Credit and Blame Archives - understand-culture

The Individual Who Did Not

In 2017 criminals hacked the credit reporting company Equifax. On October 3 its former chief executive, Richard Smith, testified before a House subcommittee. He traced the breach to a security patch that was never applied. “The human error was that the individual who’s responsible for communicating in the organization to apply the patch, did not.”

In the same hearing he said: “The criminal hack happened on my watch, and as CEO, I am ultimately responsible, and I take full responsibility.” Representative Greg Walden said: “Talk about ham-handed responses, this is simply unacceptable.”

Higher Levels

In 2004 photographs of American soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq became public. In August an independent panel led by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger reported to Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It found that “the abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards.” It added: “There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels.”

The panel opposed Rumsfeld’s resignation. Senator John Kerry, then running for president, said: “It’s not just the little person at the bottom who ought to pay the price of responsibility.”

The GM Nod and the GM Salute

In 2014 General Motors recalled cars with a faulty ignition switch. Its engineers had first noted the problem in 2001. The Valukas report, released on June 5, 2014, described two habits inside the company. The “GM nod”: “everyone nods in agreement to a proposed plan of action but then leaves the room and does nothing.” The “GM salute”: “a crossing of the arms and pointing outward towards others, indicating responsibility belongs to someone else.”

CEO Mary Barra said: “No one raised the issues to the highest level of the company.” GM forced out 15 employees. At the time GM counted at least 13 deaths. Barra said: “We are better than this. But we own this problem.”

The Vocabulary of Blame

Scapegoat. This is a person who is blamed for the failures of others.

Fall guy. This is the person who is set up to take the blame.

Take the fall. A person who takes the fall accepts the blame, often for something others did.

Pass the buck. To pass the buck is to push responsibility on to someone else.

Point fingers. People who point fingers blame others.

The blame game. In the blame game, everyone blames someone else.

Heads will roll. People will lose their jobs because of the failure.

Left holding the bag. This person is blamed after the others got away.

The Matthew Effect

In January 1968 Robert K. Merton of Columbia University published “The Matthew Effect in Science” in the journal Science. The name comes from the Gospel of Matthew: “For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance.” Merton described “the accruing of large increments of peer recognition to scientists of great repute.”

A Nobel laureate in physics put it simply: “the man who’s best known gets more credit, an inordinate amount of credit.”

The biologists R. C. Lewontin and J. L. Hubby described what happened to their joint work. Population geneticists, they wrote, “have consistently regarded Lewontin as the senior member of the team and given him undue credit for what was a completely collaborative work.”

Screenplay By

A Hollywood screenplay often passes through many writers. The screen credit names only a few. Under the rules of the Writers Guild of America, a screenplay credit “is normally shared by no more than two writers.” On an original screenplay, the first writer receives credit if his or her contribution is more than 33 percent of the final shooting script. A later writer who is not a production executive must contribute 50 percent.

When writers dispute a credit, three Guild members with no interest in the outcome decide. Credit affects a writer’s reputation, pay, residuals and future work.

For The Flintstones (1994), thirty-two writers took part in round-table sessions. The final writing credit named three people.

Gutless Leadership

In 2016 it became public that Wells Fargo employees had opened about 1.5 million unauthorized bank accounts and 565,000 credit cards in customers’ names. The bank paid a $185 million settlement and fired 5,300 employees.

On September 20 Senator Elizabeth Warren confronted CEO John Stumpf at a Senate hearing. “Instead, your definition of ‘accountable’ is to push the blame to your low-level employees.” She called it “gutless leadership.”

That’s My Fault, Totally

In Super Bowl XLIX the Seattle Seahawks trailed New England 28-24 with 26 seconds left, at the New England 1-yard line. Seattle chose to pass. Malcolm Butler intercepted, and the game was effectively over.

The head coach, Pete Carroll, said afterward: “I told those guys, ‘That’s my fault, totally.'” His offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, said of the receiver: “He could have done a better job of staying strong on the ball.”

Defeat Is an Orphan

In April 1961 the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba failed. On April 21 John F. Kennedy told reporters: “There’s an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.” He added that he was the responsible officer of the government.

Gallup then found his approval at 83%, up from 78% before the invasion. The saying was not his. A version appears in the 1942 diary of the Italian diplomat Count Galeazzo Ciano, who called it something that happens “as always.”

Buckner

In Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, the Boston Red Sox were one strike from winning their first championship since 1918. In the tenth inning the New York Mets tied it. Mookie Wilson hit a slow ground ball toward first base. Vin Scully called it on television: “Little roller up along first, behind the bag. It gets through Buckner.” The Mets won the game, and two days later the Series.

For years, Boston blamed first baseman Bill Buckner for the loss. He received death threats and moved his family to Idaho. In 2008 he came back to Fenway Park to throw out the first pitch at the home opener. The crowd gave him a two-minute ovation. A Boston newspaper headline read “All Is Forgiven.”