Tài liệu Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management 12 pdf

A Actual or organizational identity C Conceived or corporate image I Ideal or corporate strategy C Communicated or corporate identity D Desired or corporate vision C Covenanted identity

media and investor needs to hold individuals, rather than teams

of leaders, to account and the need to make news (Kellerman, 2004) We return to this issue in a discussion of Hurricane Katrina later in this chapter

Another illustration of this relationship has been the creation

of the Beckham brand David Beckham, who is one of the world’s most famous footballers and has become an icon among teen-agers in Asia and Europe, is behind one of the best-known per-sonal brands It is often suggested, however, he owes his image to his ability to appeal to many different groups, all of whom can project on him what they will – footballer, star symbol, family man, new man and even saviour of English national identity through football In other words, he is, according to some observers, a media and consumer creation with a celebrity status extending far beyond his abilities as a footballer (The same argument can

be applied to the ‘celebrities’ of reality TV shows whose reputa-tions have grown because of a complicit relareputa-tionship with the media in creating them and the market for ‘non-celebrities’.) It is argued that Manchester United, the club with which he grew up and who helped him build his image, were happy to transfer him

to Real Madrid because the Beckham image had become ‘bigger than the club’ and detracted from the team that had shaped his football (and, in part, commercial) success For example, his man-ager, Sir Alex Ferguson, accused him of playing (long, showy)

‘Hollywood’ passes that were intended to enhance his own image, often to the detriment of his team members and the club (because they cut out his midfield colleagues and had little regard for the ability of the receiver to deal with the long ball) This is only one of many illustrations that show the dark side of talent management, a topic we explore in Chapter 6, often revealing tensions between individuals whose image is created by sig-nificant outsiders and the collective identity of the internal teams they work with Good examples here are the ‘stars’ of the knowledge-intensive industries such as financial investment, consulting, medicine and academia, whose external reputations are effectively ‘rented’ by the organizations that employ them

As we have noted in our discussion of cosmopolitans and locals, tensions often arise between such talented individuals and the groups they work with (and which often help create their

‘star-dom’) (Groysberg et al., 2004).

Multiple identities and the ‘AC3ID test’

Another helpful way of thinking about the identity-image rela-tionship has been developed by John Balmer and Stephen Geyser (2003) They seek to apply the concepts of identity to the whole field of corporate-level studies, which they argue can

cohere around the management of these multiple identities of a

corporation (though this is a different usage of multiple identities

to our own) As a result, they have proposed a multi-disciplinary approach – now called the AC3ID framework – to the manage-ment of image and identity According to them, identity has five meanings which incorporate not only the previously discussed organizational identity and image but also other corporate-level concepts such as corporate identity, strategic vision and corpor-ate strcorpor-ategy (see Figure 3.4)

A

Actual or (organizational identity)

C

Conceived or (corporate image)

I

Ideal or (corporate strategy)

C

Communicated

or (corporate identity)

D

Desired or (corporate vision)

C

Covenanted identity (brand promise)

Figure 3.4

The AC3ID framework (adapted from Balmer and Geyser, 2003,

p 17; Balmer and Stuart, 2005)

■ The actual identity is defined as the current attributes

of the corporation, including the management values, leadership styles, organizational structure, business activities and markets, and the range of products and services

■ The conceived identity refers to the past, present and

future perceptions of internal and external stakehold-ers, close to Hatch and Schultz’s image and identity relationship, and to reputation

■ The ideal identity, which is the optimum positioning

of the corporation in its given markets at a point in time, based on an analysis of external environmen-tal–internal resources fit This identity is associated with the work of strategic planners and is close to the notion of corporate strategy and strategic positioning

■ The desired identity is synonymous with the vision of

the organization held by its leadership It is not the same thing as ideal identity, which is mostly the result

of serious analysis The desired identity is very often a personal and egotistical statement made by senior lead-ers, but which is no less important in its consequences than ideal identities

■ The communicated identity is the ‘official’ identity put

into the public domain through the corporate commu-nications function – the official rhetoric of the organiza-tion that communicates what the organizaorganiza-tion wishes

to be It is also, however, communicated by less contro-llable media, such as ‘word of mouth’ and the financial press, which requires a great deal of management time spent on internal communications and public relations

■ The covenanted identity, which is the ‘promise’ made

by the brand to persuade us to place our trust and confidence in it and to continue to support it through repeat ‘purchases’ and recommendations

The main practical value of this framework is the proposition that all five identities need to be broadly aligned over time Balmer and Geyser maintain that if any two of these are out of alignment at a particular point, this will be manifested as a

‘moment of truth’ from which a corporation’s reputation is in

danger of suffering serious damage So, for example, the dan-gers of communicated identity (or corporate identity) running ahead of the actual identity (or organizational identity) can, as

we discuss in later chapters, lead to persistent cynicism among employees and also lead to distrust among customers if this cynicism is communicated by disaffected employees Another example is redundancies or retrenchments that lead to mass disaffection among employees (negative organizational iden-tity) who are simultaneously being exhorted to ‘live the brand’ image that ‘puts people first’ (the conceived identity) So, Jeff Pfeffer (2005) has argued that as ‘employees are increasingly disengaged and distrustful of their employers, organizations have moved to become less like communities and adopt more arm’s-length and distant relationships with their people Organ-izations that are more communal have arrangements for help-ing employees in need … are better at resolvhelp-ing work–family issues, and foster long-term employment relations’ (p 1) The Balmer and Geyser model has been applied to the analysis of British Airways progress over the past few decades (see Box 3.2)

