Tua culpa: When an Organization Blames Its Partner for Failure in a Shared Task

Abstract

We examine the growing but understudied phenomenon of organizational blame shifting in the wake of failure in an interorganizationally shared task. Organizational blame shifting, which can take private as well as public forms, represents an organization’s attempt to shape both the partner’s and the public’s sensemaking of the failure. Blame shifting enables an organization to limit its financial responsibility and contain potential reputational damage after failure. However, when organizations shift blame, they expose themselves to the risks of relationship dissolution and backlash from the public. We examine the cost-benefit analysis that drives organizational blame shifting, detail the failure-level and organization-level factors behind such decisions, and identify several outcomes of organizational blame shifting. This article contributes to the literature on interorganizational work relationships by shedding light on the mechanisms of organizational blame shifting.