Branding Your Brain

How Internal Branding Creates Unsafe Work Conditions

Abstract

Individuals' identities are influenced by the social systems they belong to and, therefore, the organizations they work for (Allen, 2005, p. 35; Ashman & Gibson, 2010, p. 133). Many organizations attempt to influence employees’ actions through internal branding (Handelman, 2009, p. 51; Mesmer-Magnus, 2012, para. 5, Mitchell, 2002, pp. 100-105). Internal branding may include the use of manipulation through marketing to influence employees’ values and perceptions of the organization (Handelman, 2009, p. 51; Mesmer-Magnus, 2012, para. 5, Mitchell, 2002, pp. 100-105). Since social systems influence social identity, internal branding that uses manipulation may influence individual identity (Allen, 2005, pp. 35-36). Internal branding also includes the organization requiring employees to adopt brand-congruent behaviours in their interactions (Löhndorf & Diamantopoulos, 2014, Employee Brand-Building Behaviors section, para. 2). Brand-congruent behaviours usually require emotional labour, which has been shown to have psychological and physical ramifications (Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2012, ‘Discordant emotional states’ section). Internal branding is also expected of employees outside of work due to social media surveillance by their organization (Jeske & Shultz, 2016; Madera, 2012, as cited in Sutherland et al., 2019). This paper explores the existing scholarship to understand the impact of internal branding on the identity of employees and how it could create mentally unsafe working conditions for employees.