Business Commons^™

Post-Scandal Organizational (Dis)Order: A Grounded-Theory Approach Shifting From Murphy’S Law To Safer Regulatory Environments, Jesus R. Jimenez-Andrade, Timothy J. Fogarty, Richard J. Boland

Accounting Faculty Publications

The literature shows that, in the wake of negative media exposition, organizations’ self-regulation tends to be strengthened. We investigate such motivation from the perspective of the psychosocial consequences in executives’ and organizational self-confidence. A grounded-theory approach supports findings from 27 different events described by top-level executives from major publicly traded organizations. Their testimonies document that scandalous episodes, when they occur, leave a trauma footprint within the organizational and individual consciousness because of the perceived post-event humiliation, remorse, guilt, and fear. The paradigm of reliance and trust in the designed structures is severely altered. In turn, a climate of excessive self-regulation …