Corporate reputation has evolved into a strategic and intangible corporate asset and accordingly directors, as custodians of corporate reputation, are tasked with building and managing corporate reputation as a source of competitive advantage. The purpose of this research is to ascertain the extent of the operationalisation of corporate reputation and the perspectives of directors as to the manner in which they perceive, value, build and manage corporate reputation. A critical review of the corporate reputation literature evidenced much ambiguity as to the definition of corporate reputation, whilst the value and competitive advantage of corporate reputation, has been empirically established. The literature within this realm fails to adequately address the operalisation of this construct and accordingly, this study attempts to address the apparent void in the academic literature by offering empirical evidence as to the manner in which directors build and manage a company’s reputation by proposing a framework to guide directors in their endeavours. In order to gauge director’s perspectives, 12 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the directors of a multi-national company based in South Africa. The company operates in a highly regulated and competitive industry and the research findings demonstrate that corporate reputation is indeed acknowledged as a key, intangible asset. Whilst the directors did not possess clear insight into building and managing corporate reputation, several key themes emerged and the findings are consolidated into a proposed framework and a portfolio of the dimensions of corporate reputation are established. This study lays the foundation for further studies within the realm of operationalising corporate reputation, particularly as a source of competitive advantage. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Reputation is an important customer choice criterion in banking, a sector characterised by intangible services and limited opportunity for pre-purchase evaluation. It has been shown that while companies may communicate their reputation in a particular way, responses to reputation stimuli are not homogeneous, resulting in calls in the literature to understand sources of variation in customer responses. This study investigated whether an individual’s social axioms, that is, an individual’s general beliefs about the world were such a source of individual difference and influenced corporate reputation and behavioural intention among middle-high income South African banking customers. Conceptualising corporate reputation as customer perceptions (beliefs and attitude) led to adoption of the reasoned action approach as the study’s theoretical basis. Each of the social axioms dimensions, namely, fate control, religiosity, reward for application, social complexity and social cynicism, was hypothesised to influence customers’ beliefs about their bank and behavioural intention. Following a deductive approach and adopting a positivistic paradigm, quantitative data was collected from 636 middle-high income customers of the top five South African retail banks using an online questionnaire. The conceptual model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The study’s results confirmed that social axioms are a source of individual difference, can explain variances in customers’ beliefs, and are therefore antecedents of corporate reputation. Reward for application has the strongest relationship with customers’ beliefs while the relationship between social cynicism and beliefs was statistically insignificant. Effects of all social axioms dimensions apart from social cynicism were completely mediated in series by beliefs and attitude. Contributions to corporate reputation scholarship include definition of the construct as a collective of beliefs and attitude and expansion of the set of antecedents to beliefs within the reasoned action framework beyond the traditional personality and demographic factors. In practice the findings endorse the view that corporate reputation is to an extent beyond a company’s control and is in part controlled by stakeholders. As a result, it is suggested that bank marketing executives and reputation practitioners consider including social axioms in customer segmentation models to ensure that their offerings resonate with customers’ general beliefs about the world. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / DPhil / Unrestricted

