Large multi-national corporations experience more and more pressure to maintain good relationships with their stakeholders, including employees. Concurrent with this, the focus of Corporate Communication management has shifted from pure communication management to relationship management. Lonmin Platinum, a mining company within the South African mining and minerals sector is no exception in this regard. In fact, due to the apartheid legacy and government regulations that are aimed at safety and equity, it is especially difficult to manage employee relationships in the mining industry. Apart from historical and environmental factors, Lonmin Platinum's task is further complicated by its diverse work-force. At the time of the study the work-force of approximately 20 000 employees consisted of literate, semiliterate and illiterate employees. In addition, the company comprised five business units, each with their own corporate identity. In order to manage relationships effectively, a company needs to understand the nature and quality of its relationships as well as which factors might influence its stakeholder relationships. Studies have already indicated that a company's corporate identity can contribute to the stakeholders' images of the company. Over time, the image impacts on the company's reputation and consequently on the stakeholders' relationships with the company. In the case of a company such as Lonmin Platinum, with an endorsed corporate identity, it can be expected that corporate identity will also play a role in the nature and quality of relationships, including employee relationships. Previous studies have investigated the link between corporate identity and relationships focussing on communication, and on behaviour elements of identity. Up until now, no examples of research of the possible influence of symbolic corporate identity elements on relationships in the South African mining industry could be traced. Against this background, the following research question was asked: What is the relationship between employees' perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum? Semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and quantitative questionnaires were applied as data collection methods. The results confirmed that Lonmin Platinum did not have a good relationship with its employees in general. The lack of trust was seen as one of the most apparent problems. It also seemed that the employees did not understand the company's endorsed corporate identity. They, for example, did not understand the company structure and identified themselves more with the symbolic corporate identity of their respective business units than with the company itself. With regard to the correlation between symbolic corporate identity and relationships, this study indicated a relationship between employees' perceptions of how effective the company reached it objectives and the quality of its employee relationships. Company objectives, such as a safe working environment, a healthy working environment, socioeconomic empowerment and accountability, as well as a company that unites its workforce and creates a family feeling amongst the employees impacted most on employee relationships. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Šiandien vis garsiau kalbama apie augantį poreikį kryptingai, sistemiškai ir apgalvotai valdyti organizacijos reputaciją. Tad šio darbo siekiamas tikslas: ištyrus UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ darbuotojų požiūrį į reputacijos valdymo svarbą ir aktualumą, pasiūlyti įmonei strateginį reputacijos valdymo modelį. Darbe ne tik analizuojamos mokslinės literatūros šaltinių teorinės nuostatos apie organizacijų reputacijos formavimo modelių aspektus, tačiau, remiantis projekto „Gerbiamiausia Lietuvos įmonė 2008“ vertinimo metodika, atliekamas ir UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ darbuotojų požiūrio į reputacijos kūrimo ir valdymo svarbą vykdant kompanijos veiklą tyrimas. Gauti rezultatai rodo, jog UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ netaiko atskiros, konkrečios strategijos įmonės reputacijos kūrimui, o nuolat kintantis įmonės personalas yra silpnoji grandis kuriant teigiamą kompanijos reputaciją. Tad trečioje darbo dalyje, remiantis viešojo sektoriaus organizacijų veiklos tobulinimusi, taikant įsivertinimą pagal Bendrąjį vertinimo modelį (BVM), siūloma pastarąjį adaptuoti ir pritaikyti strateginiam UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ reputacijos valdymo modelio sudarymui, kuris suteiktų organizacijai galimybę įsivertinti ir tobulinti savo veiklą norint suformuoti teigiamą kompanijos reputaciją. / Strategical management and control of corporte reputation plays a big role in all over the world. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to analyse the employees attitude of JSC „Sabelijos prekyba“ to the importance of controlling company reputation and propose the strategic corporate reputation management model. This paper reviews the conceptual development of the corporate reputation process and also analyses the employees attitude of JSC „Sabelijos prekyba“ to the importance of controlling company reputation. The findings shows that JSC „Sabelijos prekyba“ heavily has any strategy how to manage and control it‘s corporate reputation. For this reason, in the third part of this study the new strategic corporate reputation management model is proposed which is based on Common Assessment Framework (CAF) model, developed by European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) for the public service institutions in the EU Member States.

