Identification with an organisation as a dual construct

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to advance understanding of an individual's identification with an organisation ("organisational identification") and propose a scale for its measurement, by means of a study drawing on the literature of corporate marketing, and group and corporate identification. Design/methodology/approach -Factor analysis was applied to data collected by questionnaire from two independent samples of 200 and 525 respondents, in Slovenia, to test the causal-path relationship of group and corporate identification to "organisational identification". Findings -Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, "organisational identification" is not a unidimensional construct, but comprises identification with the organisation both as a collective of individuals, and as a social entity. Results confirm the proposed structure of organisational identification, and the sound quality of the scale for its measurement. Practical implications -The findings suggest a means for marketing strategists and managers to predict the forms of organisational identification in their organisations, undertake appropriate initiatives for its general enhancement, and thereby strengthen corporate performance. Originality/value -This study offers two statistically verified scales for measuring group and corporate identification, and thus has important implications for the existing literature of corporate marketing and organisational identification.

Consumers’ identification with corporate brands: Brand prestige, anthropomorphism and engagement in social media

“…Consumer-brand identification is either defined as "the extent to which the consumer sees his or her own self-image as overlapping with the brand's image" (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006, p. 49;Algesheimer et al, 2005;Brown et al, 2005;Carlson et al, 2009) or as "a customer's psychological state of perceiving, feeling, and valuing his or her belongingness with a brand" (Lam et al, 2010, p. 129;Donavan et al, 2006;Lam et al, 2012). In line with the conceptualisation of organisational identification (Mael and Ashforth, 1992;Dutton et al, 1994;Podnar et al, 2011), we define consumers' identification with a corporate brand as the perceived feeling of oneness with a corporate brand. However, contrary to many previous definitions transferred from the organisational to consumerbrand context, we argue that consumer-brand identification is an identity-based tie between the consumer and the brand, as reported by authors (Papista and Dimitriadis, 2012;Stokburger-Sauer et al, 2012).…”

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility to Internal Stakeholders: Walking the Walk or Just Talking the Talk?

“…As Podnar et al . () rightly point out; identification with the organization comprises identification with the corporate entity as well as with the collective of individuals with whom employees work. As the CSR actions reveal the ‘character’ or identity of an organization (Sen et al ., ), this facilitates the way in which internal stakeholders identify with the corporate.…”

Corporate communication and corporate marketing

“…Aspara and Tikkanen, 2011;Hildebrand et al, 2011;Powell, 2011;Podnar et al, 2011;Karaosmanoglu et al, 2011). Balmer (1998) argued that the logical destination of practitioner and academic interest in the corporate-level constructs of corporate image, corporate communication, corporate identity corporate reputation, and corporate brands was the ascendancy of a new umbrella marketing paradigm: corporate marketing.…”