, 2012; Ulmer et al., 2007). Primary stakeholders are those whose actions can positively or negatively affect an organization. Secondary stakeholders, sometimes known as influencers, are those who can affect or are affected by the actions of the organization (Coombs, 2012). Stakeholders are typically vocal during a crisis and require clear and quick answers from organizations (Ulmer et al.,

2007). Crises present a threat to organizational reputations, which are determined by the interactions of an organization with its stakeholders (Coombs, 2012).

Another important component of Coombs’ (2012) crisis definition is perception. Crises are perceived into being (Coombs, 2012). Stakeholders can perceive crises in situations where uncertainty is high (Ulmer et al., 2007). Uncertainty is defined as an inability to determine the present or predict the future (Ulmer et al.,

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2007). During a crisis, an organization may face uncertainty in the level of threat its goals are facing (Ulmer et al., 2007). Communication with stakeholders to determine potential threats and reduce stakeholders’ uncertainty is a central part of crisis management. To effectively manage a crisis, Coombs (2012) identified three macro- level stages of a crisis: precrisis, crisis event, and postcrisis (see Figure 2.1).

Precrisis

Crisis management includes proactive steps to detect crisis signals and works to reduce the likelihood of signals becoming full blown crises (Coombs, 2012). The precrisis stage can be split into the three substages of signal detection, prevention, and crisis preparation. Signal detection includes proactive management in the areas of issues, reputation, and risk. Social media can play an integral role in being able to detect crisis signals, especially in the case paracrises that mimic a crisis. Crisis prevention includes identifying sources to scan, collecting and analyzing information, taking preventative actions, and evaluating the effectiveness of those actions (Coombs,

2012).

The development of a crisis management plan and the selection and training of a crisis management team are some of the defining steps of the crisis preparation stage

(Coombs, 2012). Crises are also considered extremely stressful situations, especially for an organization’s crisis management team (Teffali et al., 2018; Wright-Reid,

2017). Preparing to cope with the stress a crisis presents can also be an important component of crisis preparation (Cavanaugh, 2006).

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Crisis Event

The crisis event is usually signaled by a trigger event and ends when the crisis is resolved. The crisis event stage is characterized by two substages of crisis recognition and crisis containment. Organizations may not always recognize they are facing a crisis as crises can range on a scale of perceived importance, immediacy, and uncertainty. Communication is especially vital during the crisis event, which makes the crisis response an integral component of crisis containment.

Organizational leadership plays an important role in the enactment of the crisis response and ultimately crisis containment (Coombs, 2012; Ulmer et al., 2007).

Leaders should be visible during a crisis and often take on the role of spokesperson

(Ulmer at al., 2007). The world population experienced elevated levels of stress as a result of the uncertainty COVID-19 presented (Hagger et al., 2020). Leadership of organizations most involved in the COVID-19 pandemic, health care institutions, were advised to ensure their leadership focused on resilience, provided continual staff support, and communicated informational and empowering messages (Wu et al.,

2020). Resilience can be a stress coping strategy that involves changing one’s thinking and reaching out to others for support (Fetsch, 2012).

Post Crisis

As a learning opportunity, the postcrisis stage is not to be overlooked

(Coombs, 2012). The postcrisis stage usually allows organizations to ensure the crisis is over and measure the effectiveness of the organization’s response. Organizations in the postcrisis stage should continue to pay attention to their publics and continue to monitor the issue (Gonzalez-Herrero & Pratt, 1996). A long-term communications

34 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 strategy should be developed to mitigate the damages of the crisis and organizations should engage in continual communication with stakeholders, such as the media, about actions being taken in response to the crisis (Gonzalez-Herrero & Pratt, 1996).

Evaluation of the efficacy and execution of the crisis management plan and the impact of the crisis should commence in the postcrisis stage (Coombs, 2012). Crisis response should be recorded and stored as a part of the organization’s memory and lessons learned from the crisis should be applied to revise and edit the crisis management plan for future crises (Coombs, 2012).

Pre-Crisis Crisis Event Post Crisis Crisis Detection Crisis Recognition • Ensure crisis is over • Detect crisis signals • Determine perceived • Continue to monitor Crisis Prevention importance, issue and publics • Identify sources to immediacy, and • Develop long-term scan uncertainty communication • Collect and analyze Crisis Containment strategy to mitigate information • Enact CMP damages • Take preventative • Gather crisis • Evaluate execution actions and evaluate management team of CMP and impact effectiveness of crisis Crisis Management Plan • Record lessons • Select and train a learned and apply to crisis management revising CMP team • Develop a CMP

Figure 2.1

Stages of a Crisis Note. From “Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding,” by W.T. Coombs, 2012, SAGE Publications. Copyright 2012 by SAGE Publications.

35 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Risk and Crisis Communication

Crises create a need for communication to relevant stakeholders and can be regarded as information and knowledge poor situations (Coombs, 2012). Crisis communicators primarily seek to manage meaning through their communication although they may also seek to manage information. Crisis communicators who seek to manage information usually collect and disseminate crisis-related information.

Those who seek to manage meaning through their communication intend to influence people’s perception of the crisis and/or the organization involved (Coombs, 2015).

Further, as part of their crisis communications, organizations may choose to disseminate instructing information that informs stakeholders how they can protect themselves physically from a crisis and adjusting information that helps stakeholders cope psychologically with a crisis. Simply providing information about a crisis

“reduces anxiety by reducing ambiguity” (Coombs, 2015, p. 142). Coombs (2015) also stated organizations may try to reduce the negative effects of a crisis on their reputation by employing a reputation repair strategy of denial, reducing offensiveness, bolstering, or redress.

Crisis responses should be quick, especially in the age of technology. The

Internet can be regarded as a trigger or facilitator of crises, either helping to quickly advance those crises, which would occur regardless of the Internet, or causing a problem serious enough to become a crisis (Gonzalez-Herrero & Smith, 2008). This requires communication professionals to seriously reconsider their traditional crisis communication approaches. Crisis communicators should leverage those channels that

36 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 best fit the audience they are trying to reach, which can be a combination of both online and traditional channels (Coombs, 2012). As individuals take roles on social media to fill the crisis communication gaps organizations leave, organizations should realize the advantage they have in being able to provide information early to social networks (Mirbabie et al., 2020). Mirbabie et al. (2020) argued organizations should leverage influence on social media to position themselves as experts who can serve as an input for meaning creation during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, just communicating during a crisis is not enough. Organizations who communicate poorly often make the situation worse (Lando, 2014; Marra, 1998). Not only do stakeholders require information, but they require trusted information

(Longstaff & Yang, 2008). Regardless of the channel used, stakeholders expect organizations to quickly relay responsiveness, transparency, and authenticity in their crisis communication (Gonzalez-Herrero & Smith, 2008). Communication must also be effective, strategic, and be customized to the crisis (Coombs, 2015). Organizations are expected to build relationships with their primary and secondary stakeholders before a crisis so they can better listen and provide for the information needs of those stakeholders once a crisis occurs (Ulmer et al., 2007). Crisis communication, especially in the postcrisis stage, is a two-way process in which organizations should listen to the lingering concerns and questions of stakeholders and provide clarification and explanations (Ulmer et al., 2007).

A leader’s ability to communicate clearly, confidently, persuasively, and empathetically is crucial to shaping how stakeholders perceive a crisis and their evaluation of how it was handled (Wooten & James, 2008, as cited in McGuire et al.,

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2020). The communication needs of stakeholders during crises position communication directors as playing an important role in crisis management and crisis communication. Berger and Meng (2014) found being prepared to deal with crises was the second most important issue to professionals in a global leadership study. This speaks to the importance of communication directors being able to “function as the face of the crisis” (Hackman & Johnson, 2009, as cited in Berger & Meng, 2014, p.

92). Berger and Meng (2014) also found that when looking at behaviors that contribute to effective management of a crisis, team collaboration, along with strategic decision making, communication knowledge management, and ethical orientation were important. Trust within an organization is a predictor of how trustworthy stakeholders view organizational communication during a crisis (Longstaff & Yang,

2008).

Crisis Communication Plan

In preparation for a crisis, organizations should develop a crisis management plan (CMP). Coombs (2012) argued that a CMP is a communication document that defines who to contact and how. Lando (2014) found organizations that develop a

CMP may not include or may not have a crisis communication plan (CCP). A plan for crisis communications is important to include as organizations who have a CCP are better suited to handle a crisis and may spend less money doing so (Lando, 2014). The

CCP should be a major part of the larger CMP (Coombs, 2012). Other components of a CMP include rehearsal dates, crisis management team contact information, incident report sheets, proprietary information, and a business continuity plan, to name a few

(Coombs, 2012).

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A CCP, like the larger CMP, should be as short as possible, user-friendly, and organized in such a way that practitioners can quickly find the guidance they are looking for (Fearn-Banks, 2017). The CCP is not a step-by-step, how-to but is rather a flexible guide that should serve as being more effective than if practitioners were to approach their crisis communications without previous planning (Fearn-Banks, 2017).

Fearn-Banks (2017) proposed necessary components of a CCP that overlap with the

CMP components outlined by Coombs (2012). Unique components of a CCP may include key messages, the crisis communications team, a list of key publics and how to notify them, the process for identifying the media spokesperson(s), equipment and supplies, and a list of key media and spokespersons for related organizations (Fearn-

Banks, 2017). Overall, the CCP should facilitate two-way, symmetrical communication with stakeholders (Lando, 2014).

Crisis Communication in Food and Agriculture

Agriculture, like other industries, is not immune to risk or crises. Agricultural producers are thought to play an important defensive position in the fragile supply chain of food (Allen et al., 2014). As such, agricultural producers are a targeted audience of risk communication, especially from agricultural organizations similar to those in this study. A study of Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers’ Association members found livestock associations ranked right below a local or consulting veterinarian for a source they were likely to seek information from and to find those sources trustworthy and reliable (Allen et al., 2014). Previous literature has studied crises in food and agriculture related to foodborne illness, natural disasters, disease outbreak, and advocate attacks (Gibson et al., 2019; Irlbeck et al., 2013; Opat et al.,

39 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

2018; Palmer et al., 2013; Sellnow et al., 2017). Specific to agriculture, there were some common findings and suggestions for agricultural organizations experiencing crisis situations.

When talking to public relations practitioners who dealt with a foodborne illness crisis, Palmer et al. (2013) found flexibility to be an important component of dealing with crises along with being proactive. The ability and willingness to respond quickly during a crisis was identified by agriculture crisis managers in multiple studies as being important (Gibson et al., 2019; Irlbeck et al., 2013; Palmer et al., 2013).

Irlbeck et al. (2013) stated, “Overall, the public relations practitioners shared the central thinking that with or without a crisis communications plan, it was necessary to take action immediately in light of that crisis” (p. 7).

Studies have also found that how the media and agricultural organizations interact plays a role in crisis management. Media contacts established before the crisis were helpful in distributing messages to a broader general public (Irlbeck et al., 2013).

Palmer et al. (2013) recommended practitioners include developing strong contacts with reporters as part of risk and crisis communication plans. This also extended to developing better communication lines with pertinent governmental agencies (Palmer et al., 2013). The importance of relationships with the media was also supported by

Howell and Miller (2010) as they studied the Maple Leaf Listeria outbreak crisis.

Although literature addressing a crisis affecting agriculture to the extent of

COVID-19 was not available, there was some crisis communication literature that dealt with certain components reflected in the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread impact and lack of information about the virus made the crisis of a PEDv outbreak in

40 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 hogs similar to the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors made crisis communication very difficult for those affected by PEDv (Sellnow et al., 2007). The highly complicated nature of rapidly developing research about PEDv made it difficult to communicate about and required industry leaders to share information that could be internalized by agricultural producers through channels already established by contributing organizations while keeping it brief and consumable during a trying time and that provided actionable steps producers could quickly and reasonably enact

(Sellnow et al., 2007). In addition to these findings, Sellnow et al. (2007) found existing crisis communication plans and communication networks were valuable although their flexibility was vital in being able to adapt to account for crises, which could not be conceivably planned for. Another theme identified by Sellnow et al.

(2007) was existing resources used to aid the hog industry in communication and research and the disproportionate distribution of those resources among smaller and larger farms.

