In classical literature, an apology can mean a defense, such as
Plato’s Apology. In modern parlance, an apology is known as an
expression of genuine sorrow and an acceptance of responsibility for having
caused harm to another person. According to Business Ethics for Dummies,
corporate apologies should be sincere, as soon as possible, and be coupled with
a correction to the problem.[1] Consumers should be on
guard lest a company use the semblance of an apology for marketing purposes,
and, more generally, to manipulate,
which in itself belies the “apology.” Robert Bacal advises that an apology be
used as a strategy to use “along with other techniques.”[2] An apology as a technique in a strategy is a means, and
thus as such it harbors ulterior motives. This invites “perfunctory or
insincere apologies,” which are “worse than saying nothing at all.”[3] Even a sincere apology
as a means to get something suffers from ulterior motives. For example, Bacal advises
that a “sincere apology can help calm a customer, particularly when you or your
company has made an error. You can apologize on behalf of your company.”[4] A sincere
apology is mutually exclusive with an ulterior motive, especially one that
is self-beneficial in some way; the orientation must be to the error. The
manager who wants to give the impression of an apology in
order to disarm the aggrieved customer therefore falls short, for such
manipulation eclipses genuine sorrow.
The full essay is at "A Nietzschean Critique of Customer Service."
See also the non-duplicate section on apologies in ch. 4 of On the Arrogance of False Entitlement: A Nietzschean Critique of Business Ethics and Management, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.
1. Norman Bowie and Meg Schneider, Business
Ethics for Dummies (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2011), 239.
2. Robert Bacal, Perfect
Phrases for Customer Service, 2nd Edition (New York: McGraw
Hill, 2011), 19. Italics added.
3. Robert Bacal, Perfect Phrases for
Customer Service, 2nd Edition (New York: McGraw Hill,
2011), 19.
4. Robert Bacal, Perfect Phrases for
Customer Service, 2nd Edition (New York: McGraw Hill,
2011), 19.
