Posts tagged as:

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin Reads AuthenticOrganizations.com!?

by cv harquail on July 3, 2009

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An amazing discovery! Someone from Wasilla (Alaska) reads AuthenticOrganizations.com! And not just “lands on the page”. Oh, no. We’re talkin’ 3 pageviews and 1.27 minutes online— in one visit alone!

Oh, the modern miracle that is Google Analytics.

I was showing an academic-colleague-who-wants-to-learn-to-blog how to use Google Analytics to gather some nifty data on who visits a blog and what they do once they get there. Showing off the (amazing to me) array of countries and then cities where readers of AuthenticOrganizations.com reside (or rather, where they log in from), I was surprised to discover, nestled in there between Makiti and Ingolstadt, the city of Wasilla.

I won’t tell you which pages s/he visited, (privacy issues and all) but I do want to send her a shout out and a big New Jersey welcome!

So back to the academic-colleague-who-wants-to-learn-to-blog, I think he was impressed. After all, while many management scholars can say their work is published in important academic journals, how many can say that the woman-who-might-have-/-might-still-be-POTUS has read their work?!

Wondering were I’m going with this?

You, too, management scholar, can become a blogger and reach thoughtful readers in 187 cities around the globe. You too can find other scholars, practicing managers, E/MBA students, consultants, social media advisors, non-profit innovators, and anyone else interested in topics dear to your mind&heart, all by blogging.

“But isn’t it hard to blog? Won’t it distract me from science?” you ask. Fear not! Check this out:

Are you an Academy of Management Member and Management Scholar who is curious about the role that blogs can play in your professional world?
Have you wondered how to find relevant blogs, create an efficient blog-reading practice, comment effectively on other people’s blogs, write for a group blog, or maybe even start your own blog?

Join us at the Academy of Management for a workshop on Blogging for Management Scholars: Why & How to Read Blogs, Write for Blogs, and Create your Own Blog, being held Friday, Aug 7 2009.

This workshop follows an innovative modular format, with three phased sessions that will teach members how to use blogs at three levels of increasing engagement, from reading to writing to publishing ones own blog. And, the workshop includes a group blogging opportunity that will run during and after the Academy meetings.

* Phase 1 (8 am – noon) introduces the medium and the active community of management scholar blogs for those who want to read and comment on blogs effectively.

* Phase 2 (1 pm to 3 pm) teaches participants how to find their niche, to adjust their writing paradigm, and to contribute to existing blogs as writers.

* Phase 3 ( 3 pm – 6 pm) will have a smaller, limited enrollment. Phase 3 will teach the basics of creating your own blog.

The workshop combines informational presentations, a panel discussion by eight management scholar-bloggers, roundtable conversations, and hands-on exercises, as well as the open invitation to blog at www.InsightsToActions.com.

Pre-work (available online at www.InsightsToActions.com) will establish a basic level of understanding, and a post-session group-blogging experiment open to the Academy will let participants apply what they learn. Participants will clarify their blog-related scholarly opportunities, their blog community, their topical niche and their authorial voice. Participants will leave this workshop (1) aware of the opportunities that blogs offer management scholars, (2) able to identify, understand and use the major features of a blog, (3) understanding the array of blogs being published by management scholar colleagues, and (4) able to participate at their desired level of engagement.

Pre-registration is requested, at https://secure.aomonline.org/PDWReg. Colleagues interested in participating in the limited-enrollment Phase 3 of the Workshop should contact CV Harquail directly, at cvharquail@AuthenticOrganizations.com. 200907031251.jpg (That would be me.) The deadline to register online is July 10, 2009.

You too can influence readers and practitioners far and wide, outside your classroom, your university and your favorite journals! Come to the workshop and learn how!

Note: Although I can’t promise that Governor Palin will be there (But Sarah, you know you’re invited!! [And now you'll have the free time ! 7.4.09]) the workshop will be facilitated by several of the cutting-edge management scholars whose blogs you might also read.

And, the workshop will be attended by management scholars with a yen for innovation and a vision of the future

— like you?

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What Do Sarah Palin, Bill Marriott and John Templeton, Jr. Have In Common?

by cv harquail on November 17, 2008

They are all damaging some organization’s reputation, by causing "collateral reputation damage ® ".

Sarah Palin, right-wing Republican Sarah Palin is causing collateral reputation damage to Palin Wine.

bill marriott CEO of Marriott Hotels, Mormom, proposition 8 Bill Marriott is causing collateral reputation damage to The Marriott Hotels & Resorts Corporation.

