image restoration discourse

Because I’m interested in the images organizations attempt to create, maintain, change, and manage, I found the examples of image restoration discourse on p. 306 in Chapter 10 intriguing. Although I’m sure SJSU has had to apply some of these strategies in the past, today I decided to examine a university that had been put on probation by the NCAA.

Nicholls State University recently completed its probation for ethics violations. The University president blogged about the incident last February. (Interestingly, the comments function on the blog is not available.) The president used several strategies to restore the university’s image. First, he used defeasibility, indicating that had he known about the actions of others, he would have done something immediately. He also used the corrective action strategy, stating the new compliance officer “was directed to be more active in preventing violations on the front end rather than policing the Athletics Department for violations after the fact.” Near the end of the statement the university president says, “while the violations and the resulting penalties were painful and embarrassing, Nicholls State University has handled them with maturity and determination,” using the bolstering strategy by emphasizing the university’s positive traits.

Large corporations often come to mind when studying how organizations restore their images, yet all organizations have to address this issue. For colleges and universities, image is especially important in attracting students. A university may have plenty of wonderful programs, but if its image is poor due to inept responses to crisis situations, then students will go elsewhere.

~ Professor Cyborg