Hospitals with a Tarnished Reputation: Stealing Thunder, Concealment Intention, and Learning from an Organizational and Industrial History of Crisis Concealment

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how disclosure type and disclosure time have impacts on organizational reputation when medical negligence occurs and whether the mechanism of concealment intention and offensiveness attribution serially mediates the relationship between stealing thunder and organizational reputation. The study also explores the moderating effects of an organizational/industrial history of crisis concealment. Based on three scenario-based experiments, the results demonstrate that, compared to a media disclosure, the self-disclosure effect elicits lower concealment intention and higher organizational reputation. The longer the disclosure time, the higher the concealment intention and the lower the organizational reputation. The findings also show that the effect of disclosure type on organizational reputation is mediated serially by concealment intention and offensiveness attribution. In addition, for hospitals with an organizational history of crisis concealment, the effect of stealing thunder on concealment intention and organizational reputation was weaker. Further, under an industrial history of crisis concealment, the public perceived lower concealment intention and higher organizational reputation when the media disclosed the current crisis case.

KEYWORDS:

• Concealment intention
• history of crisis concealment
• offensiveness attribution
• organizational reputation
• self-disclosure
• stealing thunder

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Science and Technology Council [MOST 111-2410-H-037-017 -SSS].