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The aim of this chapter is to shed light on a growing phenomenon in communication practice: employees speaking voluntarily for, about or on behalf of their organization, hereafter labelled as corporate ambassadors. The goal of this qualitative study is to analyze the role of corporate ambassadors within an organization and explore the perceived benefits and risks from three perspectives: the communication department, other departments such as marketing or human resources, and corporate ambassadors themselves. The research is based on an interdisciplinary literature review and 25 qualitative in-depth interviews with employees in one large, internationally operating German organization. By combining the theoretical and empirical insights, a conceptual framework that depicts the benefits (e.g., joy, increased trust, positive impact on reputation) and risks (e.g., work stress, lack of integration, loss of quality) of integrating corporate ambassadors into the overall communication of the organization was developed. In addition, this chapter suggests two typologies that help to distinguish between different roles of communication professionals and of corporate ambassadors. The contribution of this study is to lay a groundwork for further discussions about corporate ambassadors in the field of corporate communications. The chapter outlines directions for future research and implications for practice on how the framework can be applied in organizations.

To provide an employee perspective on ambassadorship in the context of corporate communication, the purpose of this paper is to explore how employees relate to and experience ambassadorship.

The study has a qualitative approach, and the empirical material consists of semi-structured interviews with, and focus groups of, employees of seven organizations in both the public and private sectors. The paper draws on a contemporary understanding of identity where identity is perceived as an ongoing reflexive process in which employees negotiate and construct of their selves through relating to role expectations and interacting with others. Therefore, ambassadorship is understood as a social-identity, or persona, that is referenced by employees in their identity work.

The findings indicate that employees embrace this persona as they imagine that external stakeholders, colleagues and managers expect it of them. However, the ambassador persona also gives rise to identity-tensions both during work and off work.

The paper contributes a novel way to understand ambassadorship as well as highlighting some of the more problematic aspects of it and furthering the understanding of the concept.

The findings highlight that ambassadorship can have problematic consequences that needs to be addressed. They suggest that the employee perspective should be taken into consideration in internal communication education and training.

The paper contributes a novel employee perspective on ambassadorship.

This study problematizes the prevailing normative and managerial-dominated view of self-initiated employee ambassadorship on social media from a power perspective. The aim is to provide a more nuanced and critical understanding of the negative aspects of this phenomenon.

The empirical material encompasses qualitative interviews with employees from 14 organizations and Foucault’s concept of disciplinary discursive power to analyze which and how discourses exert power over employee communication on social media and what role visibility plays in it.

This study indicates that employee ambassadors’ social media communication is governed by two discourses that create complex tensions, where ambassadors constantly must negotiate between self-branding requirements and an authenticity paradox. These tensions intensify through visibility on social media, where employees strategize and situationally silence their communication through self-monitoring and self-surveillance practices. Conclusively, the findings also outline the need for further critical research to offer a deeper understanding of power relations that influence the communication practices of organizational members.

The paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of self-initiated employee ambassadorship on social media and highlights disciplinary power relations that go beyond organizational borders.

The findings underscore that organizations need to address the critical aspects of self-initiated employee ambassadorship and act as facilitators to support employees in their navigation process.

This paper contributes a new critical power perspective on employee ambassadorship on social media.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of managerial strategies in promoting employee brand consistent behavior. Using a recently developed holistic model of behavioral branding, that suggests that a wide array of managerial strategies affects the branding process, this study addresses two specific questions: what communication strategies, in the opinion of managers, sustain employee brand consistent behavior? And what are the most important factors, both contextual and related to their cognitive-emotional states, that employees think affect their brand ambassadorship behavior?

A long-term research program was conducted based on a multiple methods research strategy to answer the two questions. The choice of different methods was mainly based on the specific characteristics of the two targets: communication managers and employees. The first one based on interviews with 32 managers, and the second one based on a case study of a single company.

