Blog post 3 – based
on Nicole’s post titled: “A Word Can Tear Your World Apart.”
CEO = Chief
Ethical Officer ?
Thanks Nicole!
Thanks to Nicole’s blogpost, I had the chance to learn about a crisis I didn’t really paid
attention to when it actually happened. Moreover, the crisis Papa John’s Pizza
faced is quite unique when considering the particularity of the stakeholders at
play. As we read in Nicole’s post, John Schnatter (The founder of Papa John’s
Pizza) was evinced from his own company after using the n-word during a conference call
with the marketing company working for Papa John’s. He firstly stepped down
from the CEO position followed by retrieval of his image from all marketing
campaigns. The company facing a huge reputation crisis due to one bad word
tried to save the day by distancing itself completely from John Schnatter. I
will try to further identify the mechanisms at stake through this post.
Reputation
Having one human being at the head
of executive operations AND as the main face of the company is a hard trick to
pull off. Humans are not perfect, humans make mistakes, humans are irrational.
The risk to face reputational crises is pretty high when the rope that holds an
multi-billion company together is so thin. And it broke.
According to Coombs (1999),
organizations determinate their communication to preserve the relationships
with the different stakeholders during and after the crisis, which is the most
important time period to minimize long-term effects. Unfortunately for the Papa
John’s company, the negative snowball effect went faster than all communication
strategies. Since the stakeholders simultaneously feared being associated with
Papa John’s, we witnessed a massive de-solidarization. The main partners among
which the NFL League ended their collaboration with the company. The public
bought less pizzas, leading to decreasing stock value, followed by less
confidence in the strength of the company, and so on goes the vicious circle.
Crisis starts
Papa John's Pizza
NASDAQ: PZZA
Source: Google
Competing frames
Competing frames in crisis
communication encompasses the dynamics of highlighting different parts of the
situation to influence how the stakeholders will construct their opinions on
the subject. News media, the organization itself or the public may speak
differently about the same crisis resulting on what is called competing
frames by Nijkrake et al., 2015.
In the Papa John’s affair, the
frame firstly emphasized by the news media is the obvious morality side of the
story by mentioning John Schnatter’s slurry words and the ethical concerns
around it. The company however stresses the fact that John Schnatter is no
longer related to the company. Furthermore, mr. Schnatter opens a website to defend his ideas. He claims
that the current strategic board caused “irreparable harm” to the company and
instigated a lawsuit. This added an opportunity for the media
to highlight the conflictual frame when mentioning the affair, increasing the
dissonant and fragmentated image of Papa John’s Pizza.
Ethical management
Today more than ever, being
transparent and ethical is a must for any organization. Besides the fact that
it should be inherent to any project on our planet, including the ethical
aspect into the public image of the company has become a “trend”. This is
mostly the case for environmental causes since it is at the heart of the public
agenda.
Regardless the potential misuse
(greenwashing), ethical management toward the employees of a company, its
public, the shareholders, the planet or any environmental (all that surrounds)
element consists in the most valuable, stable, and long-lasting quality of any
organization (any organized group of humans).
Ethical leadership requires that
you develop an ethical leadership reputation. Reputation depends on how people
perceive you as a moral manager and a moral person. A moral person is defined
by who he is and what he does while making sure these aspects transpire to
others. The moral manager makes sure he is and is perceived by others as a role
model for moral conduct holding everyone accountable to these values.
“Ethical leadership pays dividends in employee pride, commitment, and
loyalty—all particularly important in a full employment economy in which good
companies strive to find and keep the best people.” (Trevino et al.,
2000)
In a case where the leader is
emblematic as John Schnatter was for Papa John’s Pizza, ethical leadership is
the most crucial aspect to embody 24/7 in order to keep a sane business
running.
 |
| Source: Industryweek.com |
About the
author:
Gaspar de Bellefroid is an
Entertainment communication master student at the University of Amsterdam. He
discovered his first academic interests in the research of potential positive
effects of media on individuals.
Literature inspiration:
Coombs, W. T. (2007). Protecting
organization reputations during a crisis: The development and application of
situational crisis communication theory. Corporate reputation review, 10(3),
163-176. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550049
“Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop a Reputation for
Ethical Leadership.” California management review. 42.4 (2000). 10.2307/41166057
