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Staff turnover is a serious issue in the field of human resources management, Organizations of all
kind must pay more attention to this phenomenon and must not be overlooked, so it is important
to understand their needs and be able to satisfy it in order to reduce or may be strongly control
the turnover. This study therefore was conducted to examine the main effects of employees¶
perceived organizational support and external prestige on their turnover intentions, with the
mediating effects of their trust to organization. Questionnaire was designed and administered to
collect data from sample of 402 employees of various levels selected from different insurance
companies in Jordan. The study findings show that employees with higher level of perceived
organizational support and perceived external prestige may have higher level of trust towards the
management of their company, and hence, less likely to leave the firm. Therefore, the key to
maintain a stable workforce is to make employees perceive the support from the company, and
become proud of their company. The direct and indirect effects of these constructs on turnover
intention are analyzed by structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings of this study will
assist top management in business organizations to better deal with the phenomena of staff
turnover, finally, the limitations of the study, directions for future research, and implications of
the results are discussed.

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Àerceived organizational support, Àerceived external prestige, Trust to organization,

Turnover intention.





Staff turnover is a serious issue in the field of human resources management. Turnover costs can
be as much as six months to three years¶ pay and benefits depending on job types . Many
researchers try to understand the major determinants of turnover intention and develop some
managerial implications to deal with the problem of high turnover rate.here,it is attempted to

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link perceived external prestige (ÀEÀ), perceived organizational support (ÀOS), and turnover
intention through the trust in organization. For many years, social exchange theory is applied to
investigate and explain a variety of organizationally desired work attitudes, and behavioral
outcomes (Wayne, Shore & Liden, 1997).The employment relationship allows the employee to
acquire for valuable resources, which include material goods such as pay and fringe benefits, and
social goods such as approval, trust, and prestige. After receiving the benefits, the norm of
reciprocity required employees to repay the party who provided them those benefits. For
example, individual who are well treated are more likely to become effectively committed to the
organization which display more organizational citizenship behaviors.

To operationalize the concepts of social exchange, Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa
(1986). Developed the perceived organizational support (ÀOS) construct, which defined as
employees¶ general perception as how an organization values their contributions and concerns
their well-being (Eisenberger, Cummings, Armeli, & Lynch, 1997; Eisenberger, et al., 1986).
ÀOS affected employees¶ behaviors in different aspects such as their innovativeness and sense of
responsibility to their jobs (Eisenberger, et al.,1986).In addition, employees with high ÀOS are
more likely to demonstrate higher work performance, thus reducing the
Likelihood of absenteeism and the propensity to leave (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Meyer & Allen,
1997; Mowday, Àorter, & Steers, 1982; Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). Fuller, Hester, Barnett,
Àrey & Relyea (2006) extended the model of social exchange by examining the indirect,
impersonal transaction between the employees and other parties related. They argued that the
social exchange process involved two different processes: direct exchange with the organization
(as in the case of ÀOS), and indirect, impersonal transactions with outsiders. For example, the
employees may satisfy with their esteem needs by both internal promotions within the
organization and indirectly from the good reputation of their company held by outsiders. As a
result, there is a need to incorporate relational variables such as Àerceived External Àrestige
(ÀEÀ) into the social-exchange framework (Fuller, et al., 2006). Àerceived external prestige also
known as ³construed external image´, which refers to an employee¶s own beliefs about how
other people outside the organization evaluate the status and prestige of the organization (Smidts,
Àryun, & VanRiel, 2001). Many research studies suggested that ÀEÀ is strongly related to
employee¶s identification with his/her organization and hence, their behaviors (Fuller, Bamett,
Hester, Relyea, 2003; Dukerich, Golden & Shortell, 2002; Dutton, Dukerich, & Harquail, 1994).
The Research objective of this study is therefore to develop a better conceptual model of the
nature of social exchange by examining whether employees report trust to reciprocate their
perceptions of support and prestige from the organization. It also adds to the body of research on
turnover intention antecedents by investigating the mediating effects of trust on the relationships
between perceived organizational support (ÀOS), perceived external prestige (ÀEÀ), and
Turnover Intention.

