the patriots, the soviets, and reputation durability
Brayden raised some interesting issues in his review of Lauren Rivera’s work. It reminded me of an earlier comment Brayden had on reputation, referencing Gary Alan Fine. Your image and reputation depends a great deal on the quality of your defenders (reputation managers). Now here’s a question I haven’t seen answered in my rather limited readings in symbolic interactionism: how bad do things have to get for your reputation (national or individual) gets tarnished? When does it get so bad that your reputation managers can’t do much?
For example, there have been allegations that the Patriots have violated a number of NFL rules- does that undermine their reputation? Who repairs the damage? Or chosing an extreme example and returning to Lauren Rivera’s work: how would her arguments explain how some very, very bad states still manage to attract defenders? Cuba, for example, is known for its authoritarian state, but yet it still draws many apologists. Heck, there are still sizable numbers of people who claim that the starvation in 50’s China or 30’s USSR wasn’t such a big deal. Is that state impression management, or do certain kinds of intellectuals just have too big a stake in bad-boy states?
Re the Patriots: Yes, I absolutely think that the scandal has tarnished their reputation. Before the taping thing, their reputation was that of an organization that did things the right way; they won, and they did it through hard work and good coaching. Now people wonder what other corners they were willing to cut. Belichek, in particular, has been hurt. You’ll see this haunt him when he comes up for the Hall of Fame. He may get in, but not without some controversy.
I think one implication from Rivera’s study is that while reputation is sticky and difficult to change, it is still malleable to the degree that actors use savvy impression management (i.e., are effective reputational entrepreneurs). So reputation = observable quality indicators * impression management.
brayden
July 22, 2008 at 1:53 pm