Scapegoating in Complex Organizations: The Results of a Comparative Study of Symbolic Blame-Giving in Italian and French Public Administration

Abstract

A preliminary distinction is made between expressive and instrumental scapegoats. The latter are defined as the product of a rational strategy adopted by one or more power holders to prevent the blame for an incident from reaching higher hierarchical levels. The basic assumption in this article is that symbolic blame-giving processes within complex organizations must satisfy certain requirements in order to be credible. They can, thus, be studied in terms of purposive organizational behaviour and not solely as the emotional outcome of collective psychological dynamics. The analysis of five cases of scapegoating in the French political-administrative systems leads to the construction of a typology. The analysis of a number of Italian cases, however, shows that the French typology requires expansion in order to allow comparison with Italy. Possible means of achieving this comparison are suggested in the conclusion.

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