John Templeton Jr., MD Proposition 8 supporter John Templeton Jr., MD, is causing collateral reputation damage to the John Templeton Foundation .

Palin, Marriott and Templeton — perhaps unintentionally yet certainly unavoidably — are all causing damage to organizations with which they are associated. These associations range from the spurious to the serious, but in each case, the associations are leading the organizations’ public stakeholders to downgrade the organizations’ reputations.

What is Collateral Reputation Damage ® ?

Collateral reputation damage is damage done to an organization’s reputation when advocacy by individuals or groups who may or may not be associated with the organization is interpreted by stakeholders as being action by the organization itself. It is collateral damage, not intentional damage, because the folks taking action don’t intend to damage the organization’s reputation. Instead, the damage occurs through"guilt by association".

Three Cases, Three pathways to damage

In all three cases:

  1. The organization and the individual share the same distinctive name.
  2. The organizations & their products have lost public support.
  3. The organizations themselves are innocent.

Although the cases of Palin, Marriott and Templeton share these three features, each one has some distinctive elements worth examining in more detail. With this post, I’ll explain the concept of collateral reputation damage and illustrate it with the simplest case, that of Sarah Palin and Palin Wine. In subsequent posts, I’ll unpack what makes the Marriott and Templeton cases so interesting. …

palin_syrah_limari Tarred by the same-name brush

The easiest way for collateral damage to occur is when the organization (or product) and an individual share the same name. This is what’s happening in the case of Palin Wines– especially with their Syrah.

There is absolutely no relationship between the organization that produces Palin Wines and the politician Sarah Palin. The association between Palin Syrah and Palin (Sarah) is clearly coincidental; everyone knows that Sarah Palin lives in Alaska, an area not known for its vineyards. And Sarah Palin is more interested in the war on terror than the preservation of terroir.

Yet, the name "Palin" conjures up a certain set of values, which get transferred from one Palin to the other, through the cognitive processes of attribute transfer. People who do not support what Palin does or what she stands for establish a negative assessment of the Palin wine. When they think of Palin Wine, they think less of it, because they associate it with a person whose actions, etc. they disagree with.

Association leads to loss of public support…

Even though only a name is shared between Palin and Palin , liberal consumers have responded negatively to the wine. Maybe they are unconsciously acting on their distaste for what the Governor advocates, maybe they are jokingly demonstrating that they can’t swallow a ‘conservative’ perspective.

Whatever it is, some liberal customers are (either jokingly or unconsciously) rejecting the Palin Wine as a way to demonstrate that they reject what it stands for in their minds. They have chosen not to order this wine in restaurants or to purchase it at wine stores, and this has lead to a steep decline in sales of Palin Wines. (It’s not clear whether right-wing wine consumers have increased their consumption of Palin Syrah.)

… Even though the organization is innocent.

Down in Chile, Viñedos Organicos Emiliana, lead by winemaker Alvaro Espinoza (the winemaker who introduced biodynamic viticulture into South America) works hard to produce their organic wines. Over at North Berkeley Imports, they "look for independent growers who… ideally farm their land naturally (often organically or biodynamically)" and who share their vision.

Even though their organizations have no relationship at all to Sarah Palin or to right-wing politics, these organizations are being penalized. Their reputations have been damaged, through no fault of their own.

And the irony is —

Both the winemaker and wine importer are organizations that are committed to values that many liberals (the same folks dismissing the wine) would otherwise embrace.

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The Lyin’, the Which? , and The Wardrobe: Palin’s new clothes cost her more than $150,000

October 23, 2008

Sarah , Sarah , Sarah . Just when I’m ready to move on to other topics, you serve up yet another opportunity to understand organizations and authenticity. This time, the lessons are all about image, and the relationship between how we present ourselves and who we really are.
If Palin’s wardrobe upgrade [...]

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Mix Fake and Real, the Palin Way

October 8, 2008

People are hungry for authentic leaders and authentic organizations .  Assessing an organization’s authenticity or a candidate’s authenticity is one way that we gauge where to place our trust. To entice people to trust us, we need to make them think the organization is authentic. Sometimes, we may even want to create "Fake [...]

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4 Ways Palin Creates a Fake “Reality”

October 3, 2008

In my earlier post, Use Real Authenticity to Establish Fake Authenticity: Sarah Palin shows organizations how , I argue that Palin is a useful role model for organizations in the way that she has gone about creating "Fake Authenticity."
Establishing Fake Authenticity has two steps, and in this post I’ll discuss Step 1: Creating [...]

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