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After trekking across the Alps, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV kneeled outside Pope Gregory VII's castle at Canossa from January 25 to January 27, 1077 in a blizzard without food or drink to apologize for renouncing Gregory as pope ([16] Robinson, 1999). Almost a hundred years later, another Henry, England's King Henry II apologized for his complicity in the murder of Thomas a Beckett, his erstwhile chancellor whom he had appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. On July 12, 1174, the king did penance at Canterbury, allowing each bishop present to beat him five times with a rod, followed by a slashing with twigs by 80 monks ([9] Hosler, 2007).
We may have lost something in the art of apology by comparison but as numerous commentators have pointed out, the apology seems to have entered a new golden age. From football players to politicians and CEOs, the rich world of the apology seems to have grown exponentially in recent years. The literature of apology has become a robust academic discipline in its own right. Titles such as Public Apology: Between Ritual and Regret ([6] Cuypers et al. , 2013), "When apologies work" ([7] Fehr and Gelfand, 2010), Effective Apology ([11] Kador, 2009) and Art of the Apology ([4] Bloom, 2008) make up only a small selection of recent work in the field. The reasons for this apology explosion are various but unquestionably the ability of individuals on behalf of themselves or their organizations to reach millions of readers with a communication often composed and transmitted in seconds has made crow eating a much needed skill. On a more serious note, we observe the continuation of the trend towards formal apologies for historical events, often worded with agonizing vagueness. We also note that corporations have made apologies a more robust component of their responses to negative business events for which they believe or the public believes them responsible.
What is not clear is whether the growth in apologies will continue on a similar trend line because apologies are an effective tool for reconciliation and realignment between organizations and their constituencies or whether their very ubiquity will render them increasingly less effective. If that were to happen we can foresee the gradual return to an earlier pre-apology era. Public...