You are on page 1of 14

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 14, no 4, 2004, pages 76-88

Organisational image has mostly been studied using an external perspective focused on strategy
and marketing issues. Given its salience in employees' symbolic environment, however, image
may also have internal as well as external consequences. Yet, the potential impact of image on
internal HR aspects has received only pminimal interest from researchers. This article presents
the results of a study that explored the impact of perceived external prestige (PEP) on three
individual outcomes: job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment and affective well-
being at work. It is based on a survey of 527 French managers. The findings show that all
individual outcomes are related to PEP. Moreover, it was found that the impact of corporate
image on some of the outcomes was stronger for individuals working in sales/marketing than for
other employees.

Hatch and Schultz (1997) argue that in the current business environment the boundary between
the internal and external aspects of contemporary corporations is breaking down because of the
increased interactions between organisational members and external actors. In this context,
organisational identity should be viewed as a bridge between the external position of the
organisation in the marketplace and its internal environment. It serves as a symbolic framework
interpreted both by outsiders to form meanings about the company and by organisational
members to infer their own individual identity.

The perception of an organisation's identity from the outside is captured by the notion of
organisational image — ie the externally produced symbols and interpretations made by
outsiders about the company (Whetten and Mackey, 2002). An organisation's image exerts a
direct influence over its external stakeholders such as clients, suppliers, shareholders etc.
However, it also indirectly influences internal stakeholders, particularly the employees, through
their perception of how outsiders view the organisation (Bird et al, 1989). As stated by Hatch and
Schultz (1997: 361), 'Who we are is reflected in what we are doing and how others interpret who
we are and what we are doing'.

As a result, corporate image should be of growing interest not only to marketing and strategy
professionals but also for HRM purposes. Three major reasons account for this relevance of
corporate image to HR professionals. First, research has shown that companies are more likely to
attract quality applicants if they convey to them a positive image (eg Cable and Graham, 2000;
Greening and Turban, 2000). Next, organisational image could be helpful not only in attracting,
but also in retaining, employees. Although this possibility has received less attention, image may
have an impact on both organisational and personal factors in the classical models of turnover
(Carmeli and Freund, 2002). Last, organisational image is likely to influence employee attitudes
and behaviour in the workplace through its salience in individuals' symbolic environment.

The development of internal communications practices (for instance, those that are embodied in
the notion of 'internal marketing') are evidence that companies are trying to build on image
effects internally. However, such attempts may prove more difficult to manage than is commonly
believed (Meijs, 2002). Moreover, the alleged beneficial impact of image on employee attitudes
and behaviour is still to be empirically demonstrated. While research has shown that
organisational image influences organisational identification (Smidts et al, 2001), there has been
only slight evidence for the influence of image on other individual outcomes. To our knowledge,
only two studies (Carmeli and Freund, 2002; Riordan et al, 1997) have attempted to link
organisational image to a wider array of variables including job satisfaction, turnover intentions,
organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. Therefore, this topic is
clearly worthy of further inquiry as the positive impact of a corporation's image seems to be
more taken for granted than demonstrated.

This article presents the result of a study that has attempted to link corporate image,
operationalised through the notion of perceived external prestige, to three individual outcomes:
job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment and affective states at work. These
variables were selected because research has shown their influence on several important HR
outcomes such as motivation, performance and turnover. The research was based on a
questionnaire survey of a sample of 527 French managers. This sample was further divided into
two sub-samples to test a potential differentiated impact of corporate image: a sales/marketing
sub-sample and a non-sales/marketing sub-sample. The rationale for this distinction is elaborated
on below.

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATION AND HYPOTHESES

Perceived external prestige

This research uses the notion of perceived external prestige (PEP) to account for organisational
members' perception of their company's image. PEP, also called 'construed external image'
(Dutton et al, 1994), is a concept describing the way members interpret and assess their
organisation's reputation based on their exposure to information about the organisation.
Therefore, whereas organisational image refers to outsiders' beliefs about an organisation, PEP
refers to members' own views of outsiders' beliefs (Mael and Ashforth, 1992). In this research
PEP is assumed to be related to several beneficial outcomes: job satisfaction, affective
organisational commitment and pleasant affective states at work. The theoretical argument for
including each of these variables is now outlined.

