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Are the bankers, politicians and state bodies truly sorry?

Date: 05 Jul 2009

Published: Sunday Independent Business

Author: Dr. Eleanor O'Higgins, Senior Lecturer, UCD Smurfit School

The battered Irish public is due apologies from a motley band of wrongdoing bankers, builders, politicians, clergy and state bodies.  A few have said ‘sorry’, but was it a genuine apology?

A genuine apology must possess some key elements:

1. Regret – real remorse for harming others.  It also means taking responsibility for one’s wrongdoing – but saying “I’m sorry it happened” is standard banker’s mantra.  It means you pin the blame on the victim, not the wrongdoing.  Non-apologies include blaming circumstances (i.e. “The global financial crisis caused the loss of all your money.”) 

Genuine regret means that wrongdoers are sorry for victims, not themselves.  Sometimes, so-called apologies demonstrate petulance at being called to account, instead of remorse for misdeeds.  Irish bankers have exhibited this attitude while still accepting taxpayers’ money.

2. A valid apology, to show a commitment not to repeat the wrongdoing.  Resignations may remove wrongdoers but often at the cost of payoffs and pensions.  Some of those responsible for the banking debacle have not yet resigned, brazening it out instead.

3. Reparation: accepting punishment, compensating victims.  Here, many apologies fail.  Saying sorry and promising not to do it again are easier than ‘putting your money where your mouth is.’  Real reparation is more than foregoing a bonus, especially when you created the organisation’s downfall.  It requires managers who received bonuses while causing destruction to return those ill-gotten gains voluntarily.  This is the real test of whether they are genuinely apologetic.

‘Sorry’ is truly the easiest word.