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Figure 1. Image discrepancy matrix
Favorable internal image Negative internal image

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High ÀEÀ or 
     

(Favorable External Image) 
 
   
     
 



 
 
   

  
  

Low ÀEÀ or   My organization is a
(Negative External Image)      jerk and
  that¶s how others see
 us!

Figure 2. The influence of communications on perceptions of organizational images and

Identification (Internal and external communication).


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Àositive congruency is the status where members of organizations positively evaluate

organizational images both internally and externally, while

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negative congruency is the status where members of organizations negatively evaluate
organizational images both internally and externally.

Àositive incongruency indicates that a member positively evaluate organizational

image internally, but negatively evaluate external image or less positively than internally
perceived image.

Negative incongruency condition, members have positive perception of external organizational

image, while evaluating negatively internally or less positively than external image. Since people
try to maintain cognitive consistency and decrease cognitive dissonance, employees¶ evaluation
of external and internal images may tend to be similar.

However, there might be the cases that environmental cues break the balance. For example,
when an organizational crisis receives public attention, employees in the positive congruency
condition will move to positive incongruency condition. If the organization recovers from the
crisis, it can go back to positive congrucncy, but if it struggle with the crisis and employees lose
trust in top managers, then it again move forward to the negative congruency condition. Also, if
an organization fails to deliver clear vision or policy to its employees, it will make employees to
move negative incongruency from positive congruency. Image congruency and employee
behaviors. Before mentioned, perceptions of organizational images have significant impacts on
employees¶ behavior. Furthermore, we argue that by addressing the issue of image congruency
between internally perceived and externally perceived, it provides insights to employees¶
behaviors, especially in terms of organizational identification and citizenship behaviors. As ³a
perception of oneness with a group,´ organizational identification is a form of social
identification, ³where the individual defines him or herself in terms of their membership in a
particular organization´ (Mael & Ashforth, 1992,p.105).

Organizational identification have been considered as an important construct because it

was found that organizational identification is positively related with employees supportive
attitude toward their organization. Research has shown that positive evaluation of organizations¶
external images contributes to organizational identification (Smidts et al., 2001) but has not
considered the issue of image discrepancy. In conjunction with image discrepancy, it is
conceivable that, in the positive congruency condition, members¶ organizational identification
would be the greatest while in the negative consonance condition, member¶s organizational
identification would be the least, because in that way they can enhance or protect their self-
esteem. On the other hand, it would be probable that members¶ identification would be greater in
the positive dissonance condition than in the negative dissonance condition, because as long as a
member holds positive perception about his/her organization, how others think would not be
much matter.

Therefore, following propositions are proposed:

Àroposition 1.

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 Organizational identification will be greatest among employees in the positive consonance
condition, followed by positive dissonance, negative dissonance, and negative consonance
conditions.

Furthermore, image congruency would be related to citizenship behaviors. Management

literatures define organizational citizenship behavior as ³individual behavior that is
discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the
aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization´ (Organ, 1988, p.4). That may
include active positive contributions, such as punctuality and attendance beyond what a strictly
enforced, as well as avoiding engaging in behaviors that are harmful to one's colleagues or to
one's organization, such as complaints, appeals and accusations. Organizational citizenship
behaviors would be especially important during organizational crisis, where organizations
require voluntary and active behaviors from their members. For example, if the organization
faces a crisis,who hold more positive internal image will involve more actively in image
restoration efforts in responding to the impaired external images. On the other hand, if an
employee has negative images about his organization, he would be more likely to distance
himself from the organization and remain inactive during a crisis. Therefore, following
propositions are proposed.

Àroposition 2a.
When employees perceive that external image is derogated, employees who have more positive
internal image will engage in image restoration behaviors more actively than those who have
negative internal image.

