What Counts as an Apology? Exploring Stakeholder Perceptions in a Hypothetical Organizational Crisis

Abstract

Many scholars have studied the role of organizational apologies in crisis communication, but they have defined and operationalized apologies inconsistently. This study uses a grounded theory approach to explore what constitutes an effective organizational apology from the perspective of organizational stakeholders. One hundred participants were asked to imagine being the victims of a data breach at an online retailer and to write the kind of apology they would like to receive from the organization. One hundred more participants were asked to write suggestion lists for how the organization could make its apology effective. These data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. Fifteen apology elements were identified and organized along two dimensions: (a) whether the element involved primarily words or behavior and (b) whether the element focused on fixing the problem or rebuilding relationships. Based on the data, these elements must be combined to make an apology effective with stakeholders.