Job satisfaction

Following the most recent approach of the satisfaction construct, job satisfaction is
conceptualised here as 'a positive (or negative) evaluative judgment one makes with regard to
one's job or job situation' (Weiss, 2002) — and therefore as an evaluation and not as affect.
Extrinsic satisfaction is derived from the evaluation of the rewards bestowed on the individual by
peers, superiors or the organisation, which can take the form of recognition, status,
compensation, advancement and so forth. Intrinsic satisfaction is derived from evaluating the
perceived rewards of actually performing the work and experiencing feelings of accomplishment,
self-actualisation or identity with the tasks. PEP is assumed to have an influence on extrinsic
satisfaction, because a good reputation provides the individual with the symbolic rewards of
organisational membership. On the other hand, as intrinsic satisfaction is related to the work
performed in itself and not to the organisation, it is assumed that PEP does not influence it. We
therefore stated the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: PEP is positively related to extrinsic job satisfaction.

Affective organisational commitment

Organisational commitment is traditionally defined as 'a strong belief in, and acceptance of, an
organisation's goals, willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation, and a
strong desire to maintain membership in the organisation' (Mowday et al, 1979). It has been
associated with various beneficial individual and organisational outcomes (Mathieu and Zajac,
1990; Meyer et al, 2002). The current view of organisational commitment is that it is a multi-
dimensional construct with three components: affective, continuance and normative. Since
affective commitment is based on the individual's identification with the organisation — ie on
deriving at least part of one's identity from belonging to the organisation (Meyer and
Herscovitch, 2001) — it is hypothesised that PEP has an impact on the level of affective
commitment of an employee: a positive image favours commitment through identification, while
a negative image may prevent commitment because the employee cannot boost his or her self-
image through membership in a valued organisation. The following hypothesis was therefore
tested:

Hypothesis 2: PEP is positively related to affective organisational commitment.

Affective well-being at work

Work is more and more considered as an affective experience that both generates emotional
states and is influenced by them (Brief and Weiss, 2002). Organisational image is likely to
generate pleasant affective states for three major reasons. First, in coherence with Affective
Events Theory (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996), a positive image can lead to events that generate
pleasant affective states. For instance, meeting an external party who appreciates the reputation
of the company, seeing an advertisement, or reading favourably about the company in the
newspaper are events leading to pleasant affect for organisational members. In that sense, as two
outcomes of 'actual' corporate image, PEP and affective states should be related. Secondly,
perceived external prestige has been shown to be positively related to the strength of individuals'
organisational identification (Smidts et al, 2001), which is likely to generate pleasant affect
through its role in self-esteem (Ellemers et al, 2002). Thirdly, there is evidence that stronger
organisational identification favours more cooperative behaviour among colleagues (Bergami
and Bagozzi, 2000; Dukerich et al, 2002), which further leads to pleasant affect. We therefore
stated the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3: PEP is positively related to experiencing pleasant affective states at work.

Sales/marketing versus non-sales/marketing managers

A further aim of this study was to find evidence of a differentiated effect of corporate image on
sales/marketing managers versus other managers. The rationale for this differentiated impact is
twofold. First, sales and marketing people's boundary — spanning jobs make them particularly
aware of, and dependent on, their company's image. For marketing managers, the impact of
image has been shown to influence not only marketing outcomes but also the marketing process
itself (egWeiss et al, 1999). As for sales professionals, they have evolved from short-term
'transaction-oriented sellers' to long-term 'relationship managers' (Sharma, 2001). As such, their
company's image becomes all the more relevant. Secondly, the personal characteristics of
managers working in sales/marketing may be different from those of other managers. For
instance, Soyer et al (1999) showed that individuals working in sales, as well as those previously
employed in sales, were on average more narcissistic and had stronger needs for achievement
than individuals who never held a sales job. We feel that this could make them more sensitive to
their company's image. The following hypothesis was therefore tested:

Hypothesis 4: The influence of PEP is stronger for sales/marketing than for non-sales/
marketing individuals.