Aukštojo mokslo institucijų korporatyvinės reputacijos svarba nekelia abejonių, tačiau svarbu nustatyti, kokie veiksniai daro įtaką aukštojo mokslo institucijų korporatyvinei reputacijai ir kaip ją būtų galima kompleksiškai vertinti. Tyrimo tikslas – nustačius ir įvertinus aukštojo mokslo institucijų korporatyvinės reputacijos vertinimo veiksnius, sudaryti aukštojo mokslo institucijų korporatyvinės reputacijos vertinimo modelį. Disertacijos tyrimas apima mokslinės literatūros šaltinių analizę, apibendrinimą ir lyginimą, modeliavimo metodą, kokybinio ir kiekybinio tyrimo bei duomenų apdorojimo metodus. Duomenims analizuoti taikomi daugiamačiai statistiniai metodai: aprašomoji statistika, patikimumo, faktorinė ir dispersinė analizės. Disertacijos pirmoje dalyje apibrėžiama korporatyvinės reputacijos reiškinio genezė, atliekama korporatyvinės reputacijos sampratos analizė ir išskiriama požiūrių tipologija, analizuojama korporatyvinės reputacijos reikšmė organizacijai ir vaidmuo aukštojo mokslo institucijose. Antroje dalyje apibrėžiama korporatyvinės reputacijos vertinimo svarba organizacijai, išskiriamos suinteresuotos grupės, atliekama korporatyvinės reputacijos vertinimo metodikų lyginamoji analizė. Trečioje dalyje parengiama korporatyvinės reputacijos vertinimo aukštojo mokslo institucijose tyrimo metodika. Ketvirtoje dalyje pristatomi korporatyvinės reputacijos vertinimo aukštojo mokslo institucijose tyrimo rezultatai. Remiantis gautais rezultatais, pagrindžiamas aukštojo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The importance of corporate reputation at higher education institutions does not raise any doubts. However, it is important to determine what indicators influence corporate reputation of higher education institutions and how it can be comprehensively measured. The aim of the research – after identification and evaluation of corporate reputation measurement indicators at higher education institutions to construct measurement model of corporate reputation at higher education institutions. Research of the dissertation includes analysis, generalization and comparison of scientific literature, modeling method, qualitative and quantitative research and data processing methods. For the analysis of data multidimensional statistical methods are used: descriptive statistics, reliability, factor and dispersion analysis. In the first part of dissertation, genesis of corporate reputation is defined, analysis of corporate reputation definitions is executed and typology of views is distinguished, significance of corporate reputation to organization and role to higher education institutions are analyzed. In the second part, the importance of corporate reputation measurement to organization is defined, stakeholder groups are distinguished, comparative analysis of corporate reputation measurement methods is executed. In the third part, research methodology of corporate reputation measurement at higher education institutions is prepared. In the fourth part, results of the research of corporate... [to full text]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to measure and compare the corporate reputation of four staffing and recruitment companies, from the perspective of graduating students. Background: Corporate reputation is a concept that has interested researchers for the last four decades, and still the concept incorporates a number of varied definitions, contexts and measurement methods (Gotsi & Wilson, 2001). Along with definition ambiguity comes also measurement concerns such as whether to aggregate or disaggregate several perspectives into one general index of a company’s reputation. Most researchers agree that corporate reputation is a suitable concept when describing the perceptions that stakeholders have of a company, and that it can only be ascribed to one company. This study takes the perspective to investigate one external stakeholder group of staffing and recruitment companies - graduating students. The group is of interest because it can possibly become an internal stakeholder group - employees. Method: For this study a quantitative method has been applied and an investigation has been made through a survey. Methodology about measuring corporate reputation is discussed, and lay ground for the empirical data collection. An altered version of the Harris-Fombrun Reputation Quotient (RQ) is used, in order to achieve better fit of the instrument and to attain higher reliability and validity. Conclusion: The purpose of this study has been fulfilled by measuring corporate reputation from the perspective of graduating students. empirical data from 125 students has been collected, and four corporate reputations of staffing and recruitment companies have been measured. The findings are not valid for generalisability but enough to give a good estimation of the population of interest. In addition, a disaggregated analysis of the RQ components has confirmed the findings. Using the methodology of the theoretically based Harris- Fombrun Reputation Quotient further validates the findings. Graduating students perceive