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A Cultural StudiesPerspective TowardUnderstanding CorporateImage: A Case Study ofState Farm InsuranceMary Anne Moffitt

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To cite this article: Mary Anne Moffitt (1994): A Cultural Studies PerspectiveToward Understanding Corporate Image: A Case Study of State FarmInsurance, Journal of Public Relations Research, 6:1, 41-66

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JOURNAL OF PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH. 6(1). 41 6 6 Copyright O 1994, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

A Cultural Studies Perspective Toward Understanding Corporate

Image: A Case Study of State

Farm Insurance

Mary Anne Moffitt Department of Communication

Illinois State Universitv

Image is one of the most common terms used by public relations practitioners, but scholars generally have not developed the concept well. This article at- tempts to fill that void by using the articulation model of meaning in cultural studies criticism as a framework for understanding how a corporation builds images in its audiences. The author shows that images are produced by organi- zational, social, and personal relations; texts; and personal experiences. Neither the organization nor members of audiences produce meaning-corporate im- ages-alone. Rather, images result from a complex process that may yield multiple, intended and unintended, positive and negative, and strong and weak meanings.

The concept of corporate image is fundamental to the research, teaching, and practice of public relations. Corporate image issues inform both academics as a metatheorical construct and practitioners as a technical construct. Other related fields such as advertising, marketing, or business management share an interest in understanding the production and reception of an organization's image.

For advertising and marketing, recognition of an organization's image is tied to the sale of the organization's product. An organization assumes that a positive corporate image in the eyes of the consumer leads to customer sales. For business management, an organization's positive image is cultivated in the

Requests for reprints should be sent to Mary Anne Moffitt, Department of Communication, Illinois State University, Normal. IL 61761.

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42 MOFFITT

employees to encourage their satisfaction with the organization. However, the practice of public relations is an area of organizational com-

munication that is not directly tied to an organization's product or to onr population.' Public relations' responsibility to the organization is managing the organization's image to its numerous audiences, such as consumers. em- ployees, the community, the media, stockholders, governmental agencies. ac- tive groups, or other organizations in its industry.

For marketing and advertising, image is tied to one population, the con- sumers, or for business management, the population of employees. For public relations, image is tied to multiple populations. Thus, the role of image in public relations is more complex and multifunctional compared to advertising or management.

Given the unique role of corporate image to the study and practice of public relations, this study suggests an alternative way to conceptualize a corpora- tion's image. From the standpoint of public relations, corporate image pro- cesses are inevitable, and image may be a positive and negative reality situated in both the production and theconsumption of an organization's messages and image@). Therefore, this study investigates the concept of image as a fluid process communicating both positive and negative, intended and unintended. strong and weak, images and messages often simultaneously t o any given population and its members.

This study attempts to add to established theory on corporate image in public relations, advertising, marketing, and business management. It suggests that the articulation model of meaning--adapted from British cultural studies and from popular culture media criticism-ofers more insights into the com- plicated, often contradictory, process of corporate image-building in an orga- nization's populations. In addition, the ethnographic method employed in this study complements this critical theoretical framework by providing in-depth data and an applied understanding of image for an actual organization.

THEORETICAL ARGUMENT

Organizational communication scholars and practitioners have struggled to define the elusive concept of corporate image. Debates over which terms adequately label the concept-idenfify, imugr, corporuw image, hrund imuxe.

'For this sludy, 1 define audience as a populalion, not a public. My view is that an audlence ur population shares a linkage or relationship to the organization, such as employees or as community residents (Grunig & Hunt. 1984) and that a public is a group of persons who share similar knowledge. attitudes, or behaviors toward the organization. A populadon has thc potential to be divided into publics. and an audience is not a public. I use population and audience intcrchangeably~

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 43

identification, reputation, rogni~ion.~, urtribures-add to the confusion about how to define a corporation's image. Although many struggle to define image as a product, a process, a reality, or an illusion, some even refuse to use the term image because of its acknowledged limitations (Bernays, 1955; Culhert- son, 1970; Grunig, 1991).

