Managing organizational reputation in response to a public shaming campaign

Highlights

•	We conduct a case study of a public, online shaming campaign on discrimination in sport.
•	Public shaming and Online Reputation Management (ORM) provide the theoretical lens.
•	When issues pre-exist but are not acted upon, online shaming can risk reputations.
•	Implications for organizational communications in sport and ORM are provided.

Abstract

Sport has embraced social media, intensifying the (online) coverage of sport organizations and athletes. Until now, the role that social media has played in the renaissance of public shaming in sport has received little attention. To address this gap, the authors present a novel case study of a public, online shaming campaign against an English Premier League football club by one of their own supporters. Data were collected from multiple sources, including online sources and organizational documents that informed both the creation of semi-structured interviews and the development of a process model of public, online shaming. Findings reveal how a supporter query was mishandled by the club. In response, the supporter turned-activist launched a low-scale online shaming campaign about disability discrimination. The campaign escalated in profile to gain national media attention. Within the framework of Online Reputation Management, the authors present the organizational response that sought to bolster the club’s reputation by deploying a series of internal and external responses. The authors conclude that to minimize the potentially negative effects of public shaming in sport, sports organizations should implement specific reputation management practices but ones that monitor online sources for potential issues and crises.

Keywords:

• Social media
• Public shaming
• Online reputation management
• Fan-activism
• Discrimination
• Accessibility

Acknowledgements

An early version of this paper was presented at the European Sport Management Association Conference in Warsaw, Poland by Dr. John Grady, University of South Carolina with some of the authors of this paper which contributed to the discussion of this emerging topic. This current paper has undergone substantial revisions. The authors would also like to thank to the journal editors and the two anonymous referees who also provided valuable feedback on earlier drafts.