Managing organizational impressions in crisis situations : Exxon Corporation and the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Bibliography: p. 31-35

Like individuals, organizations engage in impression management; occasionally they also must cope with stigma arising from their mistakes. These ideas are applied to public performances made by representatives of the Exxon Corporation following the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill. Using a grounded theory, this publication identifies four types of "image salvaging" strategies Exxon representatives used in these performances: competence enhancement; information control; personalization; and redefinition of the event. Use of a dramaturgical framework helps explain how organizations achieve and maintain legitimacy in an institutional environment. At the same time, institutional theory sheds light on why some performances - namely those of highly institutionalized actors like corporations - are more effective than others