Academic Work in the most positive way, in respect to the other companies. / Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att mäta och jämföra anseendet av fyra bemannings- och rekryteringsföretag, utifrån avgångsstudenters perspektiv. Bakgrund: Företagets anseende är ett teoretiskt koncept som har intresserat forskare de senaste årtiondena och fortfarande råder delade meningar om definitioner, sammanhang och mätmetoder rörande konceptet (Gotsi & Wilson, 2001). Med tvetydiga definitioner kommer även oklarhet gällande mätningsmetod, som till exempel om man ska summera flera intressenters åsikter till ett övergripande index eller inte. Forskare är eniga om att företagets anseende är ett passande koncept när man ska beskriva de åsikter intressenter har om ett företag. Denna studie undersöker en specifik grupp av bemannings- och rekryteringsföretags externa intressenter, nämligen avgångsstudenter. Denna grupp är intressant då de kan komma att bli interna intressenter, via anställning av ett företag. Metod: Denna studie har en kvantitativ inriktning och undersökningen har utförts med hjälp av en enkät. Metodiken i att mäta företags anseende genom att använda sig av league tabeller och pilotstudier diskuteras och ligger till grund för empiriinsamling. Användandet av en anpassad version av Harris-Fombrun Reputation Quotient (RQ) ger studien ökad validitet och reliabilitet. Slutsats: Syftet med denna studie har blivit uppnått genom att mäta företagens anseende ur avgångsstudenters perspektiv. Empirisk data från 125 studenter har samlats ihop och fyra bemannings- och rekryteringsföretags företagsanseenden har blivit uppmätta. Resultatet kan inte generaliseras för en större population, men den kan användas för att ge en bra indikation hur åsikterna för den specifika populationen är. Vidare har en uppdelad analys av komponenterna i RQ gjorts vilket har kunnat säkerställa resultaten i den totala RQ. Användandet av den teoretiskt grundade RQ ger ytterligare validitet åt resultaten. Avgångsstudenter har mest positiva åsikter om Academic Work i jämförelse med de andra undersökta företagen.

<p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to measure and compare the corporate reputation of four staffing and recruitment companies, from the perspective of graduating students.</p><p>Background: Corporate reputation is a concept that has interested researchers for the last four decades, and still the concept incorporates a number of varied definitions, contexts and measurement methods (Gotsi & Wilson, 2001). Along with definition ambiguity comes also measurement concerns such as whether to aggregate or disaggregate several perspectives into one general index of a company’s reputation. Most researchers agree that corporate reputation is a suitable concept when describing the perceptions that stakeholders have of a company, and that it can only be ascribed to one company. This study takes the perspective to investigate one external stakeholder group of staffing and recruitment companies - graduating students. The group is of interest because it can possibly become an internal stakeholder group - employees.</p><p>Method: For this study a quantitative method has been applied and an investigation has been made through a survey. Methodology about measuring corporate reputation is discussed, and lay ground for the empirical data collection. An altered version of the Harris-Fombrun Reputation Quotient (RQ) is used, in order to achieve better fit of the instrument and to attain higher reliability and validity.</p><p>Conclusion: The purpose of this study has been fulfilled by measuring corporate reputation from the perspective of graduating students. empirical data from 125 students has been collected, and four corporate reputations of staffing and recruitment companies have been measured. The findings are not valid for generalisability but enough to give a good estimation of the population of interest. In addition, a disaggregated analysis of the RQ components has confirmed the findings. Using the methodology of the theoretically based Harris- Fombrun Reputation Quotient further validates the findings. Graduating students perceive Academic Work in the most positive way, in respect to the other companies.</p> / <p>Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att mäta och jämföra anseendet av fyra bemannings- och rekryteringsföretag, utifrån avgångsstudenters perspektiv.