Conceptualizations of Image: Advertising. Marketing, Management

Research by professionals and scholars in advertising, marketing, manage- ment, and public relations reveals that different fields' points of view toward corporate image mirror their respective views toward what populations are most important to their operation. Research findings demonstrate the relation- ship among the nature of the business field (focus on advertising, marketing, management, public relations), the respective view toward the most important population to its image, and the consequent viewpoints toward the locus of image as in the organization or in the environment.

For advertising and marketing, the focus on sales dictates that the consumer population is the most important population-and virtually the only popula- tion-targeted by an organization's messages (Ackeman, 1990; Cottle, 1988; Gray & Smeltzer, 1987; Knoll & Tankersley, 1991; Olins, 1991). The ground- ing assumption is that fostering a positive corporate image in the eyes of the consumer increases sales.

The inherent relationship of image to the consumers for advertising and marketing suggests that image is primarily determined and controlled by the organization (Cottle, 1988; Dowling, 1986; Garhett, 1988; Gregory, 1991). This position is demonstrated in how advertising and marketing conceptualize image largely in terms of the visual. They privilege the visual and graphic symbols and logos of their messages as the production of image by the organi- zation (Carter, 1985; Gray, 1986; Maher, 1985; Selame & Selame, 1988; "The- ory," 1988). In a view representative of advertising and marketing, Cottle (1988) posited that an organization originates image and that this image is intimately tied to the visual. Others agree that corporate identity is both the symbol and the name of the company (Ackerman, 1988; Fisher, 1986; "The- ory," 1988) and the visual result of a company's structure and philosophy (Cato, 1982; "Evolution").

Business management studies agree that image is largely visual and mostly determined by the organization (Kertesz, 1991; Kovach, 1985). Carlivati (1990) and Cbajet (1988) suggested that management shapes a company's image. Ackerman (1988) defined an organization's image as visual and verbal form (p. 29). The inherent nature of business management also privileges one population-the employees. Ashforth and Mae1 (1989) and Lee (1971) argued that an organization's image is a form of social identification in which the

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employees feel an association with the organization. In contrast to these preva- lent arguments by marketing, advertising, and business management for singu- lar populations, for image as visual, and for the locus of image in the organization, the next section offers additional conceptualizations of image.

Other Conceptualizations of Image

In other organizational research, and in public relations research in particular, image research has yielded findings that image is tied to many populations and that it is decided by the organization's audience as well as the organization. Boulding's (1977) seminal study of image conceptualized image as a give and take between the organization's view of itself, or its "value system," and its "outside world" (p. 22). For Boulding, the organization does not own its own image, but rather, it is the property of individual persons and not the orgauiza- tion.

More recent findings also view the locus of image in the organization's populations (Denbow & Culbertson, 1985; Olins, 1991; "Perceptions," 1988). Although some public relations research (Booth, 1985; Downey, 1986-1987; Gray & Smeltzer. 1987; Hutton, 1987; Wathen, 1986) and public relations textbooks (Broom & Dozier, 1990; Cantor, 1989; Grunig & Hunt, 1984: Hieb- ert, 1988; Wilcox, Auk, & Agee, 1986) assume that image is decided primarily by the organization, recent efforts at delineating the process of image produc- tion by the organization and image construction by the audience have been attempted (Cole, 1989; O'Neill, 1984).

Baskin and Aronoff (1988) accept corporate image as the processes of corporate image production and audience consumption of an organization's image (p. 63). A common explanation of image is that corporate identity is not defined as a company's logo, name, or other graphic elements, but as a com- pany's overall definition, direction, and distinctiveness as perceived by its various audiences.

Fombrun and Shanley (1990) extend this definition to mean that many social and personal factors (from the organization and from the person's lived experiences) affect the received image. Dowling (1986) also views the image formation process as initiated by the organization and received by the audi- ence; his contribution to the audience role in image is to assert that, because any organization possesses multiple images, the audience is capable of holding multiple images of any organization.

Additional studies refine these notions of image as process, as product of multiple social and personal factors, and as locus in the audience. These findings recognize that an image may be strong, fuzzy, positive, or negative, in effect, functioning as a complex and multifaceted process and product of organizational, social, and personal factors.