Àroposition 2b.
When employees perceive that external image is derogated, employees who have negative
internal image will more distance themselves from their organizations (i.e. more dis-
identification), than those who have positive internal image.

As addressed above, employees¶ perceptions of organizational images seems to influence

employees¶ behaviors and, especially, congruency of images between internally perceived
images and perceived external images may cause significant consequences. Since employees
become to shape their perceptions about organizational images through diverse communication
channels and messages, it is important to discuss this issue in conjunction with communication
process. The following section will discuss how internal and external communications play a role
in shaping employees¶ perceptions of images and the congruency issue related to communication
process.




    


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Individuals become to shape images about organizations through diverse communications. From
the anticipatory socialization perspective, individuals become have rudimentary images about
organization through education, mass media, and occupational experience (Jablin, 2001). That is,
individuals may have images about organizations regardless to membership to the organization,
as consumers or potential job applicants. Through the recruiting process, a job candidate would
be exposed diverse communication messages which aim to cultivate organizational image and
he/she will enter into the organization with these pre-shaped images. Once an individual become
a member of an organization, there might be two paths through which employees receives
information of organizational image; a direct path ± ³an employee receives an image projected
by the top management team of an organization´; indirect path ± employee receives ³feedbacks
from external stakeholder, in the form of communicated perceptions of how the image was
interpreted and of the impressions that external stakeholders hold of the organization´ (Corley et
al., 2001, p.56). Among many factors, following key communication-related factors are proposed
as influencing employees¶ perceptions of organizational image. This is presented in Figure 2.


 


Internal communications and perceptions of organizational images.

Through the socialization process, employees are exposed to diverse internal communications.
They would include formal communications from the management which have been developed
to build the positive image among employees (Oliver & Karim, 2004) as well as informal
communication with coworkers. In general, formal communications, such as newsletters,
initiated by organizations is intended to poster positive organizational images among employees.
They deliver corporate visions, values, and norms, which would constitute employees¶
perceptions of organizational images, that is internally perceived image. Therefore,

Àroposition 3.
The more attentive to organizational medium, the more positive organizational images
employees will have.

On the other hand, internal communications also can provide employees cues to external
images. For example, informing employees of corporate citizenship behaviors would enhance
not only internally perceived images but also perceived external image. According to the Fortune
reputation data, demonstration of social concern has been considered as a predictor to a firm¶s
reputation. Similarly, a previous study also evidenced that corporation¶s reputation is directly
related to µto the extent of the firm¶s social welfare activities¶ (Fombrun & Shanley, 1990). On
the other hand, it has been also argued that organization¶s citizenship have impact on employees
as well as external public. For example, it has been found that corporate citizenship is positively
related to employees commitment (Maignan, Ferrell, & Hult, 1999). Similarly, social prestige
(e.g. ³responsibility for environmental issue; quality of products and services,´ p. 448) was
shown to have greater influence on employees¶ affective commitment to organizations than
economic prestige (Abraham Carmeli, 2005). Corley et al. (2001) also argued that images of
organization¶s social performance are more likely to strike broad range of external public and
employees because of its affective link. Based on signaling theory, it is possible that
organization¶s citizenship behaviors may signals about organization¶s identity to external and

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internal publics. Because those behaviors reflect socially desirable values and norms, it is
probable that external and internal publics would shape favorable image about the organizations.
Therefore, it is possible that when employee aware about socially responsible activities of their
organization, they may think it would send good signals to external stakeholders, thus having
more favorable perception of external image.Greening and Turban (2000) suggested that ³part of
a firm¶s reputation and image is influenced by knowledge of the firm¶s actions regarding
developing social and political issues and their associated stakeholders´ (p.258). Therefore, it
would be plausible that employees¶ awareness or knowledge of their organization¶s citizenship
behavior (such as community involvement and environmental safety actions) may influence
perceived external prestige. In addition, it would also directly influence employees¶ perception of
internal image, because organization¶s behavior would signal to employees what their
organization values. In sum, active communication about organization¶s citizenship behaviors
may increase employees¶ awareness of them and make value them. This, in turn, may make
employees to have favorable perception of organizational image internally and externally.

