<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>As in most countries, Norwegian and Danish media houses struggle to adjust to new technological, economic and political realities. Photo departments have seen their budgets cut and people have been let go. It looks, however, as if the organisational response to the crisis is more nuanced than it may seem at first glance. We have examined three media organisations, with a reputation for an above average interest in photojournalism, through the filter of organisational psychology. By looking at the conjunction between organisational culture, the present climate, and what we may call visual editorial competence, which relates to a photo department’s relative power within the organisation, we try to shed some light on when and why photo departments are able to implement their own crisis management and thus influence their own situation. Our findings suggest that photo departments with a strong culture are more resilient to a climate marked by disruptive change. The overall visual editorial competence does, however, impact their manoeuvring space within the organisation.</p></abstract>

As in most countries, Norwegian and Danish media houses struggle to adjust to new technological, economic and political realities. Photo departments have seen their budgets cut and people have been let go. It looks, however, as if the organisational response to the crisis is more nuanced than it may seem at first glance. We have examined three media organisations, with a reputation for an above average interest in photojournalism, through the filter of organisational psychology. By looking at the conjunction between organisational culture, the present climate, and what we may call visual editorial competence, which relates to a photo department’s relative power within the organisation, we try to shed some light on when and why photo departments are able to implement their own crisis management and thus influence their own situation. Our findings suggest that photo departments with a strong culture are more resilient to a climate marked by disruptive change. The overall visual editorial competence does, however, impact their manoeuvring space within the organisation.

Crisis, What Crisis?

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"subtitle":"Three Nordic Photo Departments Fighting Back","article-title":"Crisis, What Crisis?"}

As in most countries, Norwegian and Danish media houses struggle to adjust to new technological, economic and political realities. Photo departments have seen...

	Phase	Interpersonal relations	Intergroup relations	Communication	Leadership and decision making	Problem handling	Planning and goal setting	Structure
Time →	Shock	Fragmented	Disconnected	Random	Paralysed	None	Dormant	Chaotic
	Defensive retreat	Protective Cohesion	Alienated	Ritualised	Autocratic	Mechanistic	Expedient	Traditional
	Acknowledgment	Confronting (supportive)	Mutuality	Searching	Participative	Explorative	Synthesising	Experimenting
	Adaption and change	Interdependent	Coordinated	Authentic Congruent	Task-centred	Flexible	Exhaustive and integrative	Organic

Dimensions of creative climate	Hallingdølen	Adresseavisa	Politiken
Challenge/involvement	High	High	High
Freedom	High	Relatively high	Under pressure
Trust/openness	High	High	High
Idea time	High	Under pressure	Under pressure
Playfulness/humour	High	Not mentioned	Under pressure
Conflict	Not mentioned	Existing	Existing
Idea support	High	Relatively high	Under pressure
Debate	High	Relatively high	High
Risk-taking/innovation	Relatively high	Relatively high	Relatively high

Phases in crisis management	Hallingdølen	Adresseavisa	Politiken
Shock	-	-	-
Defensive retreat	-	-	x
Acknowledgement	-	x	x
Adaption and change	x	x	x

Dimension	Description
Challenge/involvement	The degree of emotional involvement, commitment and motivation in the operations and goals.
Freedom	The level of autonomy, discretion and initiative in behaviour exerted by individuals to acquire information, make decisions etc.
Trust/openness	The degree of emotional safety and openness found in relationships.
Idea time	The amount of time people can use (and do) for elaborating new ideas.
Playfulness/humour	The degree of spontaneity, ease, good natured joking and laughter that is displayed.
Conflict	The presence of personal and emotional tensions and hostilities.
Idea support	The degree to which new ideas and suggestions are attended to and treated in a kindly manner.
Debate	The expressing and considering of many different viewpoints, ideas and experiences.
Risk-taking/innovation	The tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty.

Crisis, What Crisis?

Published Online: Nov 28, 2017

Page range: 87 - 102

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0416

Keywords
photojournalism, organisational theory, visual editorial competence, crisis management, optimism

© 2017 Anne Hege Simonsen et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Phases of organisational crises

Dimensions of creative climate applied on our three cases

Phases in crisis management applied on our three cases

Dimensions of creative climate in organisations

Crisis, What Crisis?

Published Online: Nov 28, 2017

Page range: 87 - 102

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0416

Keywordsphotojournalism, organisational theory, visual editorial competence, crisis management, optimism

© 2017 Anne Hege Simonsen et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Phases of organisational crises

Dimensions of creative climate applied on our three cases

Phases in crisis management applied on our three cases

Dimensions of creative climate in organisations

Keywords
photojournalism, organisational theory, visual editorial competence, crisis management, optimism