Grunig. Ramsey, and Schneider (1985) reaffirm that image is in the receiver.

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 45

Utilizing the concept of cognition from cognitive psychology, Grunig et al. (1985) argued that image is a cognition received and managed by the audience member, in other words, the effect of communication on the receiver. A cognition, or received image, is not a sole concept but is made up of multiple positive and negative attrihutes. A cognition is the relationship among objects or concepts and the attributes assigned to them by the receiver (Grunig et al., 1985).

That is, one cognition in a receiver can he the effect of the relationship among the receiver, related objects, assigned attributes, other persons, rules understood for this interaction, and other pertinent time and spacial relation- ships. Applying this model of cognition to the concept of organizational image, Grunig privileges image as a receiver concept, or the sum total of separate processes of perception, cognition, attitude formation, and behavi0r.l

Alvesson (1990), adding to notions of image as a multifunctional process and image as receiver concept, explored how environmental factors also have an impact on image formation by the receiver. In addition to the psychological perspective toward image (Grunig et al., 1985), Alvesson argued for a sociolog- ical perspective that includes other social, historical, and material influences on image formation, "An image is something we get primarily through coinciden- tal, infrequent, superficial, andlor mediated information, through mass media, public appearances, from second-hand sources, etc., not through our own direct, lasting experiences and perceptions" (p. 377).

For Grunig et al. (1985), and Alvesson (1990), an image is the result of complex and multifaceted attributes processed by the individual through mes- sages sent by the organization and through other intentional and unintentional social, historical, and material factors. The phenomenon of corporate image is too complex to he determined by one symbol, one person, one attribute, one opinion, any singular cultural factor, the organization itself, or the receiver. Image is not a sole concept, but a set of concepts, not solely a source concept or receiver concept, hut also an environmental concept.

Conceptualizations of Image: Cultural Studies and Meaning

Building on these findings, this article presents an alternative theoretical framework-a cultural studies model-for conceptualizing the image process. What this article suggests is that Hall's (1986) articulation model incorporates notions of meaning as in the source, in the individual, and in social-historical factors, and provides an accurate model for understanding the process of

'Although G r u ~ g sees time, space, rules. and the organization as part of the formation of a set of attributes to make a cognition. image is for him primarily an individual, psychological phenomenon.

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corporate image. The value of the articulation model is that it accommodates and extends previous findings on all the possible factors affecting a corpora- tion's image.

Analogous to Grunig's privileging of the concept of cognition as image, my argument is to privilege Hall's articulation model's concept of meaning as image. The value of the articulation model to explain corporate image is that its explanations of how a media text has varied meanings for an audience may be applied to how an organization has multiple images in its several popula- tions. The articulation model incorporates and extends established findings into image: Image is a multifaceted process with loci in organirational, individ- ual, historical, and cultural factors; each audience has unique and diferent images based on the unique combination of these different factors: and image includes intended and unintended, positive and negative, and strong and weak images.

First, an explanation of this theoretical framework as a model of meaning for media texts is presented. Following this is an explanation of how the model may he adapted to organizational communication's understanding of corpo- rate image-building.

Articulation Model of Meaning

British cultural studies' articulation model is a response to meaning models. which hold to a theory that the receiver alone decides the meaning brought to the text. Hall (1986), following Gramsci (1985). argued in his model for a theory of meaning in which meaning is not determined solely by the receiver's social, economic, political, or gender position. He argued that meaning is the result of the intersection, or articulation, of multiple factors: the receiver's lived experiences, the features of the text, and cultural and historical factors that make up the social context.

For the articulation model, meaning is determined at the point of articula- tion, at the intersection of the receiver's social position, her or his felt social pressures, her or his felt social roles or identities, the text or messages, and other historical and cultural factors surrounding the "meaning moment." It is not solely in meaning consumption processes of the receiver. The explanatory power of the articulation model is its conception of meaning as a relatively instantaneous moment-a historically situated moment-of intersecting and articulating of meaning.

