Reputation Crisis Management: the Gap between Theory and Practice

Corporate reputation management has been broadly discussed in the last decade. Many academics and experts pay attention to model and theory development regarding reputation building and maintenance. However, in modern management there is still no consensus to define the term ¿reputation¿. Moreover, very few management experts have studied reputational changes during times of crisis. Thus, this dissertation will analyse existing reputational definitions; explore how crisis affects organisational processes, and activities and how reputation changes during the crisis. The major focus will be on examination of financial indicators and the media communications of BP plc. and ExxonMobil during the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico and Exxon Valdez in Alaska respectively. The research suggests the basic assumption that reputational crisis hits companies in a financial way might not seem correct as the analysis showed that corporate reputation could be damaged while organisational financial performance did not experience difficulties.