Question

Defending the Self

How do you respond to blame? Do you justify your actions, make an excuse, or refuse to admit any wrongdoing? Do you admit you are wrong and apologize?

When confronted with blame, consider your relationship with the people in the situation. How do those relationships influence your defensive account? Your choices when defending yourself have far-reaching consequences if mishandled. As you negotiate these situations, the importance of politeness, saving face, and maintaining a positive public image come into play.

In this Discussion, you analyze defensive strategies in a business environment. You also differentiate the internal and external reasons behind different types of defensive accounts.

To prepare:

Review this week’s Learning Resources.

Think about a business scenario in which someone defended himself or herself with a justification or excuse. You could be involved, or you could be an observer.

Consider the use of defensive strategies in a business environment.

Consider the relationship between internal and external rationale.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post at least 250 words responding to the following:

Describe the business scenario related to the justification or excuse.

Explain the defensive strategies you noticed.

Was the reason for the justification or excuse internal or external? Why does this matter?

Answer 1

Defensive strategy in a business environment is a type of competitive strategy used in a business environment, so as to defend an offensive strategy used by the competitor.Offensive strategy is another type of competitive strategy, wherein the competitor of a firm or organization is directly targeted.In such a case, the firm or organisation targeted, may respond or rather “defend” the same by using counter defensive strategies.This is a psychological tool used by businesses to either target a competitor or defend one’s company, so as to avoid dissolution.

Such strategies are generally used when a company or firm is facing certain financial issues or losses due to the success of the competitor or when a such a company or firm is targeting one’s own company due to the same reason.Eg:A Coca Cola ad throwing shade or demeaning another aerated beverage company or vice versa.

There are a plethora of reasons as to why a company would choose to try out such offensive strategies, both internally and externally.But lets talk about the internal and external factors contributing to the usage of defensive accounts.

External- External factors could be anything ranging from the diminishing goodwill of the company due to bad consumer reviews or preferences of the consumer towards the competitor’s products, tethering the name and brand of the company.

Internal-Internal factors can range from financial losses due to the same or miscommunications between the top level and low level management of the company,resulting in employees leaving the company and joining the competitor’s company.

The external and internal factors contributing to the usage of these defensive accounts can be analysed with the help of a SWOT analysis which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses,Opportunities and Threats.

Lets take an example of a business scenario wherein an employee uses a defensive strategy.

Eg:Aron works at business firm and has been working there for a couple of years.His boss sends him and the other employees an email stating the information and details of the meeting that is to be held the next month.The next month arrives and Aron finds himself completely clueless about the meeting.His boss gives him a firing and calls him irresponsible.Aron defends himself by saying that he never received any mail regarding the meeting and that he has never been irresponsible in all these years that he has worked for this firm.Eventually,the boss realises that it was his fault and that he had missed out on Aron when sending the email.

In this scenario, Aron justifies himself by stating the facts.This is his defensive strategy as his job is at risk and it is not his fault.So, we can conclude that a defensive strategy is used particularly to justify and defend one’s company or in this case, actions.Any business may use defensive strategies to improve their business or to avoid tethering their business.