The Study of Organizational Image Management
In tradition, most of the mangers had in mind that the organizational image was the main character of the organizational perception of their customers, however, when the studies of the new raised industry of customer servicing increased, the scholar found that it was also important to build the image for their employees. In the following, we will have two different articles which talk separately of the organizational image work internal and externally, also we will try to linkup with the cultural approaches and human resources approaches in organizational communication. The US scholar, Kimberly D.Elsbach, suggested that the organizational image play an important role in the perception of the customers, it was also a starting point for their customers to know about the organization or brand; and the organizational image faces both sides of internal and external audiences (customers and staffs), it was distinctiveness, short-lived, specific, and mainly in use for product recall (Elsbach, 2006).
Elasbash was mainly in stating how the organizational perception can be managed, and listed several typology of event, but if we need to make a summary, it can only be explained by cultural approaches in organizational communication.All the events he had mentioned were the process in building a “excellent culture” of an organization, and made it as a image to its audiences, both internal and external audiences. For internal, it made its staffs for how they could perform and made their prediction of the organization; and for external, the excellent organizational image could made the customers had their well relationship feeling and perception to the organization. Both of them were based on the excellent culture of the organization.The other group of the researchers had the similar result of the organizational image.
Xie Lishan and Li Yaoqi, the researchers from Business School of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, conducted their research in a more human interested way this year, the research was mainly in the direction of the customer service industry. In the beginning of their research, they said, “Among the employee behaviors, the employee brand building behavior (EBBB) is the most essential internal brand communications which has positive effect on customers’ perceived brand image. (Xie & Li, 2011), it shown that the organizational image building process, can be held by the employees in the organization, and it was more effective in the communication to their customers. The research from Xie and Li had clearly in the area of human resources approaches in organizational communication. The EBBB made the employees had their involvement in building their own organizational image, and also fulfilled their basic needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory, which fulfilling their self-esteem and self-actualization.
By fulfilling their basic needs, the motivation of them would rise to a higher level, and make them feel belong to the organization. Besides, because of the effect of EBBB, the customers could feel deeply of the organizational culture when they were served by the employees, and in the same time employees would try to maintain what they had built, and gave their best service to their customers.This was why the organizations use the EBBB to build their image and how the EBBB work belong the human resources and organizational culture approaches. Reference Elsbach, Kimberly D. , “Organizational Perception Management”, Mahwah, NJ, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006, P. 30-64 Xie-Lishan, Li-Yaoqi, “The Spillover Effect of Supportive Leadership on Brand Image through Employee Brand Building Behavior”, Business School of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, 2011
