Institutional reputation

Institutional reputation relates to any risk to the perception of the organisation as a whole, with potential commercial implications.

Framing of potentially upsetting histories

In protecting institutional reputation, potentially upsetting histories of that institution are ignored or framed as positive for contemporary marketing purposes. That framing is challenged by historical data or records from your own collection, and/or evidence provided by external sources.

Mitigation for risk

  • Research the history of the organisation as best as possible. Communicate history in a non-defensive way.
  • Anticipate multiple perspectives and experiences, ethically consult as widely as possible on how contemporary audiences are affected by this history.
  • Prepare to acknowledge past mistakes, if necessary, and understand that past mistakes help us to frame our current values and inclusive practice.
  • Communicate commitment to equality and inclusion with stakeholders. Share actions, progress and receive feedback.
  • Acknowledge the limitations of your service’s resources (human resources, evidence from your collections). Look to collaborate with other archives, organisations, community groups and/or seek support from The National Archives through the Archive Sector Development team.

Acknowledgement of past mistakes

Past mistakes and historical discrimination within the institution (and any parental institution) are not acknowledged, and lessons are not learned, resulting in historical erasure and a lack of trust from staff and the communities that the archive serves.

Mitigation for risk

  • Create a working list of past incidents where discrimination may have occurred or where the organisation may have been complicit in historical violence.
  • Create clear communication and policy indicating how your service has learned from or acted on these incidents, or make an action list of things that need to change.
  • Understand the limits of your records and conduct research beyond your organisation’s records to help create context.
  • Communicate commitment to equality and inclusion with stakeholders. Place this within a larger history and journey that the institution is taking to make this possible. Share actions, progress and receive feedback.

Assumptions around historical distance

Behaviours exhibit an assumption that historical distance will mitigate difficult and potentially upsetting histories, and show a lack of awareness that arising issues have contemporary relevance. Institution is perceived as out of touch or uncaring.

Mitigation for risk

  • Approach all potentially upsetting histories from the assumption that this may be painful to some, and that there may be inherited trauma at play.
  • Explore work with archives that may hold another perspective on the same or similar histories.
  • Communicate commitment to equality and inclusion with stakeholders. Share actions, progress and receive feedback.

Accusations of virtue signalling

Institution is accused of virtue signalling or being disingenuous about inclusion statements or initiatives, and so equality and inclusion initiatives are not trusted.

Mitigation for risk

  • Work with staff and external stakeholders to create inclusion plans that address issues relevant to your institutional context and can communicate the need you are addressing.
  • Embed inclusion strategies to avoid one-off or tokenistic actions, and set realistic targets.
  • Communicate commitment to equality and inclusion with stakeholders. Share actions, progress and receive feedback.

Public statements impacting funding

Archives that are commercially or privately funded suffer financially as a result of public statements made regarding upsetting histories.

Mitigation for risk

  • Establish in advance any conflict of interest between the current business values and archival collection material.
  • Ensure clear channels of communication exist within the organisation to query the use of historically sensitive material.
  • Work with staff and external stakeholders to create inclusion plans that address issues relevant to your institutional context and can communicate the need you are addressing. Consider this within the business plan.
  • Bring in external archive professionals if possible as critical friends to support decisions made in line with archival best practice and requirements.
  • Communicate commitment to equality and inclusion with stakeholders. Share actions, progress and receive feedback.

Perceived exploitation of archival material

New acquisitions, research or findings within archives are communicated with the intent of raising the profile of the collection and institution. In doing so, the use of archival material containing potentially upsetting histories capitalises on the content, and is perceived as exploitative. This has the potential to cause distress and distrust in service users.

Mitigation for risk

  • Discuss communications on new acquisitions, discoveries or research across teams where possible to flag any issues internally.
  • Consult stakeholders relevant to the content and use sensitivity and empathy when managing and promoting this content in regard to service users.
  • Avoid a self-congratulatory tone in communication and be mindful of potential distress, but focus on the importance of making content accessible.

Social media and distorted messaging

Images from archival collections are shared by the institution and reused on social media by the public or press. In doing so, the context, safeguarding and ethics of use by the institution are possibly changed or omitted. This potentially results in upsetting service users and non-service users.

Mitigation for risk

  • Create a clear decision-making framework for sharing content, where intent and effect are considered in advance.
  • Develop a publicly available image-sharing policy and principle, particularly for communicating upsetting histories to service users.
  • Watermark content (where and if applicable), highlighting the origin and context of use.
  • Collate an agreed bank of images to use for press purposes that are appropriate for promotion of complex narratives.