Abstract
In today’s increasingly competitive business environments, one of the most significant challenges organisations face extends beyond financial performance, market share, and attracting and retaining employees and customers to include the reputation of the individual who leads the organisation – the CEO. The leader’s reputation has become increasingly important for several reasons, including customers making purchasing and contracting decisions based on the reputation of the CEO and no longer on the products and services offered by organisations only. It is no surprise that leaders with a solid leadership stature, reputation, or ‘personal brand’ attract more customers. The CEO’s reputation impacts all aspects of organisational existence – from internal communication to branding, customer service to the external image, and reputation and media exposure. This study aimed to develop a measurement scale to measure leader reputation in the South African business context by using two high-profile organisations in the financial industry. To do so, a conceptually relevant set of leader reputation criteria were developed from a comprehensive review of available literature. Eight key dimensions of leader reputation were developed, which served as the framework for measuring leader reputation within the South African business context, namely Individual Accountability, People Alignment, Brand Citizenship, Communication Competence, People Management, Personal Charisma, Ethical Leadership, and Adaptability. This study adopted a quantitative research design that used a survey questionnaire, descriptive analysis, and multivariate research techniques. The survey questionnaire was completed by 122 respondents from two financial industry organisations.
Presenters
Ndamulelo Innocentia MabidiSenior Lecturer, Communication Science, University of South Africa, Gauteng, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Brand, Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Reputation, Financial Industry, Leader Reputation
