Arild Wæraas

Can public sector organizations be coherent corporate brands

This article discusses the potential challenges of introducing corporate branding in public sector organizations. While the corporate branding ideal is to seek a precise and coherent definition of the organizational identity and achieve message consistency in the organizations self-presentation, public organizations are often characterized by contradictory and inconsistent values and multiple identities. This makes the ideal of consistency difficult to achieve. It is argued that public organizations will benefit more from branding on the basis of inconsistent values and multiple identities rather than trying to promote one set of values and one identity at the expense of others.

Green legitimation: the construction of an environmental ethos

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of manipulation as a legitimation strategy. Focusing on the role of verbal communication, are integrated insights from rhetorical theory with strategic and institutional approaches to legitimacy in a study of three documents published by the “most admired” companies in the USA in 2007; General Electric (GE), Toyota, and Starbucks.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a qualitative analysis of three documents that describe the environmental focus and policies of GE, Toyota, and Starbucks. The approach involves analyzing and synthesizing a large number of environmental claims made by these companies.Findings – The analysis of the texts reveals a constructed organizational ethos that is combined with strong environmental focus to appear trustworthy in environmental matters in the eyes of consumers and stakeholders. Relying on four categories of environmental statements, the companies practice a form of “green” legitimation.Researc...

Communicating Identity: The Use of Core Value Statements in Regulative Institutions

This study analyzes the core value statements of 25 regulative institutions located in 11 different OECD countries. Four types of institutions are studied: six tax agencies, six food safety authorities, four environmental protection agencies, and nine supreme audit institutions. The study shows that there is a clear emphasis on people-related and professional values. Based on these findings, I argue that regulative organizations, which we normally would assume need legitimacy for their authoritative role and coercive powers, attempt to become identified with values that imply a more lenient identity, distancing themselves from the more “traditional” authoritative and bureaucratic identity. Potential implications for organizational legitimation are discussed.

Place, organization, democracy: Three strategies for municipal branding

Abstract We develop a typology for analysing branding processes in municipalities: a place, organizational and democracy branding strategy. Our main contribution is to expand the view of municipalities as places, taking the debate on the branding of cities, regions and municipalities in a more nuanced direction. Our findings show that the place branding perspective is insufficient for understanding branding efforts; in fact, organizational branding is the most prevalent strategy. However, democracy branding is also strongly present. Using logistic regression, we conclude that the place branding debate should be nuanced by what we know about municipal size, identity and perceived media influence.

Branding without Unique Brands: Managing similarity and difference in a public sector context

Abstract Corporate branding requires organizations to focus on uniqueness and differentiation. At the same time, public institutions must provide equal services in order to gain legitimacy. Hence, corporate branding in the public sector organizations has to handle two concerns simultaneously – securing legitimacy and building reputation. We examine this tension through interviews with communication managers in Norwegian hospitals. Despite large investments in techniques borrowed from corporate branding, the informants were reluctant to talk about branding. Instead, they were more oriented towards the universal character of their hospitals. Four explanations are put forward for why branding has an ambiguous position in Norwegian hospitals.

Beauty from Within: What Bureaucracies Stand For

While much of our knowledge about public sector values is generated from surveys of public managers, this study explores the official core value statements of 75 U.S. government agencies. These values represent the characteristics with which the agencies want to be associated, rather than the values that guide the administrative behavior and decision making of public officials. A key finding in this study is that values that have been set as standards in many OECD countries, and reiterated in ethical guidelines for the U.S. federal government, are not among the most frequently stated on agency web sites. In light of these findings, the study discusses the role of public sector values in relation to agency identity and image.

Being All Things to All Customers: Building Reputation in an Institutionalized Field

This paper seeks to draw empirical attention to the relationship between legitimacy and reputation in institutionalized fields. Norwegian hospitals find themselves in a strongly institutionalized field and do not want to differentiate from each other, despite seeking a favorable reputation. In order to acquire insights into the conditions that prompt organizations to reject differentiation, we carried out qualitative interviews with the hospitals’ communication directors. Three sets of justifications for not differentiating emerged from an inductive analysis of these interviews. Differentiation is not adapted to the universalistic needs of the hospitals, not in accordance with solidarity norms, and not a pragmatic solution. The analysis suggests that the hospitals face a trade-off between the contradictory demands of similarity and difference and hence legitimacy and reputation: They renounce the advantage of a unique reputation (i.e. competitive advantage) in order to retain the benefits of conformity (i.e. legitimacy). Implications of these findings for our understanding of the relative salience of legitimacy and reputation and the dynamics between them are discussed.

Making a difference: Strategic positioning in municipal reputation-building

Abstract This article adds to current literature on municipal competitiveness by examining the positioning strategies of Norwegian municipalities. Norwegian municipalities are faced with strong similarity pressures from both central government and regional peers, but are also expected to differentiate and tailor services to local needs. Following the introduction of reputation management, differentiation pressures grow stronger. This study shows how concerns of reputation, differentiation and municipal competitiveness are connected and integrated into strategic thinking, but also that similarity concerns and pressures influence the level of differentiation. The article discusses the general implications of these findings for our understanding of the tension between similarity and difference in a local government context as it relates to reputation management work at the municipal level of government.

Endowing organizations with personality: The strategy of charismatic legitimation

How do organizations acquire organizational legitimacy, and what is the basis for legitimacy? The interest in the relationship between organizations and their environments in literatures such as organizational theory and corporate (organizational) communication has produced various answers to these questions. For example, in organizational theory, legitimacy is often seen as based on the appropriateness of formal structures, procedures, and goals, and gaining legitimacy is a matter of adapting to widely shared social norms and values (cf. DiMaggio/Powell 1983, Dowling/Pfeffer 1975, Meyer/Rowan 1977, Parsons 1956, Suchman 1995). In corporate communication, the term reputation is usually substituted for legitimacy, and has been found to result from emotional appeal, vision and leadership, financial performance, workplace environment, social responsibility, and great products and services (cf. Fombrun/van Riel 2004).

The University Branding Game: Players, Interests, Politics

Abstract In this article, we argue that university branding can be understood as a political game. Analyzing a new university created in a merger, we demonstrate how branding is characterized by different interests among players with different means to influence brand development. We suggest that university branding is a fundamental question of organizational purpose, connected to identities and (dis-)identification of internal and external players in a particular socio-cultural and societal context, not a mere marketing and communications exercise.