Conceptualizing and assessing organizational image: Model images, commitment, and communication

Despite its significance as a form of shared organizational knowledge, there have been few attempts to conceptualize or assess empirically the concept of organizational image or the content of organization members’ images of their organization. In this paper, qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used to assess organizational images, index the degree of similarity between members’ images, and evaluate relationships between image similarity, organizational commitment, and communication. In general, predictions of positive relationships between image similarity, organizational commitment, and communication were supported. However, the strength of these relationships varied with type of organizational membership, type of image, and type of communication.