Theoretical Framework

Excellence Theory

The Excellence Theory was born out of the desires of the public relations field to better understand how, why, and to what extent communication affects the obtainment of organizational objectives (Grunig et al., 2002). To answer this question, a group of researchers conducted an extensive literature review and quantitative and qualitative research of numerous organizations in the early 1980s. What resulted was a

“benchmarking study that identifies and describes critical success factors and best practices in public relations” (Grunig et al., 2009, p. 25). Practitioners can use this

41 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 general benchmarking to measure the effectiveness of their program against an ideal one (Grunig & Grunig, 2006).

Grunig (1992) identified 14 characteristics and three effects of excellent public relations programs. Grunig and Grunig (2006) stated organizations must be effective in their communication at the program level, functional level, organizational level, and societal level to be considered truly effective. Vercic et al. (1996) consolidated similar

Excellence Theory characteristics into nine generic principles:

1. Involvement of public relations in strategic management.

2. Empowerment of public relations in the dominant coalition or a direct

reporting relationship to senior management.

3. Integrated public relations function.

4. Public relations as a management function separate from other

functions.

5. The role of the public relations practitioner.

6. Two-way symmetrical model of public relations.

7. A symmetrical system of internal communication.

8. Knowledge potential for managerial role and symmetrical public

relations.

9. Diversity embodied in all roles (p. 37-38).

As a general theory, Excellence Theory explains how public relations function should be structured and managed to provide the most value to the organization, publics, and society (Kim et al., 2013). Of all of the characteristics identified by

Grunig (1992), the excellence of public relations functions was most statistically 42 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 defined by participation in strategic management (Grunig & Grunig, 2006). Along with strategic management, Grunig et al. (2002) stated two-way symmetrical communication as defined by the four models of public relations proposed by Grunig and Hunt (1984) was a major component of Excellence Theory (see Figure 2.2). The

Excellence Theory then “describes and prescribes” the role of public relations in strategic management (Kim et al., 2013, p. 198).

Press Agentry/Publicity Public Information Model • One-way asymmetrical model • One-way asymmetrical model • Seek attention for their • Journalist-in-residence organization in any way possible • Disseminate only positive • Does not conduct scientific information about organization research to guide communication • Does not use scientific research to guide communication

Two-Way Asymmetrical Model Two-Way Symmetrical Model • Persuade public to behave how • Bring about changes in the ideas, the organization would like behaviors, and attitudes of the • Use scientific research to guide organization and publics communication efforts • Use scientific research and dialogue to guide communication

Figure 2.2

Four Models of Public Relations Note. From “Excellent publics relations and effective organizations: A study of communication management in three countries,” by L.A. Grunig, J.E. Grunig, and D.M. Dozier, 2002, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Copyright 2002 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. As a normative theory, Excellence Theory states a public relations function is most valuable when it is managerial, strategic, symmetrical, diverse, integrated, socially responsible, ethical, and global (Kim et al, 2013; Vercic & Zerfass, 2016.).

Grunig (1992) saw the Excellence Theory also serving as a model for auditing and 43 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 evaluating public relations functions, for explaining the importance and value of an organization’s public relations function to the dominant coalition, and for teaching beginners and experienced practitioners about the trade.

Tyma (2008) argued the Excellence Theory helped the public relations field construct and engage current public relations practices rather than just critique past practices. Through normative and critical interpretations, the Excellence Theory may help to define what public relations should look like from an overarching view and may also help to define the adjustments needed for a global culture at the organizational level (Tyma, 2008).

Critics of the theory say it is static and highly complex (Vercic & Zerfass,

2016). Attempts to reinterpret the theory as one focused more on relationship cultivation take away from the theory’s core purpose of outstanding results (Vercic &

Zerfass, 2016). The Excellence Theory has also been criticized for being based on data falling below the minimum standards of reliability. One of the main assumptions of the Excellence Theory, two-way symmetrical communication, has also been criticized for a lack of supporting research and for assuming that organizations must engage with all publics, even those groups whose morals may be contrary to those of the organization and therefore, lead the organization to engage unethically (Pang et al.,

2010). Due to these critiques, contingency theory provides an alternative viewpoint to account for the variability of different situations.

Contingency Theory of Accommodation in Public Relations

Early contingency theory was based in organizing, leadership, and decision- making (Grotsch et al., 2013). It relies on the thought that there is no single best way

44 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 for doing something as situations and environments differ (Grotsch et al., 2013). The contingency theory of leadership proposed by Fiedler (1964) contends different characteristics of leaders make them more effective in certain situations. Contingency theory can be extended to public relations as situational antecedents combined with current pressures and opportunities define how individuals practice public relations and the stance an organization may take (Cancel et al., 1997).

The contingency theory of accommodation is a logical extension of theoretical work in public relations (Cancel et al., 1997). Cancel et al. (1997) stated contingency theory offers refinement to Excellence Theory and builds toward a more realistic portrayal of public relations. Primarily, the contingency theory offers more flexibility in how organizations and public relations practitioners interact with publics. Instead of constraining communication into one of four boxes, the contingency theory proposes a continuum (Cancel et al., 1997). This continuum ranges from pure advocacy on one end and pure accommodation on the other (Cancel et al., 1999). Advocacy can be defined as arguing for one’s own case while accommodation can be defined as giving in (Cancel et al., 1999; Pang et al., 2010). Between the two extremes on the continuum are a variety of stances and strategies public relations practitioners can adopt depending on a wide variety of factors that influence how an organization interacts with its publics (Cancel et al., 1997).

Cancel et al. (1999) identified 80-some variables that affected where a public relations practitioner may fall on the accommodation-advocacy continuum. These variables were originally split into external and internal variables with multiple subcategories included (Cancel et al., 1999). Cancel et al. (1999) subsequently

45 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 proposed the variables be split up into predisposing and situational variables.

Predisposing variables are those that most influence an organization’s predisposition toward relations with external publics. Situational variables are “the specific and often changing dynamics at work during particular situations involving an organization and an external public” (Cancel et al., 1999, p. 177). These variables often affect how an organization may shift its stance with an external public as the situation progresses

(Cancel et al., 1999).

When interviewing 18 public relations practitioners from 18 different corporations, Cancel et al. (1999) found some variables were more highly supported than others. Predisposing variables highly supported by the data included corporation business exposure, public relations access to dominant coalition, dominant coalition’s decision power and enlightenment, corporation size, and individual characteristics of involved persons. Situational variables most supported were urgency of situation, characteristics of external public’s claims or requests, characteristics of external public, potential or obvious threats, and potential cost or benefit for a corporation from choosing various stances. Conversely, variables with little support included influence of the legal department, general social or political external environment, corporation being publicly traded versus privately owned, homogeneity or heterogeneity of employees, formalization of corporation, stratification or hierarchy of positions in corporation, public relations staff trained in research methods, marring of employee’s perception of their corporation (Cancel et al., 1999). Cancel et al. (1999) also added new variables from their data.

46 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Contingency theory of accommodation offers a unique perspective to crisis communication in particular. Pang et al. (2010) argued practitioners who focus on communication as falling along a continuum rather than as one of four types are freer to practice dynamic, out-of-the-box thinking more suited to the complexity of crisis communication. Organizations move along the continuum in a variety of ways during a crisis as crisis communication may not always be a “win-win” situation. They also argued contingency theory gives structure to the many different factors affecting the decisions practitioners make before taking a stance on the continuum (Pang et al.,

2010). Similar to Excellence Theory, contingency theory recognizes the importance of the dominant coalition and how important public relation practitioners’ involvement is for determining the importance of publics during a crisis (Pang et al., 2010). Overall, contingency theory allows public relations practitioners strategic options during crises as shown in Figure 2.3 (Pang et al., 2010).

47 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Pure Pure Advocacy Accommodation Compromising Negotiation Public Apology and Relations Cooperation Restitution

Litigation Avoiding Compromise

Figure 2.3

Contingency Theory of Accommodation Continuum Note. Between the two extremes of pure advocacy and pure accommodation are a variety of stances practitioners can take when communicating with an external public. Adapted from “Public relations today: Managing competition and conflict,” by G. T. Cameron, D. L. Wilcox, B. H. Reber, and J.-H. Shin, 2008, Pearson Allyn & Bacon Longman. Copyright 2008 by Pearson Allyn & Bacon Longman.

48 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Overview

The previous chapter discussed the need for agricultural organizations to communicate during a crisis and the role of communication directors in fulfilling that need. As an unprecedented crisis affecting all of Texas agriculture, COVID-19 presents an opportunity to contribute to the understanding of how communication directors for Texas agricultural organizations approached and fulfilled this role. The purpose of this qualitative, collective, case study was to explore the experiences of communication directors for Texas agricultural organizations during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and describe their perceived communication effectiveness.

This chapter outlines the research methodology used for this study, including the research design, sampling and study participants, data collection procedures, and strategies for data analysis. Measures taken to ensure rigor are also discussed.

Design

This study used a qualitative, exploratory, collective case study design. A qualitative research method best fit this study because of the exploratory nature of the research purpose and the novelty of the context. Currently, there is limited literature about the impacts of COVID-19, especially on agriculture and agricultural organizations. The COVID-19 pandemic also brought about crisis circumstances that could not be easily predicted or anticipated. A qualitative case study allows a researcher to explore or describe a phenomenon within its context (Baxter & Jack,

2008). This case study was approached from a constructivist perspective, which is

49 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 appropriate when attempting to understand the different perspectives of different participants and how their perspectives can illuminate a subject (Yin, 2018).

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research gives the researcher a big picture understanding of a phenomenon and focuses on providing a holistic, in-depth analysis rather than a numeric analysis of data (Ary et al., 2014). Qualitative researchers view human behavior as being context-bound, making it impossible to reduce solely to variables.

Ary et al. (2014) stated qualitative inquiry is a personal kind of research that “seeks to understand and interpret human and social behavior as it is lived by participants in a particular social setting” (p. 447). Qualitative findings are typically derived from data collected through interviews, direct observations, or written documents (Patton, 2002).

Qualitative researchers have a variety of inquiry methods available to them, but narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and case studies tend to be the most common across disciplines and have systematic approaches that lend themselves to rigorous data collection and analysis (Creswell, 2013).

Qualitative research is defined by some key characteristics. It shows great regard for context and meaning by aiming to understand a unique and particular context rather than try to predict the future. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research occurs in naturally occurring settings and uses an emergent design defined partially as the researcher collects data. In qualitative research, the human researcher is regarded as the instrument that collects data, typically in the form of words or visuals that lend themselves to rich descriptions. The data analysis and data collection

50 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 stage in qualitative research occur concurrently in an inductive manner (Ary et al.,

2014). Qualitative data are typically the focus of naturalistic inquiry (Patton, 2002).

Case Study

Yin (2018) defined a case study as “an empirical method that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-world context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context may not be clearly evident” (p. 5).

Case studies are best fitted for “how” and “why” questions (Yin, 2018). The goal of a case study is to provide a detailed description and understanding of the case being studied (Ary et al., 2014). A case is the unit of analysis for a case study and can be an individual, several individuals, an organization, program, or critical incident (Patton,

2002). Stake (1995) identified a case as being a specific, unique, bounded system.

Case study research typically uses multiple methods to gather data (Ary et al., 2014;

Yin, 2018). Therefore, a large amount of raw data is accumulated in a case study and can include interviews, documents, and contextual information (Patton, 2002).

The three types of case studies are single instrumental case study, collective case study, and intrinsic case study (Creswell, 2013). A collective case study, also called a multiple case study, studies one issue or context but uses multiple cases to understand it. Qualitative researchers employing a collective case study method believe each representative case brings a unique perspective to the phenomena being studied but use the logic of replication to gather data from each case in a similar way.

Collective case studies allow researchers to conduct within-case analysis and cross- case analysis (Creswell, 2013).

51 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

The unit of analysis, or case, for this study was the experiences of communication directors for Texas agricultural organizations during the months of

February to May 2020. Each individual participant included in this study represented a case, so this study utilized a collective case study methodology. The bounded system studied was defined by time and place as the purpose of this study focused on experiences of communication directors working for Texas agricultural organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically February to May 2020.

Population/Sample

Qualitative research typically focuses on very small samples that are selected purposefully (Patton, 2002). Purposeful sampling allows qualitative researchers to select information-rich cases that provide maximum insight and understanding into the phenomenon (Ary et al., 2014; Patton, 2002). There is no general rule to determine the number of participants that should be included in a qualitative sample (Ary et al.,

2014). Rather, the primary criterion for the size of a purposeful sample is redundancy, or data saturation (Ary et al., 2014).

