讲座题目：Apology and Accountability: A Systemic Comparison of Companies’ Image Restoration Strategies

时间：2010年11月23日下午2:00-3:30

地点：成人直播 二号楼354房间

讲者：Dr. Kuo Frank Yu，Department of Management, City University of Hong Kong

Abstract:

Organizational reputation promotes a healthy organizational identity in soliciting follower commitment and building public trust in the organization (Elsbach, 2006). However, accidents beyond organizational control and scandals provoking public distrust at times occur and sully organizational reputation. An image threat occurs when organizational stigma become associated with identity markers (Elsbach, 2004) that are easily recognized by others because they mimic the markers attached to stigmatized individuals (Paetzold, Dipboye, Elsbach, 2008). To attenuate stigma, organizations employ “image restoration strategies” when organization’s audiences doubt organizations’ reliability or claimed conformity to socially acceptable behaviors, norms, and values (King, 2008).

Apology can cost an organization dearly, as it can incur legal liability. Organizations often resort to other impression management strategies (Elsbach, 2006) before apologizing, especially when the evidence of wrongdoing is insufficient. They often deny the wrong-doing, scapegoat someone else within or outside the organization, bolster past good achievements to overshadow the current bad press, differentiate the wrong doing or accident as a random event rather than a regular occurrence, and question its culpability by pointing out the larger systems’ interdependency (Benoit, 1995). When evidence of wrong-doing or mistake indicates clear culpability, the organization is often strategic in making an apology. It carefully evaluates the timing (the speed with which organizations apologize after an incident), scope (the extent of legal reparation and social accountability), method (the means with which victims are compensated), and language (the tone and account used to show sincerity and remorse) (Fuchs-Burnett, 2002).

In this study, using empirical data and results to substantiate our positions, we address these research questions systematically: What image restoration strategies do organizations most frequently employ and why? What aspects of negative events tend to prompt systematically certain types of image restoration strategies? How do organizational reputation and identity affect their choices of image restoration strategies? How do organizations’ current performances affect their choices of image restoration strategies?

Brief Biography:

Dr. Kuo Frank Yu is currently an assistant professor of Management in City University of Hong Kong. Born in Taiwan and grew up in the US, he received his B.A. in Psychology with honors from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in Management of Organizations from Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. He has been the PDW chair for the Academy of Management’s Practice Theme Committee for the past three years. He is passionate about applying scholarship, producing both relevant and rigorous knowledge. He is currently writing a book called “Revolutionary Shifts in Global Business Practices” with Dr. Jane Yang.

He studied with Karlene Roberts, the mother of High Reliability Organizations, as Karl Weick calls her, and with Kenneth Gergen, the father of social constructionism in social psychology. He also connects theories of discretion with theories of accountability with the guidance of Philip Tetlock, who offers an additional political angle into understanding organizational dynamics. He owes much of his intellectual development to his mentors. He is in the process of developing a theory of discretionary decision-making under risk and uncertainty, which benefits f