Literature Review on Crisis Management in Five-Star Hotels in Antalya

2.1 Introduction
In this section of the study, the author will form a critical review of the existing literature. The
literature review is useful to assist in the comprehension of the theories used and the analysis of
the impact of crisis management on five-star hotels in Antalya. As Webster et al, (2002), a
defined literature review is a prior review; relevant literature is a core aspect of an academic
project. An adequate review can create a foundation and advance of knowledge. It contains
information, theory development and evidence written from particular perspectives and points to
fulfil certain aims and objectives of the study and how it will be investigated evaluated in relation
to the research that’s proposed (Webster et al. 2002). By using the literature review, it allows
the author to make reasonable judgements about the work and organise ideas and findings of
value into a review (Saunders et al. 2012). In addition, the literature review will develop in the
methodology chapter by implementing the research methods which are most appropriate for the
current study. Throughout the analysis of the literature review, it allows the author to understand
the theories, which will lead to the development of interview questions, questionnaires and
surveys. Last but not least, findings from the study will also be analysed and compared to the
existing literature to find out the differences in the research.
2.2 Tourism and a terrorist attack in Turkey:
For the Turkish economy, tourism is an important sector and is one of its fastest-growing
markets. The total number of foreign tourist visiting Turkey has been increasing every year
(Aissa and Goaied 2016). In the last decades, a series of terrorist attacks have been witnessed
by the tourism industry and those kind of attacks are most commonly motivated by religious,
political, social objectives, and the infamous publicity that they gain through such actions. In
situations like these, it is required for hotels to have strategies for crisis management in place
for dealing with incidents related to terrorist attacks. The crisis that arises from a situation of
high tension that is unpredictable and unexpected should be promptly responded to as it
threatens the aims, present values and assumptions of organisations by making adaptions and
understanding mechanisms to be incompatible. The crisis which the hospitality industry is
exposed to both comes internally and externally. Incidents of terrorist attacks are regarded as
situations of crisis that arise externally due to the actions of terrorists (Campos et al. 2015).
2.3 Situational crisis communication theory
Situational crisis communication theory by Timothy Coombs is relevant to understanding crisis
management. The main point of crisis communication theory is the idea of crisis responsibility.
How your stakeholders perceive your organisation as being responsible or not responsible for
the crisis (Holdworth, 2014). Attribution theory comes from crisis communication theory, which
states that, contrary events that inflict on stakeholders to make attribution regarding crisis
responsibility, its effect on how stakeholders interact with the organisation. Attribution theory
says that people often look to find causes and troubles, or make attributions for different events
that seem to be adverse or unexpected (Holdworth, 2014). This is relevant to the hospitality
industry where the indulgence level is high, 3 therefore the disappointment level is high when the
expected experience does not occur, and consumers want to find or attribute blame. This also
will help the author's interview process with the owner of Belconti Resort questions about how
the stakeholder's perceived value of safety and security is, within the organisation.

Coombs suggested three groups of crises to support the crisis assessment.
1. Victim-Low responsibility and minor reputation threat. The organisation is a victim of a
crisis such as natural disasters and rumours (Holdworth, 2014).
2.
3. Accident- minimum responsibility and common reputation threat. Other factors are
contributed to it and it can be a small issue such as weather (Holdworth, 2014).
4.
5. Intentional- Great Responsibility and major reputation threat. The organisation is entirely
responsible for the major crisis (Holdworth, 2014).
Situational Crisis Communication
(Source: Ma and Zhen 2016, p.109)
Coombs also introduces two phases in his theory. He states that the effectiveness and the crisis
response are also influenced by how an organisation managed the pre-crisis phase, which
means prevention and preparation before the crisis. Post-Crisis phase means learning from the
mistakes and successes (Holdworth, 2014). In addition, Coombs has recognised three crisis
clusters. First one is victim cluster and organisation itself is the victim of the crisis; therefore, it
will lead to the mild reputational threat. Natural disaster, rumour, workplace violence and
product tampering can lead to the victim cluster of the organisation. In addition, accidental
cluster, the organisation leads to the crisis that is unintentional. Accidental cluster attributes
towards crisis response that leads to the moderate threat. Challenges of the accidental cluster
are associated with the stakeholders and the stakeholders can face the issue of technological-
error accidents and technical-error product harm. Intentional cluster occurs when the
organisation knowingly placed people at risk, took inappropriate actions of the regulations and
laws (Ma and Zhan, 2016). This intentional crisis cluster can lead to the severe reputational
threat and human-error product harm causes the product and service to be recalled. As stated
by Liu and Fraustino (2014), crisis response strategies have the three groups and these are
denying, rebuild and diminish. It can be deduced from the theory that in the wake of the
unexpected disaster; the hotel management needs to communicate with the stakeholders in
real-time that must be responsive communication. The hotels can do the contingency planning

as the executives can create the social media crisis policy to track the response time and
mitigate the negative influence of the hotels. In global hospitality industry; the threat of terrorism
is sombre in the global travel industry and in Europeans claim to have the change their plans
due to the crisis created by the terrorism. The management can manage the social media
presence when the hotels lose the brand inconsistency and they face the potential damage to
the hotels’ reputation.
2.4 Contingency Theory
Contingency theory contends that there is one best way of organising and that an organisational
style that is effective and successful in some situations may not be successful in others (Fiedler,
1964). In other words, the organisational style is depending on both different internal and
external limitations.
Contingency theory was found by Arbete 1958 (Fiefler, 1964) and he has tried to formulate
broad generalisation about the formula structures that are associated with or the best one that
fits in specific strategies. The organisations can take the contingency approaches that need
management to satisfy and balance the internal needs. The internal needs are to adopt the
environmental circumstances as it is one of the best ways to organise. Therefore, the
appropriate form is depended on the types of task or environment to which the organisation has
to deal. Different types of organisations are required in various types of environments
(Steinbach et al. 2017). Therefore, the management has to focus on the leadership of the
organisation and this model contains the relationship between the favourableness and
leadership. As argued by Alexander (2017), the ultimate way to organise is to depend on the
nature of the environment to which the firm must relate. Therefore, the hotels and hospitality
sector can manage the crisis to do the follow-up with the official response. The management of
the hospitality sector waits until the main crisis subsidises and the PR team crafts the official
hotel for the response to the situation.
You must first satisfy and balance the internal need of an organisation, and to adapt to
environmental circumstances. Different types of organisations are needed in different types of
environments. This theory is beneficial as different terrorist attacks occur in different countries
and the effects of the crisis on the hospitality organisations are different depending on
organisations size, reputation, market share and stakeholders etc. This theory will help the
researcher to use the best approach that best fits that specific organisation to learn how the
organisation is responding to the crisis. It can be deduced that contingency planning and crisis
management are main two big elements of the business continuity which enables the
organisation to recover from the disaster. The hotels keep the contingency planning as it is the
process of potential risks to the business and they can develop the comprehensive plan which
enables the business to respond the threat. Therefore, the researchers stated that contingency
planning is the proactive strategy which emphasises the over responsiveness. For the hotel
management, the crisis management is the method of controlling the response to the major
accident after the mishap occurs. On the other side, the reactive strategy puts stress on the
response over the preparation.
2.5 Diffusion of innovation theory