Introduction:*

Scandals are momentous events with far-reaching consequences for organizations and society, yet we still know relatively little about the contextual conditions that enable them. In particular, while organizational scandals typically hinge on deviant behavior being made public through the media, the amount of media coverage that misconduct by organizations receives often varies dramatically across cases. We seek to advance theory by proposing a situated view of the process through which patterns of misconduct are picked up by media outlets and publicized, achieving broad resonance. In particular, we argue that community-level characteristics such as social connectedness, homogeneity, and the embeddedness of the offending organization within the community affect the flow of information about misconduct and the negative externalities to making it public, ultimately shaping the extent to which misconduct is covered by the media. We test and find evidence in support of our arguments using data on sex abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church between 1980 and 2010 and exploring the heterogeneity in the coverage received by patterns of misconduct by Catholic clergy across dioceses and over time. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the scholarly understanding of misconduct and scandals across organizational settings.
This

*Co-authored with Julien Jourdan (HEC Paris)

General information:

Attendance to this seminar is possible by invitation only. Please send an e-mail to secbs-abs@uva.nl if your are interested in attending this seminar.