Image restoration theory

Last updated

Introduced by William Benoit, image restoration theory (also known as image repair theory) outlines strategies that can be used to restore one's image in an event where reputation has been damaged. Image restoration theory can be applied as an approach for understanding both personal and organizational crisis situations. It is a component of crisis communication, which is a sub-specialty of public relations. Its purpose is to protect an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation.

Contents

Benoit outlines this theory in Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies: A Theory of Image Restoration Strategies. [1]

Basic concepts

Two components must be present in a given attack to the image of an individual or organization:

  1. The accused is held responsible for an action.
  2. the act is considered offensive.

Image restoration theory is grounded in two fundamental assumptions.

  1. Communication is a goal-directed activity. Communicators may have multiple goals that are not collectively compatible, but people try to achieve goals that are most important to them at the time, with reasonable cost.
  2. Maintaining a favorable reputation is a key goal of communication. Because face, image, or reputation is valued as important, individuals or organizations are motivated to take action when it is compromised.

Perception is fundamental to image restoration, as the accused actor will not engage in a defensive strategy unless the perception exists that he is at fault. The actor who committed the wrongful act must decide on the strategy of the best course based on their specific situation. Factors such as credibility, audience perceptions, and the degree of offensiveness of the act must be taken into account.

Some image repair factors include

  1. Crisis responsibility – how much a company or person is responsible for in a crisis
  2. Crisis type – what type of crisis is happening
  3. Organizational reputation – what is the known reputation and behavior of a company or a person [2]

Theoretical framework

The importance of image is one of the key factors in a brand, or persons, business. This is one of the most important factors when it comes to conflict management and resolution. The theory of image restoration builds upon theories of apologia and accounts. Apologia is a formal defense or justification of an individual's opinion, position, or actions, [3] and an account is a statement made by an individual or organization to explain unanticipated or transgressive events.

Benoit claims that these treatments of image restoration focus on identifying options rather than prescribing solutions. He grounds image restoration theory on a comprehensive literature review of apologia and accounts theories.

Specific influences of image restoration theory include Rosenfield's (1968) theory of analog, Ware and Linkugel's (1973) theory of apologia; [4] Kenneth Burke's (1970) theory of goals and purification; Ryan's (1982) kategoria and apologia; Scott and Lyman's (1968) analysis of accounts; Goffman's (1967) remedial moves; Schonbach's (1980) updated analysis of Scott and Lyman's (1968) theory; and Schlenker's (1980) analysis of impression management and accounts.

Typology of strategies

StrategyExplanation
DenialThe accused may simply deny that the act occurred, or shift the blame to the 'real' culprit.
Evading responsibilityWhen unable to deny performing the act in question, the accused may attempt to evade responsibility. This strategy has four components.
  • Provocation: the actor may claim that the act was committed in response to another wrongful act.
  • Defeasibility: the actor pleads a lack of knowledge or control over important factors related to the offensive act.
  • Unaccountability: the actor may make an excuse for factors beyond their control.
  • Bona fide: the actor asks not to be held fully responsible based on their good, rather than evil motives in committing the act.
Reducing offensivenessThe accused may attempt to reduce the degree of negative feeling experienced by the audience. This strategy has six components.
  • Bolstering: used to mitigate the negative effects by reinforcing the audience's positive idea of the accused. They may remind the audience of prior good acts.
  • Minimization: attempts to convince the audience that the act in question is less serious than it appears.
  • Differentiation: the act is distinguished from other, more offensive acts in order to lessen the audience's negative sentiment by means of comparison.
  • Transcendence: the act is placed in a broad context to place it in a different, less offensive frame of reference.
  • Ad hominem: the actor attacks their accusers or questions the credibility of the sources of the accusations.
  • Compensation: the actor offers to redress the victims of their action in order to offset the negative sentiment that is being held against them.
Corrective actionThe accused claims that they will correct the problem. This can involve restoring the situation to its prior state, or promising to make changes to prevent its reoccurrence.
MortificationThe accused admits responsibility and asks for forgiveness.

Case studies

Case studies by Benoit

Based on several case studies by Benoit and his colleagues, [5] a number of prescriptive recommendations were cited for the use of crisis strategies: [6] [7] [8]

  1. The dominant recommendation is for an organization to immediately admit fault/accept responsibility.
  2. Corrective actions should be taken and an organization need to publicize those actions.
  3. Bolstering, which is directly related to the charge, is the most effective strategy.
  4. If the organization is innocent, denial is an effective strategy.

