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Stakeholders, Identity and Reputation 77

organizational identity of the corporation, but vary in measurement (open versus
closed measurement) and in pragmatic considerations,such as the ease of analysis and
the costs involved in their use.

1. Cob-web method. This method consists of a group of senior managers coming
together and sharing their views on the organization’s key characteristics in a manage-
ment session.At the beginning of the session,these managers are asked to name those
attributes that, in their opinion, characterize and define the organization best.This
part of the session is a brainstorming exercise, so there are no true or false answers
regarding the attributes that are mentioned.After this brainstorming, managers have
to choose eight attributes that they consider to be most relevant and to have most
value in describing the organization. These eight attributes can then be displayed
visually in the form of a wheel with eight scaled dimensions upon which, for further
definition, the organization can be rated (and which can be further compared with
stakeholder views of those attributes).The method is very easily carried out, but has
obvious limitations in that it only captures the views of managers regarding the key
characteristics of the organization.

2. Focus group. This method has the advantage over the cob-web method that a
broader group of representatives from the organization can be selected, and that their
views of the key characteristics of the organization can be captured in a more
detailed manner. A focus group starts with a brainstorming session in which all
participants are asked to write down (on oval cards) and share their views on the
identity of the organization. After each participant has articulated his or her views,
these ovals are grouped and structured into a map on a blackboard, providing a
synthesis of each participant’s views upon the identity of the organization. Further
analysis and groups discussions then follow to select the key characteristics that
define the organization best.

3. Projective techniques. These techniques (including cognitive mapping and reper-
tory grids) stem from psychotherapy and aim to generate rich ideas and to involve
individual members of the organization in a discussion of a subject such as organi-
zational identity,which may be difficult to verbalize in discrete terms.Visual aids such
as pictures, cards, diagrams or drawn out metaphors may be used to elicit responses.
These visual aids are usually designed to be ambiguous so that respondents will
‘project’ their own meaning and significance on to the visuals. By doing so, they will
declare aspects of their deeper values, beliefs and feelings concerning the organiza-
tion, and this can be used for a further discussion of the key aspects of the organiza-
tion. A common form of projective technique is the thematic apperception test
(TAT).This approach asks individuals simply to write a story about an image that
depicts a work situation; the researcher’s task is then to find themes in what people
say about their organization. 36

4. Laddering/critical incident. This widely used management technique can also be
applied to organizational identity, where it is used to infer the basic values that guide
people’s work in an organization. The method involves open interviews, where