Management of the Organizational Image: A Method for Organizational Image Configuration

One of the most important concerns for organizational communication managers is the management of the organizational image created by its diverse publics. Based on this image consumers make their choices, when they have needs to fulfill and the public develops goodwill or reluctance toward the organization, considered as a social entity. It is even based on this image that the public will establish contact or pursue transactions with the organization, or not. How can one know, in the most approximate way, how its diverse publics see the organization? How can the most convenient image be built to reflect the real organizational mission and its best efforts to accomplish these goals? This paper reports the development of a research method to evaluate the image an organization forms in the eyes of a given public. The intention was to develop an easily applicable method which could be used as a permanent tool to evaluate organizational communication actions towards the generation of the best possible image. The method was developed in several research works, where each step was tested to improve the composing techniques. The overall aim was to generate a graphic map exposing the average image seen by a certain public, thus helping the communication manager's future decision making. © 2004, Palgrave Macmillan.