Corporate identity: external reality or internal fit?

Abstract

Examines the impact of corporate identity management on the employees’ attitudes towards the organization, as well as their willingness to accept its premises in the way they conduct organizational business. Argues that this knowledge is critical to our understanding of how external relations can be systematically managed via the employee. Presents a framework which outlines the perceived actual‐ideal identity fit seen as critical to the way in which corporate identity is interpreted and enacted by employees. Case study material is provided from within a telecommunications company, to illustrate that the effective management of corporate identity requires that it is perceived to be consistent with, and representative of, actual organizational reality.