An articulation perspective recognizes the presentation of meaning to the media consumer but considers that meaning is also worked out or negotiated through social relations (Bennett, 1986). A media receiver interacts with a text and in the media experience. manages felt social pressures, felt gender pres- sures, felt economic pressures, or felt identities. This management of individu- ally felt social and individual pressures through experiencing a text indicates

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 47

that multiple meanings are negotiated, even struggled over, through social relations. A media experience is an individual pursuit that, at the same time, functions within a network of social relationships.

Various lived experiences and the texts that allow them to be managed are viewed as "a cultural terrain" upon which social, personal, gender, and racial forces struggle for meaning to the individual. Cultural studies criticism privi- leges concepts such as gender, socioeconomic status, occupational status, mes- sage variables, and other lived experiences as part of the meaning process, with the possibility that one or more of the factors may ultimately determine the received meaning.

The figure of struggle for meaning on the terrain of the text andlor within the experiences of the receiver dictates that, in any moment of meaning, one or more factors may overdetermine the other factors in determining meaning. For example, in the struggle for meaning of a media text, if the receiver's most important lived experience is the pressure to be physically attractive, this social pressure-more than other factors affects the meanings she receives through experiencing the text. A soap opera viewer enjoys a soap opera with its physi- cally perfect women and men (she receives this meaning), because her own identity-needs to be attractive are satisfied through this media experience.

In another example, in our culture where men are often expected to he physically strong, have a macho image, and earn a lot of money, a male viewer may receive any or all of these meanings from the movie Rocky, because this film allows the viewer to satisfy these pressures (Walkerdine, 1986). For one audience memher, the social pressure in his current lived experiences to have a lot of money and heat the system overdetermined the other meanings of a media text, because this is the primary lived experience in his life. For another viewer, the pressure to be physically attractive determined the meanings re- ceived from her media experience.

Adapting Meaning to Image

For public relations, the articulation model of meaning suggests that the organization's messages, the receiver's personal experiences, and related his- torical and cultural factors all come together to articulate meaning(s) or ima- ge(~) to a population member. Any image (out of many) that the receiver holds of an organization (e.g., that it is good to its employees, that it cares for the environment, that it exploits its employees, that it disregards the environment, that it has a good product) is comparable to the concept of meaning in media criticism.

For example, a person may hold a positive image of an organization (receive a certain meaning) based on the organization's role as public citizen in the community. A person may have knowledge of these positive activities through conversations with friends, personal experiences with the employees of this

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organization. articles read in the newspaper, or news stories on the television. At another time, any one or more i~tersecting factors such as an unpleasant experience with an organization's product, a corporate advertisement read as rude or demeaning, or a friend's negative experience with an organization may overdetermine the earlier positive images of the organization, and in turn. articulate at that moment a negative image.

Written and visual texts, personal experiences, and historical and social events (in public relations, the organization's written and visual messages, the population member's experiences, and other environmental factors) are the cultural terrain upon which corporate image is determined. These factors intersect and inform each other and articulate certain meanings, respective to the many possible intersections, to the receiver. Whereas in some corporate image research findings the receiver determines image, according to the articu- lation model personal experiences are only one of several factors intersecting and articulating multiple meanings.

For public relations, the organization and the messages of the organization are the texts; these texts can serve as one or more of the intersecting factors affecting the articulation of meaning or image to the receiver. The lived experi- ences of the population memher- soc ia l and economic pressures, experiences of knowing the texts of the organization, gender pressures, family pressures. and so forth-are other factors that may come into play during an intersect- ing, meaning, image-articulating moment. And finally, historical and social factors outside the organization and outside the receiver have the potential to intersect the struggle for received image. The value of the articulation model is that it extends previous findings of organizational communication research on all the possible factors affecting a corporation's image.

For this study, concepts of meaning are used to attempt an understanding of the corporate image process. Where is image determined? In corporate intention? In its messages? In audience reception? Or in other social and historical factors? How do considerations of image inform public relations of its responsibility to communicate to many audiences? How do intended and unintended, strong and weak, positive and negative corporate images come to be received by the populations, or, in other words, why do some images become more important than others to the receiver?

