Authenticity Dilemma

Employee Branding in Reverse: Satyam Scandal turns employees into Untouchables?

January 22, 2009

(photo of Satyam colleagues by Tony George) When the organization you work for is involved in a major ethics scandal– does this mean that you and all other members are ‘marked’ too? And does this make sense? Yes. When the organization that you are part of becomes tainted by a public scandal, you and other [...]

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The Case Against a Marriott Boycott: Marriott is not a Mormon organization

November 25, 2008

Many GLBT-rights and marriage equality rights activists are up in arms in protest against individuals, business and institutions that supported California’s Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage. Letters to prominent individual contributors, protests in front of churches, and calls for boycotts figure prominently in these activists’ efforts both to punish the individual, businesses and institutions [...]

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What Do Sarah Palin, Bill Marriott and John Templeton, Jr. Have In Common?

November 17, 2008

They are all damaging some organization’s reputation, by causing "collateral reputation damage ® ". Sarah Palin is causing collateral reputation damage to Palin Wine. Bill Marriott is causing collateral reputation damage to The Marriott Hotels & Resorts Corporation. John Templeton Jr., MD, is causing collateral reputation damage to the John Templeton Foundation . Palin, Marriott [...]

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Can Organizations Regain Authenticity by Bringing Back Their Original Visionaries?: Where to, Starbucks?

October 30, 2008

Too many organizations feel inauthentic. Some organizations never had authenticity, and they feel empty. Other organizations had authenticity once but have since lost it. These organizations feel hollow. In an effort to address its own hollowness, Starbucks has over the last year brought back not one but two of its original visionaries, Howard Schultz and [...]

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4 Ways Palin Creates a Fake “Reality”

October 3, 2008

In my earlier post, Use Real Authenticity to Establish Fake Authenticity: Sarah Palin shows organizations how , I argue that Palin is a useful role model for organizations in the way that she has gone about creating "Fake Authenticity." Establishing Fake Authenticity has two steps, and in this post I’ll discuss Step 1: Creating a [...]

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Use Real Authenticity to Establish Fake Authenticity: Sarah Palin shows organizations how

October 2, 2008

Almost anywhere we look at this election season there’s something to learn about authenticity.  This is especially true when we’re able to draw analogies between individuals and organizations. Watching the ways that individuals work to present themselves as authentic , we can learn tactics that organizations can use. Sarah Palin has been very effective at [...]

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Tyson Foods lacks faith in its own identity.

August 9, 2008

When organizations are being authentic, they approach their problems by drawing on their identity. An organization that wants to be authentic must regularly find ways to translate its beliefs about ‘who we are’ into actions that demonstrate ‘who we are’. When an organization has faith in its own identity, it will strive to demonstrate this [...]

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Authentic, but how? What questions would you ask this organization….

May 21, 2008

Readers- I found a great story in my local paper about a woman in my town who sings in a men’s chorus. Yes, you read that correctly–She is in a Men’s chorus. While not exactly like the photo, above, I think the ratio in this chorus is at least 75:1 men to woma n. Which [...]

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Suspicious of “Authenticity”, women challenge Dove ads – Again!

May 12, 2008

The latest controversy over Dove’s "Real Women" ads shows just how suspicious we are of organizations that claim they have become authentic and honest, after showing themselves to be neither. You may already be aware of the two previous controversies related to Unilever Corporation’s Dove "Real Women" ad campaign . [Jump to previous post for [...]

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B Corporation Identity: An Opportunity for Organizational Authenticity

May 1, 2008

What are for-profit organizations to do, if they want to pursue social purposes and be authentic? Up until this point, organizations facing this authenticity dilemma had three options. They could: Attempt to manage the incongruence between their actions and their identity, and forgo authenticity, Resolve the inconsistency by giving up for-purpose actions and become an [...]

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