"Image restoration theory is the dominant line of research generating these recommendations. The most common recommendations suggest using the mortification and corrective action crisis response when an organization is guilty." [9]

In the table below, representative case studies by Benoit and his colleagues are introduced:

CategorySubjectsSummary of crisisStrategiesPracticesAuthors (year)
Individual Queen Elizabeth The sudden tragic death of Princess DianaDenial, Bolstering, Defeasibility, Transcendence Unprecedented speech of the QueenBenoit & Brinson (1999) [10]
Hugh Grant Being arrested in Hollywood for lewd behavior with a prostituteMortification, Bolstering, Ad hominem, Denial Appeared on "The Tonight Show," "Larry King Live," "The Today Shaw," "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee," and "The Late Show"Benoit (1997) [11]
Tonya Harding The involvement in the attack on her teammate and rival, Nancy KerriganBolstering, Denial, Ad hominem Interview in the program Eye-to-Eye with Connie ChungBenoit & Hanczor (1994) [12]
Organizational AT&T The long-distance breakdown in 1991. Followed by governmental investigation Mortification, Corrective action, Bolstering Misguided attempt to blame lower-level workers

Robert Allen (chairman) published a full-page newspaper advertisement

Benoit & Brinson (1994) [13]
USAir The crash of an aircraft in Pittsburgh in 1994Bolstering, Denial, Corrective action Media coverageBenoit & Czerwinski (1997) [14]
Dow Corning The safety issue of its silicone breast implantsDenial, Evading responsibility, (Promising) Corrective action Simply denied and making a conflict with FDABrinson & Benoit (1996) [15]
Texaco The racism issue in a secret tape of an executive meeting referred to African-Americans as "black jelly beans"Bolstering, Corrective action, Mortification, Shifting the blame (to a subgroup of employees characterized as "bad apples"). Peter Bijur (chair) disseminated six messagesBrinson & Benoit (1999) [16]

Limitation of Image repair theory – Coombs

Even though image restoration theory represented the use of mortification (accepting responsibility) and corrective action, there might be alternative recommendations. For instance, his studies using situational crisis communication theory found no support for always using mortification and corrective action. Also, the mortification and corrective action strategies had no greater effect than a simple bolstering strategy in a criminal violation crisis such as racial discrimination (Coombs, 2006 [17] ). This theory can not be predicted.

Additionally, in terms of the limitation of case studies in image restoration theory, Coombs [18] argued that closer scrutiny with insights should be taken before offering strategies to crisis managers as facts. To gain additional insights into the use of crisis responses, he pointed out many similar crises should be examined for patterns of strategy use and effect, and "a large number of cases could be coded and subjected to log-linear analysis to identify patterns." (Coombs, 2006, p. 191-192) [19]

The Cola Wars

Coca-Cola and Pepsi's longstanding competition [20] reached its peak when Coke and Pepsi placed advertisements in Nation's Restaurant News with unmistakable attacks from both sides.

Benoit analyses advertisements from both companies from 1990–1992 to address the persuasive strategies of Coke and Pepsi to determine recommendations for image restoration following an attack. He advises that companies should avoid making false claims, provide adequate support for claims, and develop themes throughout a campaign, and avoid arguments that might backfire.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public relations</span> Management of public communication of organizations

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization to the public in order to influence their perception. Public relations and publicity differ in that PR is controlled internally, whereas publicity is not controlled and contributed by external parties. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The exposure is mostly media-based, and this differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications. Public relations aims to create or obtain coverage for clients for free, also known as earned media, rather than paying for marketing or advertising also known as paid media. But in the early 21st century, advertising is also a part of broader PR activities.

Within the realm of communication studies, organizational communication is a field of study surrounding all areas of communication and information flow that contribute to the functioning of an organization. Organizational communication is constantly evolving and as a result, the scope of organizations included in this field of research have also shifted over time. Now both traditionally profitable companies, as well as NGO's and non-profit organizations, are points of interest for scholars focused on the field of organizational communication. Organizations are formed and sustained through continuous communication between members of the organization and both internal and external sub-groups who possess shared objectives for the organization. The flow of communication encompasses internal and external stakeholders and can be formal or informal.

The reputation or prestige of a social entity is an opinion about that entity – typically developed as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance.

Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and environmental disasters in the 1980s. It is considered to be the most important process in public relations.

The uncertainty reduction theory, also known as initial interaction theory, developed in 1975 by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese, is a communication theory from the post-positivist tradition. It is one of the few communication theories that specifically looks into the initial interaction between people prior to the actual communication process. Uncertainty reduction theory originators' main goal when constructing it was to explain how communication is used to reduce uncertainty between strangers during a first interaction. Uncertainty reduction theory claims that everyone activates two processes in order to reduce uncertainty. The first being a proactive process, which focuses on what someone might do. The second being a retroactive process, which focuses on how people understand what another does or says. This theory's main claim is that people must receive information about another party in order to reduce their uncertainty and, that people want to do so. While uncertainty reduction theory claims that communication will lead to reduced uncertainty, it is important to note that this is not always the case. Dr. Dale E. Brashers of the University of Illinois argues that in some scenarios, more communication may lead to greater uncertainty.

The ethnography of communication (EOC), originally called the ethnography of speaking, is the analysis of communication within the wider context of the social and cultural practices and beliefs of the members of a particular culture or speech community. It comes from ethnographic research It is a method of discourse analysis in linguistics that draws on the anthropological field of ethnography. Unlike ethnography proper, though, EOC takes into account both the communicative form, which may include but is not limited to spoken language, and its function within the given culture.

David M. Boje is Professor and Bill Daniels Ethics Fellow, a past endowed Bank of America professor of management at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces. He has published over 120 journal articles, seventeen books, including Narrative Methods for Organization and Communication Research ; Storytelling Organizations, 2008; Critical Theory Ethics in Business and Public Administration, 2008. His newest books are: Dancing to the Music of Story, and The Future of Storytelling and Organization: An Antenarrative Handbook.

Crisis communication is a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. Crisis communication is aimed at raising awareness of a specific type of threat, the magnitude, outcomes, and specific behaviors to adopt to reduce the threat. The communication scholar Timothy Coombs defines crisis as "the perception of an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization's performance and generate negative outcomes" and crisis communication as "the collection, processing, and dissemination of information required to address a crisis situation."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dramatism</span> Interpretive communication studies theory

Dramatism, a communication studies theory, was developed by Kenneth Burke as a tool for analyzing human relationships through the use of language. Burke viewed dramatism from the lens of logology, which studies how people's ways of speaking shape their attitudes towards the world. According to this theory, the world is a stage where all the people present are actors and their actions parallel a drama. Burke then correlates dramatism with motivation, saying that people are "motivated" to behave in response to certain situations, similar to how actors in a play are motivated to behave or function. Burke discusses two important ideas – that life is drama, and the ultimate motive of rhetoric is the purging of guilt. Burke recognized guilt as the base of human emotions and motivations for action. As cited in "A Note on Burke on "Motive"", the author recognized the importance of "motive" in Burke's work. In "Kenneth Burke's concept of motives in rhetorical theory", the authors mentioned that Burke believes that guilt, "combined with other constructs, describes the totality of the compelling force within an event which explains why the event took place."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betteke van Ruler</span> Dutch professor of communication science

Alberta Arnolda "Betteke" van Ruler is emeritus Professor of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam.

James E. Grunig is a public relations theorist, Professor Emeritus for the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland.

James Renwick Taylor, sometimes known as Jim Taylor, was a Canadian academic and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Communication of the Université de Montréal, which he founded with Annie Méar and André H. Caron Ed.D in the early 1970s.

Media naturalness theory is also known as the psychobiological model. The theory was developed by Ned Kock and attempts to apply Darwinian evolutionary principles to suggest which types of computer-mediated communication will best fit innate human communication capabilities. Media naturalness theory argues that natural selection has resulted in face-to-face communication becoming the most effective way for two people to exchange information.

The communicative constitution of organizations (CCO) perspective is broadly characterized by the claim that communication is not something that happens within organizations or between organizational members; instead, communication is the process whereby organizations are constituted. Specifically, this view contends: “organization is an effect of communication not its predecessor." This perspective is part of a broader constitutive view of communication arguing, "elements of communication, rather than being fixed in advance, are reflexively constituted within the act of communication itself".

