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After the scandal – Recovery options for damaged organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

William De Maria
William De Maria*
Affiliation:
UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD, Australia
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Abstract

The paper advances into a new field of multi-disciplinary inquiry called scandal scholarship. The general thrust of this scholarship should be to understand what factors are determinative to the management of scandals in organizations. The specific focus of this paper is to address the question: what options do organizations have in the immediate period following public exposure? First, a typology gleaned from relevant literatures, attempts to classify the variable ways troubled organizations attempt to extricate themselves from scandal. The typology, in its naïve form, was then applied to a recent case of corporate wrongdoing of international significance. As a result the framework was refined to achieve stronger congruence between case realities and classification. With more development this typology may be able to forecast the scandal management strategies of troubled organizations through an identification of the remedial responses they deploy. This would be great assistance to those who must engage with the troubled organization such as regulators and stakeholders.

Keywords

scandalstypologiesorganizational changeoptionsgovernanceethicsremedial response
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 66 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2010

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