Corporate Apologia

Abstract

When caught in a crisis in which they are accused of wrongdoing, organizations often engage in crisis management in order to salvage their damaged reputations. While the management of a crisis is managerial and operational in nature, a critical component of a such an approach is the use (and misuse) of communication. This communication takes the form of secular remediation rituals such as apologia, which must meet stakeholder expectations by addressing the problem of guilt. After explicating the contexts and message strategies identified by scholars and used by practitioners, this chapter then takes a non-reductionist approach to crises and argues that crises are best understood as a form of narrative and evaluated as such. Acknowledging the changing nature of apologia, it then concludes with suggestions for future research and practice as organizations navigate the contemporary media-rich social and political environment.

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