Managing corporate respectability : Concept, issues, and policy formulation

Purpose – With growing literature on corporate reputation, different perspectives are being reported on the concept of corporate reputation. These stem from different sets of issues to be managed, and various disciplinary competencies brought to bear on them. This paper presents a review of these efforts. Design/methodology/approach – Additionally, a new methodological basis for understanding perceptions of corporate reputation is presented. This paper introduces social judgement theory as a potentially useful theoretical and methodological basis for understanding perceptions of corporate respectability. Findings – Though it is generally recognized that subjectivity plays an important role in the assessment of reputation, that people rely on naïve theories of judgement to make such assessments, and that subjective or clinical judgements are generally not accurate, investigations of the process by which corporate respectability is assessed are not generally reported. However, a computerized procedure facilitates identification, measurement and reporting of judgemental sources of assessment of corporate respectability. Research limitations/implications – This paper provides an account of an empirical study as an example of how the procedure described here can be used for both research and practical application in formulating corporate reputation policy. Practical implications – The procedure described here can be used for both research and practical application in formulating corporate reputation policy. The approach presents an alternative approach to the assessment of corporate respectability. Originality/value – The description of policies in terms of parameters of the judgement process provides an operational definition of the decision makers’ cognitive sets about the domain of corporate respectability. This information would prove invaluable in developing and implementing a judgement‐based decision support system for the benefit of managers of public relations, corporate communications, and corporate reputation.