Causes and consequences of reputation

I. Read and translate the text.

Terminology such as reputation, branding, image and identity is often used interchangeably, or to distinguish differences between related constructs. Much of this confusion has been alleviated by recent work integrating reputation models in terms of underlying psychological theory. According to Money and Hillenbrand reputation models can be placed in a framework that relates to reputation, its causes and its consequences. In this approach it is important not only to understand reputation, but also to identify the causes of reputation and its consequences.

Reputation however is not something that can be owned, but develops as a result of how a business is perceived by its key stakeholders, such as customers,

Unit V Reputation_____________________________________________________________

employees, suppliers and the press, with each group holding a different perspective according to their particular expectations. Yet while it cannot be controlled, it is possible to influence how your business is perceived through developing an understanding of each stakeholder group and using the resulting insight for action.

Causes of reputation are seen to reside in stakeholder experiences. Stakeholder experiences relate to a company's day-to-day business operations, its branding and marketing and " noise" in the system, such as the media and word of mouth. Further causes of reputation may include the perceived innovativeness of a company, the customers' expectations, the (perceived) quality of the company's goods and services and the subsequent customer satisfaction, all of which differ according to the respective customers' cultural background.

Influencing reputation is inevitably a slow-burn of a job that requires commitment from the whole organisation and the ability to monitor, analyse, and act on stakeholder perceptions of the brand or business.

Reputation is seen to reside in the beliefs that stakeholders hold about a company (the cognitive element) and the feelings that stakeholders have about a company (the affective element). While the cognitive element of reputation can reflect the uniqueness of a company or of products in term characteristics such as brand attributes (whether an organisation is delivering high quality products, is international, friendly etc.), the affective element is always evaluative. In other words, it gives an indication of whether stakeholders like, admire or trust a company and its attributes. A unique and distinctive cognitive evaluation of a company only has value if this results in a positive affective evaluation and positive consequences of reputation.

(From https://www.catalyst.com/news/archive/2014 /)

II. Read and memorize the following words:

admire v. – восхищаться

alleviate v. – облегчать

cognitive - познавательный

commitment – обязательство

confusion – путаница, неразбериха

consequence – следствие, последствие

distinctive - отличительный

distinguish v. – выделить, различать

inevitably - неизбежно

interchangeably – взаимозаменяемым образом

perceive v. – воспринимать, осознавать

relate to v. - относятся к

reside v. – пребывать, находиться

slow-burn – зд. медленное увлечение чем-либо

subsequent – последующий

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