Organizational identity threats and aspirations in reputation management

ABSTRACT

Reputational threats are key to understanding public services’ behaviour. Previous research has viewed external performance assessments as an unwelcome imposition on public managers and a threat to organizational identity. Analysing the adoption of a self-imposed process of peer-led assessment by public managers in UK local government we show how the absence of performance assessment was seen as a reputational threat. Engaging proactively with the new voluntary assessments becomes an essential tool for active reputation management. We find that reputation does not only shape the responses to external performance assessment but the external performance assessment itself.

KEYWORDS:

• Organisational identity
• performance assessment
• public services
• reputation
• organisational branding

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and supportive comments on earlier versions of this article. Thanks are also due to Rachel Ashworth, Tim Edwards, Tom Entwistle and Mike Reed for their advice in the development of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Local government organizations in the UK differ in the size and nature of the area they cover and the responsibilities they carry out. The different forms of organizations are district councils, county councils, unitary councils (combining district and county responsibilities), borough councils (traditionally covering urban areas).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Local Government Association.

Notes on contributors

Heike Doering

Heike Doering is a lecturer at Cardiff Business School and a member of the Centre for Local and Regional Government Research. Her research interests focus on the professionalization of public management, institutional change and comparative capitalisms.

James Downe

James Downe is Professor of Public Policy & Management and Director of Research, Wales Centre for Public Policy, Cardiff University. His research interests are in local government performance regimes, political accountability, public trust and the ethical behaviour of local politicians.

Hadar Elraz

Hadar Elraz is Lecturer in Management and Organization Studies in the Management School at Lancaster University. Her research focuses on identity and mental health in the workplace.

Steve Martin

Steve Martin is Professor of Public Policy and Management and the Director of the Wales Centre for Public Policy, Cardiff University. His research interests include evaluation, public service improvement, performance assessment, and evidence informed policy.