Organizational Guilt Management: A Paradox Perspective

Alleged organizational wrongdoings are often characterized by high levels of uncertainty about what happened, which can take years to be established judicially. In this study, we examine organizations’ efforts to manage their stakeholders’ impressions of their possible guilt in this period of uncertainty. The study examines the discursive guilt-management strategies organizations employ in such situations to embrace the paradoxical tensions that emerge between their routine, positive self-presentations as responsible organizations and their communication about their possible guilt. Taking departure in impression management and a paradox perspective, we conceptualize guilt management as a discursive practice enacted in times of uncertainty. Specifically, we conduct a microlevel discourse analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports published by large US banks after the financial crisis and analyze how these banks managed impressions of their possible guilt, before they eventually agreed to legal settlements. We identify amending, bracketing, shifting locus of control, implicating, as well as reattributing and extending moral agency as central guilt-management strategies that embrace the paradoxical tensions between the banks’ positive self-presentations and their communication about their possible guilt. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and methodological contributions to organization studies.