The population for this study was communication directors for Texas agriculture organizations. Eight communication directors were purposively selected for this study and seven elected to participate. The communication directors chose for this study represented a variety of segments of the agricultural industry to capture the widespread effects of COVID-19: three from livestock organizations, three from crop organizations, and one from an agricultural advocacy organization.

There are 15 purposeful sampling strategies qualitative researchers can employ

(Ary et al., 2014; Patton, 2002). Because research often serves multiple purposes,

52 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 sampling strategies can be combined when necessary (Patton, 2002). This study utilized a combination of maximum variation sampling and intensity sampling.

Maximum variation sampling looks to identify themes that cut across a great deal of variation (Patton, 2002). This strategy will yield rich descriptions of the uniqueness of each case but also identify themes common among all cases (Patton, 2002).

Communication directors from agricultural sectors that represented the diversity of agriculture in Texas were chosen for this study. Organizational diversity also played a role in determining the sample for this study because each organization differed greatly in the size of its staff, particularly its communication staff, and membership models. The organizations chosen were similar in their involvement in the Texas Agriculture Council. Intensity sampling seeks out “participants who exhibit different levels of the phenomenon of interest to the researcher” (Ary et al., 2014, p.

458). Intensity sampling requires exploratory work and considerable judgement on behalf of the researcher (Patton, 2002). I familiarized myself with the COVID-19 communication present on the websites and social media accounts of a variety of agricultural organizations before selecting the sample.

Participants

The following description of participants gives a brief overview of their background, the organization where they work, and their positions (see Table 3.1).

Each participant was given a pseudonym and a generic organization name to protect their confidentiality.

53 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Table 3.1

Characteristics of Participants and their Organizations

Participants Years of Experience Number of Employees

With Employer In Communications Organizational Staff Communications Staff

Livestock Organizations

Anita 6-10 11-15 16-20 2-5

Elaine 1-5 1-5 1-5 1

Louise 1-5 16 or more 16-20 2-5

Crop Organizations

Brenna 6-10 11-15 6-10 1

Isabell 6-10 6-10 26 or more 2-5

Kristina 6-10 16 or more 6-10 1

Advocacy Organization

Samuel 16 or more 16 or more 26 or more 16-20 Note. The participants included in this study were selected because of their varied years of experience in the communications field and the differing size of their organizations and communications staff. Names shown are pseudonyms.

54 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Anita

Anita is the communications director for a livestock organization that primarily serves livestock producers at the start of the supply chain. Her organization employs

16-20 people as part of their organizational staff and two to five people as part of their communication staff. Anita has worked in the field of communications for 11-15 years. Anita was included as part of the sample because of the prominence of her organization in the livestock industry and because she works for a mid-sized organization with a smaller, established communication staff. Therefore, Anita provided an information rich case for study.

Brenna

Brenna is communication director for a crop organization that serves both a checkoff and association function. Her organization employs 6-10 people as staff and she is the only person employed as part of the communications staff. She has been with the organization for more than six years. Brenna has worked in the field of communications for 11-15 years. Brenna was included in this study because she works for a statewide crop organization and is the sole communications staff person for both the checkoff and association function. Therefore, Brenna provided an information rich case for this study.

Elaine

Elaine is the communications director for a livestock organization that serves species-specific livestock producers all along the supply chain. Elaine’s organization has the smallest staff of any organization in this study and she is solely responsible for all the communication functions of her organization. Elaine has worked in the field of

55 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 communications for 1-5 years. Elaine was included in this study because her organization represents livestock producers from a different sector of Texas livestock production than the other two livestock organizations included, and she works for a smaller livestock association uniquely impacted by COVID-19. Therefore, Elaine provided an information rich case for this study.

Isabell

Isabell is communications director for a crop marketing cooperative. Her organization employs more than 26 people as staff. Isabell works with one other person on her communications staff and has worked with her current employer for more than six years. She has worked in the field of communications for 6-10 years.

Isabell was included in this study because of the size of her organization and its communication staff. As a marketing cooperative, her organization represents a differing viewpoint than the other two crop organizations. Therefore, Isabell provided an information rich case for this study.

Kristina

Kristina works part-time as the communication director for a regional crop organization whose members are primarily agricultural producers. Her organization employs 6-10 people as staff. She has worked with her current employer for more than six years and is solely responsible for the communication function of her organization.

Kristina has worked in the field of communications for more than 16 years. Kristina was included in this study because her organization is regional and represents a crop commodity uniquely impacted by COVID-19. Therefore, Kristina provided an information rich case to study.

56 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Louise

Louise has worked in the field of communications for more than 16 years. She is currently communications director for a livestock organization that serves livestock producers in an intermediate stage of the supply chain. Her organization employs 16-

20 people as part of their organizational staff and 2-5 people are part of her communications staff. Louise was included in this study because she works for a mid- size organization with a well-established communications staff. Her organization also represents members who are a part of the supply chain not otherwise represented by the other organizations selected. Therefore, Louise provided an information rich case for study.

Samuel

Samuel is the communications director for an agricultural advocacy organization. Samuel has worked for his current employer for more than 16 years. His organization employs more than 26 people as staff and 16-20 people as communication staff, making his communication department the largest of any organization included in this study. Samuel was included in this study because of the broad sectors of agriculture his organization represents and the robustness of his communication department. Therefore, Samuel was an information rich case to include in this study.

Instrumentation

In qualitative research, the human researcher conducting the study is typically regarded as the instrument (Ary et al., 2014; Patton, 2002). Case studies typically gather a variety of types of data and it is not uncommon to collect quantitative data as

57 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 part of a qualitative case study (Patton, 2002; Yin, 2018). This study utilized a semi- structured, also called a partially structured, interview to collect data.

Interviews

Interviews are one of the most widely used methods in qualitative data and can be used to collect data related to the opinions, beliefs, and feelings of people in their own words (Ary et al., 2014). Interviews provide an understanding of the experiences of individuals and the meanings they make of them (Ary et al., 2014). There are some advantages and disadvantages to using interviews to collect data. Advantages of using an interview to collect data include being able to collect large amounts of in-depth information in a short amount of time and the ability to check researcher’s understanding of the data immediately (Ary et al., 2014). Interviews are also advantageous because they allow researchers to gather data such as the perspectives of the interviewee, meaning of events for people closely involved, or information about unanticipated events or issues (Ary et al., 2014).

One disadvantage of interviews is the unwillingness of participants to freely share information or sharing inaccurate or untruthful information (Ary et al., 2014).

Interviews can take a great deal of time to conduct and transcribe, which is another disadvantage. Another possible disadvantage is that the quality of data collected from an interview is largely dependent on the person conducting it (Patton, 2002).

Interviewers need skill and practice to conduct successful research interviews (Ary et al., 2014). In structured and semi-structured interviews, an interview guide can be used to ensure the same basic lines of inquiry are followed for each interview (Patton,

2002). An interview guide can help make interviews more systematic and

58 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 comprehensive (Patton, 2002). A structured, or standardized open-ended interview, uses the interview guide to carefully word each question exactly as it will be asked before the interview is conducted. A semi-structured interview may use the interview guide to outline the subject areas being studied but allows the researcher freedom in how questions are asked and probes used to elicit further information (Patton, 2002).

A semi-structured interview method was used for this study. The interview was guided by an interview guide, including probes (Appendix A). The interview guide consisted of experience and behavior questions, knowledge questions, and opinion and values questions asked in the past and future tense. The same interview guide was used for each interview. The interview guide was based on previous guides used in qualitative, crisis communication studies in agriculture (Fry et al., 2012; Irlbeck et al.,

2009; Palmer et al., 2010).

Data Collection

Texas Tech University requires approval from the Institutional Review Board for any research that is considered human subject research. This ensures the rights of research participants are respected and protected throughout the research process. The

TTU IRB granted approval for this study under the title “A Case Study of How Texas

Agricultural Organizations Handled COVID-19 Communication” on July 30, 2020

(see Appendix B).

After obtaining IRB approval, eight communication directors were contacted through email to ask if they would be willing to participate in the study. Seven participants were willing to participate, and they were asked to sign and return the informed consent form to me. The informed consent form asked participants if they

59 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 were comfortable with their name and organization’s name being shared in the reported results. Some participants did not want their name or their organization’s name shared in the results so those identifying markers were removed from all findings and all participants were given a pseudonym.

After obtaining consent, an individual video interview with each participant was scheduled over Zoom for the weeks of August 17 and September 21, 2020. The lead researcher scheduled and conducted each interview. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TTU required researchers not meet with participants for in-person interviews. Each interview lasted approximately one hour. The interviews were conducted from the researcher’s home in Lubbock, Texas. Some participants completed the interview from their home office and others completed their interview from their office in their organization’s building. The same interview guide was used with each participant to guide the discussion and provide some consistency (Patton,

2002). The researcher took physical notes during each interview and wrote a reflection after each interview concluded. The interviews were audio and video recorded using

Zoom’s recording feature. After the interview concluded, the audio portion of the recording was uploaded to a transcription service, Otter, to produce a written transcript for easier analysis of the data.

Rigor

All research, whether quantitative or qualitative, is subject to critiques of rigor.

Internal validity, external validity, reliability, and objectivity are all terms used to describe the criteria of rigor in quantitative research. In qualitative research, these criteria are often referred to as credibility, transferability, dependability or

60 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 trustworthiness, and confirmability (Ary et al., 2014). There are some key differences in how these criteria are applied to qualitative research due to the type of data collected and philosophical basis of qualitative research (Ary et al., 2014).

Research Subjectivity

The values and beliefs of researchers and participants allows for qualitative researchers to better grasp human experiences (Ary et al., 2014). As a result, qualitative researchers do not try to eliminate bias but rather openly recognize and identify biases that may influence the research (Ay et al., 2014). A large portion of my background includes being involved in production agriculture, specifically cow-calf production. I have also accepted a job with an agricultural advocacy group in New

Mexico after graduation. I have no specific experience or background in crop production, and I am biased toward organizations I am more familiar with and that more closely align to my background and experiences. I am very passionate about the value of traditional, production agriculture, and find I sympathize with farmers and ranchers. My communications background is largely dominated by work I have done for agricultural creative agencies. Therefore, I have a bias toward an agency organizational and communication model rather than an in-house model.

Credibility

Credibility deals with the truthfulness of the researcher’s findings (Ary et al.,

2014). For qualitative research, this includes representing the participants’ realities as accurately as possible. Methods to ensure credibility in qualitative research can include providing evidence of structural corroboration, consensus, referential or interpretive adequacy, theoretical adequacy, and control of bias. Triangulation among

61 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 data, investigators, and theory are common strategies for providing this evidence (Ary et al., 2014).

Source triangulation was used to ensure credibility in the findings. Multiple participants from differing sectors of the agricultural industry were sought out for this study and their viewpoints were compared to gain a more holistic view of the topic of study. To help further credibility even more, a draft of the data analysis was sent to the research participants to review and provide feedback. This could be viewed as another form of analysis triangulation (Patton, 2002). Member checking can help to clear up miscommunication, identify inaccuracies, and obtain additional useful information while showing courtesy to research participants (Ary et al., 2014).

Actions taken as part of the master’s thesis process also helped to ensure the credibility of this study. Patton (2002) stated that expert audit review by a disinterested expert can help to assess the quality of data collection and analysis. A graduate student’s committee can fill this role (Patton, 2002). This study, including methods, analysis, and conclusions, were extensively reviewed by the researcher’s thesis committee composed of three agricultural communications professors at Texas

Tech University.

Bias is a source of invalidity in qualitative research (Ary et al., 2014).

Researcher bias can be controlled through reflexivity, which is the “use of self- reflection to recognize one’s own biases and actively seek them out” (Ary et al., 2014, p. 534). Reflexivity includes writing down and talking about one’s own thoughts, experiences, emotions, and biases. This action reduces the likelihood one will impose their own perspectives in the reported data (Ary et al., 2014). I practiced reflexivity by

62 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 writing a reflection of thoughts and feelings after each interview and by regularly discussing thoughts and emotions about the data. Analytic memos were kept throughout the process of data analysis to capture my thoughts and help me better understand the codes and their meanings.

Transferability

Transferability is analogous to external validity and is the degree to which findings can be extended or generalized to other contexts or groups (Ary et al., 2014).

Although generalizability is not a common goal of qualitative research, it is the responsibility of the researcher to provide enough information in thick, rich descriptions to allow the reader the ability to compare the context of the study with their own (Ary et al., 2014). I strove to provide accurate, detailed, complete descriptions of the study context when reporting the findings to allow readers to appropriately determine the transferability for themselves. Transferability of the results was also enhanced by studying multiple cases and drawing cross-case comparisons. Similar findings across multiple cases increases the possibility of transferability.