</p><p>Bakgrund: Företagets anseende är ett teoretiskt koncept som har intresserat forskare de senaste årtiondena och fortfarande råder delade meningar om definitioner, sammanhang och mätmetoder rörande konceptet (Gotsi & Wilson, 2001). Med tvetydiga definitioner kommer även oklarhet gällande mätningsmetod, som till exempel om man ska summera flera intressenters åsikter till ett övergripande index eller inte. Forskare är eniga om att företagets anseende är ett passande koncept när man ska beskriva de åsikter intressenter har om ett företag. Denna studie undersöker en specifik grupp av bemannings- och rekryteringsföretags externa intressenter, nämligen avgångsstudenter. Denna grupp är intressant då de kan komma att bli interna intressenter, via anställning av ett företag.</p><p>Metod: Denna studie har en kvantitativ inriktning och undersökningen har utförts med hjälp av en enkät. Metodiken i att mäta företags anseende genom att använda sig av league tabeller och pilotstudier diskuteras och ligger till grund för empiriinsamling. Användandet av en anpassad version av Harris-Fombrun Reputation Quotient (RQ) ger studien ökad validitet och reliabilitet.</p><p>Slutsats: Syftet med denna studie har blivit uppnått genom att mäta företagens anseende ur avgångsstudenters perspektiv. Empirisk data från 125 studenter har samlats ihop och fyra bemannings- och rekryteringsföretags företagsanseenden har blivit uppmätta. Resultatet kan inte generaliseras för en större population, men den kan användas för att ge en bra indikation hur åsikterna för den specifika populationen är. Vidare har en uppdelad analys av komponenterna i RQ gjorts vilket har kunnat säkerställa resultaten i den totala RQ. Användandet av den teoretiskt grundade RQ ger ytterligare validitet åt resultaten. Avgångsstudenter har mest positiva åsikter om Academic Work i jämförelse med de andra undersökta företagen.</p>

The Upper Echelons Theory states that CEO characteristics, among them the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) of personality, affect decision-making. In an accounting context, the presence of the Dark Tetrad of personality in CEOs can reduce accounting information quality because the personalities of the Dark Tetrad are associated with callousness, impulsivity, manipulation, criminality, grandiosity, enjoyment of cruelty, and misconduct, therefore CEOs with these traits are likely to manipulate earnings or commit fraud. However, companies with strong reputation due to the credibility and trustworthiness built into the company values and culture can reduce the effect of dark personality in accounting information quality. In such context, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of corporate reputation on the relationship between the Dark Tetrad of personality and accounting information quality. The main assumption is that CEOs with strong Dark Tetrad traits engage more in earnings management and fraud; however, in companies with strong reputation, earnings management and fraud would be lower due to the values, structures, and formal or informal rules built around corporate reputation. This implies that companies with strong reputation tend to suppress the opportunistic actions of CEOs, enabling better accounting information quality. The research design was divided into two parts: the first part involved an archival method and the second part used an experiment method. For the archival method, I analyzed 434 firms (2,645 observations) with headquarters in the United States, covering the period between 2010 and 2017, using abnormal accruals, real earnings management, and classification shifting for earnings management, the overall Fortune\'s World\'s Most Admired Companies score for reputation, CEO speeches, and dark personality literature to measure the Dark Tetrad of personality. I ran regressions to test the research hypotheses and found that the Dark Tetrad of personality shows a positive relationship with all types of earnings management. Regarding reputation, only abnormal accruals show a negative relationship with corporate reputation. In turn, the interaction between the Dark Tetrad of personality and corporate reputation is negatively related to all types of earnings management. For the experimental method, I used a 2x2 between-subjects experiment design involving 101 MBA students who, in general, have had experience in management in Brazil and the United States of America. To measure the Dark Tetrad of personality, I used the Short-Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) and the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (Plouffe et al., 2017). For reputation, I adapted the scenarios from Goldberg and Hartwick (1990) and Lafferty (2007). For fraud, I developed two proxies, the first with five situations based on literature addressing accounting issues, and the other based on D\'Souza and Lima (2015). To test the hypotheses, I applied Ordinary Least Squares regressions and Poisson regressions and found that psychopathy, sadism, Machiavellianism, and the Dark Tetrad of personality show a positive relationship with accounting fraud and