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STRATEGIC SILENCE IN CRISIS COMMUNICATION – WHEN IS IT BETTER TO REMAIN SILENT?

The crisis is understood as a deep and pervasive disorder in a man’s life, the functioning of a company
and/or society as a whole, which leaves strong and sometimes severe consequences. The etymological
word crisis comes from the Greek word ’krisis’ which means ground-breaking, but transitive period.
It is of great importance for companies to define a crisis as a transitive period. Therefore, responses
to how companies react to crisis and which strategies of crisis communication they use, substantially
determine their post-crisis success.
It is common to understand crisis communication as a process of information transfer necessary to
face the crisis situation. Therefore, communication is, primarily, characterized by what we recognize
as sound, voice or even noise. But, is that really so? Do we communicate even when we are silent?
From the problem point of view, this paper is determined through the following question: Is it possible that strategic silence intensifies the influence of marketing communication in crisis situations?
That is when silence is a better choice for companies?
The purpose of the paper is seen in an attempt to systemize and analyse available scientific knowledge about planning and implementing silence as communication strategy of a company in crisis situations. It is primarily important because it is used almost on a daily basis by company practitioners,
while the scientific public is generally silent about silence.
The commitment to research theoretical assumptions about strategic silence has been influenced by the
fact that the appearance and implementation of this concept are relatively new (more serious scientific
research started in the late 1970s and early 1980s). Research and scientific papers related to European
areas, including the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, dealing with the analysis of the application of the
strategic silence, especially the scientific analysis of its implementation, are not available.