METHOD

Consistent with privileging meaning as an articulation to the receiver is the ethnographic method that locates and explores meaning processes by inter- viewing the receivers directly. Talking to the receivers-for public relations researchers, talking to the audience members influenced by a certain organiza- tion-allows an investigation of those personal lived experiences, environmen-

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 49

tal factors, and organizational factors that determine the positive andlor negative images held of an organization.

Utilizing recent moves in cultural studies criticism and an ethnographic methodology allows for an analysis of the reception of meaning and image. For an understanding of corporate image, this means an analysis of the organi- zation's image(s) held by the audiences by in-depth questioning of the audience members directly. Whereas a quantitative methodology aims for large num- bers of respondents so that findings are generalizable to an entire sample, a qualitative methodology generalizes to a theory or explains a proposed pro- cess-in this study the meaning process and the image process.

The quality, variety, and richness of the data gathered from each respon- dent in a qualitative study make qualitative data important for their quality as well as quantity. Further, qualitative research findings are used to support the proposed theory guiding this study, the articulation model as a model for corporate image, not-as in the case with survey research-to gather findings representative of an entire population.

Direct observation and in-depth interviews with the residents of the com- munity afford more concrete and material data and more organization-specific insights than might be available with short, objective survey data from a large sample. In this initial look at image through critical, ethnographic methods, 13 adult informants were contacted; informants who were unknown to the re- searcher were chosen from different geographic regions throughout the Bloom- ington-Normal, Illinois community.'

The researcher interviewed all informants personally. In order to accommo- date the informants and to facilitate frank and detailed answers, interviews were conducted in the informants' homes. Interviewing residents at length in their homes encouraged. I believe, more relaxed answers in a familiar and comfortable setting and allowed me to see the home, ask more questions about family setting, personal lived experiences, and opinions about the community. In this preliminary look at corporate image through the residents' viewpoints, I included employees and nonemployees of State Farm Insurance as infor- mants. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed; they ranged from 45 min to 115 min, on average 75 min (see Appendix for copy of survey instru- ment). Informants were assured of the anonymity of their comments.

This study utilized State Farm Insurance as a case study and sought infor-

'Bloomington and Normal are twin cities in central Illinois, about halfway between Chicago and St. Louis. Bloorningtan's population of 49,000 and Normal's 40,000 population make it among the largest towns in downstate Illinois. It is a growing community, having just landed a few years ago the Chrysler-Mitsubishi. or Diamond Star Motors, automobile factory. It enjoys exceptional economic health and low unemployment, with two universities, Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan; two hospitals; several white collar organizations, State Farm Insurance and Country Companies Insurance.

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mation on its image because it is a dominant organization in the Bloomington Normal community and a long-standing organization on which most citizens have opinions. The company was founded in the Bloomington-Normal area in 1922, beginning as a company providing low-cost car insurance to the farmers. The corporate headquarters of State Farm is located in Bloomington; in the corporate building and in buildings throughout the community are the five companies that make up State Farm Insurance.' State Farm is the largest employer, with over 6,300 employees in the community; other area employers are Illinois State University (ISU), second with 3,420, and Diamond Star Motors, third with 2,900.

The instrument is divided into three sections. Taken together, all three parts seek not only specific information on the informant's opinion of State Farm but also, importantly, detailed information on past and current social pres- sures and practices that may have a part in the articulation of the image of State Farm to them. Part I asks for a detailed life history, from the earliest remembrances of childhood through adulthood. This life history section of the interview explores possible family and related social issues that may intluenct: current lived experiences and opinions on organizations. Part 2 asks specific opinions on corporate image, with most questions focusing on State Farm. Part 3 delves into personal feelings, opinions on social problems, and the individual's opinions of all the socialicnltural, gender, family, and media pressures (see Appendix).

In this study, corporate image is conceptualized as multifaceted: any piece of knowledge, any attitude, and any action-large or subtle, positive or nega- tive--that a resident may have toward an organization. If an individual holds an image of State Farm as being good to its employees and. in another way. bad to its employees, the individual holds two images.

