When Disaster Strikes: Corporate Social Irresponsibility and Social Blaming

Abstract

Studies on corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) and the social theory of ignorance have attracted considerable attention from organizational researchers. Notably, most of the studies on CSI have explored ambiguities around the concept and understanding of the phenomenon as the opposite of CSR. On the other hand, studies on ignorance have emphasized how corporations strategically promote ignorance and doubt to achieve their interests. However, little is known regarding how companies and actors that are at risk of being held responsible may strategically mobilize misinformation about an event of CSI. Drawing upon these theories and adding a discursive dimension of ignorance in CSI events, we state that willful ignorance arguments might prevent attributions of culpability and blame in the context of organizational disasters. We highlighted that in CSI incidents, ignorance plays an important role by creating powerful rhetoric of misinformation. Organizational actors may do so using three tactics of ignorance: (1) denying responsibility, (2) concealing information, and (3) persuading the audience. We used a qualitative single-case study to explore a CSI case, namely, the Samarco dam collapse. Our contribution extends the work on CSI and the social theory of ignorance, including the notion of ignorance as a discursive process. The results of this study show that organizations can use willful ignorance to manage their culpability in industrial accidents or unethical management actions.