What is your Company's Image?
An article that recently appeared in Personnel Psychology helps organisations answer this question. The authors (Highhouse et al.) start from the premise that an individual's decision to apply to an organisation is 'often heavily reliant on the general impression that applicant holds about the company's overall attractiveness' (page 152). Considering the importance of company image it is surprising that past research in this area has been relatively thin on the ground. So what exactly do we mean by a corporate image? Those who have attempted to define the concept have concluded that for most organisations multiple images exist.
The present research focused particularly on what is termed company employment image. Highhouse et al. define company employment image as the 'impressions people may hold about a company as a supplier of goods and services only insofar as these impressions related to company attractiveness as an employer'. The purpose of their research was to investigate the characteristics of organisations which made them more popular, most admired etc. They focused their attention on the fast-food industry.
The basic methology was to present people with the names of fast-food companies in pairs and ask people where they would prefer to work, and why. A number of questionnaires were developed to assess the results further. Examples of the kind of dimensions elicited are: advertising, customers, pay, product image, hearsay and variety.
Whilst the authors of the research are keen to point out that the methodology used may make their research difficult to generalise to other organisations, there are still a number of interesting findings to be considered. In particular, the following dimensions discriminated the most between fast-food organisations:
Respectability - whether a person would be happy or embarrassed to say they worked for the organisation
Product Image - whether it was a 'good' product compared to that provided by competitors
Hearsay - whether a person had heard good things about the organisation
Interestingly, at first sight, it might appear that Atmosphere is one dimension that would be difficult to apply to other organisations. However, according to sociologist, Reiter (96), improvements to the physical environment, such as a well-maintained landscape and sparkling glass can give customers a positive mental image of the service provided, and thus be a desirable place to work. It would not be a huge leap in logic to consider whether this concept may apply to all work places.
Chain size was found to be another dimension that had a large impact on how the different fast-food restaurants were perceived, although, interestingly, this dimension did not seem to be an important factor in company employment image.
Finally, on an encouraging note, it appears that the more demanding people perceive the work of an organisation to be, the more favourable the image. So, on that note, when you are recruiting in the future it may be worth bearing in mind that whether a person replies to your advert depends upon:
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how good they perceive your product to be
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whether the image of working for your organisation satisfies all their status needs, and finally
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whether your work environment comes up to scratch!
Lievens, F., & Highhouse, S. (2003). The relation of instrumental and symbolic attributes to a company's attractiveness as an employer. Personnel Psychology, 56, 75-102