Box 3.2 The changing identities of British Airways (BA)

BA can be traced to 1924 when four small airlines merged to form Imperial Airways, encouraged by the British government It operated as

a virtual monopoly until 1935, when British Airways was established to further the UK’s aviation interests in South America and Europe The brand name temporarily disappeared but was re-established in 1974 fol-lowing the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA) Balmer and Stuart trace six periods during which there has been a mismatch in BA’s changing identities

■ ‘Appalling’ identity (1974 –1980) Following the merger of BOAC

and BEA, there were tensions between the two groups of staff, with the former seeing themselves as superior to the latter This mani-fested itself in poor service which was exacerbated by the attitudes

of BA pilots, many of whom had joined from the Royal Air Force and saw passengers as cargo to be transported, and as a near-unnecessary evil This became a major problem for customers since

the airline held a virtual monopoly of many routes in and out of Heathrow BA came to stand for ‘Bloody Awful’

■ ‘Adjusting identity’ (1981 –1983) Margaret Thatcher gave Sir John

King the chairmanship to turn it around from a loss-making nation-alized carrier to a profitable private sector organization Inheriting

a huge overdraft, King and his new board embarked on a series of initiatives to improve employee morale and self-image, which was seen to be a major problem This included an expensive advertise-ment, called the Manhattan ad, that was designed to change the identity and self-respect of employees as much as convince custo-mers that the airline was changing

■ ‘Appealing identity’ (1984 –1987) King and his new CEO, Sir Colin

Marshall, who had a service industry background, were experienced communicators, who recognized the need to change the image and self-image of the company to improve customer service This began with a major culture change programme called ‘Putting People First’,

in which Marshall led from the front It was also a period during which BA introduced a new livery that emphasized its ‘Britishness’, incorporating the Union Jack flag and a coat of arms There is evi-dence, however, that this culture change programme had only a limited impact, especially among lower levels of employees

■ ‘Adoring identity’ (1988 –1995) BA adopted the claim that it was ‘the

world’s favourite airline’, which was supported by customer satisfac-tion surveys King and Marshall were insistent that this brand pro-mise was supported by employee behaviour and HR became a major player in delivering the brand warrant

■ ‘Ailing identity’ (1996 –2000) Robert Ayling became CEO in 1996 in

its lead up to privatization in 1997 Ayling and his team determined that BA had to change its image from being Britain’s national flag carrier to an international business, since more than 60% of its customers were non-UK citizens It was during this period that BA changed its communicated identity by, among other design efforts, introducing a series of international images on the tailfins This soon became seen a major mistake when Margaret Thatcher descri-bed them as ‘appalling’ Employees resented the changes, especially since they cost £60 million, and Richard Branson of Virgin exploited the criticism of many US customers that they wanted BA to look more British, by changing the livery of Virgin airlines to carry the Union Jack The ethnic tailfins were replaced after two years and

Ayling accepted the position of BA as a British-based global airline The period was financially disastrous with £4.2 billion being wiped off BA’s balance sheet Needless to say, Ayling stepped down in

2000, following his failed attempt to change the image of BA through graphic design

■ ‘Affirming identity’ (2000 –2005) A new CEO, Rod Eddington, was

appointed, whose job has been to deal with the problems posed by low cost air carriers on short-haul journeys The British airline indus-try has become one of the most competitive in the world, with a large number of ‘no-frills’ airlines offering extremely cheap fares all over the UK and Europe BA has attempted to affirm its trad-itional identity by affirming its ‘Britishness’ and by re-positioning itself ever more as a carrier that deals with premium service and business class passengers It has done so quite successfully, posting huge profits in 2005, but has run into employee relations problems with its full-time staff and contractors causing it to lose reputation for customer service

Balmer and Stuart analyse each of these periods in terms of either

a mismatch between the multiple identities or of bringing them into alignment For example, the first period, the appalling identity, was seen as a misalignment between actual and ideal identities, while the adjusting identity period was seen as bringing the covenanted identity and actual identity into alignment You may wish to reflect on how they analyse the other periods

Source: Adapted from Balmer and Stuart, 2005

Corporate character, image and identity

As we discussed in Chapter 2, the reputation management approach developed by Gary Davies and his colleagues in the

UK (Davies et al., 2003, 2004), is a fruitful approach to

explor-ing the links between identity and image Theirs is one of the weaker versions of organizational identity that we referred

to earlier, since it tends to view it as the summary of the shared beliefs of those individuals who make up the organization

Nevertheless, for us, it has high practical value Davies et al.’s

starting point, in contrast to our plural view of reputations, is that corporate reputation is ‘the collective term referring to all stakeholders’ views of corporate reputation’ (p 62), including internal identity and external image, which they define as the views of the company held by external stakeholders, especially customers, and the views of employees

Gary Davies’ and his colleagues’ principal argument is that employees and customers’ perceptions of the reputation of an organization will influence their behaviour towards it, reminis-cent of the service–profit chain we discussed in Chapter 2

In service businesses such as retailing, in which most of their research has been conducted, the perspectives of employees and customers towards the organization and its services are seen

as interdependent and form part of the reputation chain (see Figure 3.5) Their model proposes an ideal, rather than typical, relationship between satisfied employees, high level of organ-izational identification, strong brand reputations, customer satisfaction, loyalty and increased sales

Identity:

the employee view

The brand reputation

Image:

the customer view

Sales

Figure 3.5

The reputation chain (adapted from Davies et al., 2004, p 76).