Therefore following propositions are proposed:

Àroposition 4a.
The more organizations engage in citizenship behaviors, the more favorable external/internal
images employees will perceive about their organization.

Àroposition 4b.
The more awareness employees have about their organization¶s citizenship behaviors, the more
favorable external/internal image employees will perceive about their organization.

External communications and perceptions of organizational images.

Furthermore, employees would become have some sense of how others think about their
organization by being exposed to external communications, such as news reports, advertisings,
and reference groups. Traditionally, media has been considered as one of the influential actors,
which contribute to public¶s perception of organization images. According to Fortune reputation
data, media visibility was a predictor to a firm¶s reputation. However, it is unclear to what extent
media exposure is significant. For example, Fombrun and Shanley (1990)¶s finding reputed the
hypothesis that the greater a firm¶s media visibility and the more favorable a firm¶s media
coverage, the better its reputation. Unexpectedly, in their study, negative effect of intensive
media coverage was found on firms¶ reputations. However, there are also evidences that media
coverage contribute to organization¶s reputation. Àroposing a concept of media reputation,
Deephouse (2000) argued that media reputation is a resource which increases the performance of
organization. He defined media reputation of a firm as ³the overall evaluation of a firm presented
in the media´ and argued that media reputation may influence other stakeholders¶ knowledge and
opinions about a firm, thus influencing firm¶s performance.

From the perspective of employees, it is possible that employee¶s evaluation about

media coverage of their organization may have significant influence on employees¶ perceived
external image. In fact, Smidts et al. (2001) found that the impact of perceived external prestige
on organizational identification was stronger when the company¶s visibility was higher than

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lower. From this finding, they proposed that organization can improve perceived external
prestige by investing in the visibility. According to the media theories, people tend to think other
people are more susceptible to media reports than themselves (i.e. third-person effect) (Davison,
1983) and media have strong influence on people¶s perception of public opinion (i.e. persuasive
press influence) (Gunther, 1998). Therefore, it is possible that employees may be more sensitive
to media reports and infer external prestige of their organizations based on their evaluation of
media coverage. Also, the media often deliver cues of public opinion about organizations. Since
the construed external image can be seen as reflection of public opinion (Dutton et al., 1994),
organization¶s presentation in the media may have influence employees evaluation of their firm¶s
external image.

Therefore following hypotheses are proposed :

Àroposition 5.
The more visible and favorable media coverage of the organization employees perceive, the
more positively employees will evaluate their organization¶ external images.

Also, the impact of paid-communication on employees should be considered. Advertising is

considered as one of the most ³visible, recognizable, and memorable elements of organizational
communication´ and a purveyor of organizational image (Gilly & Wolfinbarger, 1998, p.69).
Since advertising campaign increase visibility in the media, it can contribute to employees¶
positive perceptions of external images. Also, based on the third-person perception, employees
will tend to believe advertising have strong influence on publics, thus the more favorably
evaluate advertisings, the more positive public attitude toward their organization will assume.
However, scholars also have pointed that if the images presented in the advertising are not
congruent with employees¶ pre-perceived images, it may bring adverse effects, such as frustrated
feelings and distrust. Therefore following propositions are proposed:

Àroposition 6a.
Employees¶ attitude toward advertising will be positively related to perceived external images.

Àroposition 6b.
The more incongruency employees perceive between externally
disseminated images (such as advertising) by their organizations and internally perceived
images, the less organizational identification and trust in top managers will employees have.









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Àerceived Organizational Support (ÀOS) and Àerceived External Àrestige (ÀEÀ) have been
found to be related to various employee work outcomes such as affective organizational
commitment, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors (Rhoades &
Eisenberger, 2002).

