It may sound trite, but managers really do compromise or
expunge their company’s reputational capital altogether in order to chase down
the additional revenue obtainable from a market segment that had been
extraneous to the reputation. If the new advertisements have a Janus-like
duplicitousness air, the source is not likely even to admit to the previously
long-held principles. Indeed, the contrivance can be discerned from the way in
which artful managers use words themselves—stretching them for an intended
effect well past their respective meanings and customary usages. Unfortunately,
the made-up diction can be contagious in a society that esteems organizational
position. I have in mind Jet Blue’s switch from its egalitarian single-class
cabins to the first/coach bifurcated model. Left in the jet-wash is the company’s
long-standing principle of egalitarianism, lost in the anticipation of more
revenue from business travelers.