Baigiamojo darbo „Įmonės įvaizdžio keitimas remiantis vizualiniu identitetu“ pagrindinis tikslas – remiantis įmonės įvaizdžio ir vizualinio identiteto tarpusavio santykiu, atskleisti galimybę keičiant įmonės vizualinį identitetą pakeisti susiformavusį įmonės ��vaizdį ir, atlikus marketingo tyrimą, pritaikyti šią idėją realybėje. Teorinėje darbo dalyje pateikiamos įmonės įvaizdžio ir įmonės identiteto sąvokos, jos analizuojamos ir nustatomas jų tarpusavio ryšys. Plačiau aiškinamasi, kokie elementai sudaro vizualinį įmonės identitetą ir kaip keičiant susiformavusį įmonės vizualinį identitetą, galima pakeisti įmonės įvaizdį. Siekiant teorines žinias pritaikyti praktikoje, pasirenkama konkreti �����monės ir atliekamas marketingo tyrimas, renkant duomenis anketos pagalba. Tyrimo rezultatai parodo, kad vartotojų netenkina kai kurie įmonės vizualinio identiteto elementai, todėl nusprendžiama juos keisti. Taip pat atliekama įmonės vizualinio identiteto elementų panaudojimo analizė, kurios metu atskleidžiama neišnaudota vizualinio identiteto element�� panaudojimo galimybė. Siekiant tyrimų duomenis panaudoti praktikoje, parengiamas įmonės įvaizdžio keitimo vizualiniu aspektu projektas. Projektas rengiamas MS Project programos pagalba, nustatant reikiamus atlikti darbus, projekto išteklius, kaštus, laiko gaires, formuojant projekto komandą, pateikiant projekto biudžetą. / The main purpose of the diploma paper “Corporate image changing with reference to visual identity” is to show up, in accordance with corporate image and visual identity correlation, an opportunity of making a change in company’s corporate image by changing its visual identity and to use this idea in reality, making a marketing research. In the first part of diploma paper there are presented concepts of corporate image and visual identity, analyzing them and finding relationship between them. A greater attention is given to the concept of visual identity and its elements, finding out, how it is possible to change corporate image by changing company’s visual identity. With a purpose to use theoretical knowledge in practice, the certain company is chosen, and a marketing research is made, using a questionnaire. The results of this research showed, that consumers are dissatisfied with some of company’s visual identity elements. There was decided to change these elements. Also there was made an analysis of the ways of using visual identity elements, finding not used opportunity of using visual identity elements. Collected data were used to make a project of changing company’s corporate image by visual aspect. Project was made using MS Project program, identifying works to do, the resources, the costs of project, forming a command of project and making a project budget.

Šio baigiamojo bakalaurinio darbo tikslas – parengti vadybinius sprendimus, kurių pagalba įmonė galėtų suformuoti restorano „Gangster‘s“ įvaizdį. Tai jauna įmonė, turinti didelį potencialą, bet nėra suformuotos kryptingos įvaizdžio formavimo strategijos. Dėl šios priežasties restoranas praranda galimybę pasiekti stabilią ir ilgalaikę verslo sėkmę. Baigiamajame darbe atliekama situacijos analizė, empirinis tyrimas bei jų pagrindu pateikiami vadybiniai sprendimai. Situacijos analizė atlikta remiantis restorano vidine informacija ir viešai prieinamais šaltiniai. Tyrimui atlikti pasirinktas kokybinio tyrimo metodas – pusiau struktūrizuotas interviu, kurio metu buvo apklausiami ne tik restorano lankytojai, bet ir „Gangster‘s“ restorano vadovai. Buvo apklausiami keli segmentai (vartotojai ir vadovai), siekiant išsiaiškinti, ar vartotojų ir restorano vadovų suvokiamas restorano įvaizdis sutampa. Taip pat buvo aktualu sužinoti, kokį restoranų įvaizdį abu segmentai norėtų matyti. Remiantis šiais duomenimis, pasiūlyti priemones, kurių dėka jį galima būtų tinkamai suformuoti. / The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to prepare managerial decisions for creating restaurant’s “Gangster’s” image. This restaurant was opened last year, in September and have big potential in the market, but there is no focused strategy how to create it‘s image. In general, for this reason restaurant looses it‘s positions and meets difficulties to achieve stability and business success in the market. Situation analysis and research was accomplished to identify customers’ opinion towards current restaurant’s image and based on it to propose managerial decisions how to improve it. The analysis of situation was prepared based on restaurant’s internal information and using different public sources. The research was carried out using qualitative research method – semi-structured interview. During this research restaurant’s customers and “Gangster’s” managers were interviewed. The aim to examine two different customers’ segments was to identify if the perceived image by customers and restaurant’s managers matches in between. Also, it was important to find out, what kind of restaurant’s image they would like see. Based on this data, was set vision of image and instruments, how to realize it - managerial decisions were worked out.