MEANING AND THE IMAGE-BUILDING PROCESS

Responses of the informants provide two significant insights into the concept of image, in effect, calling into question established notions that an organiza- tion portrays primarily one image and that the organization determines the projected image. Even though State Farm enjoys a positive, even benevolent. image within the community, comments of each person interviewed reveal both positive and negative images of the company. All informants, no matter how positive or negative in their opinions of State Farm, have multiple, con- trasting images based on personal, environmental, and organizational factors.

T h e five companies that make up State Farm Insurance are General Insurance Company. Lire & Accident Assurance Company. Life Insurance Company. Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. and Fire & Casualty Company The Illinois Regional Office, several deims oficc>. ;and sevrml agencies also reside in the community

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 51

Beyond simply possessing contrasting images of the same organization, each informant has-at some points s t r o n g images, either positive or nega- tive-and at other points-images that are merely exceptions to her or his most commonly held image. For example, although some respondents primar- ily hold one image toward State Farm, with perhaps a contrasting image here or there, others equally privilege positive, negative, and indifferent images. Comments of this sample reveal that, in terms of their images of State Farm, multiple-often contrasting-images are held by each person, each meaning and image with its own degree of importance or determination and each meaning at times overdetermining others.

For this sample, the numerous images held of State Farm are more dynamic and more spontaneous and fluid, depending on the topic of conversation or the recalled experience, than established definitions of image as relatively constant in the organization or in the receiver. Al's comments exemplify this fluidity and present the two most prevalent arguments for the positive image of State Farm found in most respondents' interviews: State Farm treats their employees well and does a lot for the community.

Al: [The image] is absolutely positive. All around. they're really good for the community. All around, if we didn't have State Farm, we'd have nothing.

Al: They treat their people well. And their money. The money they pump into the community. They just pump it in . . . And it's not just the money. It's the benefits they give them. They give them a lot of benefits.

Interviewer: How would you rate State Farm as a public citizen? In terms of its impact on the Bloomington-Normal commu- nity?

Al: Oh wonderful. They do a lot of stuff. You know, promoting things. Like GTE [General Telephone Electronics], I didn't know GTE did anything. And then I worked with Downs Syndrome [children] and I saw what they did. So, I think State Farm does those kinds of things too.

Al: They help the community in coaching kids. Because of their flextime, they can coach. You're there and you say, who are all of these guys? Why aren't they at work? So they help the young kids.

These comments suggest that in response to questions about State Farm's role as public citizen, Al receives a positive image, based on his experiences of his friends' good job benefits, their flextime benefits, his experiences of working with them in coaching, and even from his experience of a charity function with

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GTE that he transfers to State Farm. But even with these strong arguments for a positive image of State Farm scattered throughout Al's remarks and revealed in his respective social relations, the balance of Al's comments reveal the equally negative image he has of State Farm.

In other points of discussion, he demonstrates that his experience (or social relations) with a neighbor, his experience (or labor relations) of doing con- struction work for State Farm, and his personal experience of State Farm's negative attitude toward unions overdetermine other, positive images.

Interviewer: In your opinion, does State Farm have a negative or posi- tive image?

Al: Basically, 1 don't like State Farm. Interviewer: How come?

Al: They are shafting people right and left. Interviewer: Why

Al: It's thievery. That's why they can pay their people so much . . . And they hate unions. Put that down in your notes i n big letters.

Interviewer: How do you feel State Farm rates as an employer in this community?

Al: There's no doubt about it. People who are making $50,000 should be making $36,000 . . . The people know it too. That's a tremendous influence.

Interviewer: How do you know this is true? Al: Well, I know my neighbor next door. He works for Statc

Farm and makes a bunch of money. A regular person at his level would make $36. Most of his time is this [leans back with his arms folded over his chest] waiting for glitches . . . And he gets great benefits. puts in $200 and the com- pany matches it.

Al's experience with hisneighbor, and perhaps his slight resentment or minor jealously of his neighbor, articulate to him that all State Farm employees are probably overpaid for little work. His more obvious resentment that State Farm doesnot hireunionconstruction workers, or at least pay them union scale wages, is another intersecting factor here. This suggests to him that not only does State Farm overpay their white collar employees, but they can alford to do so because they do not pay their contract workers a fair wage. His socialllabor role of contractor also intersects here, adding importance to this received image of State Farm. At this particular intersection of neighbor, union. and labor experienccs. the overdetennining image he receives of State Farm is a negative one.

