Reputation management - drivers, criticism and paradoxes

Abstract

Reputation management and ‘branding’ has become increasingly important in the public sector. Public institutions are expected to develop their own identity and be proactive with regard to influence society's perceptions of them and seek to influence those perceptions in a positive direction. There is competition among them to score high on the reputation indexes and to be the most responsive in relation to what is going on in their environment and in enrolling own employees as ambassadors for reputation management. The article discusses why this recipe has become so influential and questions whether it may easily be adapted to a public sector context. Furthermore, the particular reasons for the expansion of the recipe during recent years are discussed. It is the mandate of the public institutions that they should be impartial and neutral and this contradicts the reputation recipes which suggest that different client groups ought to be handled in different ways. They are also expected to be predictable and maintain laws and regulations and therefore have to be loyal to political and legal authorities. Since it is likely that reputation management will continue to be an important activity in the public sector in the future, it will be a challenge to develop recipes and communication ideals that are more attuned to the public institutions' characteristics and values. At the end it is suggested that there are at least 10 paradoxes associated with reputation building and these paradoxes are listed and discussed.