A threat to transferability, especially in studies where interviews are used to collect data, is reactivity or the effect of the research itself (Ary et al., 2014). This threat was minimized by detailing my own biases above and providing detailed descriptions of the data collection methods, including the interview guide used to collect data (see Appendix A).

63 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Dependability

Qualitative researchers expect variability in replication to be a part of their data because it is heavily context dependent (Ary et al., 2014). Therefore, qualitative researchers rely on dependability, rather than reliability, which tracks and explains variability to provide consistency (Ary et al., 2014). Dependability of a qualitative study can be provided through documentation, replication logic, interrater agreement, and triangulation (Ary et al., 2014). Notes were kept of the decisions made throughout this study, including the reasons why those decisions were made as reflected in this chapter, to produce an audit trail. An audit trail provides a third-party auditor with the ability to determine whether the findings of the study logically grounded in the collected data (Ary et al., 2014). This is seen as an appropriate measure for case studies (Yin, 2018).

Confirmability

Confirmability is the extent to which a researcher believes another researcher would confirm their data and conclusions if they were to study the same phenomena

(Ary et al., 2014). Much like the other criteria discussed previously, confirmability can be enhanced through an audit trail, peer review, triangulation, and reflexivity (Ary et al., 2014). These strategies were utilized as detailed in the credibility, transferability, and dependability sections above.

Data Analysis

In principle, data analysis is the reconstructing of data that is the construction of participants’ realities (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Analysis of qualitative data can be either inductive or deductive, though qualitative researchers typically err toward

64 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 inductive, at least at the beginning of the analysis (Patton, 2002). Inductive analysis is a ground up approach, looking to the data to surface emergent patterns and themes rather than analyzing the data for the presence of predetermined patterns and themes

(Patton, 2002). Inductive analysis methods were employed in this study.

After transcribing the interviews, all identifying information was removed to protect the confidentiality of the participants. After identifying information was removed from the transcripts and the qualitative interview data was organized, the data were coded using NVivo 12. A code is defined by Saldana (2016) as a “word or short phrase that symbolically assigns summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data” (p. 4). Coding is not meant to be precise and is viewed as an interpretive act. The data were first reviewed in its entirety and then I applied descriptive, in vivo, process, and emotion coding as first cycle coding methods (Saldana, 2016). Emotion codes label the emotions experienced or recalled by a participant or inferred by the researcher and is an appropriate method for qualitative studies that wish to explore intrapersonal and interpersonal participant experiences and actions (Saldana, 2016). In vivo coding, as defined by Saldana (2016), is deriving codes from the language of the participants themselves. Descriptive coding summarizes the topic of a passage in a short word or phrase (Saldana, 2016). In vivo and descriptive coding are an acceptable strategy to use for almost any qualitative study (Saldana, 2016). Process coding is described as the use of gerunds to describe action in the data and is particularly useful for studies that looks for routines and rituals in human life (Saldana, 2016). Glaser and Strauss

(1967) and Saldana (2016) suggest the use of memo writing to keep track of the

65 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 researcher’s thoughts during the analysis process. Detailed memos were kept throughout the data process.

Once the first cycle coding was complete, code mapping was used to conceptualize the codes before turning to second cycle coding. After condensing the codes into initial categories, the researcher moved into second cycle coding and the second stage of analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Saldana,

2016). This second stage is characterized by the reorganizing and reanalyzing of first cycle codes to condense them toward categories and finally themes (Glaser & Strauss,

1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Saldana, 2016). Pattern coding was used for the second cycle coding method, which allowed the researcher to group similar codes into categories and finally themes (Saldana, 2016). Saldana (2016) stated pattern coding could be used for a variety of purposes but for this study the researcher used it to develop major themes and to lay the groundwork for cross-case analysis. After second cycle coding, the codebook was complete and the researcher was able to present the study findings according to the research objectives.

66 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS

Overview

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of communication directors for Texas livestock, commodity, and agricultural advocacy organizations during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, spanning the months of February to

May 2020, and describe the communication directors’ perceived effectiveness of their communication efforts during that time. Using the data analysis strategies outlined in the previous chapter, themes for each research objective were identified and reported in this chapter (see Table 4.1).

Table 4.1

Summary of Themes for Research Objectives

Research Objectives Themes

RO1: Actions and Processes Communicating with different audiences

Role stress

Telling the story of agriculture’s producers

RO2: Crisis Communication The basics of crisis communication

Inter-organizational collaboration

RO3: Perceived Effectiveness The best we could do

RO4: Lessons Learned Expanded opportunities

Pre-crisis preparation Note. Themes were identified using inductive coding methods applied to the data collected through semi-structured interviews with seven communication directors for Texas livestock, commodity, and agricultural advocacy organizations.

67 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Findings in Relation to Objective 1

Research objective one sought to understand the processes and actions enacted by the organizations’ communication directors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three major themes were identified for objective one: communicating with different audiences, role stress, and telling the story of agricultural producers.

Communicating with Different Audiences

The communication directors often started talking about their communication efforts by defining the key audiences they wished to reach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Communication content and delivery was driven by the audiences they chose to target. Many of the processes put in place and actions taken by the communication directors were directly related to how they perceived a specific audience would receive their message. Some processes and actions were necessary, while others were voluntarily enacted by the communication directors as they tried to navigate February through May 2020.

Members

Throughout the interviews, the participants often referred to the multiple audiences they felt they needed to communicate with and to. These audiences included organizational members, the media, consumers, and employees. Members were the primary audience communication directors communicated with before February, and members continued to drive the communication efforts of participants during the

COVID-19 pandemic. Louise stated her biggest goal in the beginning was to “figure out what’s happening and communicate that to our members.” Brenna identified two

68 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 primary audiences she wanted to communicate externally with, one of which being members:

We have two primary audiences, I would say, when it comes to COVID-19.

We have our producer audience where we need to be making sure that we're

giving them the resources and the tools that they need to be able to still grow

(crop) profitably in our state.

Participants talked about using a variety of channels to communicate with their members. Email, social media, organizational websites, newsletters, magazines, podcasts, and webinars were all previously established channels the communication directors used to communicate with members. Elaine stated educational materials made up a large portion of her member communication. Elaine, Brenna, and Louise all said they communicated to their members about federal economic recovery programs, such as PPP and CFAP. Elaine and Kristina mentioned they included preventative measures from the CDC in their communication.

Media

Another primary audience that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic was the media. Although some participants talked about actions they took to reach out to the media during COVID-19, for example sending out press releases or talking points, they more often found that reporters initiated communication by reaching out to them first. Samuel, Louise, and Anita talked extensively about dealing with inquiries from the media. Louise stated, “We had every media outlet, I think, in the country calling us. I can't remember a time when people were so interested in the entire supply chain.”

Samuel also received a lot of media inquiries and said:

69 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

And what we didn't know was really what most of the outside world was

asking us. We began to experience a heavy influx of media inquiries. Outside

entities asking for reaction for impact figures, or personal accounts of hardship

of uncertainty on the farm and ranch.

Anita said she spent a majority of her time after March working with reporters from national and international networks such as Fox News, MSNBC, and

Telemundo. Samuel also said he received media requests from media outlets with large audiences in urban areas such as San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Austin, and El

Paso. Louise helped prepare her organization’s president to appear on the Today

Show. Anita pointed out that the pieces that appeared on large national stations also got picked up on syndicated stations and gave her organization’s communication

“tremendous reach.”

Consumers

Indirectly, the communication directors who worked closely with the media targeted consumers as one of their audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brenna more directly recognized consumers as a primary audience and took certain actions to directly communicate with them:

We also saw, because we were starting to see grocery shelves quickly deplete in the month of March, there was a lot of opportunities where we were kind of like, “Hey, this is it. This is a chance for us to help make what the farmer does more relevant for the consumer too.” So, we were sort of looking at what our communication initiatives could be from that perspective as well.

Brenna said she launched a “very strong” campaign to connect the importance of domestically grown food to the supply chain disruptions consumers were seeing during February through May 2020. She also worked with the education function of

70 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 her organization to transition teacher workshops her organization had developed to a virtual format and created an educational webpage with curriculum related to crop production. Brenna saw this as an opportunity to reach children and their parents right in their own homes:

Some of the value for us, and why it's something our board is really investing in, is because we know that there's an opportunity for us to really be engaging and getting our messaging in with children while they're still young and impressionable. But, you know, not only that, but those children take that message back to their parents, and that's to be able to have that second touch there as well. So, it gave us another unique opportunity, where instead of the kids taking it from the classroom back to their parents, the parents had that opportunity right there in their home classroom to be able to do that.

Louise also pointed out some communication efforts she and her communication team took to communicate directly with consumers. Although something she would normally let more consumer-facing organizations handle, Louise and her team “met some people where they were” and developed recipes based on livestock cuts readily available to consumers to open up dialogue about the supply chain.

Employees

The final audience most clearly identified by the participants was employees.

Isabell, whose organization employs more than 100 people, spoke of her internal communication responsibilities during COVID-19. Isabell said her team changed their employee newsletter from being quarterly to being sent out every other month. She also worked with her team to produce a weekly update video featuring the organization’s CEO so employees could stay informed.

Many of the organizations included in this study operate with a board of directors in some capacity so internal communication with those groups was 71 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 mentioned as well. Board meetings had to be transitioned online and it often fell to the communication directors to facilitate that process. Brenna and Elaine both spoke of how they helped to walk board members through video conferences and troubleshoot technology problems. Isabell specifically mentioned that her organization’s IT department was integral in being able to transition their meetings online. Brenna stated that although their producer members were adept to using technology out on the farm, adapting to communication technology like Zoom was a challenge. Brenna said helping her producer members walk through technology issues was a little detail “but those little details took up a lot of time and troubleshooting from a communication standpoint.”

Elaine mentioned virtual meetings were harder to facilitate and seemed less effective than face-to-face formats:

It’s definitely harder to have your meetings over a conference call or Zoom. It

didn't seem as effective. Just because it's so much easier to be there with the

people and, just simply talking to someone face-to-face you can see how they

react to different things.

From an interpersonal communication standpoint, all of the participants either had to work from home at some point or were already working from home. Many of them recognized this as a challenge, either for themselves or coworkers, and took extra steps to ensure smooth communication with their coworkers. Samuel, Anita, Louise, and Isabell mentioned they used a chat feature to communicate with coworkers while working from home. Email, calls, texts, and video meetings were other channels the participants referenced.

72 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Samuel said he became a “facilitator” of information, ensuring the information he received from “upstream” made its way to the rest of the communication department. As one of the few people in his organization who continued to work from the office, Samuel took efforts to ensure information being passed along about

COVID-19 did not stop with him:

My fear was, because I was isolated from the group, was that the information I

was getting was going to be isolated too. So, the bottom line, over

communicate. Over communicate. Don’t assume, don’t think, “Well, they've

probably seen this or they're already aware.” I sent it anyway.

Role Stress

Many of the communication directors talked about how quickly their environments changed during February to May 2020 because of COVID-19. Many of them talked about the sheer amount of information they had to sort through just to figure out what they needed to know themselves to communicate factual, timely information to their audiences. Anita summarized it best for all of the communication directors when she said:

So, goals for me, I think a lot of it was survive. I mean, obviously, I wanted to

do the very best I could do. I regularly pray that I’m serving our members well,

I’m serving our staff well, and I’m serving my boss well. I think that was just

kind of taken to a new level during that time.

The communication directors recognized some limitations that affected their actions and processes during COVID-19. One was a lack of available staff. Anita

73 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 pointed out that although she had many ideas for ways her organization could have communicated during COVID-19, she needed staff to carry out those actions:

I can write down a list of 10 stories I want to get out or 10 things that I want on

social media or whatever. But there's only so many hours in the day and so

often we have a lot of our communications team is actually dedicated totally to

our monthly magazine. So, they don't really have time.

Isabell said her organization planned to hire an intern to help with communication, but COVID-19 prevented that and left her with only one other person to help her. Brenna said she realized she could have accomplished more with her communication but recognized the role the “limitations we had as a small office” played in what she was able to do.

Another limitation mentioned by some participants were the challenges associated with working from home. Anita, who had worked from home for the past

10 years, said it was an environment she was used to, but she struggled balancing needs at home and work. Anita said she often had to help her daughter with school before working into the night:

A lot of times it was work on school, get dinner, go back to work for a couple

hours at night to finish things up, go to bed, get up early again, start over. It

was exhausting. It was a draining time. So, I think a lot of times it was just

kind of get through this and then it'll get more normal.

