Recovering From Reputation Damage

Abstract

Abstract Reputation damage is common to us all. Drawing on an extreme case study of a research project on seventy white-collar inmates led by Navdeep Arora, we outline the stages of recovery from reputation loss. We show that the way individuals lose their reputation has an impact on their ability to recover. We find that while the literature has emphasized the importance of contribution reputation and character reputation, which are a function of how others perceive you based on your past actions, they do not capture contexts when others perceive you based on their assessment of your ability to provide value in the future, which we capture through the concept of contribution reputation. Surprisingly, despite the monumental difficulties inmates faced in coming to terms with their reputation loss, many recognized that their setbacks were an important turning point, triggering reflection and an opportunity for renewal and betterment.