TITLE:
Empirical Study on Trust Repair of Government in Public Crisis Event
AUTHORS:
Xiaobao Peng, Weiguang Gong, Mengling Peng
KEYWORDS:
Public Crisis Event, Trust for Government, Trust Damage, Trust Repair
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: The trust of the public for government is greatly damaged because of the frequent occurrence of
public crisis event, which has resulted in serious trust crisis of the government. To date trust repair
has been a key issue to study by local governments. This paper researches that the initial
trust of the public for government and the severity and attribution of public crisis event are exerted
influence upon the trust damage of government under the political and cultural environment
of current China in the methods of situational simulated and questionnaire survey. Moreover,
the repair effects of two different trust repair strategies (denial and apology) are verified in this
paper as well. The research findings show that the strength level of initial trust of the public for
government and the severity of the public crisis event are positively correlated with the trust
damage of government; different attribution of different public crisis event is made no difference
with different damage degree of trust of government; different trust repair strategy is made significant
difference upon repair effect, and the repair effect of apology is better than that of denial;
the strength level of initial trust of the public for government is positively correlated with the repair
effect of trust of government, that is to say, if the initial trust of the public upon government is
stringer, the damaged trust of government will be easier to repair. Theoretical perspective of trust
repair of government is expanded in this paper, which has provided repair strategy and solution
for trust crisis caused by government in the current situation of China.