METHOD

Sample and data collection procedure

A questionnaire was mailed to 1,500 French managers. These individuals were recent (<10
years) business graduates of two educational institutions: one Parisian university and one
provincial university. The collection process was anonymous. Eventually, 527 usable
questionnaires were returned. Subtracting 59 questionnaires that were returned undelivered due
to change of address, a response rate of 36.6 per cent was achieved. Mean age of the respondents
was 32 years, and 50 per cent of the sample was female. About two-thirds of the respondents
were employed in service companies (retailing, banking, consulting etc) and the remainder in
industrial companies. The sales/marketing sub-sample size was 229, and the other sub-sample
contained 298. The major functional areas of the latter sub-sample were accounting, finance and
general management.

Measures

Existing, established scales were used in measuring the research constructs. Because the study
was conducted in French, measures developed in English were taken from previous published
studies that translated them into French using a standard translation/back translation procedure:
we relied on the work of LIRHE researchers (Neveu, 1996; Roussel, 1996) and on the Geneva
Emotion Research Group for the emotional variables (Scherer, 1988). The measure of PEP used
in this study was based on Mael and Ashforth's (1992) organisational prestige scale that has six
items with five-point disagree/agree scales (sample item: 'People in my community think highly
of my company'). This instrument generated a unitary factor structure and had a good degree of
internal reliability (alpha = .86).

Job satisfaction was measured by the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ, Weiss et al,
1977). We used the short form of this instrument, which is recognised for its validity and widely
used in international research. Moreover, in terms of coherence with our evaluative approach of
satisfaction, the MSQ has been shown to be the most 'cognitive' (ie affect-free) measure of job
satisfaction (Brief and Roberson, 1989). The instrument evaluates satisfaction with 20 job
aspects using five-point scales. Weiss et al (1977) suggest that the MSQ may be viewed as two
separate sub-scales measuring extrinsic satisfaction and intrinsic satisfaction. Extrinsic job
satisfaction was therefore measured as a sub-scale of the MSQ consisting of six items (alpha = .
72), while intrinsic satisfaction was evaluated as a sub-scale consisting of 12 items (alpha = .83).

Organisational commitment was assessed with the instrument developed by Meyer et al (1993).
This has been widely used in academic research, and consists of three components. In this study
only the affective component of organisational commitment was used; it was measured by six
items with five-point scales. A sample item is: 'I do not feel emotionally attached to this
organisation' (reversed). The internal reliability coefficient of the instrument was .80.

Affective states at work were measured using the Job-related Affective Well-being Scale
(JAWS) developed by Van Katwyck et al (2000). The JAWS is a 30-item instrument designed to
assess people's emotional reactions to their job. Each item is an emotion, and respondents were
asked how often they had experienced each of them at work over the previous 30 days (1 =
'Never'; 2 = 'Occasionally'; 3 = 'Sometimes'; 4 = 'Often'; 5 = 'Very often'). The one-month period
was selected because of the potential retrospection difficulties when using longer time frames.
The French words were taken from the list validated by the Geneva Emotion Research Group
(Scherer, 1988), which was specifically developed for intercultural research on emotions to
ensure correct denotational and connotational meanings in different languages. As the JAWS has
items that reflect both pleasant and unpleasant emotions, the unpleasant emotion items were
reverse scored before combining them with the oppositely worded items to generate a total
pleasantness score for each individual.

Next, respondents were asked to indicate their gender, age, organisational tenure and the size of
their organisation. Positive and negative affectivity were also used as control variables in the
multiple regression analyses. Positive affectivity refers to the disposition of individuals towards
feeling good in life, while negative affectivity refers to the dispositional tendency to experience
negative emotions across situations and time (Watson et al, 1988). They were included in the
study because of their potential bias and substantive influences in self-report studies (Munz et al,
1996), and were measured using two three-item scales taken from the Multidimensional
Personality Questionnaire, an instrument that has been shown to demonstrate good convergent
and discriminate validity in relation to other variables (Watson, 1988). The internal reliability
coefficients for positive and negative affectivity were both .62.