The results show that enablement-oriented strategies are more effective than communication-oriented strategies in sustaining employee brand builder roles. Weak employee commitment, unsatisfactory external communication, and low levels of motivation are strong contextual factors inhibiting employee attitudes to brand ambassadorship, one of the most relevant employee brand consistent behaviors in competitive contexts. The main practical implication is that companies should engage employees as brand ambassadors, not by means of prescriptions of in-role behavior, but enablement strategies leading to authentic and voluntary behaviors; besides, that companies should put a significant effort in “preparing the soil,” i.e. investing in enhancing employee commitment, level of motivation, and understanding/alignment with the external communication.

The main practical implication is that companies should engage employees as brand ambassadors not by means of in-role behavior prescriptions rather by means of enablement strategies leading to authentic and voluntary behaviors. Besides, managers should invest significant efforts in enhancing employee motivation, commitment, and understanding/alignment to external communication as they represent key factors in sustaining brand ambassadorship behaviors.

The values of the study lies in having highlighted the crucial role of enablement-oriented strategies, and the relevance of specific contextual variables affecting the attitude of employee toward brand consistent behaviors.

The chapter develops a typology of eight different expected employee communication roles based on literature in public relations (PR), corporate communication and related fields. As PR professionals are increasingly taking on a coaching and training role, and communication technology has made employees more visible and approachable, employees more and more take on active roles in the communication with external publics. While PR professionals’ roles are conceptualized fairly well, no framework exists that describes the many communication roles that employees play in contemporary organizations. In the chapter, it is found that employees externally (1) embody, (2) promote, and (3) defend the organization. In addition, employees use communication to (4) scout for information and insights about environmental changes, and (5) build and maintain relationships with stakeholders. Internally, employees use communication to (6) make sense of information, (7) initiate and stimulate innovation, and (8) criticize organizational behaviour and decisions. The typology highlights that employees increasingly fulfil the tactic communication roles as producers and executers of corporate communication as social media have made them more visible and approachable. The communication roles require considerable tactical skills and resources on the part of employees, which they may not always possess sufficiently. PR professionals can play a coaching role in terms of helping employees frame content and communicate in a manner appropriate for the organization, the context and the media. The chapter can help PR professionals and scholars understand the changed role of PR professionals, as well as the changed relationships between organizations and their environment, in the context of dissolving organizational boundaries.

This article aims to provide a summary review of what is already known about customer loyalty and identifies some emerging issues that play an important role in it. As a result of dramatic changes in the marketplace and in consumers’ connections with the hospitality industry, researchers and practitioners are keen to understand the factors that underpin customer loyalty.

By synthesizing extant customer loyalty literature, this article seeks further understanding of loyalty and offers priorities for ongoing loyalty research.

Using conceptual models, this study provides a framework designed to extend the understanding of customer loyalty and the impact of the evolving role of engaged customers.

Companies are advised to create emotionally engaged, loyal brand ambassadors by focusing on emerging areas, such as customer engagement, brand citizenship behaviors, mass personalization, employee engagement, brand ambassadors (both employees and customers), co-creation of value, co-design, co-consumption and rapport between customers and employees.

This article crafts a conceptual framework for customer loyalty and identifies those factors that influence its development in the service industry with a special focus on the hospitality industry.

Situated between the literature on internal branding and user-generated content, this study aims to demonstrate the effect of employee-generated content (EGC) on consumers’ purchase intentions and positive word of mouth (WOM).

The conceptual model was empirically tested using structural equation modeling based on a sample of 442 participants.

The findings support a sequential mediation model in which employee-created social media content impacts perceptions of brand citizenship behavior (BCB) and perceptions of expertise, which in turn increases purchase intention and WOM.

Based on the findings, this research suggests that employee ambassador programs can work to attract employees with an interest in brand-related social media content creation. Facilitating EGC through support, empowerment and reinforcement rather than traditional control mechanisms is recommended.

This research introduces the concept of EGC and employee content creators while extending the literature on perceived BCB by empirically demonstrating its relationship with perceived expertise and positive consumer behavior outcomes.

This paper aims to explore managers' and employees' views about service brand sabotage at the front line in retail banking. The current literature emphasises the role of the employee in service delivery, and advocates the cultivation of brand ambassadors – employees who support the service brand through their performance. Yet there also exist saboteurs – employees who actively work against the brand, and there is a dearth of literature exploring the nature of this group. Moreover, much of the extant literature explores service performance from the perspective of the consumer and little is known about employees' views. This paper seeks to present managers' and employees' views about service performance, and service sabotage.

