Style matters: exploring the influence of style on the efficacy of organizational accounts

Abstract

Organizations facing allegations of ethical impropriety must account for their actions in order to repair stakeholder relationships and protect organizational interests. Past research has examined the impact of different types of accounts, such as excuses, justifications, denials, and concessions, on a variety of organizational outcomes. The current study uses an experiment to explore the role of linguistic style, or the manner in which the account is conveyed, in predicting the effectiveness of the account across three national contexts – India, China, and the United States. The results show that in all three countries a consultative account style is positively related to the effectiveness of the account. In the United States, a formal account style is negatively related to its effectiveness. In India and China a formal account style is negatively related to the account’s effectiveness when the magnitude of harm is high but not when the harm is low. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the man...