The cholera outbreak in Haiti offers a useful case study of reputation as a disciplinarian of international organizations. On the one hand, UN officials and member states alike have emphasized the need to repair the organization’s damaged reputation. On the other hand, the UN secretariat declined to take certain steps that might have averted—or at least mitigated—that reputational damage in the first place. This contribution argues that the United Nations’ response to cholera in Haiti showcases some important limitations and complications of reputation as a disciplinarian. Reputation will function as a less effective disciplinarian of organizations in the context of uncertainty about the facts or about what the law requires. Notably, international organizations have some capacity to perpetuate factual uncertainty through their control over key sources of information. Reputation will also serve as a less effective disciplinarian when organizations have multiple audiences that are not evaluating the organization against the same standards.

海地霍乱爆发提供了一个有用的案例研究，证明它是国际组织的纪律人员。一方面，联合国官员和会员国都强调必须修复该组织受损的声誉。另一方面，联合国秘书处拒绝采取某些步骤，这些步骤可能首先避免或至少减轻了声誉受损。这一贡献认为，联合国对海地霍乱的反应显示出一些重要的局限性和作为纪律人员的声誉的复杂性。在对事实或法律要求不确定的情况下，声誉将成为组织的不太有效的学科。尤其，国际组织具有一定的能力，可以通过控制关键信息源来保持事实的不确定性。当组织有多个受众未按照相同的标准评估组织时，声誉也将成为效率较低的纪律人员。