This study suggests a mediation model, in which the relationship between ÀEÀ & ÀOS and
turnover intention is mediated by the employee¶s trust in organization. The Mediating effects of
trust in organization Different researchers define trust differently. In this paper, the definition of
trust in organization, adapted from Tan & Tan (2000), is the µglobal evaluation of an
organization¶s trustworthiness as perceived by the employee.¶ ÀOS, ÀEÀ and trust represent
distinct but related constructs. Eisenberger et al. (1990) argued that ÀOS ³creates trust that the
organization will fulfill its exchange obligation of noticing and rewarding employee efforts made
on its behalf.´ Tan & Tan (2000) also showed that perceived organizational support is
significantly related to trust in organization. When employees perceived that the organization
values their contributions and concerns with their well-being, which creates a general trust
feeling toward this organization. Àerceived organizational support is also part of a reciprocal
exchange agreement in the view of social exchange theory. The perceptions of good treatment by
the organization create feelings of employee obligation to repay the organization through trust
and commitment following from these findings; we argue that employee¶s perception of
organizational support may increase their feelings of trust in organization. Thus, we put forward
the following«





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Thus, we hypothesized the following:

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The present study also investigates how organizational prestige plays a substantial role in
binding these individuals to their employer, which is a relatively understudied area in the field of
organizational studies. Àerceived external prestige (ÀEÀ) is the employee¶s personal beliefs about
what outsiders such as customers, competitors, and suppliers think about their organization
represents or stands for (Dutton et al., 1994). Based on their set of evaluative criteria, employees
make judgment or evaluation about their organizations status and prestige (Carmeli, 2005). ÀEÀ
is a socio-emotional reward that employees gain indirectly from the organization. After the
company creates favorable corporate reputation by its corporate communication programs,
employees learn the outsiders¶ image of their organization through feedback and develop their
perceptions of the organization¶s external prestige (Gotsi & Wilson, 2001). To the extent that
ÀEÀ has satisfied an employee¶s need for self-esteem, he or she should develop an obligation to
trust and repay the organization for this reward (Fuller, et al., 2006). We therefore, expect ÀEÀ to
be related to trust in organization.

†
 
  



 
 


Turnover intention refers to ³an individual own estimated probability that they are permanently
leaving the organization at some point in the near future (Vandenberg & Nelson, 1999). Many
studies found that high level of trust in organization could help to reduce employee turnover.
With higher level of trust in management, employees are less willful to leave the organization.
High level of trust to organization may enhance their attachment to the organization and make
them have little or no intention to leave.

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H1-H3 can logically be combined to predict a mediating relationship (Baron & Kenny, 1986).
Some researchers have suggested that ÀOS, an organizational variable, is likely to serve as an
antecedent to trust in organization, with trust then leading to individual-level outcomes. The
norm of reciprocity also explains the influence of trust on employee¶s work outcomes (Dirks &
Ferrin, 2002). Trust has been shown to be positively related to many work outcomes such as
organizational commitment and OCB (Aryee, Budhwar, & Chen 2002; Whitener, 2001). As
shown in Chen, et al. (2004), trust fully mediates the relationship between ÀOS and the
organizational commitment and in-role performance. I expect trust in organization would also
mediate the relationship between ÀOS, ÀEÀ, and the turnover intention of employees.

H4. The relationship between ÀEÀ & ÀOS and turnover intention are mediated by trust in
organization.

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Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires in this study. Snowball sampling
was used by given out the questionnaires to respondents in various firms and the fieldworkers
collected the questionnaires back. Of the 500 questionnaires distributed, 436 were returned,
yielding a response rate of 86.2%. 30 of them were incomplete and could not be used. The final
response rate for usable questionnaires was 80.0%. The sample of employees was 47.1 percent
male and 52.9 percent female. In this sample, 39 percent of the employees were aged of 18-24,
19 percent of 25-29, 26.3 per cent were 30-42, and 15.8 percent aged 43 or above. The average
job tenure was 6.8 years.



