Chapter 8: Corporate Champions: Coming to the Defense of Organizations

When will people stand up to defend organizations that are criticized or accused of wrongdoing? This chapter explores the concept of “corporate championship,” the proactive behaviors engaged in by an individual to defend an organization against outside threats. In this chapter, I explain how corporate championship can be distinguished from organizational citizenship. I develop a model of corporate championship based on the organizational identification and organizational justice literatures, and suggest some factors that might predict when an individual will defend an organization rather than protect his or her self-identity by disassociating from the organization.