A 'glocalization' approach to the internationalizing of crisis communication

This article focuses on the field of international crisis communication, whereby multinationals and their expatriate staff respond to crisis events in international and/or multicultural contexts. The field of international crisis communication is at or near a state of crisis due to lack of research and, more importantly, methods useful for practitioners. 'Glocalization'-which is used successfully in fields as diverse as marketing, education, theology, and others as an effective and expedient way of leveraging global capabilities to meet local demands-is proposed as one method for addressing this need pragmatically. Using glocalization for the internationalizing of crisis communication benefits practitioners and researchers alike in a way that avoids imposing Western frameworks and interpretations onto non-Western crisis situations. We demonstrate the approach with a case study involving multinational McDonald's Corporation and its foreign subsidiary, McDonald's Japan.