RESULTS

The descriptive statistics and correlations among the study variables are presented in Table 1.
Preliminary findings confirm the expected correlations between PEP and extrinsic job
satisfaction (r = .38), affective organisational commitment (r = .22) and affective well-being (r
= .30). Although it was not expected, intrinsic job satisfaction was also significantly correlated
with PEP (r = .21). The size of the correlation coefficients suggested no problem of
multicollinearity. Among the control variables, only company size was correlated with PEP.

Table 2 next presents the hierarchical regression analyses predicting the outcome variables using
PEP. The initial equation regressed the outcome variables on the control variables. Affectivity
variables were found to be significant in predicting all dependent variables, thus providing
support to the influence of dispositional characteristics on individual outcomes (eg Judge and
Hulin, 1993). In the second step, PEP was added, and in the third step the interaction term (PEP
x occupation). The results show evidence of a main effect of PEP on extrinsic satisfaction (beta =
.33), affective commitment (beta = .23) and affective well-being (beta = .25). Hypotheses 1, 2
and 3 were therefore validated. PEP also had a main effect on intrinsic satisfaction (beta = .20).

The fourth hypothesis required an examination of the PEP x occupation interaction. As shown in
the regression results, the interaction term had a significant contribution to extrinsic satisfaction
(beta = -.50) and affective well-being at work (beta = -.50). This shows that sales/marketing
respondents were different with respect to two of the three outcomes, therefore supporting
hypothesis 4. In order better to grasp the impact of this interaction, both dependent variables
were regressed on PEP for the two occupational groups. Table 3 provides the results of the
analyses.

The standardised regression coefficients appeared to be larger for the sales/marketing sample,
both for extrinsic satisfaction (beta = .43 vs beta = .26) and for affective well-being (beta = .31
vs beta = .18). This confirms the results of the moderated regression analysis in that an increment
in PEP seems to be followed by a larger increase in extrinsic satisfaction and affective well-
being for sales/marketing people compared with other respondents.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

These results provide evidence of the relationship between organisational image and employee
outcomes. PEP was found to be related to job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment
and affective well-being at work. Our work therefore confirms the two previous articles that have
studied this topic, while extending the findings to both a larger and more diverse population.
Indeed, whereas Riordan et al (1997) based their study on 174 employees from one small US
electric utility company, and Carmeli and Freund (2002) on a sample of 195 lawyers in Israel,
this study used a larger sample of 527 management-level employees working in different private-
sector organisations. We also tested a differentiated impact of PEP for sales/marketing people
versus other managers and found that it was partially supported. This supports the contention
that, although relevant for all management-level employees, image issues seem to be stronger for
this category.

The impact of PEP on individual outcomes can be interpreted in two ways. First, to the extent
that individuals identify with a group out of a need for self-categorisation and a need for self-
enhancement (Smidts et al, 2001), members can feel pride in belonging to a community that
enjoys social prestige; they can, at least in part, base their identity on organisational membership.
This brings about individuals' commitment to the organisation, since they want to pursue their
association with it in order to maintain the benefits for their own identities. It also leads to a
higher frequency of pleasant affective states at work.

From a more evaluative point of view, the appraisal employees make of the extrinsic value of
their job takes into account the image of the corporation. A strong PEP is therefore likely to lead
to extrinsic job satisfaction. In addition, this study has shown the significance of the relationship
between PEP and intrinsic job satisfaction. A strong PEP therefore not only leads to more
extrinsic satisfaction, but also promotes a more positive perception of one's own job. In other
words, it could be that when outsiders perceive a company positively, this has a positive
influence on how its employees perceive working within the company. In that sense, PEP could
act as a cognitive bias in the evaluative process on which satisfaction is based. Another
explanation could be that a strong PEP brings about pleasant affect, which in turn generates a
perceptual bias with a constructive influence on how individuals evaluate their work: an
employee high in pleasant affect may selectively perceive the most favourable aspects of a job,
thereby increasing his or her job satisfaction (Weiss, 2002).

