Principal speaker
Dr Nicole Gillespie
Abstract: This paper presents a holistic, contextualised case study of reintegration and trust repair at a UK utilities firm in the wake of its fraud and data misrepresentation scandal. Drawing upon conceptual frameworks of reintegration (Pfarrer, DeCelles, Smith and Taylor, AMR, 2008) and organisational trust repair (Gillespie and Dietz, AMR, 2009), we analyse the decisions and actions taken by the company in its efforts to reintegrate and restore trust with its stakeholders. The analysis reveals seven themes on the merits of proposed approaches (including open investigations, accurate explanations, apologies, penance, and systemic reforms), and novel insights on the role of organisational identity, and the necessity of ‘decapitation’ and cultural reforms, for reintegration after an integrity violation. The case further supports the dynamic nature of stakeholder salience across the reintegration process. The study both supports propositions from existing frameworks and suggests novel theoretical extensions for future research.
Speaker: Nicole Gillespie is Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of Queensland. Her research interests focus on trust in organisational contexts, particularly trust building and development in the workplace; designing trustworthy organisations; repairing trust after organisational failures; managing stakeholder trust; leadership; teams; organisational change; and employee engagement. Dr Gillespie's research is published in leading international journals including the Academy of Management Review, as well as books and book chapters. Her most recent co-edited book is Organizational Trust: A cultural perspective (Cambridge University Press).
Nicole is dedicated to translating her research into practice and she has written commissioned reports on Building and Repairing Organizational Trust for the Institute of Business Ethics in London (sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers) and is currently writing a policy note on restoring trust in the financial sector for the House of Lords, UK Parliament. She has consulted and conducted research for a range of public and private sector organisations, including UBS Bank, Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital, the Australian Army and several Australian universities. Dr Gillespie is an active member of the Academy of Management, the European Group of Organisational Studies, the European Institute of Advanced Studies in Management and ANZAM. She is Associate Editor of The Journal of Trust Research.
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