Brenna said she had taken spring break off to be with her children but ended up working “talking to everybody about our COVID-19 policies and what that was going to look like and how that could impact our farmers.” Brenna also mentioned the rural

74 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 broadband she was working with was “dial up at best” and she often had to work off of her cell phone hotspot.

Samuel recognized the burden his team faced working from home and communicating during COVID-19:

I suspect some people were not thrilled, and that [there were] some late hours, some disruption at home I can imagine. I can't do that. I've got to work on this right now. It may be seven o'clock after dinner and somebody is on a computer working on their (advocacy organization) communications work. I'm sure that wasn't terrific for household harmony. But people got to do it.

Samuel, Anita, and Isabell all mentioned they had been in their current positions less than a year. Defining their role and showing others they could master that role was important. Isabell said she wanted to hit the ground running and have a fresh start in her new role, but she struggled to make those changes because “change is hard in these times.” Samuel pointed out he felt it was important he prove to his administrators that he was not “fighting for turf” and he “coalesced with the larger team.” Louise mentioned she worked with others in her organization to further define her role in the organization from February to May 2020:

So, we all just kind of had our task. I am not going to say that we didn’t

necessarily take the lead on that, because it was really, it just kind of evolved.

But it was definitely our job to keep that ball rolling.

Telling the Story of Agriculture’s Producers

All of the participants said COVID-19, especially the circumstances during the months of February to May 2020, helped to open the door of communication between agricultural producers and consumers. Food shortages, panic buying, and supply chain disruptions were all things participants said caused media outlets, and ultimately

75 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 consumers, to take a second look at who produced their food and how they got it.

Participants realized the tremendous opportunity before them to bridge the disconnect between agricultural producers and consumers and took on the role of facilitating those conversations for the greater good of their members and agriculture.

Communication directors said they had the power to shape the story of how

COVID-19 impacted American agriculture. Louise, Anita, and Samuel used the word

“resiliency” to describe the angle from which they chose to tell the story of American agriculture. Samuel said he saw the story he was telling clearly shift from the personal hardships of agricultural producers to a story of how these producers were still working to overcome and meet the consumers’ needs. Louise said she looked for spokespeople within her membership that could speak “eloquently, empathetically, and honestly about what they’re experiencing and how we’re resilient and we will get through this.” Anita said she wished the media were approaching her organization for different reasons, but she loved being able to tell the story of livestock producers:

While we didn't like any of the reasons they [the media] were coming to us, it

was great because people did learn more about where their food is coming

from. They felt a little bit more of a connection to the rancher, and we were

able to come and tell that story of resiliency.

Anita, like Louise, said she really wanted to focus on how this was not the first time agricultural producers had to work through a challenge and noted that although this is a consistent story her organization shares, she had a clearer invitation to share it because of COVID-19. Samuel also saw an opportunity to share the broader story of

76 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 agricultural production with journalists come out of the focused opportunities they were seeking because of COVID-19:

The area of expertise belonged to the source, not to the reporter. The questions sometimes were very open ended, were very foundational. It allowed our farm and ranch spokespeople to somewhat weave the larger story because they were given time and they were given opportunity sometimes in other issues you don't have. So, we were able to, in a rush of information, we were able to take our time to get the message right. I think that's one of the great ironies of this issue in particular, is that no one knew much and they were relying on the sources to help them understand the complexity of what COVID-19 was.

Although COVID-19 did greatly impact multiple facets of Texas agriculture, many communication directors realized consumers were facing hardships as well. As such, the participants recognized they had to communicate carefully to avoid further crises. Louise said there may have been more opportunities to tell the story of

American agriculture, but worried how that would be perceived in the climate of

COVID-19:

COVID really thrust the supply chain and really, retail in American food security, into the spotlight. I do think we could have capitalized on that a little bit more to tell the good story of (livestock) production. There’s still opportunity to do that. It's hard to know, though, if that would have been appropriate considering what was happening.

Samuel and Anita likened this concern with “finding a balance” between sharing the hardships of American agriculture and being inconsiderate of the hardships people around the world were facing. Samuel said it was important to be cognizant of how consumers might receive the story they were sharing and wanted to avoid creating the perception of a larger crisis than was actually happening:

From a communication standpoint, we don't want to highlight the poor me, look what’s happened to us, because we've got an entire society that's impacted by COVID-19. Agriculture is a sector of a larger economy that was feeling those hardships. So we wanted to make sure that those personal stories of impact did not lend to diminish the impacts of other people that have lost their 77 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

jobs, other businesses that were closing, other areas of our larger economy that were experiencing just as much hardship whose story may not be told as much as what we were being offered to. So, it was a balance. It was an important way in which we wanted to tell our story, but not in any way bring more attention or give the public the impression that this hardship was more severe or more important than others that were experiencing similar things.

Findings in Relation to Objective 2

Research objective two sought to describe the crisis communication plan of the organizations and crisis communication actions the communication directors enacted during February to May 2020. Two themes were related to objective two: basics of crisis communication and inter-organizational collaboration.

The Basics of Crisis Communication

Although the communication directors undoubtedly admitted COVID-19 presented a crisis unlike any they had previously experienced or could have conceived, they still turned to the basics of crisis communication to help them navigate their crisis communication actions. Many of the communication directors with previous crisis communication experience compared those past crises to COVID-19. The communication directors said they did not rely heavily on their crisis communication plans but realized there were some things those plans helped them to think through and enact in COVID-19.

Every communication director said COVID-19 presented them with a crisis situation unlike anything they had ever experienced. Samuel, Anita, Brenna, and

Louise had previous crisis experiences including natural disasters, such as Hurricane

Ike, and misconduct crises, such as undercover videos of animal abuse. Despite the broad range of crises Samuel, Anita, Brenna, and Louise had faced, they all said

COVID-19 was unlike any other crisis in its breadth and depth. Louise recognized 78 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

COVID-19 as a crisis but saw it as “so different than those kind of, one off, unfortunate events” she had faced in the past. As such, Louise said it was hard to classify it as typical crisis communication:

This is not a crisis communication, like get in front of the press, you know, that

typical blueprint for when this happens. I mean, there was nothing, like we

threw that out the window because it wasn't going to work.

Samuel said the duration and level of hardship COVID-19 presented as a crisis made it hard to classify this within the crisis communication he had been a part of previously:

We've had limited crisis that lasted a weekend, a week, maybe two weeks at most. Never have we had this duration. Never in my professional experience. There may have been periods of times when we've had other crises within agriculture and hardship that may have be similar scale that I didn't experience, but in my 30 years of being associated with nonprofit advocacy organizations, this was the most expansive. This had more depth. This had more layers, and more uncertainty than I can recall in anything else that we dealt with. The unknown was some of the most important elements you had to try to address and that's difficult.

Anita echoed Samuel when she said, “I think any communicator would say there hasn't been a crisis exactly like this one.” Anita realized she implemented some of the same strategies during COVID-19 she had implemented in past crises, but pointed out COVID-19 was still very different:

I have done a decent amount of crisis communications but nothing that was exactly like this. Normally in a crisis situation you're thinking about something that happened, that your organization might have done wrong, or that maybe someone who's a member did wrong. Maybe you're dealing with something that's more widespread, but more concentrated than COVID, like a hurricane. I was around during Hurricane Ike, we did a lot of the same things as far as trying to help our members get the resources they need, but that's a small area that's affected by a hurricane. So, this was unlike any other crisis I've ever been involved in.

79 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Isabell stated she had never dealt with a crisis before, but did have some experience working through issues, such as a change in management, that required

“delicate communication.” Kristina stated she had dealt with small issues that had come up with her organization, but COVID-19 was her first experience with a large- scale crisis. Kristina and Isabell stated they felt “lucky” or “extremely fortunate” to have not had to deal with a major crisis.

Despite COVID-19 being a crisis unlike any other, many of the communication directors worked through a similar process when figuring out whether they should communicate and how to communicate. Kristina summarized this when she said:

We knew that we had a responsibility to our membership to make sure that they had good, factual, correct information. And you just, it really takes you back to the basics of what communications is about whenever you're dealing with a situation like this. You lose the fluff, you lose the, you know, it is news, news, news. And not that fluff is bad, I mean, fluff is great in some places. But whenever you're trying to communicate such critical information, realize that you just kind of have to focus on what is most important and it really helps you, as a communicator, to boil that down to the very basics.

Priorities became an important part of how Anita and Kristina started to work through their COVID-19 crisis communication. Events that fell during that timeframe moved to the top of their priority list. The annual meeting for Kristina’s organization was planned for the February to May timeframe, which left her to “unplan an event, which brought its own challenges.” Anita said before she could tackle broader communication on behalf of her organization, she first had to handle communication about the postponement of her organization’s annual convention:

We had to take care of the convention situation first. So that meant first contacting our board of directors, contacting our members, contacting anyone who had registered for the convention, contacting those who were sponsoring 80 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

or participating in the trade show at our convention since we have a pretty large trade show. Um, and kind of dealing with that, and that was a little bit I mean, that was basically crisis communications just related to having to not cancel but almost canceled, to postpone an event, especially of that magnitude.

One of the basics of crisis communication Louise worked through initially was

“defining the crisis” and what was going on.

Elaine stated there was so much information available that her first few steps were to “sift through it,” keeping her audience in mind, to pick out and communicate those pieces of information that were going to be most valuable to the people she was working with. Brenna said, “March was a lot of information gathering” so she could set up resources and provide members with the information they needed most. Samuel said this initial stage of information gathering resulted in the development of key talking points his organization’s spokespeople could use:

So, the question as communicators began, what can we say? What can we prepare in terms of message? What is accurate? What is speculative? We don't want to over play what could happen. Let's just talk about what is happening. So, from a communications strategy we identified our key spokespeople. We prefer when given an opportunity to use the farmers and ranchers that are leaders in our organization to be our spokespersons. So, we developed some one page talking points, we developed some bullet points of what we know.

Louise, like Samuel, also looked to start defining spokespeople who could deliver her organization’s message, particularly to the media, once she had defined what that message was. Anita said toward the end of the February to May timeframe she had to return to the step of defining who her spokespeople were because she had exhausted the people she had previously identified who could meet that need.

Crisis Communication Plan

All communication directors said their organization had a crisis communication plan, however, the formality, extensivity, and ownership of the plan 81 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 differed among each organization. Their use of the crisis communication plan during

COVID-19 also differed. Isabell stated her organization had a business crisis plan that was “above her paygrade.” She also stated she had a crisis communication plan although she did not know whether it was written down and thought of it more as a

“protocol that we know to follow.” Kristina also stated her organization has a crisis communication plan that was not extensive but was a very basic framework to work through. Elaine said her organization did have a crisis communication plan that came from the national affiliate organization she works with.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Brenna stated her organization’s crisis communication plan was very extensive and had been developed based on previous crisis scenarios her organization had been exposed to before she took her role. Anita said her organization had a “pretty loose plan.” When asked whether his organization had a crisis communication plan, Samuel stated, “Yes, not on the scale that COVID-19 presented, I think, but we actually have some crisis communication templates. We have a plan. We have a process of protocol. We have kind of expectations and role management.”

Louise was the only communication director who said her organization did not have an individual crisis communication plan. Instead, she relied on a crisis communication plan developed in conjunction with other organizations. Louise stated an issues team she was a part of got together once a year to revise their joint crisis communication plan and go through drills. Louise said that while COVID-19 “wasn’t your typical crisis,” she did work through the processes outlined in the crisis communication plan:

82 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Yes, we used our plan. It was just different. We evolved. And part of the

reason we were able to do that is because we've worked through it so many

times. We have worked through it a lot.

Anita adapted her crisis communication plan to fit the uniqueness COVID-19 presented as a crisis, which she evidenced when she said, “I think that we took kind of the basic shell of what we had planned out for hurricanes and droughts and that sort of thing, and then just magnified it. So, I think the theme is the same.”

Brenna said she had already started initiating the procedures of her organization’s crisis communication plan and simply did a “quick skim” to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. For Samuel, the CEO of his organization initiated the organization’s crisis management plan, which in turn enacted crisis communication procedures:

So when this hit, our CEO, our administrator, kind of gathered his management team, of which communications is one member of, and said, “Alright here's what we're doing, here's what we know, I need everyone to then, you know, start working on those products that they're responsible for, as part of this crisis management.”