Next, our study found evidence of a differentiated impact of PEP according to the occupation of
the respondents. There are at least two possible explanations for this. First, as the most 'status-
conscious' sub-sample, sales and marketing people could be more sensitive to the effect of their
company's image. In that case, the stronger impact of PEP for this category is further evidence of
how people can use their company's prestige to generate job satisfaction. The second explanation
could be that a more prestigious company makes sales and marketing people's jobs easier in
dealing with external stakeholders, thereby having a 'direct' impact on their experiences through
the beneficial impact of their company's image on their actual work, work conditions and
perceived rewards. In particular, it is easier to sell their products if the firm has a positive image.
Therefore, the added impact and explanatory power of PEP on job satisfaction and pleasant
affective states for the sales/marketing sub-sample versus the other sub-sample could be due to
what is added above and beyond the 'indirect' identity effect of a positive image. The boundary-
spanning dimension inherent in sales/marketing roles may also have made PEP more salient and
thus more influential than for other occupational groups.

This interpretation is coherent with the findings for organisational commitment. It has to be
recalled, indeed, that a differentiated impact of PEP was not found for organisational
commitment. This result is interesting in that it could be evidence of the 'deep' nature of
organisational commitment compared with the more 'situated' nature of job satisfaction
(Rousseau, 1998). As stated by this author, 'deep' processes alter individuals' mental models of
self in enduring ways through continuous identification in an organisation, which brings about
commitment. This process is probably more independent from occupational status than a
'situated' process such as job satisfaction which arises from immediate environmental stimuli.

While we found evidence for the relevance of organisational image for HR purposes, some
caution in interpreting the results is warranted since there are limitations to the present study's
findings. First, we cannot completely rule out the presence of bias due to common method — ie
having used a self-evaluation instrument that might have influenced the strength of the
relationships between our constructs. Indeed, when measures are single source, and data is
collected at the same time, there may be a risk of over-estimating the correlations between
constructs (Podsakoff et al, 2003). However, the focus of our study was on individuals'
perceptions (ie how they respond to the reality they see, or socially construct), so that the
influence of using a percept-percept research methodology is not necessarily problematic
(Crampton and Wagner, 1994). As argued by Spector (1994), this design is useful in providing a
picture of how people feel about and view their jobs.

Another limitation of this study is that the direction of the PEP-outcome relationship could be
questioned. We postulated that perceived external image influences individual outcomes, but the
reverse could also be argued — ie commitment or other outcomes could lead to perceiving that
one's organisation has a positive image. Also, it could be possible that the observed relationships
are a result of their relationship with another variable, especially with 'actual' reputation. Indeed,
if a firm has a good reputation, this is likely to make people's job more comfortable, especially
for sales/marketing people. This in turn influences both the respondents' experiences and their
perceptions of the external image of the company. More elaborate research designs should be
used in future studies to tackle these shortcomings and to expand our knowledge about this
understudied topic.

Despite its limitations, however, we feel that this research has several managerial implications.
First, it has provided evidence of the interrelations between external and internal stakeholders.
Not only are external groups' images of the organisation influenced by the images that employees
project, but external groups also influence employees' experiences through the feedback they
provide. As already suggested by Hatch and Schultz (1997), this breakdown of the internal-
external boundary means that management should increasingly communicate internally about
organisational strategy in reference to external constituencies. In other words, managing
organisational identity to derive HR benefits must take into account the external image, as well
as the specific ways employees perceive it.

Corporate identity can, however, never be wholly managed (Meijs, 2002). It, too, is a result of
complex processes involving how organisational members interpret, enact and respond to the
deliberate creation of a corporate identity by management, and how they construct their sense of
identity in ways that lie outside management's influence (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002). In that
respect, an important issue that deserves to be highlighted is the fact that organisations need to
project consistent images to their internal and external stakeholders. Given the interrelations
between insiders and outsiders, incongruence between what is projected outwards and what is
fed back into the organisation is likely to generate problems. For instance, concerning
communication tools such as value, vision or mission statements, some authors have stressed
their possible irrelevance when they are disconnected from the daily experiences of employees
(Murphy and Davey, 2002). Openly espoused values that are considered by employees as merely
'cosmetic' may even backfire and breed cynicism, because they do not match the deeply rooted
norms of the company. Likewise, concerning the internal consequences of advertising, Gilly and
Wolfinbarger (1998) suggest three qualities that employees use in their evaluations of
organisational advertisements: accuracy, value congruence and effectiveness.

