Impression Management and Reputation Defense in 19th Century Credit Rating: Dissertation Executive Summary

In this dissertation executive summary, I focus empirically on credit rating decisions by local offices within a prominent 19th Century credit rating agency, as the organization, as a whole, responded to external threats. Findings from this study show that the heightened accountability of reported performance feedback is an important factor shaping the nature of lower-level organizational response to evident failures in decision-making processes. Public failure, which engenders threat to the organization, heightens the need to justify decision-making processes at the local level. Though, these legitimacy-driven responses led to poorer quality decisions and less functional information.