The Relation Between Reputation Management And People Management

Click here to get this post in PDF

There is a distinct relation between reputation management and HRM, more commonly people management. It is all about the control systems of an organization. These systems can be either socio-ideological or technocratic. Few companies, however, use a combination of both these systems.

• In a technocratic system, the primary concern is on the visible dimensions of the different activities of the employees. It also involves all other aspects of technical punishing or rewarding when it comes to communication of the employees as well as their behavior. These are primarily regulated through the formal guidelines and direct supervision of the different directives and policies of the organization.
• Socio-ideological system, on the other hand, involves control that is subtler and occurs in different values, priorities, ideologies, and philosophies. All these are mainly directed at the experiences, beliefs, and understandings of the employees.

Reputation-based HRM systems, however, emphasize more on technocratic control, which is at a much higher degree. This primarily focuses on the specific efforts that are out in by the organization to instruct the employees and direct them to behave in accordance with the desired reputation of the organization.

Reputation-based HRM practices are supported by different things, such as:

• Incentives
• Policies
• Performance reviews and
• Sanctions.

All these ensure that even those employees who do not care much for the desired reputation or mission of the organization are encouraged to behave in such a way that it supports and fulfills the reputation of the company.

The theoretical background

If you view the background of reputation management more traditionally, you will see that the theoretical background of corporate reputation management and its definition primarily emphasize on a few specific things such as:

• The role of the spokespersons and the organizational leaders
• The influencing perceptions of the organization
• The part of the external stakeholders and
• Verbal communication.

All these tend to build, maintain, and repair the point of view of the activities performed by the organization as well as the character of the employees. This means that in the traditional systems of reputation management, the role of the ordinary employees and their experiences, activities, and resistance are not addressed.

The primary goal for reputation management is to make sure that all speak in a single voice. This will ensure that the company has a substantial level of internal orchestration as well as better integration of communication activities among the employees so that it does not have any negative impact on the reputation of the company.

Reputation management and people management

Experts and critics believe that there are specific times when reputation management can be considered as people management, and it will have some notable implications on the employee voice. This is due to the relationship that exists between HRM, internal reputation management, and employee voice.

If you can draw a qualitative data of different medium-sized and large organizations, you will find that:

• Most of the organizations follow the desired reputation
• They maintain a single and official corporate voice
• They discourage prohibitive employee voice
• They have a more technocratic control and
• They follow more coercive HRM practices.

This means that the emphasis on technocratic control and coercive HRM by the organizations is in spite of the widely held belief in reputation management and branding literature such as:

• To consider the employees to be the most committed ambassadors of the organization who will readily and enthusiastically promote the desired reputation of the company they work for and
• They would sincerely believe in the images of the company as well as the ones that they convey to both the internal as well as external stakeholders.

These studies on reputation management prove that there is a distinct link between internal reputation management and employee voice. This also points out at the people management aspect of reputation management as well as highlights the importance and consequences of organizational reputation management, if it is not based on the employees.

Managing the reputation

Now the question is, can the reputation of a company be managed in the real sense as any ORM Company Florida may claim, and if so, how exactly? The fact that you do not have direct control over what people think about you or say about your business may make you wonder what are the things that you can adjust to make them think and say as you want about your company. You can do this to some degree when you control what they see. This will, in turn, help you to manage their perception about you as well as the reputation formed.

Some of the most effective reputation management practices will help you to adjust the reputational issues, which are mostly online. The primary sources of these online reputational issues are:

• Negative news articles
• Negative online images
• Wikipedia
• Blog posts
• Reports and scam sites rip-offs
• Review sites
• Social media.

The science of reputation management, different search engine optimization techniques, and focus on cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, and user behavior will help companies to ensure that there is no negative impact on the search results and even if there is any, the equilibrium is restored.

Infographic created by PlusOne Solutions, a contractor compliance solutions company

The need for it

The need to manage online reputation for any company is varied, and many, which is why most of the companies spend thousands of dollars hiring a reliable company for that matter. These are:

• It makes it much easier to gain new customers
• It improves trust
• It improves customer support
• It helps t6o be more proactive
• It helps to retain existing customers
• It creates opportunities to build relationships with influencers
• It wards off any potential social media catastrophes and
• It shows that you can react quickly and confidently, even in a bad situation.

Therefore, online reputation management is something that you should never ignore and do it correctly.

Avoid the mistakes

Therefore, when reputation management having so much importance, there is no scope for making any mistakes. The common mistakes that you should avoid include:

• Paying for positive reviews
• Astroturfing
• Encouraging trolls
• Lying and
• Ignoring the customer

All these will bring you closer to people and enhance your company’s reputation online.

You may also like: 10 Ways HR Managers Can Boost Productivity in the Workplace

Image source: Shutterstock.com