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Mitroff (2005)Management > Crisis Management > Lectures > Independent Research > Mitroff's book >The effects of abnormal crises > Defence mechanisms > Victim and villain
Victim and the villainWe tend to demonise those those have hurt us in a crisis and see ourselves as the good and innocent victims. (Following this psychoanalytical route, we tend to project our bad emotions onto others, so it makes sense that we rid ourselves of any sort of bad feelings and put it onto who we regard as the perpetrator. This explains the polarity of perception between us, the victim, and the villain) When a crisis hits an organisation, the CEO is always the villain and employees the victims. In some circumstances this is not true, but in others it can be. Mitroff discusses "sociopathic capitalism", in which we seem to have a society which encourages sociopathic and psychopathic people to succeed, who will use a company to their own ends and feel no remorse. The example of Enron is used. To recover from a crisis, the villain needs to be forgiven for things to return to normal. This is quite difficult to do, as it involves "rehumanising" the demonised bad guy.
General Motors - outdated responses to crises Corporate emotional intelligence
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