earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to investigate image restoration strategies practiced by the government office in the context of crisis management. Computer malfunction in the Education Office of the Gyoung-Gi Province caused confusions over the allocation of students to local high schools. The study chose this case to rhetorically analyze image restoration strategies practiced by the government office in South Korea. Categorization used in the Benoit(1995) was cited as the analysis frame. The categories include denial (simple denial, shifting the blame), evading responsibility (provocation, defeasibility, accidents, good intentions), reducing offensiveness of event (bolstering, minimization, mortification, and silence. Results showed that corrective action would be one of the most visible image restoration strategies. The Education Office utilized the provocation or scapegoat strategy frequently to quench the public wrath. However, most strategies were not devised through organizational agreement, thus caused shoddier consequences. ‘Accidents’, ‘good intentions’ and ‘transcendence’ strategies were also applied. This study did not target at achieving the causal relationship between image restoration strate- gies and organizational effectiveness. Thus, successfully applying the Benoit frame into the Korean situation should satisfy the research purpose.