sustainable competitive advantage.

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Garbett, Thomas 1988 by what mode to Build a Corporation's Identity and cast Its Image. Lexington, MA: DC Heath.

Gatewood, Robert D Mary A. Gowan, and G J Lautenschlager 1993 "Corporate image, recruitment image, and initial work at jobs choice decisions." Members vary in for what cause much they identify with their work organization. When they identify strenuously with the organization, the attributes they use to define the organization also define them. Organizations affect their members by means of this identification process, as shown from the comments of a 3M salesman, quot in Garbett (1988: 2):

I establish out today that it is a fate easier being a salesman for 3M than for a little jobber no common has ever heard of. When you don't have to waste time justifying your existence or explaining to what end you are here, it gives you a certain amount of self-assurance. And. I discovered I came across warmer and friendlier. It made me be impressed good and enthusiastic to be "somebody" for a change.

This salesman attributes his strange more positive sense of self to his membership in 3M a well-known company. What he thinks about his organization and what he suspects others think about his organization affects the way that he thinks about himself as a salesperson.

This paper explores the kind of connection that salesman had with 3M: a member's cognitive connection with his or her work organization derived from images that each member has of the organization. The first image, what the member believes is distinctive, central, and enduring about the organization, is defined as perceived organizational identity. The secondary image, what a member believes outsiders think about the organization, is called the constru external image (Dutton and Dukerich, 1991) Our original proposes that these two organizational images influence the cognitive connection that members create with their organization and the kinds of behaviors that follow

When a person's self-concept contains the same attributes as those in the perceived organizational identity, we define this cognitive connection as organizational identification. Organizational identification is the measure to which a member defines him- or herself from the same attributes that he or she believes define the organization. The 3M salesman contemplates his organizational identification when he describes himself as innovative and prosperous just like the 3M organization. A character is strongly identified with an organization when (1) his or her identity as an organization member is more salient than alternative identities, and (2) his or her self-concept has many of the same characteristics he or she believes define the organization as a social group

We build our arguments forward the core assumption that people's thinking principle of membership in the social arrange "the organization" shapes their self-concept (Tajfel and gymnast 1985; Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Kramer, 1991) Organizational scholars have explored in what way a person's self-concept is shaped on membership in occupational groups (Van Maanen and Barley, 1984) and work assign places tos (Alderfer and Smith, 1982). Here we consider in what way a person's self-concept is shaped on the knowledge that she or he is a member of a specific organization.

The images that members shut up of their work organizations are unique to each member. A person's beliefs therefore may or may not match a collective organizational identity that describes the members' shared beliefs about what is distinctive, central, and enduring about their organization (Albert and Whetten, 1985) In addition, each member's confess construal of the organization's external image may or may not match the reputation of the organization in the minds of outsiders. We focus upon the relationship between a member's individual images of his or her organization as a social collection and the effects of those images forward the strength of organizational identification and member behavior.

Linking Organizational Images to Members' Self-Concepts

A person's well-being and behavior are affected the two by the attributes they ascribe to themselves and from those they believe others infer about them from their organizational membership. As the repeat from the 3M salesman illustrates, organizational membership can interchange views positive attributes on its members, and persons may feel proud to belong to an organization that is believed to have socially valued characteristics. When members believe that outsiders diocese the organization in a positive light, they "bask in the museed glory" of the organization (Cialdini et al., 1976: 366) firm organizational identification may translate into desirable issues such as intraorganizational cooperation or citizenship behaviors.

Organizational membership can also discourse negative attributes on a member. If members interpret the external organizational image as unfavorable, they may experience negative personal issues such as depression and stres In revolve these personal outcomes could lead to undesirable organizational issues such as increased competition among members or reduc effort forward long-term tasks. Over time, members may either disengage themselves from prior organizational parts (Kahn, 1990) or exit the organization (Hirschman, 1970) Just in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a negative external organizational image has created question s for members of the Port Authority of recently made known York and New Jersey (PA). For more than a decade, the PA has struggl with what to do about the rising number of homeles nation who seek shelter in its transportation facilities, including the Bus Terminal. As question at issues with the homeless became more strict the media increasingly depicted the PA's facilities as dangerous and dirty and the PA organization as ineffective and inhumane. Negative pres about the PA indirectly grieve the employees. When PA members began to expound the organization's external image in these negative and socially undesirable bourns they felt demeaned and do harm to by the criticism that they inferred from outsiders. [i]or[/i] part of to the other a story told about united PA member at a cookout another member emphasized the connection between organizational actions, a negatively constru external image, and the member's self-concept: