Models of the Relationship Between Corporate and Individual Identity

Abstract

The article discusses options for the relationship between corporate and individual images in the minds of an employee. The very understanding of “image” is clarified and its components are highlighted. The main problem, as seen by the authors of this article, is that often an employee has contradictions between his own vision of his image and the image of the organization (or team) in which he works. This gives rise to difficulties associated with the loss of professional identity, the risks of professional destruction, as well as erroneous personnel decisions if the employee’s image is not based on business success, but on a false assessment of his real qualifications and dubious personal characteristics. A generalized model of the relationship between individual and corporate image is proposed, based on taking into account the acceptance or rejection by a specific employee of his image and the image of his organization, which allows us to distinguish four main statuses: the status of “alien” for an employee of the organization; harmonious status; the status of the employee’s external and internal identity conflict; status when the employee himself perceives himself as an “alien” in the organization. For each of these statuses, generalized recommendations are offered: options for management decisions for managers dealing with employees who are “disoriented” in their images; options for career actions for employees seeking to either maintain their “harmonious” statuses, or trying to resolve their contradictions between their individual and corporate image.