A logo lies central in an organisation's visual identity system and it is a way of communicating fundamental aspects about the organisation, such as the organisation personality or the organisation's mission and vision. The logo, or corporate visual identity, could be seen as the organisation's visual shorthand that summarises these fundamental aspects. A design element such as colour can be an expressive tool in terms of visual identity. The use of a particular colour in the logo of an organisation conveys a specific message about that company's identity and personality through the meaning and symbolism that is attached to the colour. The corporate colour scheme of an organisation can also aid in communication without being displayed in context of the visual identity. The combination of both verbal communication such as text, and visual communication such as images, through a design element like colour, could provide an effective method of conveying information. The nature of this study is descriptive. It examined the role played by colour in an organisation's visual identity as a communication tool. The study followed a qualitative approach, making use of a literature study and a case study approach. In the literature study, the role of the graphic designer, the visual identity and a design element like colour in the context of corporate communication were examined. The sources of evidence used for the case study approach, were questionnaires, as well as a colour analysis of the corporate colour schemes of each of the selected case organisations as utilised in their visual identities. The research project attempted to determine the role of colour as communication, as well as the motivation behind the use of a particular colour, should such a motivation exist, and the communication intended behind each colour. The project also attempted to determine the target markets at which the communication is aimed; the research done by each of the case organisations regarding colour symbolism and the suitability of the colour regarding the target markets; and the importance attached to colour as a communication tool. These questions were investigated through the use of the questionnaires. The colour analysis was done to function as a control mechanism to, for example, determine whether the intended message behind colour correlated to the perceived message as determined by the colour analysis. The results from the questionnaires and colour analysis used in the study showed that colour does play an important role in the selected case organisation's visual identities. The results of the study also found, however, that regardless of how important colour was viewed as a method of communication by the respondents, certain factors exist which influence the effectiveness of colour as a communication tool. / Thesis (M.A. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Large multi-national corporations experience more and more pressure to maintain good relationships with their stakeholders, including employees. Concurrent with this, the focus of Corporate Communication management has shifted from pure communication management to relationship management. Lonmin Platinum, a mining company within the South African mining and minerals sector is no exception in this regard. In fact, due to the apartheid legacy and government regulations that are aimed at safety and equity, it is especially difficult to manage employee relationships in the mining industry. Apart from historical and environmental factors, Lonmin Platinum's task is further complicated by its diverse work-force. At the time of the study the work-force of approximately 20 000 employees consisted of literate, semiliterate and illiterate employees. In addition, the company comprised five business units, each with their own corporate identity. In order to manage relationships effectively, a company needs to understand the nature and quality of its relationships as well as which factors might influence its stakeholder relationships. Studies have already indicated that a company's corporate identity can contribute to the stakeholders' images of the company. Over time, the image impacts on the company's reputation and consequently on the stakeholders' relationships with the company. In the case of a company such as Lonmin Platinum, with an endorsed corporate identity, it can be expected that corporate identity will also play a role in the nature and quality of relationships, including employee relationships. Previous studies have investigated the link between corporate identity and relationships focussing on communication, and on behaviour elements of identity. Up until now, no examples of research of the possible influence of symbolic corporate identity elements on relationships in the South African mining industry could be traced. Against this background, the following research question was asked: What is the relationship between employees' perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum? Semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and quantitative questionnaires were applied as data collection methods. The results confirmed that Lonmin Platinum did not have a good relationship with its employees in general. The lack of trust was seen as one of the most apparent problems. It also seemed that the employees did not understand the company's endorsed corporate identity. They, for example, did not understand the company structure and identified themselves more with the symbolic corporate identity of their respective business units than with the company itself. With regard to the correlation between symbolic corporate identity and relationships, this study indicated a relationship between employees' perceptions of how effective the company reached it objectives and the quality of its employee relationships. Company objectives, such as a safe working environment, a healthy working environment, socioeconomic empowerment and accountability, as well as a company that unites its workforce and creates a family feeling amongst the employees impacted most on employee relationships. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Communication Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2008.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2008. / "Publication number: AAT 3323060."

Thesis (doctoral)--Hochschule St. Gallen für Wirtschafts-, Rechts- und Sozialwissenschaften, 2000.