[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/BAshforth09.jpg” caption=”Blake Ashforth, Rusty Lyon Chair in Strategy at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. Photo by Julia Thomson.”]A telecommunications company deliberately overstates its earnings. A manufacturer illegally dumps waste products. A home repair company pads its invoices. Scandals such as these routinely appear in the media and are justifiably condemned by the public.

Certain scandals, however, appear to incite a higher level of shock and moral outrage. Take the case of JetBlue. The airline describes its purpose as bringing “humanity back to air travel.” On Feb. 14, 2007, a JetBlue flight headed to Cancun, Mexico was stranded on the runway in New York for almost nine hours due to icing problems. Passengers were kept on the flight the entire time. That same day, nine other JetBlue flights were similarly left stranded on the runway for more than eight hours.

Passengers were irate, JetBlue's stock fell, and the company's CEO issued an apology to customers. In an attempt to restore trust, JetBlue created a passenger Bill of Rights and re-committed to its core message. Why do events such as JetBlue's stranding of passengers engender a more powerful response?

Blake Ashforth, Rusty Lyon Chair in Strategy at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, says that shock and outrage tend to happen when a scandal contravenes the core ideals that have been sacred within an organization.

“In rendering certain ideals sacred, the organization attracts strong supporters,” he explains. “Supporters, however, can turn on the organization with equal vehemence if those ideals are seen to have been violated.”

Ashforth shared his studies on “Organizational Sacralization and Sacrilege” as part of the H. L. Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor program at the DeGroote School of Business. In his research to explain how sacrilege occurs, Ashforth has developed a 4-stage model that argues that individuals, organizations, and institutions are motivated to construct a sense of the inviolable. He then uses this model to explain how sacrilege undermines the relationships between individuals, organizations and institutions and to explain how organizations often attempt to recover from such violations.

“Ultimately, it is possible the organization can return to its former height, positioning itself as chastened but renewed and wiser, ever-vigilant for future problems. However, the more that an organization sets itself up as a moral exemplar, the greater the risk of organizational death if it flagrantly commits sacrilege,” says Ashforth.

The lecture was presented by the Human Resource Management Area at the DeGroote School of Business.