Testing times: exploring staged responses and the impact of blame management strategies in two examination fiasco cases

Hood, C. and Jennings, W. and Dixon, R. and Hogwood, B.W. and Beeston, C. (2009) Testing times: exploring staged responses and the impact of blame management strategies in two examination fiasco cases. European Journal of Political Research, 48 (6). pp. 695-722. ISSN 0304-4130

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Abstract

This article examines the responses of ministers facing high levels of blame in the press after serious failures in the public exam system for school-leavers in Scotland in 2000 and England in 2002. It develops a method for systematic analysis and comparison of the behaviour of officeholders facing blame, tests the hypothesis that ministers will accept personal culpability only after other ways of handling blame have been exhausted and uses time series intervention models to show how one can estimate the impact of strategies on the next day's blame level. The basic sequencing hypothesis is partially upheld by the observed behaviour in these cases, though many other kinds of blame responses do not display a clear sequence. The intervention analysis also raises questions about the claimed effectiveness of presentational strategies for managing blame.

Author(s):Hood, C., Jennings, W., Dixon, R., Hogwood, B.W. and Beeston, C.
Item type:Article
ID code:19875
Keywords:testing times, staged responses, blame management, strategies, Local government Municipal government, Sociology and Political Science
Subjects:Political Science > Local government Municipal government
Department:Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > Government
Depositing user: Strathprints Administrator
Date deposited:10 Jun 2010 15:40
Last modified:20 Jan 2020 17:08
URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/19875
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