Brand orientation: Tensions and conflicts in public management

Public institutions such as cities, the police or schools are increasingly adopting a brand orientation, understood as an approach to organization aiming to create coherence around image and identity, such that consistent, precise and coherent messages can be presented about the organization to internal and external stakeholders. This may be seen as an expression of what is sometimes called “brand society,” meaning that branding affects ever more aspects of human life, including public sector organizations (Kornberger, 2010). Similar to other management techniques – like Lean Management or TQM – branding has its roots in private organizations. Although private and public organizations may gain from exchanging management practices, it also creates tensions between corporate and civic rationales and practices. For instance, whereas the corporate branding ideal is to seek to reduce complexity via a coherent or unified identity and presentation to customers, public organizations are complex and must communicate with and serve a diverse public (Wæraas, 2008). In the wake of this development toward brand orientation, it is important to understand intended and unintended consequences for organizations, public employees, citizens and other stakeholders.