“Scapegoat”
Thrown Under the Bus
What is Scapegoating?
Shifting blame to another in order to absolve oneself of responsibility.
Business Application
Problems are often way more complex than placing any single person as solely at fault. In management, as a buyer, or as a sales rep, one must recognize the details of a specific issue and carefully weigh participating factors.
Example 1
“It was Tom’s idea to do it this way.”
Why This is a Fallacy
This argument tries to implicate an idea as the reason behind mismanagement. While an idea is technically a source, it has no valid connection to the botched execution.
Example 2
“This should have been done the right way before it was sent for review. Jerry made the mistake. It’s not my fault I didn’t catch it.”
Why This is a Fallacy
When someone’s responsibility is to review work, their job is to literally find mistakes. Placing blame on the person who made the mistake shirks responsibility of the task at hand.
