Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Accusations: Between the Innuendo and the Illegal
- Chapter 2 Red Flags: How to Assemble an Accusation
- Chapter 3 Fighting Words and Key Phrases
- Chapter 4 Market Exchanges Gone Sour: Six Fields of Action
- Chapter 5 Finger Pointing and Three Themes: Lying, Cheating, Stealing
- Chapter 6 The Ecology of Greed: Hot Spots for Accusations
- Chapter 7 The Repertoires of Wrongdoing
- Appendix A Notes on Statistical Analysis and Coding Principal Themes, Keywords, and Key Phrases in the Accusations
- Appendix B A Sample of United States Corporations and Counts of Public Announcements of Alleged Economic Crime – 1994 (fourth quarter) to 2006 (first quarter)
- Tables
- References
- Index
Chapter 4 - Market Exchanges Gone Sour: Six Fields of Action
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Accusations: Between the Innuendo and the Illegal
- Chapter 2 Red Flags: How to Assemble an Accusation
- Chapter 3 Fighting Words and Key Phrases
- Chapter 4 Market Exchanges Gone Sour: Six Fields of Action
- Chapter 5 Finger Pointing and Three Themes: Lying, Cheating, Stealing
- Chapter 6 The Ecology of Greed: Hot Spots for Accusations
- Chapter 7 The Repertoires of Wrongdoing
- Appendix A Notes on Statistical Analysis and Coding Principal Themes, Keywords, and Key Phrases in the Accusations
- Appendix B A Sample of United States Corporations and Counts of Public Announcements of Alleged Economic Crime – 1994 (fourth quarter) to 2006 (first quarter)
- Tables
- References
- Index
Summary
Every line between a corporation and the outside is simultaneously a link of cooperation and getting things done for mutual benefit and a possible location for accusations and perpetration of various kinds of illegality. This lets us ask several questions: How are accusation stories, enacted through stripping, leveling, and attributing, distributed along market-based lines? Which accusations appear on which market routes with a high degree of frequency?
Several steps follow the public accusation, reflecting the concern of executives over the tarnishing of personal corporate reputations. First, the media enlarge the story, interpreting it by assimilating it to one of a few standard scenarios, which puts blame in one place or another. Second, this keeps it in the public eye, producing outrage and provoking damage control by executives. Third, the standard stories (whose elaboration will be part of our description and analysis) all tend to stick to one of a handful of templates and are variations on the theme of executives breaking promises due to their self-interest, self-dealing, and greed on the one hand, and their need to protect, defend, and justify the actions of their corporation on the other.
Market-Based Tie Number 1: Accusations of Wrongdoing In and Around the Corporation
Many intermediate accusations originate in formal and complex organizations. These may include abuses of power, abuse of trust, and business misconduct (Wheeler and Rothman 1982; Vaughan 1999, 287).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Corporate Wrongdoing and the Art of the Accusation , pp. 55 - 92Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011