At the same time, his other remarks demonstrate no strong positive or negative image. Representative comments are:

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 53

Al: We've done work for them. It was okay-just like doing work for anyone.

Al: People really heard about Mitsubishi [a new automobile manufac- turingplant located in Bloomington]. I talked to people who wanted to invest in the community. They heard about it through the gover- nor. Nobody hears about State Farm.

For another informant, Tom, a similar situation exists. Tom perceives both positive and negative images and, in fact, recognizes the competing images himself. Tom's remarks and the responses from a separate interview with his wife Barb confirm the notion that multiple images toward an organization may be held by an individual, and that certain images overdetermine others only to be replaced or overdetermined at another intersection by other social factors.

In the case of Barb and Tom, their family relations-the common knowl- edge of Barb's negative work experience with State Farm that both have shared and experienced--overdetermined several "image intersections." Al- though many responses from Barb and Tom reveal their positive image of State Farm, such as: "very positive . . . everyone wants to work for them because they're a good employer" (Barb) and "I'd say they're right on the top . . . I think they're a major employer 'cause I've seen so many people that work there" (Tom), one experience tends to overdetemine other articulated, posi- tive images.

Tom: I've given you a pretty positive opinion so far but I'm tossed between two things 'cause Barb worked there. And I know she wasted a lot of time. She'd get her work done, and then she'd sit there with nothing to do. So she quit. So-I have that aspect. And then I have some friends and that's the other side, because they're doing so well and they love it there.

And Barb recalls her experience with State Farm and reveals one of the dominant images she receives from State Farm.

Barb: I haven't heard from anyone-outside of myself-who didn't like it . . . I worked there for a summer and I kick myself every day that I didn't stay.

Interviewer: So what happened, why did you decide to leave? Barb: I didn't like it. Sometimes 1 resent . . . when they hired me,

they said that I would be so busy that I wouldn't be able to get all my work done. Then, I got everything done by 11:00 and I would just sit there and try to look busy. I know there's a lot of idle time there at State Farm. And I feel

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we're paying for that-in higher rates, although 1 must say that their rates are still pretty cheap.

Barb explains her image of State Farm and admits it is different from others' images. Even though she feels that State Farm is a good employer and treats their employees well-- so well that, "Everyone wants to work for them" she nevertheless receives an image of State Farm that there is a lot of idle time for the employees. Her personal experience through these sociallwork practices overdetermines other images. In fact, her work experience (also functioning as "family" relations), her expressed regret that she did not stay at State Farm, and a current dissatisfaction with her present job all intersect and overdeter- mine the positive meanings of State Farm she receives through social relations with friends.

Another interview serves as an example of how family relations. as an intersecting factor, articulate a privileged image over others. Joyce relates her "very positive image" of State Farm, based on her family relations with her mother and her social relations with friends. However, other family relations, and a negative experience of her daughter, overdetermine her positive images.

Interviewer: Well, how would you rate State Farm as an employer'! Joyce: Oh, well, from what I understand, it's great--the benefits

they provide their employees that type of thing.

Joyce: Now my mother has State Farm insurance. And she thinks they're great.

Interviewer: And if you could assign a persona to State Farm, what would it be?

Joyce: Oh. avery positive image. . . but I don't know. I think the) think . . . It's a great thing to have them here. If we d idn '~ have them, it would he a different economic perspective in this town.

Interviewer: How do you think you have come lo know State Farm:' What are the important ways? First. have you come to know them through family members'?

Joyce: In the respect that our daughter had a job there. Well, the bad thing is she went out to California, and they said. "We'll let you know." So it was two weeks and they wanted her hack. And she said. "I can't wait around." The good thing was my parents are out there. Or she would have been all alone. But this is how she found out she had a job. She was standing in a line at a sale at a department store. She saw a guy standing there who was on the interview board. And so she's so outgoing, will talk to anyone. so anywa)

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 55

she comes up to this guy and asks him about the job. And he said, "Oh, I can't tell you this way. You better call the office on Monday." And they said, "Oh yes. Why don't you come in on Friday for a physical." And that's how she found out she had a job. And that's not the first time I've heard of this.