Inter-organizational Collaboration

Regardless of the size of the organization or the industry sector they covered, the communication directors clearly stated they worked with other organizations to handle the crisis of COVID-19. A clear example of this is the issues team Anita and

Louise mentioned. Anita said she often meets with this team virtually to “talk about something that's going on, if a story is coming out, or with this crisis kind of bounce ideas off of each other.” Elaine also mentioned she participated in phone calls and

83 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Zoom meetings with allied industry groups and stakeholders from across Texas. She said these calls and meetings were sometimes multiple times a day or week.

Louise saw great value from a crisis communication standpoint in being a part of the issues team. Louise said, “We have a crisis team, and we work through these problems really well. And we all kind of work together as one. That's the best way to do it.” Louise also thought working with other organizations provided value by giving direction to each organization as they navigated crises on behalf of an industry sector:

If something were to happen today, we would know how to go forward, we would know what we need to do. We'd have a call. We'd all talk about the situation where you decide who's going to take the lead, whether or not or it's a statement and put that on social or do we just send that out to the mainstream press? You know, and what's the effect going to be? And how are we going to manage that? And we just kind of go through all that. I think that works for us.

Louise pointed out a lot of the media requests her organization received were from reporters who wanted to cover the entire supply chain. The issues team provided value in being able to field media requests not only from the perspective of ensuring each organization talked about areas most pertinent to the reporter’s angle, but also being able to work “behind the scenes” to facilitate the sources and experiences necessary for the reporter to get the story.

Kristina said she was not a part of any issues team that communicated directly with each other, but she often looked to other organizations within the state of Texas, both governmental and private, to ensure her communication efforts were “in lockstep” with others. Kristina stated she felt this was a mutual feeling and said, “I think we all probably kind of followed each other.” Louise also mentioned working with the USDA to determine her message.

84 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Almost all of the organizations had at least one national organization affiliation. Some communication directors said they worked with their national organization to help guide some of their crisis communication. Kristina said she often looked to her organization’s national affiliate to provide information they could pass on to their members:

We were not looking to be the expert by any means, but we were trying to pass along what information we had, and also to work with our national organizations to make sure that their information was being passed along as well. In a lot of cases, we didn't feel like it was necessary to recreate the wheel, so to speak. But we did want to make sure that that information was available to our members.

Elaine reflected a similar sentiment stating a lot of her communication efforts consisted of “stuff that was coming down from our national organizations. They would send stuff and then we would push it out to our membership.”

Samuel said he participated in a meeting with communication directors for other state associations and shared with them creative ways he managed to communicate with the media during COVID-19. Brenna said she “would not have gotten through this” if she had not had the support of other communication directors in the industry. She evidenced this when she stated:

Also not being afraid to reach out and let people know like, “Hey, I could use some assistance here.” I just need to chat this through with somebody and make sure that someone else who is also a communications director can give me some of their input and their insights, see what's worked for them, what hasn't. I mean, I would say that's a big piece of it is being able to collaborate with one another too.

85 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Findings in Relation to Objective 3

Research objective three sought to explore the communication directors’ perceptions of the effectiveness of their organization’s communication efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. One theme emerged: the best we could do.

The Best We Could Do

None of the communication directors thought they were ineffective in their communication efforts during February through May 2020, but almost all were not entirely certain they were as effective as they could have been. The general consensus among the participants was, as Louise said, “I think we did the best that we could have done based on everything we knew when we knew it.”

The primary way many of the participants perceived the effectiveness of their communication was based on how well they were serving their members. When asked how effective she thought her communication was from February to May 2020, Elaine responded:

Honestly, it's kind of tough to answer. I think that we all kind of dealt with it differently and we all dealt with things the way they were thrown to us. But I feel that we definitely still kept our main goal in mind, and that was to serve our membership and to combat the issues as they were thrown at us. I don't know if really anyone can say that they handled the situation perfectly, or 100% the way that they had planned just because it was different every single day. But I think for us, I'd say we handled it good.

Louise said she thought her organization did a really good job of communicating with their members and said her members told her that in a recent member survey. For Louise, this presented a realization that although communication directors think they need to do more than just send out an email, members often just value the effort to communicate:

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We tend to think, “Well, you know, you need to do more than an email.” Like, that's what it took every day and they appreciated that, and our information was good. It was concise and it's what they needed. There was no fluffy narrative. It was, here's what you need to know today. So yeah, I think we were successful in that respect.

Kristina had also received recent feedback from her members that led her to believe she had been effective. Kristina explained this when she said, “I think we did okay. I really do. We got some good feedback from people who truly appreciated the information that we had to share.” Samuel also stated he thought his organization’s communication efforts were successful and that his team did “meet the challenge.”

Anita also stated she felt she did a really good job as she felt her organization’s communication was “definitely helpful to our members during that time.”

Brenna was not as confident as other participants, stating she felt her organization “survived” and overall, she felt she did “average.” Brenna still thought her organization was able to serve her membership:

We did our part in serving the producers, and to me, at the end of the day, as a nonprofit that's here to be a support system for producers, that makes me feel good. Like we were there to answer the questions. We were there to provide that information. And ultimately, like, if we've achieved that piece of it, that's good. And if we were able to do a little bit more beyond that's even better. But we've served our core purpose and so I think that made it okay for me.

Whether the communication directors felt they did a pretty good job or average, all of them realized they had room for improvement. Isabell stated she felt there were missed opportunities in her COVID-19 communication and that those areas were “things we already needed to improve, if we're being honest. And it's just, this kind of brought it to light more.” Anita also said the things she thought she could have improved upon were things she was already aware of and that had been on her list.

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However, because she had been in her position less than a year, she stated she had not had much “normal time” to address those areas before February 2020.

A common opportunity for improvement the communication directors saw was communicating more content, more frequently. Elaine stated she always saw more opportunity for more communication, “I think that if we could have done things differently, it probably would have been sending more and posting more and everything just to get the word out there.”

Anita also said she thought, “if we could have had more original content and moved a little faster, that would have been even better.” Even though limited staff was a barrier to this opportunity, one solution Anita had for creating more original content was having more freelancers ready to help.

Brenna mentioned her perceived need to immediately communicate may have come at a cost to some of her messaging:

I think we were moving really quick on a lot of things. So, there were some opportunities where we maybe miss some opportunity for some taking hold of some messaging. I mean, in the long run, I think we ended up catching it. But you know, at the same time, like I said, I think a lot of it’s deciding when you're going to be, when you need to be relevant during a pandemic or not. I think that yes, there are definitely some opportunities there that we might have missed.

Findings in Relation to Objective 4

Research objective four sought to identify the lessons learned by the communications directors as a result of their involvement in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two themes were identified: 1) expanded opportunities and 2) pre-crisis preparation.

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Expanded Opportunities

The communication directors often saw expanded opportunities, in their roles, in their abilities, and in their collaboration with coworkers, come out of the period from February to May 2020. Louise stated she enjoyed expanding her knowledge of free markets and being able to communicate about that topic more effectively and confidently for her organization. Louise evidenced this process of continual learning when she said:

But during COVID I really got to dig deep into that and put some narratives to what was happening and that was really. I don't know if it was a goal in the beginning, but by the end it became a goal. That was really satisfying professionally to me to just learn something. I mean, it was literally like going to school, learning something new, and then learning it well enough to be able to talk about it and understand it and not just kind of fumble my way through it. Those opportunities come up more often than you think. It was the time when I could do that. And I asked a lot of questions and listened to a lot of webinars that we were hosting for our members and it really just helped me learn more about an issue that is important and will be important, and it's always been important, but it was kind of pushed to the forefront, and I had to learn about it fast. And so that was, I don't know, that was very satisfying.

Brenna also thought she was able to expand upon her abilities due to the challenges COVID-19 presented. Brenna stated she was excited for the unique opportunities she had to “make agriculture in our messaging more accessible from a computer screen, tablet, or phone.” Brenna explained further:

I love the challenge that it's presented to me as a communicator. I think a lot of communicators are like this in that we'd like to be able to not like sit down and do the exact same thing every single day. There's a lot of variety in it, and we already had so much variety, but it's pushed us to even look outside, even further outside of that box, and how we can be making an impact from that perspective.

Anita mentioned she saw opportunities to use her skills to adapt to the situation presented to her, specifically using videography, a skill she doesn’t use every day, to

89 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 capture B-roll for a reporter. Samuel also said he creatively expanded his communication toolbox by hosting a virtual media tour through Zoom. By being presented with conditions that were less than ideal, like reporters who could not travel but still needed to produce a story by a deadline, Samuel stated:

I'd love to do it again. And I'm trying to figure out can we do it again, but it's a technique that I think has value if you're ever thrust in this time of crisis, in which that's all you got, you got to connect to them somehow. Make it as strong on the front end, with camera with audio with backdrop with light screens. I mean, it was professionally produced, but it was still a Zoom interview.

Samuel also saw opportunities arise during COVID-19 that allowed him to position himself within his role as communications director. Samuel evidenced this opportunity to prove himself:

So long term, I hope at the end of this year, during my evaluation with my

administrator, he'll say, “You showed us something. You proved us that there

were things that you could do and do well. And we trust you. We feel like you

were there when we needed you.”

Anita also said all of the challenges presented to her and her organization from

February to May 2020 allowed her to more clearly show recent role adjustments were needed:

I had hired a managing editor for the magazine to start at that time, because I knew that I could no longer do the day to day of the magazine. I can work on strategy, and I can talk through those kinds of things, but I can't be the one who's proofing every story or who's following up with that freelancer who forgot to send in their story on time or whatever. This showed, absolutely, that was true. There had to be someone, because in my job I can't really be tied to deadlines because I don't know when I'm going to spend a whole day with a reporter. I've got to do that, and I've got to put their deadline first because they're going to get our story out to a lot more people. So, I think that taught us that, yes, the person in this role needs to keep some flexibility in their schedule. 90 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

Brenna stated COVID-19 presented an opportunity for her organization’s board of directors to re-evaluate where their organization’s spending would be most beneficial. She saw value in that opportunity for re-allotment:

I think any organization or group is going to get, like there's always those few things, “Oh, we've always funded X, Y, and Z. And we're always going to fund X, Y, and Z.” Then whenever you can kind of have something like this to shake everything up, and you can refocus on, “Okay, where are we making the most difference for what our key goals are?” I think there's most definitely value in that.

Anita and Samuel saw COVID-19 as an opportunity to position their communications function strategically within the organization. Anita said she needed flexibility because she was more of the “strategy person in comms.” Samuel said he hoped this provided an opportunity to show his communications department should be a part of organizational planning:

So, communications, oftentimes, is kind of the last box to check when a lot of organizations look at what comes first. “Oh, yeah, we better get that newsletter out. Oh, yeah, we better, I hadn't thought about that. We need some new photos. We need this, this, this.” I hope communications continues to be towards the top of that list. And I hope the administrator from this experience will say, “You know, communications can be part of a larger strategic initiative for our organization.” It's not a deliverable. It's actually part of the strategy process and allow them to be part of that planning, as well as execution. When communications can be part of planning, your end product is going to be so much better.

Louise also stated her strategic role as a communications director for her organization, and the communications department as a whole, is defined during a crisis:

They're going to come to you. Your CEO, your chairman, your president, is

going to look to you to say, “Okay, help guide us through this. How do we

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manage the public? How do we protect our reputation?” I mean, and that's, as a

communications director, that's your job.

A lot of the participants saw expanded opportunities to collaborate and build relationships with other departments within their organization from February to May

2020. Isabell stated she was more effective in her job because of the relationships and collaboration she built with other organizational departments:

I'm able to do my job better when I know more or everything that's going on in other departments. Because we're not the only one. We have a member communications team that they're like our field staff, so we need to know what they're hearing and things like that. I think you'll see those kinds of things that it's important that you communicate with them internally so you know what to do externally. Because somebody might be seeing an issue or have a frequently asked question or a topic that we need to discuss that we don't have a clue about.

Louise also stated that it was important for her to be “transparent and keep others in the loop” to ensure there wasn’t unintentional contradiction during a crisis.

She stated her organization often had a call in the afternoon to ensure everyone in her organization was on the same page. Anita collaborated closely with the director of policy communication in her organization to handle media requests and share that burden. Anita stated she could not have “done it” without the help of the director of policy communications and that they had reciprocated that thought about her. Samuel saw better “synergy” between his organization’s communication department and government affairs department explaining:

So, our relationship with government affairs specifically has never been better because both divisions at (advocacy organization) were looking at each other saying, “I need you.” We both know what is important to get to our members and to the public. We each have the individual resources and tools to do that. But it's got to be collaborative. It's got to be working collectively.

