Organizational Image and Employee Engagement: Exploring the Inter-Relationships Between Construed External Image and Perceived Organizational Identity

• Author: Shinwoo Lee,Taha Hameduddin,Gyeo Reh Lee
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/02750740221147573
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Organizational Image and Employee

Engagement: Exploring the Inter-

Relationships Between Construed

External Image and Perceived

Organizational Identity

Shinwoo Lee

1

, Taha Hameduddin

2

and Gyeo Reh Lee

3

Abstract

Organizational image, def‌ined as internal members’evaluations of their organization, is a critical managerial issue since it inf‌lu-

ences employee work attitudes and subsequent performance. While the public administration discipline has observed an

increasing scholarly interest in the inf‌luence of organizational image on employee engagement, it leaves the potential inter-

relationships between two distinctive organizational image dimensions—construed external image (CEI) and perceived orga-

nizational identity (POI)—unexplored. We examine the inf‌luence of these two organizational images on employee engage-

ment, with an emphasis on both the mediating and moderating role of POI between CEI and employee engagement.

Empirical results show that both image dimensions positively inf‌luence employee engagement. More importantly, we f‌ind

that POI acts as a moderator in the CEI–employee engagement relationship, that is, the positive inf‌luence of CEI on the out-

come depends on the level of POI. Empirical f‌indings imply that public employees treat two dimensions of organizational image

differently and weigh POI more than CEI. In particular, the f‌indings suggest that attractive or positive POI may serve as a cat-

alyst to reinforce employee engagement even in the presence of a long-lasting negative external image for public organizations.

Keywords

organizational image, employee engagement, external image, perceived organizational identity

Introduction

Public organizations and employees have long grappled with

a reputational problem. Regardless of their level of perfor-

mance or effectiveness, public organizations and employees

may still be viewed by the general public as ineffective and

ill-performing entities. Public administration research has,

to some extent, documented a long history of negative orga-

nizational reputation viewed by external constituents of

public organizations, so-called bureau-bashing, and cau-

tioned its negative effects on the public workforce (Garrett

et al., 2006; Gilad et al., 2018; Goodsell, 2003; Kettl, 2019).

Another related but distinctive topic of research is organi-

zational image, generally def‌ined as internal members’eval-

uations of their organizations. Employees’own image of

their organizations is a critical managerial issue since it inf‌lu-

ences employee work motivation, work attitudes, and subse-

quent performance (Dutton et al., 1994; Fuller et al., 2006;

Luoma-Aho, 2007; Piening et al., 2020). Managing positive

organizational image is particularly important in the public

sector. Given that public employees are generally aware of

a long history of anti-public sector bias, or unfavorable

reputation by external constituents, the literature (see more

Gilad et al., 2018) highlights that public agencies and manag-

ers need to establish internal employees’positive perceptions

of their agencies. This will lead their employees to maintain

high self-esteem so that they would not be affected by exter-

nal reputation, in particular when the reputation is negative.

Highly self-esteemed employees, then, will contribute to

their organizational performance by enhancing their work

attitudes, such as organizational attachment (Gilad et al.,

2018). Despite its critical implications for public

1

Department of Public Administration, Incheon National University,

Incheon, Republic of Korea

2

Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Kentucky,

Lexington, Kentucky, USA

3

Department of Public Administration, Kangnam University, Yongin,

Republic of Korea

Corresponding Author:

Shinwoo Lee, Department of Public Administration, Incheon National

University, Incheon, Republic of Korea.

Email: shinwoolee@inu.ac.kr

Article

American Review of Public Administration

2023, Vol. 53(2) 82–96

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/02750740221147573

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