The Rhetoric of Interorganizational Conflict: A Subgenre of Organizational Apologia

Abstract

Theorists focusing on organizational apologia or crisis response have developed broad typologies describing strategies available to organizational actors in a crisis situation, but have failed to describe specific strategic patterns as in other genres. A recent essay explains this situation based on the existence of two somewhat contrasting purposes in organizational apologia (image maintenance and image repair), and argues the best approach is to identify subgenres within the larger category. The present essay uses the Ford/Firestone tread separation crisis to build a case for the existence of a subgenre of interorganizational conflict, a subgenre in which two organizations functioning as strategic partners are each threatened. The essay concludes by arguing a crisis involving strategic partners, in which neither is willing to assume sole responsibility for the crisis, will develop through three predictable stages.