misrepresentation. Regarding reputation, in all the models, reputation is not related to fraud. On the other hand, in relation to the interaction between the Dark Tetrad of personality and corporate reputation, only highly Machiavellian CEOs are discouraged from committing fraud by a strong reputation. Therefore, this study demonstrated that CEO personality can affect accounting information quality, however, corporate reputation is an intangible resource that influences CEO decision-making, so as a result, reputation helps to increase accounting information quality. / A Teoria dos Altos Escalões afirma que as características do CEO afetam a tomada de decisão deles, na qual uma delas é a Tétrade Sombria (narcisismo, maquiavelismo, psicopatia e sadismo) da personalidade. No contexto contábil, a presença de traços da Tétrade Sombria em CEOs pode reduzir a qualidade da informação contábil, porque as personalidades da Tétrade Sombria estão associadas à insensibilidade, impulsividade, manipulação, criminalidade, grandiosidade, prazer na crueldade e má conduta, portanto, CEOs com esses traços provavelmente gerenciariam resultados ou cometeriam fraudes. No entanto, as empresas com forte reputação devido à credibilidade e confiabilidade que estão incorporadas em valores e cultura da empresa podem reduzir o efeito da personalidade sombria na qualidade da informação contábil. Neste contexto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo investigar o efeito moderador da reputação corporativa sobre a relação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e a qualidade da informação contábil. Assim, o principal pressuposto é que os CEOs com traços altos da Tétrade Sombria envolvem mais em gerenciamento de resultados e fraude, no entanto, em empresas com forte reputação, o gerenciamento de resultados e fraude seriam menores devido aos valores, estruturas e regras formais ou informais construídas em empresas com forte reputação. Isso implica que as empresas com forte reputação tendem a suprimir as ações oportunistas do CEO, permitindo uma melhor qualidade da informação contábil. O método de pesquisa foi dividido em duas partes: primeira parte, um método documental; e segunda parte, um método experimental. Para o método documental, foram analisadas 434 empresas (2.645 observações) com sede nos Estados Unidos para o período entre 2010 e 2017, utilizando accruals anormais, gerenciamento de resultados por atividades e mudança de classificação para gerenciamento de resultados, a pontuação geral das empresas mais admiradas da Fortune World para reputação, e o discurso do CEO e a literatura de personalidade sombria para mensurara Tétrade Sombria da personalidade. Para, foram executadas regressões para testar as hipóteses de pesquisa e verificou-se que a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade possui uma relação positiva com todos os tipos de gerenciamento de resultados; em relação à reputação, apenas os accruals anormais mostram relação negativa com a reputação corporativa; por sua vez, a interação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e a reputação corporativa está negativamente relacionada a todos os tipos de gerenciamento de resultados. Para o método experimental, foi utilizado o desenho de experimento 2x2 entre sujeitos com 101 alunos de MBA do Brasil e dos Estados Unidos da América que, em geral, tiveram experiência em gestão. Para medir a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade, foi usado The Short-Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) e Assessment of Sadistic Personality (Plouffe et al., 2017). Para a reputação, foi adaptado os cenários de Goldberg e Hartwick, (1990) e Lafferty (2007). Já para a fraude, foi empregada duas variáveis, a primeira tem cinco situações baseadas em literatura abordando questões contábeis e a outra baseia-se em D\'Souza e Lima (2015).Para testar as hipóteses, aplicou-se regressão por Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários e regressão Poisson, e observou-se que a psicopatia, o sadismo, o maquiavelismo e a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade mostraram uma relação positiva com a fraude contábil e a falsa representação; sobre a reputação, a reputação de todos os modelos não apresentou relação com fraude; Por outro lado, em relação à interação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e reputação corporativa, apenas os CEOs altamente maquiavélicos estão desencorajados a cometer fraude devido a uma forte reputação. Portanto, este estudo demonstrou que a personalidade do CEO pode afetar a qualidade da informação contábil, no entanto, a reputação corporativa é um recurso intangível que influencia a tomada de decisão do CEO, então a reputação ajuda a aumentar a qualidade da informação contábil.

