Reputation from Nested Activities: The Inefficient Effects of Scapegoating
نویسنده
چکیده
——————————————————————————————————Scapegoating is often said to be a source of inefficiency in organizations. In this paper, I analyze the consequences of scapegoating within a firm in amodel where reputation concerns drive the actions of superiors. Consider delegation choices, for example. Hiring efficient workers may be a good idea if successful production is the only way to build reputation. But if successful scapegoating also increases reputation, superiors will tend to hire less efficient workers and will eventually blame them for failures. I characterize scapegoating as an activity ”nested” after failures. Even though the results of scapegoating do not affect welfare directly, they do so indirectly through the decisions governing the probability of success in production. We examine how activities ”nested” after good results may increase efficiency without relying on costly incentives and why superiors tend to hire better workers during good times. ————————————————————————————————————————— *E-mail: [email protected]. I would like to thank David K. Levine, Joe Ostroy, Larry Samuelson, Vasiliki Skreta, Jeroen Swinkels, Bill Zame, as well as seminar participants at UCLA, Minnesota, and Washington University in St. Louis, for useful comments. The usual waiver of liability applies. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis or the Federal Reserve System.
منابع مشابه
Dont ask why things went wrong Nested Reputation and Scapegoating Ine¢ ciencyy
Scapegoating is a source of ine¢ ciency in organizations. This is a commonly held view. But despite its commonality and its use as a justi cation for reforms designed to reduce scapegoating, no formal model has been developed to explain why and when this is the case. We propose an explanation by focusing on how superiors make decisions inside an organization when they only care about reputation...
متن کاملDetection of Ornithobilharzia turkestanikum cercaria (trematoda) by nested-PCR in intermediate host snail, Lymnaea gedrosiana
Trematodes are important in economic and public health. Ornithobilharzia turkestanicum (O. turkestanicum) is one of the important economic trematodes in domestic animals. Ornithobilharzia infection in intermediate host (Lymnaea gedrosiana ) can be detected by either exposing snails to light to induce cercarial shedding or by squeezing them between glass slides to detect parasites. The current...
متن کاملA dual-motive model of scapegoating: displacing blame to reduce guilt or increase control.
The authors present a model that specifies 2 psychological motives underlying scapegoating, defined as attributing inordinate blame for a negative outcome to a target individual or group, (a) maintaining perceived personal moral value by minimizing feelings of guilt over one's responsibility for a negative outcome and (b) maintaining perceived personal control by obtaining a clear explanation f...
متن کاملReputation Risk Management in the Framework of Enterprise Risk Management: Evidences from an Active Financial Institution in the Capital Market of Iran
Reputation risk as one of the most important risks in any competitive industry and market should be considered before all the risks of the enterprise which also affects other risks. This research aims to review and manage reputation risk in the framework of enterprise risk management. Considering the importance of the subject and lack of available studies in this field, the innovation of presen...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2009