Organizational Self-Presentation

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Organizational impression managementOrganizations often attempt to foster views of themselves that their managers believe fosters the corporate self-interest

• Explicitly manipulated through corporate image campaigns

• Implicitly manipulated through symbols visible to the public

• Implicitly manipulated through control of people meeting the public

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BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill BP oil well explosion in Gulf of Mexico, April 2010.

– 11 dead– Largest marine oil spill in US history

BP settled for $20 billion with US & state governments

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Advertising as “insurance” against a spill Some evidence that advertising in a region reduced

the consumer punishment of BP after the spill

BP invested heavily in “image advertising” after the spill.

Barrage, L., Chyn, E., & Hastings, J. (2014). Advertising, reputation, and environmental stewardship: Evidence from the bp oil spill: National Bureau of Economic Research.

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Ronald McDonald House

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Impression management at Xerox

• Professional image for Xerox repair• Mechanics who dress like businessmen/women

• Behavioral image• Friendliness toward audience, so they will discount lapses of competence

• Exude competence• Fix any machine you touch• Avoid broken calls

• Functions of impression management• Customer loyalty• Performance evaluation of individual technicians

• Controlling customer behavior vis a vis the machine

• What is strange about this pix?

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Emotional labor“management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display … sold for a wage”

Hochschild, A. R. (19893). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling,

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The Disney Smile Factory

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Some of the employees

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Impression Management at DisneyWhat is the message?

Why: Functions

How does Disney enforce this?

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Impression Management at DisneyWhat is the message?

– Appear neat & proper– Staff at Disney should

act calm & upbeat– Act courteously

Functions– To help customers

enjoy themselves (if the staff is happy so too will the ‘guests’)

– To maintain Disney’s “family friendly” image

– Crowd control For company For self

How does Disney enforce this?

– Selection of clean-cut kids

– TrainingDay long schoolhouse 40 hr apprenticeshipHandbook

– Scripted interactionUniformsDialog

– Surveillance & public sanctions

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Impression Management Among Bill Collectors

Function– Increase debtor's

motivation to pay by manipulating his/her emotions

– Route: Telephone collector displays “appropriate,” motivating emotions

– Must show appropriate demeanor & control internal state

Debtor's demeanor

Collector's likely feeling

Collector's normative display

Mildly irriated/anxious

Arousal + irritation

Urgency (arousal + irritation)

Extrem ely anxious

Warm th/ sym pathy

Warm th/sym pathy

Indifferent Arousal + irritation

Urgency

Friendly Warm th/ sym pathy

Urgency

Sad Sym pathy UrgencyAngry Anger Warm th

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How Does Organization Insure Appropriate Displays?

Selection– Recruitment– Screening

Socialization– ‘Schoolhouse’ training– On the job training– Role models– Natural feedback from clients

Rewards & punishments– Supervisors– Peers