Falling on the sword: when and why to take blame

Abstract

Organizational failures can damage the responsible parties’ relationship and ability to work together on organizational tasks. Yet, we know relatively little about the micro-processes that contribute to interpersonal and organizational recovery. Integrating theories of organizational failure, apology, and trust, we examine the reparative power of statements made among the responsible parties. Contrasting responsibility-focused apologies (“taking blame”) with regret-focused apologies (“expressing regret”), and complementing apology research that focuses on statements made to non-responsible parties, we predict that taking blame will better repair the damage among the responsible parties, as indicated by organizationally-relevant reactions to the blame-taker. Four multi-method, multi-sample studies—one in a major management consulting firm—support this hypothesis and the predicted mediator (trustworthiness perceptions) and moderator (level of responsibility). These results build theory on the role of blame-taking in interpersonal and organizational recovery, providing guidance to organizational actors involved in failure.