The study incorporates findings from in‐depth interviews with bank managers, and a survey of 438 branch employees reveals sabotage drivers in the “job for life” banking environment in Ireland.

The paper identifies employee fear, overwork and compliance demands as issues which influence job dissatisfaction, consumer resentment and employee insecurity.

The research is exploratory. The paper advocates further research to confirm the components of service sabotage, and test the influence of these components on consumers' perceptions of the service.

The paper offers suggestions to help managers to better manage sabotage in this sector, and recommend future research in other highly structured services sectors.

The paper provides new insights into the constraints on the banking employee that may lead to service sabotage. It also offers advice to managers that may help them better harness employees as brand ambassadors.

This paper evaluates the value and necessity of greater equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in Canadian fire departments. Rather than focussing on changing hiring practices, the paper seeks to highlight how leadership can implement a culture of EDI that will encourage all people to participate.

From a leadership perspective, this paper aims to show how EDI can improve firefighter teamwork and job performance whilst satisfying moral obligations to better represent Canadian communities. Strategies and their limitations for communication and culture change are discussed.

Leaders of Canadian fire departments can utilise organisational change models focussing on improved communication techniques and models to implement cultural changes needed to allow for more EDI. Specific recommendations based on business research into culture change, communication and EDI are outlined.

Recommendations to fire department leadership for cultural changes and communication are provided. Further, strategies and reasoning for why inclusive departments are more effective are given.

Creating a more inclusive culture in fire departments will lead to an increase in applications from people who have not typically applied in the past.

There has been little research or recommendations on increasing EDI in Canadian fire departments through cultural changes. Most existing literature is vague and tends to focus on hiring practices over an analysis of internal culture. This article provides analysis of best business practices and applies those to the cultural context of fire departments to promote culture change.

The paper aims at a commentary on Graham and Cascio, “The employer-branding journal: its relationship with cross-cultural branding, brand reputation and brand repair”.

Based on the authors’ statement that “people make the brand”, this paper discusses elements of brand making and brand breaking.

Specifically, the paper discusses the creation of the employer brand, the positives and negatives of employees as brand ambassadors and the manner in which word-of-mouth information influences brands.

This commentary reflects on Graham and Cascio’s work and concludes with suggestions for future research.

El objetivo de este artículo es comentar el artículo de Graham y Cascio que lleva por título “The Employer-Branding Journal: Its relationship with cross-cultural branding, brand reputation, and brand repair.” En concreto el artículo analiza su afirmación de que “la gente hace la marca” y discute elementos relativos a la creación y rotura de la marca.

Este es un comentario individual que explora varios aspectos de la marca del empleador.

Este artículo explora los aspectos positivos y negativos de los empleados como embajadores de la marca, y la forma en la que la información transmitida de boca en boca influye en las marcas.

Contribuye mediante la descripción de los aspectos positivos y negativos de los empleados como embajadores de la marca, y sugiere oportunidades adicionales para la investigación sobre la marca del empleador.

Marca del empleador, Reputación corporativa, Identidad organizativa, Cultura organizativa, Marketing boca a boca

Comentario

O objetivo deste artigo é comentar o artigo de Graham e Cascio que é titulado “The Employer-Branding Journal: Its relationship with cross-cultural branding, brand reputation, and brand repair.” Em concreto o artigo analisa sua afirmação de que “as pessoas fazem a marca” e discute elementos relativos a criação e quebra da marca.

Este é um comentário individual que explora vários aspectos da marca do empregador.

Este artigo explora os aspectos positivos e negativos dos empregados como embaixadores da marca, e a forma em que a informação transmitida de boca em boca influi nas marcas.

Contribui mediante a descrição dos aspectos positivos e negativos dos empregados como embaixadores da marca, e sugere oportunidades adicionais para a investigação sobre a marca do empregador.

Marca do empregador, Reputação corporativa, Identidade organizacional, Cultura organizacional, Marketing boca-a-boca

Comentário