Last, this study about the effect of corporate image should also be a reminder that, despite radical
changes in today's business environment and the challenges they pose to the possibility of
worker identification, identification mechanisms continue to be present in the workplace. Given
the pervasive human need to identify with the social system of which one is a part, individuals
may still have a strong desire to believe that they are a part of the settings in which they work —
as argued by Rousseau (1998), this is 'why workers still identify with organisations'. Companies
should be aware that tying employees' identity to their employer, and reaping the benefits of this,
is easier if the employer is perceived to be worthy of it.

Legend for Chart:


A - Variable
B - Range
C - Mean
D - SD
E - 1
F - 2
G - 3
H - 4
I - 5
J - 6
K - 7
L - 8
M - 9
N - 10
O - 11
P - 12
TABLE 1 Descriptive statistics, intercorrelations and reliability
coefficients (N = 527)
A B C
D E F G H
I J K L M
N O P
1. Occupation[a] 1-2 1.57
.50 -
2. Age 23-61 32.01
5.73 -.01 -
3. Gender[b] 1-2 1.50
.50 .04 -.26[**] -
4. Organisational tenure 1-27 4.36
3.99 .01 .57[**] -.06 -
5. Size[c] 1-3 2.76
.55 -.11[*] -.05 -.04 .12[**]
-
6. Positive affectivity 1-5 3.63
.68 -.11[**] -.12[**] .23[**] -.10[*]
-.01 (.62)
7. Negative affectivity 1-5 2.73
.88 -.00 -.04 .16[*] .02
-.05 -.09[*] (.62)
8. Extrinsic satisfaction 1-5 3.29
.64 .19[**] -.15[**] -.02 -.04
.09[*] .13[**] -.18[**] (.72)
9. Intrinsic satisfaction 1-5 3.76
.59 .08 .05 .02 .03
-.06 .14[**] -.19[**] .40[**] (.83)
10. Affective commitment 1-5 2.93
.88 -.05 .12[**] -.07 .28[**]
-.08 .13[**] -.01 .29[**] .29[**]
(.80)
11. Affective well-being 1-5 3.45
.55 .05 .12[**] -.07 .10[*]
.01 .26[**] -.44[**] .47[**] .52[**]
.39[**] (.92)
12. Perceived external prestige 1-5 3.76
.75 .08 -.03 -.02 .04
.14[**] .07 -.08 .38[**] .21[**]
.22[**] .30[**] (.86)
* p < .05
** p < .01
a 1 = sales/marketing, 2 = other
b 1 = male, 2 = female
c 1 = small, 2 = medium, 3= large
Legend for Chart:
A - Extrinsic satisfaction
B - Intrinsic satisfaction
C - Affective commitment
D - Affective well-being
TABLE 2 Multiple regression analyses predicting outcome variables
A B
C D
Step 1: control variables
Occupation (A) .21[***] .10[*]
-.04 .08[*]
Age -.19[***] .03
-.09 .07
Gender -.08 .02
-.12[**] -.04
Tenure .07 .04
.35[***] .09
Size .08 -.07
-.13[**] -.01
Positive affectivity .13[*] .13[**]
.18[***] .25[***]
Negative affectivity -.17[***] -.19[***]
.00 -.42[***]
R²change .12[***] .07[***]
.13[***] .27[***]
Step 2: main effect
Perceived external prestige (B) .33[***] .20[***]
.23[***] .25[**]
R²change .11[***] .04[**]
.05[***] .06[***]
Step 3: interaction effect
Ax B -.50[*] -.16
.08 -.50[*]
R²change .01[*] .00
.00 .01[*]
Adjusted R² .22 .09
.16 .33
F-value 17.47[***] 6.66[***]
12.29[***] 29.36[***]
* p < .05
** p < .01
*** p < .001
Coefficients are standardised betas
Legend for Chart:
A - Extrinsic satisfaction Sales/marketing
B - Extrinsic satisfaction Other
C - Affective well-being Sales/marketing
D - Affective well-being Other
Table 3 Sub-sample-based multiple regression analyses
A B
C D
Step 1: control variables
Age -.09 -.26[***]
.02 .14[*]
Gender -.07 -.09
-.02 -.06
Tenure -.01 .12
.05 .09
Size .20[**] .00
.10 -.09
Positive affectivity .11 .16[**]
.19[**] .31[***]
Negative affectivity -.19[**] -.17[**]
-.47[***] -.39[***]
R²change .10[***] .10[***]
.28[***] .30[***]
Step 2: main effect
Perceived external prestige .43[***] .26[***]
.31[***] .18[***]
R²change .17[***] .06[***]
.09[***] .03[***]
Adjusted R² .25 .15
.34 .32
F-value 11.69[***] 8.22[***]
17.68[***] 20.63[***]
* p < .05
** p < .01
*** p < .001
Coefficients are standardised betas
REFERENCES

Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (2002). 'Identity regulation as organizational control: producing


the appropriate individual'. Journal of Management Studies, 39: 5, 619-644.

Bergami, M. and Bagozzi, R.P. (2000). 'Self-categorization, affective commitment and group
self-esteem as distinct aspects of social identity in the organization'. British Journal of Social
Psychology, 39: 4, 555-577.

Bird, F., Westley, F. and Waters, J.A. (1989). 'The uses of moral talk: why do managers talk
ethics?'. Journal of Business Ethics, 8: 1, 75-89.

Brief, A.P. and Roberson, L. (1989). 'Job attitude organization: an exploratory study'. Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, 19: 9, 717-727.

Brief, A.P. and Weiss, H.M. (2002). 'Organizational behavior: affect in the workplace'. Annual
Review of Psychology, 53, 279-307.

Cable, D.M. and Graham, M.E. (2000). 'The determinants of job seekers' reputation
perceptions'. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21: 8, 929-947.

Carmeli, A. and Freund, A. (2002). 'The relationship between work and workplace attitudes and
perceived external prestige'. Corporate Reputation Review, 5: 1, 51-68.
Crampton, S.M. and Wagner, J.A. (1994). 'Percept-percept inflation in microorganizational
research: an investigation of prevalence and effect'. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79: 1, 67-
76.

Dukerich, J.M., Golden, B.R. and Shortell, S.M. (2002). 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: the
impact of organizational identification, identity and image on the cooperative behaviors of
physicians'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47: 3, 507-533.

Dutton, J.E., Dukerich, J.M. and Harquail, C.V. (1994). 'Organizational images and member
identification'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39: 2, 239-263.

Ellemers, N., Spears, R. and Doosje, B. (2002). 'Self and social identity'. Annual Review of
Psychology, 53, 161-186.

Gilly, M.C. and Wolfinbarger, M. (1998). 'Advertising's internal audience'. Journal of


Marketing, 62: 1, 69-88.

Greening, D.W. and Turban, D.B. (2000). 'Corporate social performance as a competitive
advantage in attracting a quality workforce'. Business and Society, 39: 3, 254-280.

Hatch, M.J. and Schultz, M. (1997). 'Relations between organizational culture, identity and
image'. European Journal of Marketing, 31: 5/6, 356-365.

Judge, T.A. and Hulin, C.L. (1993). 'Job satisfaction as a reflection of disposition: a multiple
source causal analysis'. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 56: 3, 388-
421.

Mael, F.A. and Ashforth, B.E. (1992). 'Alumni and their alma mater: a partial test of the
reformulated model of organizational identification'. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13: 2,
103-123.

Mathieu, J.E. and Zajac, D.M. (1990). 'A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents,
correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment'. Psychological Bulletin, 108: 2,
171-194.

Meijs, M. (2002). 'The myth of manageability of corporate identity'. Corporate Reputation


Review, 5: 1, 20-35

Meyer, J.P., Allen, N.J. and Smith, C.A. (1993). 'Commitment to organizations and occupations:
extension and test of a three-component conceptualization'. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78:
4, 538-551.

Meyer, J.P. and Herscovitch, L. (2001). 'Commitment in the workplace. Towards a general
model'. Human Resource Management Review, 11: 3, 299-326.
Meyer, J.P., Stanley, D.J., Herscovitch, L. and Topolnytsky, L. (2002). 'Affective, continuance,
and normative commitment to organizations: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and
consequences'. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61: 1, 20-52.

