The dynamic of employees’ trust in their organisation in a corporate brand crisis: the bounce-back effect of organisational identification

Given their increasing number, corporate brand crises are a subject of growing academic interest. Today's managers face a hostile and often uncontrollable external information environment. Maintaining the trust of employees during the turmoil is key to crisis resolution. Yet it is during crises that employee trust can be most threatened. Drawing on social identity theory, our paper aims to understand the conditions under which trust is destroyed and possibly repaired after a corporate brand crisis. Results from two experimental studies suggest that corporate brand crises lead to a decrease in employees' trust due to the threat to their social image. However, appropriate mitigation strategies can effectively repair trust by restoring employees' social status. This decline and repair dynamic is amplified among highly identified employees, suggesting that organisational identification plays a bounce-back effect in this mechanism.