Corporate Impression Management And Public Moral Judgement

After the Sanlu milk powder incident, food safety issues as the representative of the enterprise crisis is still emerging and getting worse. If the company’s crisis is inevitable, what kind of impression management strategies the company should take, as well as the impact of this strategy on how to take the public’s moral judgments and other issues after the crisis. It will be the focus of this thesis.In this study, we select some typical negative events, such as product damage, environmental pollution, force work, and we use the approaches of surveys, situational and field study to understand the impression management strategy in this study. This thesis focuses on the impression management strategies when the enterprise faced with the negative events, and the differences of the impression management strategies for public moral judgment. By situation study and field study, we research out the influence of the impression management strategies for public moral in the perspective of attribution and responsibility, and used the demonstration method to reveal the mathematical relation of the variable. In addition, this thesis proposes the comprehensive advice on enterprise impression management according to the findings of theory and practice. This exploration of the intersection field will provide a basis for the development of impression management theory, and service for enterprise impression management in China.Based on the attribution theory and the five benchmarks theory of moral judgments, this thesis builds the impression management strategies of enterprise and the overall framework of public moral judgments. We try to investigate the mainimpression management strategies, such as ignore, deny, apologize, explain, apologize & explain, for the influence of public moral judgment, when the company respond to the crises. In addition, we try to investigate the relationship among the public‘s attribution, responsibility judgement, emotional reaction and public‘s moral judgment.This study follows the positivist paradigm and combines theoretical research with empirical analysis. We use various approaches, such as reference research, theoretical analysis, and interviews with a variety of survey methods, situational experiments and field study, to demonstrate the conclusion.Firstly, we studied enterprise impression management strategy and identifiedseveral common strategies of enterprise impression management by the method of interview. And then, based on impression management strategy among the public popularity, we sorted it in descending order. Finally, we divided the main impression management strategies into two categories of positive and passive strategies. The result laid the foundation of study for situational study and field study.Secondly, we analyzed the relationship between related issues and primary variables using situation experiment in two steps. One background of situation experiment is in the same enterprise using different impression management strategy, and the other is in cross enterprise. Using the approach of difference sidentification, correlation analysis and structural equation model, we checked the hypothesis many times.In addition, we verify the results of experiments using the method of field study combined with the crises events of real corporate.Through the interview, situational study and field study, the research results as the following:(1) After the crises events, the most common impression management strategies of the enterprise include deny, ignore, explanation, apology, explanation & apology. Deny and ignore are the negative strategies. Explanation, apology, apology & explanation are the positive strategies. In addition, deny is the most negative strategy, apology & explanations is the most positive strategy.(2) The negative impression management strategy will lead to a lower degree of moral judgment in public. The positive impression management strategy will lead to a greater degree of moral judgment in public. Apology & explanation strategy got the best degree of moral judgment in public.(3) The stronger internal attribution and controllability attribution in public will result in the stronger responsibility and emotional response. It will lead to a greater degree of inference degree and produce more immoral judgment. By contrast, it will help the enterprise reduce the degree of corporate responsibility inference and relax the emotional reaction of the public. The level of the enterprise immoral judgment will be improved at the same time.This study extends the literatures in the field of enterprise impression management strategies and public moral judgments. It enriches the Weiner‘s theory of attribution in positivism. Research findings have significant meaning for enterprises to deal with the crisis more effectively.Firstly, the enterprise controls the internal reason of the crisis incidents. The enterprise can ensure the quality of decision by building the flexible design and process. In addition, the enterprise can improve the ability for facing crisis incidents by improving the structural design and strengthening the safety training, etc.Secondly, the enterprise ought to prevent the probable crisis source and bring the detailed operating procedures and managerial actions for the crisis source. It can root out the factor to the crisis as naturally as possible.In addition, the relevant enterprise ought to take responsibility and acknowledge his error actively. The source of moral crisis is that the enterprise lost the public trust. Therefore, the enterprise ought to communicate openly with the public and take responsibility actively. It is a very efficient method to face the public positively. When the enterprise faces the public openly, the public possibily forgive them.Finally, the relevant enterprise ought to make a commitment to give the victim an amends and punish the responsible person, and fulfill his promise. It should improve the preventing measures and be open to public scrutiny. Meanwhile, it should make a promise that the same crisis does not happen again. The intention is to be well received by the public and regain the original and potential consumer.