ReputationInstitute

This morning’s Plenary included two great talks on Identity.

What makes people proud to be associated with an organization? People say “I was an IBMer for 13 years” with pride. Would people say the same thing about working at Halliburton? And how would either identification change people’s behavior? In the first of the two talks Dr. Janet Dukerich (University of Texas) focused on these types of questions by looking at Multiple Professional Identities in Hospitals.

Her overall premise is that having a strong identification with a hospital system leads to support of that system (such as referring patients to a specific system over competing systems, and speaking well of the system).

Additionally, and just as importantly, Dr. Dukerich looked at the attractiveness of both a system’s identity (What does this system stand for?) and image (What do people say about it?) in determining the strength of identification. Dr. Dukerich’s research shows a positive relationship between the attractiveness of a system’s identity, external image, and strength of organizational identification. In addition, strong organizational identification was positively related to the support indicators listed above.

As with much identity and reputation research this finding reinforces the essential idea of perceptions about an organization being closely linked to how people act towards an organization. In addition, Dr. Dukerich’s findings re-iterated the need for recognizing that there are multiple identity targets in organizations and some may be in conflict with each other. So, it is essential to have a deep understanding of both what an organization stands for as well as how people think others see the organization.

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Why do people have very strong, polarized opinions about certain people and organizations? Ask people what they think about Wal-Mart or George W. Bush and it is certain that your will get many emotional responses. This is what Dr. Marlena Fiol, (Professor of Strategic Management, University of Colorado at Denver, Graduate School of Business Administration) looked at in her talk on Managing Intractable Identity-Reputation Conflicts These intractable identity conflicts are those where each group involved has framed a very emotional cause for its existence, often explained in polarizing stereotypes, with success seemingly only possible at its adversary’s demise.

Dr. Fiol’s specific research focuses on these conflicts in the relationship between doctors and hospital administrators in the U.S. The key means to resolve these types of conflicts, Dr. Fiol argues, is decoupling That is, recognizing that the ‘other’ is not all bad, ‘we’ are not all good, and there are areas of mutual interest. Her preliminary results indicate that the process of decoupling (at a specific medical center where her research was conducted) showed a decrease in complaints from both sides, a decrease in how ‘painful’ the work environment was perceived to be, and an overall increase in satisfaction.

To conclude, Dr. Fiol argues, that if an organization’s Reputation enhancement initiatives seem to be failing, one of the key things to look at is the identities that may be threatened. So, it is essential to decouple and acknowledge other organizations’ identities before attempting to project an organization’s own positive image. This is a key take-away for practitioner’s who are a) building a strategy for enhancing reputation with its stakeholders (you need to have a deep understanding of what your stakeholders expect before engaging) or are b) seeing poor results from existing initiatives (stop and confirm that your engagement has a primary focus on stakeholder expectations rather than just what you want to project).

Grey Skies…Are Gonna Clear Up? The Global Crisis of Confidence

Dr. Charles Fombrun reflected on the reputational effects of the recent economic crisis. Examples of congressional hearings on issues related to the crisis were a stark demonstration of the inconsistencies between what companies communicate, how they behave, and how they are perceived. These inconsistencies have lead to a serious deterioration of trust since the crisis started in late 2007.

Combined with this, there has been a significant decline of the reputation of the United States in the international community. President Obama is in a good position to start rebuilding the US country reputation. But how can corporate America rebuild its tarnished reputation?

Reputation Institute’s recent research shows that perceptions around the dimensions of Governance, Citizenship, and Workplace are of increasing importance and are now key to any reputation building effort, particularly in the United States. It is not enough to just communicate existing stories about these dimensions better, but to develop and communicate much richer narratives, particularly around these dimensions. These must not just lead to corresponding values but become ‘values-in-use’, meaning they need to be consistently enacted.

From a communications perspective, avenues to contribute to the improvement of corporate reputation include more dialogue with stakeholders, particularly on critical issues…improved sustainability reporting, building a community with critical activists, demonstrating openness and the integration of key functions in the corporation to deliver against the promise of reputation management.

Lost Reputations
In times of damaged corporate reputations, organizational values play an important role as the stable core of a company’s culture. On Friday afternoon, Dr. Geert Hofstede, from University Maastricht, elaborated on this process and on how values arise within an organization, not through statements, but through the actual behaviors of its employees.

His presentation explored themes around rating importance of wealth vs. reputation in certain countries, the role of culture and values in measuring reputation, and national vs. organizational cultures.   In particular, Hofstede noted from his research:

• Part-time MBA students with day jobs in business organizations may be the best objective judges of their top managers’ goals available anywhere.
• As perceived by MBAs, the goals of business leaders varied significantly between countries
  -In the U.S., Most Important is business growth, this year’s profits, and respecting ethical norms; Least Important is profit 10 years from now, family interests, business continuity
  -In Germany, Most Important is responsibility toward society and employees, profit 10 years from now, creating something new; Least Important is power, business growth, this year’s profits
  -In the U.K., Most Important is this year’s profits, staying within the law, responsibility toward society and employees; Least Important is business growth, power, profit 10 years from now
  -In China, Most Importantis respecting ethical norms,  power, honor, responsibility toward society; Least Important is this year’s profits, family interests, staying within the law
• Comparing the importance of Reputation versus Wealth shows several key groupings by similarity or disparity
  -Reputation was found to be more important than wealth in Denmark, Netherlands, Germany
  China, Asians in Hawaii, and New Zealand
  -Reputation was found to be equally important to wealth in India, Brazil, and Britain
  -Personal wealth was found to be more important than reputation in the U.S., Australia, and Hong Kong

Dr. Hofstede concluded by stating that there is no such thing as a universal economic or psychological rationality, and that nationality constrains rationality within the context of country reputation.

In honor of Prof. Dr. Hofstede’s great contributions to academia and practitice in the field of Reputation over the course of his career, Reputation Institute, bestowed the 2009 RI Award for Best Scholar upon him and have entered Hofstede into the RI Hall of Fame.  Prof. Dr. Geert Hofstede joins past RI Best Scholar Award winners Sir Wall Ollins, C.K. Prahalad, and Prakash Sethi.

Following the conference, members of Reputation Institute can login to download Prof. Dr. Geert Hofstede’s full presentation deck in PDF or view the video of his plenary session.