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Similarly, Kristina suggested other communication directors remember to

“lean on your friends and remember that you’re navigating these waters together.”

Pre-Crisis Preparation

Many of the communication directors had a hard time pinpointing lessons learned during the months of February to May 2020 because they were still dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at the time of the interviews. Louise stated when the pandemic was over, she thought there would be many lessons learned. She did not believe anyone had the foresight to prepare for a pandemic, and although her organization wasn’t prepared, “that won’t happen again because we have been through it now.”

Elaine stated it was important as a communications director to “do your work before something comes your way. It's very much you can't get in the moment and then decide how to deal with it.” She said an important part of this in her opinion is knowing what is important to the people you are working with:

For us, we have to know our membership, and we have to know what's useful for them, and we have to know their needs and their wants. And so, I think that knowing what are their values and what can be valuable to them is definitely very important. And that's definitely something that can be done before you even get into a situation like that.

Elaine did not specifically mention a crisis communication plan, but she said it was important to have a plan in place in the event of a crisis, “Know that you could wake up tomorrow and there could be something else that comes your way.” Louise shared in this sentiment, adding that organizational leaders come to communication directors during a crisis and they should be prepared for that. Louise stressed no one is immune to crises:

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First thing is you're going to go through it. So, it's going to happen and the more you know, the more planning and preparing yourself that you can do for these situations, whether that be make sure you have a crisis communications plan, make sure you blow the dust off the thing and think through it occasionally.

Samuel stated it’s important to understand where your organization is most authentic and credible. From there, Samuel said:

And then maximize that opportunity. And continue to speak with confidence because that's where you're expected and should be. It's easy to talk about a lot of other issues that are kind of swirling around you that are really not your issues that are really, maybe not exactly where you're supposed to be. So, from a communication standpoint, it's oftentimes to say fewer things better. Not try to say everything, but pick those things that are most important, most valuable, that represent the organization best, and say those more often. Communicate those messages more clearly, more effectively, and focus maybe on that finer set of messages.

Anita also encouraged other communication directors who might go through a similar crisis to be prepared by knowing their audience and thinking through all of the possible outcomes of an audience reacting to a crisis stating, “Really think about how your people are going to respond to whatever crisis it is and know that it may not be the same way others are responding to the crisis.” Although Anita said she thought preparation was important, she also cautioned against being inflexible when she said,

“Also be ready to stray from the plan if things get a little different because they can.”

There were physical, not just conceptual, ways the communication wished they had prepared beforehand. Anita said she wished she had more time and staff so she could have done “some more specific pandemic related training” with her spokespeople. Anita also mentioned having bios and headshots of her spokespeople, especially environmental headshots in natural settings, beforehand would have been beneficial as well.

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Samuel and Louise thought it was important to ensure people were aware of their responsibilities during a crisis. Samuel said it was important to have the right people selected and trained as spokespeople to ensure there were “as few voices as possible” communicating on behalf of the organization. Samuel said this takes some of the pressure off stating, “If you've done that, then everyone kind of relaxes and becomes more of a supportive role for those individuals that should be speaking for the organization.” Louise also said during a crisis it is important “people know what their roles are and are empowered to do them.” She said her team would not have been as effective if they had spent all of their time trying to figure out what others were doing.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS, DISCUSSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Overview

Agricultural organizations are bound to face a crisis at some point, and organizational leaders will often turn to their communications staff to help their organization effectively emerge through crisis communication. COVID-19 was an unprecedented crisis that uniquely devastated agriculture. This presented an opportunity to explore the experiences of communication directors for Texas agricultural organizations and document their actions for practitioners now and in the future to reference and understand. This chapter presents conclusions, discussion, and recommendations for practitioners, future research, and higher education based on the findings outlined in the previous chapter.

Conclusions

Excellent Agricultural Communication Directors

Excellence Theory, which partially guided the conceptual framework for this study, provides a general benchmark from which organizational communication functions can be evaluated (Grunig & Grunig, 2006). Few of the communication directors showed evidence of being involved in the strategic planning process of their organization before COVID-19 and Samuel was the only participant who explicitly stated his communication department should be involved in organizational strategic planning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grunig and Grunig (2006) stated involvement in organizational strategic management was the most statistically

96 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 important characteristic they identified for determining the excellence of a communication department in their Excellence study. Cancel et al. (1999) also supported the importance of communication directors’ involvement in organizational management through Contingency Theory of Accommodation.

Communication directors who likely were not involved in the management of their organization prior to COVID-19 were called upon by organizational leaders to help guide the organization through the crisis by fulfilling both technical and managerial needs. This may have also contributed to role ambiguity, which Dozier

(1992) defines as an inconsistency between the practitioner’s role expectations and the expectations of others within the organization about the practitioner’s role.

All of the communication directors said they felt overwhelmed during

February through May 2020 and found themselves working long hours with limited resources. Dozier (1992) suggested organizational communication practitioners can be susceptible to role stress, which results from role overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and role preparedness (Bunnell, 2006). Role preparedness is stress resulting from feeling one lacks the competency or preparation to fulfill a role and role overload is defined as a lack of adequate resources to perform what is expected in one’s role (Pettegrew & Wolfe, 1981). The communication directors often spoke of working long hours from February to May 2020 to fulfill the communication needs of their organizations during a crisis situation they also said they felt unprepared for.

Limited resources, such as a lack of communications staff and time, affected the ability of some communication directors to accomplish all they wished to.

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Agricultural Organizations’ Role in Telling Agriculture’s Story

Irlbeck et al. (2013) said agricultural organizations and companies have an important role to play in creating crisis communication materials on behalf of the agricultural industry. The study participants realized the opportunity COVID-19 presented them to tell the story of production agriculture to a broader audience, especially as they started receiving media inquiries from state, national, and international outlets. In one aspect, working with reporters allowed organizations to fulfill their role in communicating with consumers (Nolden, 2018). Focusing on sharing stories through the media, even when the communication directors realized their angle and the reporter’s angle may not have matched up perfectly, allowed organizations to fulfill a role as a mediator between agricultural producers and those who act in their economic, institutional, and political environment (Rondot & Collion,

2001). Although COVID-19 presented a great opportunity to bridge the gap between the agricultural producer and consumer, relationships with stakeholders should be built before a crisis to ensure the information an organization is sending out during a crisis is actually appropriate (Ulmer et al., 2007).

In another aspect, the communication directors were able to manage the crisis of COVID-19 by interacting with the media. The media can play an important role in distributing messages to a larger public during crises and interacting with media is an important part of crisis management (Howell & Miller, 2010; Irlbeck et al., 2013;

Palmer et al., 2013). However, the communication directors had to balance their desires to share the story of agriculture’s hardships with their need to mitigate any further crises. Effective communication is also important in a crisis because those

98 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 organizations who communicate poorly often make the situation worse (Lando, 2014;

Marra, 1998). Strong media contacts are an important part of a crisis management plan

(Palmer et al., 2013). The communication directors did not mention leveraging their own media contacts during COVID-19 nor did they mention media contacts being part of their crisis communication plan. COVID-19 provided a unique opportunity to build rapport with reporters looking to tell the story of agriculture and establish relationships with reporters for future crises.

Crisis Communication Preparation versus Implementation

As Louise stated, it is inevitable communication directors of agricultural organizations will be faced with a crisis. Samuel, Anita, Brenna, and Louise had all previously faced crises, ranging from hurricanes, food contamination, and undercover animal welfare videos. All of the communication directors realized COVID-19 was a unique crisis in its breadth and depth as evidenced by the broad range of effects the communication directors had to communicate about, particularly the empty shelves in grocery stores and closed packing plants. Regardless of their past crisis experience or preparation, they often took similar approaches to figuring out how they should communicate to stakeholders about COVID-19. According to the Contingency Theory of Accommodation, the characteristics of communication directors and their organizations in combination with the characteristics of the situation they enter determine strategies they use to communicate (Cancel et al., 1999).

Coombs (2012) said the development of a crisis management plan and the selection of a crisis management team are important precrisis steps to take. All of the communication directors stated they had a crisis communication plan, but only

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Brenna, Louise, and Anita said they referred to it to help guide them through COVID-

19. Even then, they stated they did not use the plan extensively or modified the plan because they felt it did not fit a crisis like COVID-19. Lando (2014) suggests organizations that have a crisis communication plan are better suited to handle a crisis, and Fearn-Banks (2017) recommends a crisis communication plan should serve as a guide that allows communication directors to be more effective in their crisis communications approach than if they had communicated with no plan at all. Palmer et al. (2013) recommended agricultural organizations ensure their crisis communication plan was flexible enough to accommodate any type of crisis communication directors may face. Brenna stated she saw more value in the process of creating a crisis communication plan than the actual resource itself during a crisis.

The communication directors spoke of varied use of a crisis communication plan, but they still used the basics of crisis communication to guide their organization through February through May 2020. Of the three macro-level stages of a crisis

Coombs (2012) identified, only the precrisis and crisis event stage are applicable to this study because the COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing at the time of the interviews. The crisis prevention portion of the precrisis stage states organizations should identify sources to scan for crisis signals, collect and analyze information, take preventative action, and evaluate the effectiveness of those actions (Coombs, 2012).

Although the first COVID-19 case was identified in America on January 11, 2020, the majority of the communication directors stated they spent much of the early part of the

February through May 2020 timeframe gathering and analyzing information. Along with gathering needed information, Louise, Samuel, and Anita started to identify who

100 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 their spokespeople would be and their talking points, which is a preparatory step included in a crisis communication plan (Fearn-Banks, 2017).

Each of the agricultural organizations studied differed in the agricultural sectors they represented, but they all shared a central purpose of representing production agriculture. Key publics and how to contact them should be included in a crisis communication plan (Fearn-Banks, 2017). The key publics the communication directors chose to communicate with included their members, consumers, the media, and employees. The organizations included in this study had an obligation to communicate with all of these audiences but many of the communication directors only identified a few of these audiences to target during February through May 2020

(Irlbeck et al., 2013; Ki & Hon, 2007; Nolden, 2018; Peterson & McNamee, 2016).

Inter-organizational and Intra-organizational Collaboration

Crises can present organizations with opportunities (Ulmer et al., 2007). One primary opportunity that arose for many of the communication directors during the period of February through May 2020 was the opportunity to collaborate within and outside of their organizational boundaries. Kraatz (1998) found strong inter- organizational ties help to mitigate impacts of uncertainty and promote adaptation by increasing information sharing. The communication directors mentioned a variety of ways they collaborated with other agricultural organizations across the state and country to deal with COVID-19.

Another important component of collaboration during COVID-19 was collaboration among departments within the same organization. Communication directors found these expanded opportunities to collaborate with other organizational

101 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 departments to be a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic. Berger and Meng (2014) found team collaboration to be a contributor to the effective management of a crisis.

Trust within an organization is a predictor for how trustworthy stakeholders will view organizational communication during a crisis (Longstaff & Yang, 2008).

Communication directors felt better prepared to do their jobs when they collaborated with other departments. As part of the dominant coalition, practitioners should be in constant contact with all parts of the organization

(Durutta, 2006). Many communication directors spoke of frequent communication between their communication department and other departments to ensure cohesiveness and accuracy in their external communication.

Discussion

Mediating Stress during a Crisis

Excellence Theory was one guiding part of the theoretical framework used for this study. A key aspect of Excellence Theory is the importance of strategy in the role and position of the communication director, which these findings corroborate (Grunig

& Grunig, 2006). Communication directors who are thrust into a strategic, leading role during a crisis when they otherwise would not be a part of that strategy process may try to fulfill more demanding expectations with only the resources provided to them during times when they take on a non-leading role. Fulfillment of Grunig and Grunig’s

(2006) call for communication directors to be involved in organizational strategic planning can ensure their roles and needs are met before facing a situation where they are limited and unprepared. Successful communication departments contribute to the success of an organization as a whole (Grunig & Grunig, 2006).

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As defined by Pettegrew and Wolfe (1981), the communication directors showed signs of role stress, primarily through the long hours they worked and the mention of limitations, such as a lack of staff, they expressed. This imbalance between demands of a situation and one’s ability to deal with these demands is a simple indicator of stress in general (Teffali et al., 2019). Although crises in general are stressful situations, COVID-19 introduced large amounts of stress into the world population, which the communication directors likely felt in their jobs and personal lives (Hager et al., 2020; Teffali et al., 2019). Organizations, especially those involved in agriculture, are apt to face crises and the emotional and physical toll a communication director experiences while dealing with these crises should be considered. Planning and pre-crisis preparation can help communication directors manage stress during a crisis so they can remain effective (Cavanaugh, 2006).