The Excellence theory is a general theory of public relations that “specifies how public relations makes organizations more effective, how it is organized and managed when it contributes most to organizational effectiveness, the conditions in organizations and their environments that make organizations more effective, and how the monetary value of public relations can be determined”. The excellence theory resulted from a study about the best practice in public relations, which was headed by James E. Grunig and funded by the Foundation of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in 1985. Constructed upon a number of middle-range theories, and tested with surveys and interviews of professionals and CEOs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Korea, the Excellence theory provides a “theoretical and empirical benchmark” for public relations units.

Organizational Information Theory (OIT) is a communication theory, developed by Karl Weick, offering systemic insight into the processing and exchange of information within organizations and among its members. Unlike the past structure-centered theory, OIT focuses on the process of organizing in dynamic, information-rich environments. Given that, it contends that the main activity of organizations is the process of making sense of equivocal information. Organizational members are instrumental to reduce equivocality and achieve sensemaking through some strategies — enactment, selection, and retention of information. With a framework that is interdisciplinary in nature, organizational information theory's desire to eliminate both ambiguity and complexity from workplace messaging builds upon earlier findings from general systems theory and phenomenology.

Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT,), is a theory in the field of crisis communication. It suggests that crisis managers should match strategic crisis responses to the level of crisis responsibility and reputational threat posed by a crisis. SCCT was proposed by W. Timothy Coombs in 2007.

Dialogue is defined as “any negotiated exchange of ideas and opinions”. Public relations can facilitate dialogue by establishing channels and procedures for dialogic communication. Dialogic theory argues that organizations should be willing to interact with publics in honest and ethical ways in order to create effective organization-public communication channels.

Sonja K. Foss is a rhetorical scholar and educator in the discipline of communication. Her research and teaching interests are in contemporary rhetorical theory and criticism, feminist perspectives on communication, the incorporation of marginalized voices into rhetorical theory and practice, and visual rhetoric.

William Lyon Benoit is an American scholar in the field of political communication. He graduated from Ball State University in 1975 and obtained his Master of Arts degree from Central Michigan University in 1976. He also holds a PhD from Wayne State University.

References

  1. Benoit, William.outlines (1995). Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies: A Theory of Image Restoration Strategies. New York: State University of New York Press.
  2. haultzhausen, Derina (2008). "An investigation into the Role of Image Repair Theory in Strategic Conflict Management". 21: 21 via ebsco host.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Fearn-Banks, Kathleen. (2009). Crisis Communications: A Casebook Approach. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  4. "Apologia Models".
  5. Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis Management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.), Public Relations Theory II (171-197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  6. Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
  7. Brinson, S. L., & Benoit, W.L. (1996). Dow Corning's image repair strategies in the breast implant crisis. Communication Quarterly, 44(1), 29-41.
  8. Brinson, S. L., & Benoit, W. L. (1999). The tarnished star: Restoring Texaco's damaged public image. Management Communication Quarterly, 12, 483-510.
  9. Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis Management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.), Public Relations Theory II (171-197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  10. Benoit, W. L., & Brinson, S. L. (1999). Queen Elizabeth's image repair discourse: Insensitive royal or compassionate queen? Public Relations Review, 25(2), 145-156.
  11. Benoit, W. L. (1997). Hugh Grant's image restoration discourse: An actor apologizes. Communication Quarterly, 45(3), 251-267.
  12. Benoit, W. L., & Hanczor, R. S. (1994). The Tonya Harding Controversy: An analysis of image restoration strategies. Communication Quarterly, 42(4), 416-433.
  13. Benoit, W. L., & Brinson, S. L. (1994). AT&T: "Apologies are not enough." Communication Quarterly, 42(1), 75-88.
  14. Benoit, W. L., & Czerwinski, A. (1997). A critical analysis of USAir's image repair discourse. Business Communication Quarterly, 60(3), 38-57.
  15. Brinson, S. L., & Benoit, W.L. (1996). Dow Corning's image repair strategies in the breast implant crisis. Communication Quarterly, 44(1), 29-41.
  16. Brinson, S. L., & Benoit, W. L. (1999). The tarnished star: Restoring Texaco's damaged public image. Management Communication Quarterly, 12, 483-510.
  17. Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis Management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.), Public Relations Theory II (171-197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  18. Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis Management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.), Public Relations Theory II (171-197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  19. Coombs, W. T. (2006). Crisis Management: A communicative approach. In C. H. Botan & V. Hazleton (Eds.), Public Relations Theory II (171-197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  20. Cola Wars