For consistency, all items using a 6-point Likert-type scale (1=strongly disagree, 6=strongly
agree) were administered. seven items from the scale developed by Eisenberger, et al. (1986) to
measure Àerceived Organizational Support (ÀOS), with Cronbach Alpha .93. was used.we used
the seven items with the highest factor loadings from the original 36-item scale, as this study
began prior to the publication of the short form of the ÀOS scale (Eisenberger, et al., 1997).
Items included, for example, ³My employer cares about my well-being´ and ³My employer
values my contributions to its well being´. We measured perceived external prestige through
Riordan, Gatewood, and Bill¶s (1997) five-item scale with Cronbach
Alpha .81. Items included, for example, ³Generally I think my organization has a good
reputation in the community´ and ³Generally I think my organization has a good overall image´.
We measured trust in organization using Wong, Ngo & Wong¶s (2002) eight item measure,
which were originally adapted from Ashford, Lee, & Bobko. (1989) and Cook & Wall (1980).
This scale measures employees¶ trusts to two
referents: specific individuals and groups (e.g. their supervisors), and generalized representatives
(e.g. the company).Items included, for example, ³I trust this organization to look out for my best
interests´ and ³I believe in the top management of this organization´. In this sample, the alpha
coefficient was .86. We assessed turnover intentions using four-item scale measure from Farh,
Tsui, Xin & Cheng (1998) with Cronbach¶s alpha 0.81. Items included, for example, ³I often
think of quitting my present job´ and ³I may leave this company and work for another company
in the next year´.


 

H1 and H2 were tested by path coefficients between ÀOS and trust in organization, and between
ÀEÀ and trust in organization, respectively. H3 was tested by the path coefficient between trust
in organization and turnover intention. To test the hypothesized mediating role of trust in
organization, we assessed the four conditions for mediation: (a) the independent variable must be
related to the mediator; (b) the independent variable must be related to the dependent variable;
(c) the mediator must be related to the dependent variable; and (d) the independent variable must
have no effect on the dependent variable when the mediator is held constant (full mediation) or
should become significantly smaller (partial mediation) [34] . To test the mediation model
presented, a path analysis was performed using LISREL 8 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993). To avoid
the bias of single indicator, this paper would rely on multiple goodness-of-fit indices to assess

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the fit of the model (Medsker et al., 1994). The indices relied upon here included the Chi-square
divided by the degree of freedom (—2/df) (Kline, 1998), which recommended to be less than
three. As pointed out by Joreskog & Sorbom (1993), it might not be realistic to assess the exact
fit of model. As a result, we also include some less sensitive tests in our analysis, which include
root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA) (acceptable value below 0.08), relative fit
index (RFI), the
normed fit index (NFI), and the comparative fit index (CFI) (recommended to be >0.90 and close
to a value of 1.00).








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The findings not only suggest that the perceptions on organizational support and external
prestige are important to employees¶ perceptions of the quality of their exchange relationships
with their organizations, but also suggest that these perceptions affect employees¶ work attitudes
and behaviors indirectly, through the quality of exchange relationships with their organization.
Trust in organization not only affected by the internal exchange but also by the indirect exchange
of rewards that individuals receive outside the company. The results provide support to different
propositions within the literature. Consistent with Rhoades & Eisenberger (2002), this research
examined how ÀOS relate to the work outcomes. Employees reciprocate the organization¶s cares
and recognitions by developing trust in organization and reduce their intention to leave the
company. Dutton et al. (1994) suggested the declines in organizational performance might lower
the ÀEÀ of employees, which would result in weakened their organizational identification and
less organizational-supportive behaviors. The suggested research model provides support to this
mechanism, which suggests that the decrease of ÀEÀ would weaken employees trust in
organization and increase their intention to leave the company. The findings of this study point to
several implications for management practice. Most importantly, this study indicates the
possibility that desirable organizational outcomes might be achieved by both strong corporate
communication campaigns that promote its position in the society, and internal communication
strategies enhance their feelings of
support and cares. For example, employee recognition programs, training programs that
incorporate information about the accomplishments of the organization and its employees,
internal newsletters, company websites, and other ways to enhance the image of the company,
are all effective in building up employees¶ trust in organization. The findings also provide
support to the view of incorporating corporate social responsibility programs in companies as
these programs can have positive effects on employees¶ attitudes, and hence their behaviors. By
fulfilling the expectations of society, corporations not only avoid the government¶s tighten up of
regulatory actions, but also develop trust of employees to the company. Thus, it is in the best
interests of a company to operate above the moral minimum of the market.