Agricultural communication directors may also look to include stress coping strategies into their crisis preparation and crisis event stages (Teffali et al., 2019; Wright-Reid,

2017).

Purposeful Crisis Resources

All of the crisis communication directors felt they were as effective as they could have been in their communication given the circumstances February through

May 2020, which contradicts previous research about how helpful a crisis communication plan is, especially if communication directors still did not use the plan even when available to them. However, this does confirm Palmer et al.’s (2013) finding that agricultural crisis communication plans need to flexible. Crisis communication plans should focus on ease of use and preparation for a crisis, which

103 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 means communication directors may need to focus more on the development of processes and protocols rather than a focus on creating a physical document itself.

There is value in creating a crisis communication plan as participants saw the process of creating one as useful in helping them to prepare and plan for a crisis.

The communication directors stated there were ways they could have improved their communication during February through May 2020 and identified preparation as important to dealing with crises. Crisis communication plans, an integral part of crisis preparation, should include key messages, the crisis communications team, a list of key publics and how to notify them, the process for identifying media spokespersons, equipment and supplies, and a list of key media and spokespersons for related organizations (Fearn-Banks, 2017). The crisis communication plans of the organizations included in this study likely did not have, or were not updated to include, needed components, such as spokespeople and talking points, which may have contributed to the communication directors’ preference to not use the plans and the lack a preparation they faced.

The communication directors also did not mention key publics as being a part of their crisis communication plans, which likely contributed to the variability among organizations about audiences they viewed as important. One of the primary functions of an agricultural organization is serving as a mediator between agricultural producers and their external world (Rondot & Collion, 2001). Agricultural organizations have a role in shaping the perceptions of consumers and policy makers who influence the lives of their producer members, but communicating with consumers, even indirectly through media, was not a common strategy among the communication directors.

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Communication directors need to plan accordingly to communicate effectively with each of the audiences identified in the findings of this study.

Relationships

Inter-organizational relationships are important for organizational management as a whole (Kraatz, 1998). This study found communication directors were extremely motivated to utilize inter-organizational relationships between agricultural organizations across the supply chain to help them cope with the impacts of COVID-

19. A majority of the communication directors mentioned working with other organizations from February to May 2020 but the depth of relationship between the organizations differed between communication directors. Coombs (2007) proposed strong relationships are an important component of crisis preparation in his Situational

Crisis Communication Theory [S-C-C-T]. Inter-organizational relationships with organizations across the supply chain are important for communication directors to build before a crisis as this can lead to reduced uncertainty by providing cohesiveness to the agricultural industry’s message and allowing for the organizations, especially smaller organizations with limited budgets, to pool their resources. Although communication directors may have been more motivated to work with other organizations because of the breadth and depth of COVID-19, these relationships also provide value in more common crises where one segment of the industry or one organization is solely impacted.

Intra-organizational collaboration contributes to the establishment of trust within an organization, which in turn allows a communication director to be more effective in their crisis communication (Berger & Meng, 2014; Longstaff & Yang,

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2008). Communication directors saw great value in being able to collaborate with other organizational departments during COVID-19. As communication directors are called to play a more strategic role in organizations and are expected to be in constant contact with all parts of an organization through that role, communication directors can build relationships with other organizational departments outside of a crisis so they are more prepared to leverage those relationships when faced with another crisis

(Durutta, 2006; Grunig & Grunig, 2006).

In order to communicate with organizational stakeholders during a crisis,

Palmer et al. (2013) stated relationships with media should be established as part of a crisis communication plan. The communication directors did not state they used previously established media relationships to communicate about COVID-19 but did state they saw opportunities to create those relationships due to COVID-19.

Communication directors should take advantage of the opportunity COVID-19 presented to connect and build relationships with reporters so they can utilize those contacts during crises when reporters are not as willing to look to agricultural organizations as a valuable, knowledgeable source.

Varying Years of Experience and Organizational Characteristics

Years of experience in the field of communications and organizational staff size varied among the participants included in this study. There were some noticeable differences and similarities in the responses of the participants related to their personal and organizational characteristics. Elaine, Brenna, and Kristina were the only communications staff employed by their organization and often mentioned they worked closely with their organizations’ national affiliates to determine their

106 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 communication strategies. Elaine and Brenna were also from the smaller organizations included in this study and mentioned they were responsible for troubleshooting technology and ensuring the organization was technologically prepared to operate in a virtual environment. Communication directors from organizations with a larger staff mentioned they had an IT department who handled those responsibilities or did not mention technology issues at all. All of the communication directors held similar job titles within their respective organizations, but expectations for their roles differed contributing to possible role ambiguity.

Samuel, Anita, and Louise had more experience in the field of communications and their responses often focused on the strategy behind their communication efforts during COVID-19. These communication directors also had larger communication staffs and mentioned more managerial duties in their position. Elaine, Brenna,

Kristina, and Isabell talked about the technical components of their roles and focused on the communication materials they produced. Communication directors will likely fulfill responsibilities of both managerial and technical roles in some capacity, but all communication directors should strive to partake in the planning and strategic decision making component of managerial roles (Brønn, 2001; Dozier, 1992; Durutta, 2006).

There were also noticeable differences in the media requests communication directors for small and large organizations received. Samuel, Anita, and Louise were employed by larger organizations and talked extensively about requests they received from reporters and efforts to communicate with external publics. Kristina, Brenna,

Elaine, and Isabell did not mention receiving media requests or working with reporters. Organizational structure may have also contributed to whether the

107 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 communication directors attempted to communicate with external publics through the media or not (Settle et al., 2017). Regardless, media plays an important role in how agricultural communication directors choose to communicate during a crisis (Howell

& Miller, 2010; Irlbeck et al., 2013; Palmer et al., 2013).

Recommendations

For Practitioners

Practitioners in agricultural organizations should advocate to be included in their organization’s senior leadership team and involved in the strategic planning process of their organization. As part of the strategic planning process, practitioners can define their role as a part of the crisis management team and ensure they are equipped with the resources, including staff, they need to fulfil their role during and outside of a crisis without experiencing role stress. As Excellence Theory states, the placement of an organization’s communication department as a strategic component of organizational decision-making and planning process can improve the organization’s performance so communication directors should advocate for their communication departments as well (Grunig & Grunig, 2006; Kim et al., 2013).

Practitioners should also look for opportunities to build relationships with the media, agricultural organizations across the supply chain, and those within their own organizations. Practitioners should look for opportunities to build relationships with the media, especially during times when the media turns to agriculture. Crises do not always provide organizations with the opportunity to tell their own story so practitioners should leverage previously established media contacts to better handle future crises. Practitioners should also look to build deep relationships with other

108 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 communication directors and agricultural organizations across the supply chain.

Relationships with members who can serve as spokespeople for the organization during a crisis is another important component practitioners should include in their crisis planning. Inter-organizational relationships can provide communication directors with direction, new ideas or tools, and a support system during crises.

Communication directors, especially those working for organizations who may not have the resources to deal with a crisis on their own, should look for opportunities to collaborate with other agriculture organizations. Practitioners should also look to build relationships with those within their own organization to facilitate information sharing, especially during a crisis.

Practitioners should continue to provide value to their members by communicating on their behalf to tell the story of agriculture. Although consumers and the media may not be as easily accessible, communication directors should look for ways to communicate with these audiences and build relationships with these stakeholders before a crisis strikes. Cultivating relationships with stakeholders can aid communication directors in determining what messages are important.

Communication directors should be cognizant of how a message will be received by different audiences, especially during a crisis, to avoid the creation of other crises.

We recommend communication directors be intentional in their crisis preparation. Crisis communication plans are still an important component of crisis planning so communication directors should continue to develop, update, and practice their crisis communication plans with their crisis management team. Crisis communication plans, along with any other crisis resources, should be accessible

109 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 during a crisis and easy-to-use. Communication directors should strive to compile usable, flexible resources that will provide value during a multitude of crises and will actually be used by crisis managers. More specific recommendations for practitioners include more comprehensive training with spokespeople and the compilation of a variety of up-to-date visuals, such as headshots and B-roll, for use during a crisis.

For Future Research

A limitation of this study was that the communication directors were still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic during data collection. Many communication directors found it hard to identify relevant lessons learned because they felt they were still learning how to deal with the crisis. Future studies should be conducted after the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic to determine the overall lessons the communication directors learned and whether their experiences at the end of the pandemic differed from their experiences February through May 2020. Also, a quantitative study should determine whether communication directors still perceived their communication to be effective and whether their perceived effectiveness matched their audiences’ perception of their effectiveness. Also, future research should determine whether the communication directors used their crisis communication plan at any point after May 2020 and whether they revised their crisis communication plan based on what they learned from COVID-19.

To improve upon the transferability of this study, qualitative studies should be conducted in other states and with national organizations to determine how those organizations and their communication directors experienced February through May

2020 and to determine their perceived communication effectiveness. Organizational

110 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 leadership played a role in what communication directors were able to do during

February through May 2020 and researchers should consider doing a qualitative study with organizational leaders to determine the expectations they had for their communication directors and how effective they perceived the communication directors to be. Future studies should also determine whether COVID-19 impacted staff in the agricultural organizations’ communication departments and how communication departments changed following the pandemic.

For Higher Education

Higher education has a role in preparing future practitioners in agricultural communications for future careers. Agricultural communications programs should include risk and crisis communications as part of their undergraduate and graduate curriculum. The participants in this study saw value in preparing for a crisis by putting together a crisis communication plan. Effective crisis communication plans and the execution of these plans should be included in crisis communication courses taught in college communication programs. Although crisis communication plans are an important step in preparing for a crisis, flexibility in crisis management was an important component of this study. Crisis communication courses should include literature-based instruction along with learning experiences that build skills that would allow future practitioners in the field to effectively communicate during crises.

Agricultural communications departments should continue to provide students with the skills they need to fill their changing roles in industry. As practitioners, students may be required to use skills they only seldomly use on a daily basis, like videography or website design. Students should also be taught the basics of public

111 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020 relations and journalism to prepare them for situations where they are approached by the media or need to communicate with the media to share their message.

Another recommendation for higher education is the development and support of leadership programs that allow students to build connections within the industry before they enter the workforce. Collaboration and relationships were important findings in this study and students should have opportunities to develop those relationships with peers and mentors early in their careers.

112 Texas Tech University, Katelin Spradley, December 2020

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APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW GUIDE

Due to the qualitative design of this study, all interview questions are subject to further discussion to draw out relevant information. The questions listed below are a starting point for discussion.

I am going to start out by asking questions about your experiences as a communication director during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 Experiences 1. Walk me through your organization’s response to COVID-19 from February to May 2020. What changes were made and why? What say did you have in these decisions? What stayed the same? a. What 2. How did you communicate during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic? a. How did you communicate with coworkers and your team? b. How did you communicate with members on behalf of your organization? 3. What were your goals during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic? a. What were your goals for your communication efforts? b. What were your goals for yourself or (if applicable) your team? c. Did you achieve these goals?

The following three questions I will ask will relate to the perceived effectiveness of your communication from February to May 2020. Communication Effectiveness 4. What experience did you have with risk and crisis communication before the COVID-19 pandemic started in America in February 2020? 5. Did your organization have a crisis communications plan in place before February 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic started to impact America? a. If so, what did it consist of? b. Was a crisis similar to the COVID-19 pandemic part of your crisis communication plan? c. Did you follow this plan? For how long? d. Have you ever utilized this plan to deal with a crisis before? If so, how was this time different? 6. Did you think that the communication efforts taken during the pandemic were effective? Why or why not. 7. How do you think your communication efforts influenced the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic? How do you think your communication efforts influenced your members during the COVID-19 pandemic?

My final questions are related to possible takeaways or lessons from your experience. Lessons Learned

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8. Overall, how do you think you did during the COVID-19 pandemic? a. What worked well? b. What do you wish you would have done better? c. What are some things you will keep? 9. What were some of the key lessons you took away from that experience? 10. What advice would you give to communication directors who might be in a similar position and go through a similar crisis? **Is there anything else you think would be pertinent to include in this study?

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APPENDIX B

IRB APPROVAL

ORIGINAL SIGNATURE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

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