Deconstructing the notion of blame in corporate failure

Abstract

Corporate failure is the subject of considerable academic debate since the 1960s. Failure in the retail sector receives less attention however. This paper addresses the notion of blame in corporate failure. Reference to A Goldberg and Sons, a failed retailer, exemplifies the discussion. Prior to bankruptcy in 1990, this firm was a successful Scottish department store and clothing retailer. The study takes a historical approach, using indepth interviews, archival material, and other secondary data sources. Findings reveal that, despite warning signs from various key performance indicators and external reviews, the company's board failed to act appropriately. A series of bad strategic decisions contributed to the company's failure. In line with theories of blame attribution, through their (in)actions, the board's negligence played a major role in the firm's demise.

The Influence of Childhood Engagement in the Context of Hospitality Service Failure Evaluation

“…In this context, in line with the results of the study by Wentzel (2009), it is conceivable that the employee is perceived as a “typical” example of an employee (e.g., as a part of the company), even when there is a relationship based on CHE, and thus the failure of the employee is directly attributed to the company. The process of blame attribution (Pal et al, 2011) can provide another possible explanation for the present result. Accordingly, due to human nature, people tend to blame a single person instead of organizations.…”

“…In this context, literature also refers to the term blame attribution (Aquino, Tripp, & Bies, 2001). In accordance with Shaver (1985) and Pal, Medway, and Byrom (2011), the occurrence (and target) of blame attribution is a process and is based on multiple factors. These factors include the consequences of a failure, the attribution of causality, the dimensions of responsibility, and the determinants of blameworthiness (Pal et al, 2011).…”

The anatomy of business failure

“…For this study, and in line with other qualitative studies in the area (e.g. Cope, 2011; Pal et al , 2011; Singh et al , 2015), the cases selected were purposive by nature, meaning that any individual that filled the pre-requisites would be of significance for the research project. An effort was made to not contain the search within a single country, in particular the concentration within a single region in Europe, although admittedly being difficulty due to the selection criteria defined and the very own personal nature that study subject demands.…”

An Exploration of the Role Duality Experienced by HR Professionals as Both Implementers and Recipients of HR Practices: Evidence from the Indian Railways

“…Accordingly, we anticipate that HR who is doing poorly in school may justify his or her inadequate performance with high workload and stress, whereas the teacher (the observer) tends to attribute it to inability or laziness. Attribution theory has also been used to explain aspects of people's behavior in organizations (see, e.g., Björkman, Stahl, & Vaara, 2007;Fontinha, Chambel, & De Cuyper, 2012;Johnson, Lenartowicz, & Apud, 2006;Pal, Medway, & Byrom, 2011). In the context of research on Indian organizations, too, recent research utilizes attribution theory as a lens to discuss varied HR and organizational-related areas (see, e.g., Gok, Deshpande, Deshpande, & Hunter, 2012;Lakshman, 2008Lakshman, , 2013.…”