The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation, and the Corporate Brand [Hardcover]

Majken Schulz (Editor), Mary Jo Hatch (Editor), Mogens Holten Larsen (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198297785 | ISBN-13: 978-0198297789 | Publication Date: November 2, 2000

This book challenges current beliefs about organizational identity, reputation, and branding. It contains a wealth of new ideas for finding the elusive answers to questions troubling contemporary organizations, such as: How does an organization create a strong reputation? What are the implications of corporate branding on organizational structures and processes? and How do organizations discover their identities?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With a challenge to the beliefs about organizational identity, reputations, and branding, a diverse team of contributors reveals a wealth of new ideas for discovering answers to questions troubling contemporary firms."--Business Horizons

About the Author

Majken Schultz is a Professor at the Department of Intercultural Communication and Management at Copenhagen Business School. Her research interests are located at the interface between organization theory, strategy, and communication studies and include identity and image, corporate branding, and reputation management.

Mary Jo Hatch is Professor of Organization Theory at Cranfield School of Management. She specializes in the application of culture-based organization theories to the study of leadership and management and to organizational identity and corporate branding. She is European editor of the Journal of Management Inquiry.

Mogens Holten Larsen is Managing Director of Bergs�e 4 A/S - a Danish communication consultancy specializing in integrated communications. For the last twenty years he has worked with a wide range of major Danish and international companies representing almost all types of communication issues on all types of markets: AstraZeneca, Renault, Danish Railways, Maersk and Superfoss among others.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198297785
• ISBN-13: 978-0198297789
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,013,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by the Corporate Bbranding and Identity Center, April 29, 2001

By 

Dr Jessica Backlund (MA, PhD) and Shaun Powel... (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation, and the Corporate Brand (Paperback)

Reviewed by Dr Jessica Backlund (MA, PhD) and Shaun Powell (Btech AIMgt BAHons) from the International Corporate Branding and Identity Centre. ...

Quick review : Star rating 4. This book covers issues relating to identity, reputation, branding and communication in a mainly academic manner. But there are empirical examples and plenty of practical ideas included as well. Suitable for both academics and practitioners, although not always an easy read, and not all chapters feel right for the book.

Full review : The editors of this book argue that organisations are increasingly competing based on their ability to express who they are and what they stand for - hence the title of the book. The chapters are written by authors from organisation studies, communication, marketing, strategy and accounting. Most of the authors are academics, but have practical experience and have collaborated with practitioners.

The authors have sought to come up with integrative ideas that can be implemented as well as more theoretical ideas.

The book covers issues such as how organisations discover their identities, how a growing organisation's' identity can be broaden, the processes involved in changing an organisation's identity, how a strong reputation can be created, what organisations should communicate about themselves and what they can do if their reputation is threatened.

Part 1, which contains two chapters, is called Rethinking Identity and deals with identity at the organisational level. It is an introduction to the different conceptualisations of corporate as well as organisational identity. The first chapter looks at different approaches to identity within various fields. It is a resonable attempt to capture the issues from an academic perspective (not always easy) but also tends to over generalise the research contributions and viewpoints of some of the academic fields they discuss (such as that of marketing). Chapter 2 looks at how organisational identity can be a competitive advantage for companies.

Part 2, also consisting of two chapters, is called The Symbolic Marketplace. It is about the symbolic dimensions of the new market place. The first chapter takes a historical perspective, and looks at how the roles of brands and branding changed in the last part of the 20th century, and how brands are becoming the company's most critical source of distinctiveness and value. The next chapter looks at organisational life and argues that the boundaries between consumers and organisational members are becoming blurred.

Part 3, comprised of two chapters, is called Reputation as Strategy. The first chapter analyses the transformation of Royal Dutch Shell. The second one looks at how damaged corporate reputations can be repaired.

Part 4, titled Organisations as Brands, looks at the implications of branding organisations. The first chapter looks at how different kinds of images can be associated with corporate brands and different ways corporate identity can be expressed in. It also looks at issued relating to building and managing brand equity. The second chapter argues that many brand tools are dated and do not create value for the customer. It expands the marketing mix to include reputation and suggests an integrative framework and methodology for organisational brand building.

Part 5 has four chapters and is called The Value of Story telling. The chapters in this part look at corporate stories and include empirical illustrations of how story telling can be used in organisations.

Part 6 contains three chapters and is titled Communicating Organisations. It deals with the communication of the expressive organisation. It covers issues such as the self-absorption and self- seduction in corporate branding, and questions whether the public really cares about the expressions generated by companies.

Summary

This is a rather 'heavy' going book and not always an easy read, probably due to the differing academic and practitioner backgrounds and perspectives that have been included. In addition to read all the chapters would be rather time consuming, and the presentation of research in some of the academic fields, does not necessarily reflect the much wider scope of research conducted or viewpoints held within them.

Overall however, this is a resonably good book for anyone with a keen interest in identity and branding. It has the characteristics of an academic book, with theoretical ideas, but with interesting ideas for practitioners.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not for everyone, August 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation, and the Corporate Brand (Hardcover)

The empirical writing of this book is extremely useful for those familiar to the public relations industry but will be difficult for those unfamiliar with the subject. For those wo are just beginning or even just have a non-professional interest in public realtions, I would recommend they read Guerrilla PR Wired by Michael Levine instead.
The Expressive Organization's differing perspectives and opinions of the authors expressed in this book may make it hard for those not of an academic nature.