Mowday, R.T., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M. (1979). 'The measurement of organizational
commitment'. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14: 2, 224-247.

Munz, D.C., Huelsman, T.J., Konold T.R. and McKinney, J.J. (1996). 'Are there methodological
and substantive roles for affectivity in Job Diagnostic Survey relationships?'. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 81: 6, 795-805.

Murphy, M.G. and K.M. Davey (2002). 'Ambiguity, ambivalence and indifference in
organisational values'. Human Resource Management Journal, 12: 1, 17-32.

Neveu, J.-P. (1996). La Démission du Cadre d'Entreprise, Paris: Economica.

Podsakoff, P.M., MacKenzie, S.B., Lee, J.-Y. and Podsakoff, N.P. (2003). 'Common method
biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies'.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 88: 5, 879-903.

Riordan, C.M., Gatewood, R.D. and Bill, J.B. (1997). 'Corporate image: employee reactions and
implications for managing corporate social performance'. Journal of Business Ethics, 16: 4,
401-412.

Rousseau, D.M. (1998). 'Why workers still identify with organizations'. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 19: 3, 217-233.

Roussel, P. (1996). Rémunération, Motivation et Satisfaction au Travail, Paris: Economica.

Scherer, K.R. (1988). 'Labels describing affective states in five major languages' in Facets of
Emotion: Recent Research, Hillsdale: Erlbaum, 241-243 [Revised version:
http://www.unige.ch/fapse/emotion/resmaterial/resmaterial.html].

Sharma, V.M. (2001). 'Industrial and organizational salesforce roles: a relationship-based


perspective'. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 9: 3, 44-60.

Smidts, A., Pruyn, A.H. and Van Riel, C.B.M. (2001). 'The impact of employee communication
and perceived external prestige on organizational identification'. Academy of Management
Journal, 44: 5, 1051-1062.

Soyer, R.B., Rovenpor, J.L. and Kopelman, R.E. (1999). 'Narcissism and achievement motivation
as related to three facets of the sales role: attraction, satisfaction and performance'. Journal of
Business and Psychology, 14: 2, 285-304.

Spector, P.E. (1994). 'Using self-report questionnaires in OB research: a comment on the use of
a controversial method'. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 15: 5, 385-392.
Van Katwyck, P.T., Fox, S., Spector, P.E. and Kelloway, E.K. (2000). 'Using the Jobrelated
Affective Well-being Scale (JAWS) to investigate affective responses to work stressors'. Journal
of Occupational Health Psychology, 5: 2, 219-230.

Watson, D. (1988). 'Intraindividual and interindividual analyses of positive and negative affect:
their relation to health complaints, perceived stress, and daily activities'. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 54: 6, 1020-1030.

Watson, D., Clark, L.A. and Tellegen, A. (1988). 'Development and validation of brief measures
of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales'. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 54: 6, 1063-1070.

Weiss, H.M. (2002). 'Deconstructing job satisfaction: separating evaluations, beliefs and
affective experiences'. Human Resource Management Review, 12: 2, 173-194.

Weiss, A.M., Anderson, E. and MacInnis, D.J. (1999). 'Reputation management as a motivation
for sales structure decisions'. Journal of Marketing, 63: 4, 74-89.

Weiss, H.M. and Cropanzano, R. (1996). 'Affective Events Theory: a theoretical discussion of the
structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work'. Research in
Organizational Behavior, 18, 1-74.

Weiss, D.J., Dawis, R.V., England, G.W. and Lofquist, L.H. (1977). Manual for the Minnesota
Satisfaction Questionnaire, Minneapolis: Industrial Relations Center, University of Minnesota.

Whetten, D.A. and Mackey, A. (2002). 'A social actor conception of organizational identity and
its implications for the study of organizational reputation'. Business and Society, 41: 4, 393-414.

~~~~~~~~

By Olivier Herrbach and Karim Mignonac

Contact: Olivier Herrbach, LIRHE, Université des Sciences Sociales, 31042 Toulouse Cedex,
France.

Copyright of Human Resource Management Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its
content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the
copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use.

You might also like