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To conclude, the present study provides an explanation for why ÀEÀ and ÀOS has been shown to
be related to trust in organization and turnover intentions. However, several major limitations
concerning this study need to be acknowledged. First of all, to avoid common method bias, the
importance of collecting data from multiple sources and by using a longitudinal design, instead
of collecting data from a single questionnaire. As this study utilized a cross-sectional design, we
cannot draw conclusions about the direction of causality. Longitudinal research is needed to
firmly establish the direction of causality for the model presented here. Furthermore, according
to Carmeli, et al. (2006), differential effects of ÀEÀ among different stakeholder groups were
found with regard to employees¶ affective commitment to the company. Thus, the future studies
should first identify those key and most influential stakeholders to explore whether there is a
variation across organizations, industries and different levels of employees.
Finally, as advise caution with regard to generalizing the results of the study. The majority of the
subjects were lower level workers, and most of these workers are worked in service companies.
However, as discussed in Fuller et al. (2006), the importance of rewards that individuals receive
through direct and indirect exchange may vary across different groups and classes of employees.
Thus, more future studies need to be conducted in different industries and different classes of
employees to see whether the findings can be generalized to other part of the company.

The current study is also proposed to explore; (1) two facets of organizational images held by
employees and their influences on organizational identification, (2) and communication related
factors which influence employees¶ perception of organizational images. Through exploring this
research questions, the study addresses the issue of integrative communication management in
the organization. That is, it is argued that both internal communications as well as external
communications contribute employees¶ perception of organizational images. While previous
studies tend to consider only one of the aspects of communication, the study proposes that
considering both aspect of communication provide fuller understanding of how employees shape
perceptions of organizational images. Furthermore, it is also addressed that because of lack of
integrative perspective of communication management in the organization, it is possible that
there exist discrepancy between internally-perceived image and construed external image held by
employees. The study suggests that this may have significant consequence in terms of
organizational identification. Finally, the study explored what communication-related factors
influence which aspect of organizational images.

Future studies which empirically examine the relationships discussed above will provide
practical implications to communication practitioners in the organizations. First, by exploring
what communication related factors influence perception of organizational images, it will
provide practical suggestions for communication management. In particular, depending on
image discrepancy condition, communicators may want to focus one aspect of organizational
image over the other. For example, if many of employees are in the condition of positive
dissonance, communicators may be able to transfer it to positive consonance condition by
focusing on external communication components or involving active internal communication of
organization¶s citizenship behavior. Second, the study will provide an insight for the value of
integrative communication perspective in the organization. By showing how external
communication can influence internal publics, it will address external and internal
communication should be consistent. Furthermore, it will address an ethical issue of
organizational communication. When the messages are delivered through external

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communication is different from the messages delivered through internal communication, it
brings out an ethical concern. In particular, in the negative dissonance condition, employees may
feel the top management is not trustworthy or cheating on the consumers. Therefore, by
diagnosing the extent of image discrepancy, the top management may be able to diagnose the
healthiness of its communication practices and organizational images held by employees
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