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This paper aims to analyze concealment and deception in self-defeating organizational crisis response strategies and the possible consequences of their adoption on a company’s reputation. It represents an example of where every guideline to address stakeholders after a crisis was dismissed.

This paper investigates a major environmental incident that took place in Colombia in 2013 and studies how the responsible company responded to the incident through the examination of company reports, media statements and national and international newspaper articles.

The analysis shows that in addition to environmental damage, the company’s reputation was affected by the way the company responded during this crisis.

The outcomes highlight the importance of the manner in which a crisis response is managed, as these types of mistakes often aggravate reputational damage.

This paper is an invitation for companies to be quick, consistent and transparent with their responses when facing their stakeholders in moments of crisis. Not doing so may aggravate not only social but also economic and environmental impacts.

Contrary to other contributions on the subject, this study implies that a misleading crisis response, including concealment and deception, can be an even greater challenge to a company’s reputation than the crisis itself.

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the cultural values which underpin the practice and acceptance of nepotism and cronyism in societies and organizations worldwide. We argue that there are advantages inherent in harnessing the resources of the social networks involved in nepotism and cronyism, but there are also major problems arising from the inequality and unfairness of these practices. A theoretical consideration of cultural values combined with illustrative cases is used to discuss nepotism and cronyism in different cultures. We suggest that nepotism and cronyism exist in all cultures but perception and discussion of these phenomena as well as the perceived gravity of their effects can vary according to the cultural values of egalitarianism and universalism, together with the economic development of the societies in which they occur.