Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelation of reputation with corporate
performance in a crisis and consider the factors that make up the balance between strong recovery,
bare survival and failure. The emphasis is on corporate communication and corporate governance.
Design/methodology/approach – The current debate on reputation and the validity of the term
reputation management is reviewed and cases studies from Australia and the UK are examined.
Findings – The paper finds that, in the case studies, poor management, unethical practices, a lack of
engagement with customers and other stakeholders, indifferent or aggressive performances by CEOs
and lack of preparedness for crisis communication severely or terminally affected the organisations. It
identifies a new reputational factor of predictability and considers why some organisations survive a
crisis that has strong negative ethical dimensions while others fail.
Originality/value – This paper scrutinises existing concepts of reputation and reputation
management and finds that they are not able to predict recovery, survival or failure of
organisations. A new definition of reputation is put forward and the factor of predictability is
emphasised in proposals for new applied theory
