Racial Incidents at the University of Missouri: The Value of Leadership Communication and Stakeholder Relationships

A series of incidents in 2015 escalated racial tensions at the University of Missouri that ultimately contributed to the departure of the university president and chancellor. This case highlights the importance of focusing attention on competent leadership communication, which includes the development and maintenance of strong relationships with key stakeholder groups; the ability to predict, recognize, detect, and address issues that may rise to the level of crisis as defined by stakeholders; and the skill to craft timely, sensitive messages and effectively use interpersonal and mediated channels of message distribution and retrieval, especially social media, so that there is adequate information flow to and from institutional leaders allowing them to learn of, understand, and address stakeholders’ concerns as they emerge.