| dc.description.abstract | In the recent past, the buzzword on the tongues and minds-of marketers, public relations professionals, business owners, celebrities, and the public is social media. Kenya has not been left out in adopting the social media and this study sought to investigate the role of social media on crisis management among Kenyan firms. Specifically, the study sought to determine the extent to which social media has been adopted as a public relation tool at Kenya Airways; establish the social media that is mostly used at Kenya Airways; and lastly the impact it has made on crisis management at Kenya Airways.
This study adopted a descriptive survey design.
The study population targetedthe employees of Kenya Airways Ltd. Kenya Airways was chosen due to its high use and adoption of social media in its day to day activities. The study specifically targeted the management level employees as well as marketing, customer relations, public relations and corporate affairs departments. Stratified random sampling was applied to choose a sample size from a target population of 223 employees. The sample size was 67 employees. The study used both primary and secondary data.
The primary data collection instrument was questionnaire that contained both open and close ended questions while the secondary data was obtained from books, enterprise strategic plans and journals. A pilot study was carried out to check the appropriateness of the questionnaire as well as determining the difficulty of the items in the instruments.
Test retest method was used to ascertain the reliability while Cronbach's alpha formula was used in calculating the reliability of data. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. After tabulation of the collected data, it was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative approach was used to give in-depth analysis. Quantitative data was presented using percentages, frequencies, mode, means and standard deviations. The study found out that social media has been adopted extensively at Kenya Airways.
Social media had facilitated effective communication and interaction with the public. Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter were highly used in crises because social media is characterized by quick dissemination of information; regular updates and quick and honest feedback from the public. The study recommends that organizations must integrate social media into their public relations and communications departments if they are to remain responsive to their stakeholders. | en_US |