The core link in the model is the alignment of identity and image If a misalignment develops with obvious gaps between internal and external views, these are seen as potential causes

of crises So far, this is unremarkable stuff, but the most novel and useful aspect of their model is their way of assessing the

reputation of an organization and measuring the gaps between identity and image As far as we are aware, there are no rep-utable and tested measures that ask the same question of employ-ees and customers when assessing the identity–image– reputation links There are good and obvious reasons for this, since the criteria and weighting employees use to evaluate ‘who we are’ and those used by customers to judge the image of the com-pany are likely to be different in some important respects As Hatch and Schultz have pointed out, the starting point for iden-tity is the internally driven culture, while image is more likely to

be outsider-driven by sources such as the media and communi-cations channels Nevertheless, all authorities on this topic rec-ognize that there is a two-way interaction between employees’

and customers’ views of the organization, which Davies et al.

(2003, 2004) now define as ‘corporate character’

They have spent a number of years researching a corporate character scale to assess the reputation of an organization from the perspectives of employees and customers Drawing their ideas from existing literature and from primary survey research

of 2061 employees and 2565 customers in 49 different business units of 13 organizations, they have developed five major and two minor dimensions of corporate character that employees and customers can use to evaluate an organization’s identity, image and reputation The major dimensions are agreeable-ness, competence, enterprise, ruthlessness and chic; the minor dimensions are informality and machismo The dimensions can

be broken down into 16 facets and measured by the strength of agreement with 49 items (see Table 3.1)

Since much of the research took place in retail stores with employees, managers and customers, the results and some of the items (such as chicness) reflect the context Their findings

showed that agreeableness was the factor most highly correlated

with employee and customer satisfaction among all three groups

of respondents; employees, however, showed greater concern for all seven dimensions and store managers showed less con-cern for enterprise than the other two groups All three groups were dissatisfied by ruthlessness

The second and third most highly correlated dimensions with satisfaction were enterprise and competence, though both were more important to employees, which might be expected since

these are more obviously relevant internally Chicness came fifth, most probably because that is an important factor in retail-ing to employees and customers Informality and machismo were minor factors, not correlating strongly with satisfaction, but Davies and his colleagues have chosen to retain them as they are likely

Table 3.1

The Seven Pillars of Corporate Character

Major Dimensions

Warmth Friendly, pleasant, open, straightforward

Integrity Honest, sincere, trustworthy, socially

responsible

innovative

Conscientious Reliable, secure, hardworking

Technocratic Technically competent, corporately

competent Egotistical Arrogant, aggressive, selfish

controlling

Minor Dimensions

Source: Based on Davies et al., 2004, pp 152–156

to be important in other contexts For example, in some research we conducted in a voluntary organization with a largely female management, machismo was negatively correlated with employee satisfaction(see Box 3.3)

However, being highly correlated with a phenomenon does not mean that you can say anything statistically about what causes what For example, there is a well-known debate in organizational behaviour over the ‘happy worker – productive worker’ relation-ship: high levels of performance may cause employees to feel sat-isfied just as much as employee satisfaction can cause high levels

of performance (Harter et al., 2002) So, the final stage of their

research was to ascertain the main drivers of satisfaction from this list of dimensions, which they did using a statistical technique known as stepwise regression for all three groups The results

showed that agreeableness was the most important driver,

account-ing for 48%, 35% and 32% of the variation in satisfaction levels among staff, customers and managers respectively The second, and only other, factor that explained variation in satisfaction levels was enterprise; when combined with agreeableness, they explained 52% and 39% of the variation in employee and cus-tomer satisfaction levels respectively They also attempted to find out if there was a significant link between satisfaction and finan-cial performance Here the results were more tentative, as might

be expected, but they found a relationship between customer satisfaction and year-on-year sales growth, which in turn was cor-related with agreeableness, enterprise and chicness Employee satisfaction did not correlate with financial performance, but did so with agreeableness, informality, enterprise and was nega-tively correlated with ruthlessness They concluded that image is associated with performance (as measured by sales growth), but only via customer satisfaction

The practical implications of this work are that employee satis-faction and customer satissatis-faction may not be necessarily linked; managers have to want to create these links through concerted actions Thus harmonizing image and identity has three aspects

to it:

■ Achieving symmetry.This is achieved by using a simi-lar framework and set of dimensions to measure iden-tity and image, e.g the corporate character approach