Este estudo tem por objetivo verificar como a reputação afeta as decisões de investimento das firmas. Já existe um consenso na literatura de que uma boa reputação contribui para o desempenho da firma, mas ainda são poucos e recentes os estudos que verificam as relações entre reputação corporativa e decisões de investimento. Portanto, deseja-se verificar se a reputação afeta a probabilidade de uma empresa ser classificada como subinvestimento, investimento eficiente ou sobreinvestimento; e também qual é o impacto da reputação na taxa de crescimento do investimento de uma firma. Para isso utiliza-se uma base de dados longitudinais de 180 firmas espanholas entre 2000 e 2015. A mensuração para reputação corporativa é feita através da classificação no ranking de reputação Merco, que divulga anualmente uma lista com as cem empresas espanholas com melhor reputação naquele ano. Os dados financeiros e de estrutura de propriedade são obtidos através do sistema SABI. Inicialmente, o modelo tem como variável dependente uma binária que representa se a empresa pertence ou não a determinado nível de investimento. Neste caso, regressões logísticas são utilizadas para determinar como a reputação afeta a probabilidade da empresa ser classificada por apresentar subinvestimento, investimento ótimo ou sobreinvestimento. Em seguida, a variável dependente é a taxa de investimento da firma, portanto, o método GMM-sys é aplicado para controlar a endogeneidade provocada pela inclusão da variável dependente defasada no modelo. Também são estimados modelos considerando a restrição financeira da firma, seu tamanho e sua estrutura de propriedade. Os resultados mostram que a reputação interfere de maneira positiva na taxa de investimento das firmas espanholas. Além disso, quando a empresa tem melhor reputação, sua dependência de caixa para fazer investimentos também aumenta. Contudo, a reputação não é significativa para aumentar a probabilidade de uma empresa apresentar investimento eficiente, nem para explicar o investimento das firmas consideradas restritas financeiramente. / The objective of this research is to verify how reputation affects investment decisions. There is already a consensus in the literature that a good reputation contributes to firm performance; however, there are few recent studies that examine the relationship between corporate reputation and investment decisions. Therefore, our desire is to verify whether reputation affects the probability of a company being classified as underinvestment, efficient investment or overinvestment; also, we attempt to analyze the impact of reputation on the growth rate of a firm\'s investment. A longitudinal database of 180 Spanish firms between the period of 2000 and 2015 is used. The measurement for corporate reputation is done by ranking in the Merco reputation ranking, which annually publishes a list of the 100 most reputable Spanish companies in that year. The financial and ownership structure data are obtained through the SABI system. Initially the model has as dependent variable which is a binary that represents whether the company belongs or not to a certain level of investment. In this case, logistic regressions are used to determine how the reputation affects the probability of the company being classified as having underinvestment, optimal investment or overinvestment. Later, the dependent variable is represented by the investment rate of the firm, so the GMM-sys method is applied to control the endogeneity caused by the inclusion of the lagged dependent variable in the model. Models are also estimated considering the firm\'s financial constraint, its size and its ownership structure. The results show that reputation interferes in a positive way in the investment rate of Spanish firms. In addition, when the company has a better reputation, its dependence on cash to make investments also increases. However, reputation is significant in increasing the likelihood that a firm will be able to make an efficient investment, or to explain the investment of firms that are considered financially constrained.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo conhecer as estratégias de relacionamento com a imprensa de organizações reconhecidas por sua boa reputação corporativa e seus impactos nesse ativo. A imprensa foi o público escolhido para a análise por ser comum a todas as organizações e devido ao seu poder de influência sobre os públicos, que ainda continua bastante expressivo, mesmo em um cenário de internet móvel e mídias sociais. Para responder a pergunta central foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa qualitativa para tentar compreender a relação entre os relacionamentos organizacionais e a reputação corporativa. Como recorte dessa análise, serão avaliadas cinco organizações de reputação destacada no Brasil, conforme o Reputation Institute: Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, Mercedes-Benz, Petrobras e O Boticário. O objetivo é entender se o relacionamento com a imprensa colabora no fortalecimento da reputação positiva e, se sim, verificar quais são as estratégias de comunicação utilizadas pelas referidas empresas. Todas as organizações estudadas mostraram um alto grau de qualidade no relacionamento com a imprensa, mas o principal resultado encontrado foi que o contato pessoal é a melhor forma de criar vínculos de confiança com esse público, o que fortalece a qualidade do relacionamento e o potencial de impactar positivamente a reputação corporativa. / This dissertation aims to understand the strategies orienting press relations in organizations that are recognized for their good corporate reputation and their impacts on this asset. The press was chosen for analysis because it is common to all organizations and due to its significant influence over other publics, even in a scenario of mobile web and social media. To answer the central question, this study is grounded by qualitative research in an attempt to understand the relationship between organizational relationships and corporate reputation. In this analysis, five organizations with outstanding reputation in Brazil, according to Reputation Institute, will be assessed: Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, Mercedes-Benz, Petrobras and O Boticário. The goal is to understand whether press relations contribute to strengthen positive reputation and, if so, identify the communication strategies used by these companies. All organizations studied showed a high degree of quality in the relationship with the press, but the main finding is that personal contact is the best way to create bonds of trust with this audience, which strengthens the quality of the relationship and the potential to impact positive corporate reputation.

BACKGROUND: Corporate reputation refers to an organisation’s past and present action, which has a huge impact on how the organisation is viewed by its internal and external stakeholders. In the context of business organisation, the importance of reputation in public service and government organisations needs to be recognised, especially in South Africa, where many problems are associated with local government. Coupled with this, there has been lack of emphasis on collaborative consultation processes and participation by the communities in matters that affect them. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: The purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to analyse personal experiences of employees at a local municipality, on the management of corporate reputation. Systems theory was adopted as a theoretical framework for the study. METHOD: This research employs a qualitative research method and a case study design. The qualitative research was relevant for this research as it is naturalistic, which is research based in natural settings where communication occurs. The in-depth individual, semi structured interviews enabled the researcher to get rich information from the participants, who are employees of the municipality and work within the broad frame of public relations, communications, event management and marketing. These participants engage with the external stakeholders on events management or on expertise, leadership and management skills with regard to corporate reputation management. RESULTS: The results reveal that management of reputation is probably a multifaceted concept. Hence corporate social responsibility, emotional appeal, financial performance, products and services, vision and leadership and workplace environment all feature but it is unlikely that the participants perceive reputation as separate from image and identity as they use the terms synonymously. The responses reveal that a systems view of an organisation, being social in a social system, indicate that the various components in the internal environment cannot be separated from the external environment as they are continuously and dynamically interacting with one another with corporate communication acting as a ‘glue’, which holds them together. Corporate communication is thus an essential part of the system as it serves to align the organisation’s vision, culture and image that people have of an organisation.

The focus of this research is on the development of ontology and on a more effective way to measure corporate reputation that takes into consideration the orientations of a company’s various stakeholders. The focus by researchers and by practitioners on corporate reputation and on its management attests to an expanding interest. Yet there remains disparate knowledge about how corporate reputation should be defined; about what are its key components; about the relationships between those components and about how corporate reputation should be measured. This point to a need for clarification: to develop a methodology based on ontology of corporate reputation that has relevance for a company’s various stakeholder groups. This research builds on a review of the academic literature and employs text analysis, the nominal group technique and a quantitative survey among stakeholders about the reputation of a high profile company. Theory-driven analysis provides insights into the corporate reputation construct and into a tool for measurement that takes into consideration stakeholder perceptions of a company’s reputation. The results of the study indicate that, in the eyes of its stakeholders, a company’s reputation is driven by nine factors: image, identity, management leadership, performance, corporate brand, products and services, financial performance, ethical management and leadership, and corporate leadership. Not all nine components share the same degree of relevance for stakeholders: different stakeholder groups rank the importance of the components of corporate reputation differently; they evaluate the reputation of the same company differently. The drivers of stakeholders’ overall evaluations of a company’s reputation vary by stakeholder segment. Stakeholder groups are seen to display the characteristics of segments.