And from the family history section of the interview. Joyce adds to informa- tion about her experiences with her daughter's experiences working for State Farm.

Joyce: Well, my daughter Karen did not like it, working for State Farm. First, she worked in the underwriting at State Farm in California. Then, she applied for a change to claims. But she didn't like that either. Karen says, "Insurance isn't for everyone, Mom." And we said, "That's right. It's not for everybody."

In addition to Joyce's experience of her daughter, she adds other opinions of State Farm's negative impact on lo al housing.

Joyce: One impact is on housing, which makes me sick. They have people moving in from California who have sold these two or three hundred thousand dollar houses who have to move into something at the same or at least more so they don't have to pay capital gains. . . .

These negative and positive images of State Farm expressed by Joyce olfer another example of the n~ultiple images articulated to community residents by organizational factors, personal relations, and particularly in this instance, environmental factors. For Joyce, her daughter's experiences, her family role as mother, her other experiences of State Farm's casual treatment of employ- ees, and her knowledge of housing inflation in the community, can-at some times-articulate a negative image. However, at other times, her family role as daughter, her own relations with her mother, and her relations with friends who express a positive attitude toward the company, articulate a positive image of the corporation to her.

Representative of all the interviews, these comments question earlier con- cepts of image as a relatively constant message determined by an organization or a singular opinion held by an audience member. In expressing the many, often contradictory, images they hold of State Farm, and in naming the various factors that have influenced their views, all informants reveal image as plural, ever-changing, and determined by organizational, social, and personal experiences.

Another finding evident in the data confirms cultural studies' figure of

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meaning as struggle. In the previous comments, all informants reveal not only several factors affecting their images of State Farm but, more importantly. the notion that these factors struggle to determine the eventual image. Informants' admitting to many factors reveals that one or two factors may be more impor- tant than others in determining image, in effect overdetermining other weaker factors in the struggle for image.

Cultural studies' articulation model offers an explanation of the fluid, dy- namic, personal process of image reception and, in defining the process, offers a vocabulary to name its parts, for example, intersection, urtirulafion, social pracfices, social role, family relations, work relations, intersecting socia1farfor.s. or overdetermine. The critical model that recognizes the articulation of mea- ning(~) to an audience also explains the articulation of corporate image(s) to its audiences and publics.

IMAGE: SHARED CULTURAL DOMAIN

Having argued for the potential of an audience member to have multiple meanings, this section attempts to show that some consistent, similar meanings emerge across the sample. Some images of State Farm are shared among the members of this sample and, by extension, among the residents of any commu- nity who may share or experience a powerful, dominant organization in their town.

Finding shared meanings within a population is also consistent with the articulation model of meaning. For example, many residents within a commu- nity may experience similar conversations with employees and experience simi- lar behaviorsandmessages from theorganization. Themembersof acommunity may experience similar social relations (with friends who are employees), the sameorganizational texts(the building, themediamessages, thestationery, etc.), or similar experiences with the corporation's owners or family.

Comments of the residents exemplify another cultural studies' contribution toward the concept of image, that is, that the texts and experiences that are the intersecting factors function as the cultural terrain upon which meanings and images are struggled over. Respondents' comments reveal this struggle for image and, further, demonstrate the articulation of similar meanings and images to the residents of the community.

One particularly strong image of State Farm to emerge from all the respon- dents is that State Farm treats their employees exceptionally well. In fact. one informant, Agnes, a professional executive recruiter, relates that she cannot get any employees-in particular, actuaries or accountants-to leave State Farm for positions in other companies. Following are others' images of State Farm's treatment of their employees along with their explanations of how they have come to know (to receive) this image.

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 57

Star: Well, I've always thought of State Farm as the greatest thing since sliced bread! I have never heard a State Farm employee complain about State Farm . . . hut the way they treat their employees, you would have to shoot and kill your supervisor- hut still then, they might send you for counseling. And their salaries-you can't beat it. With the work force they have and the salaries they pay them-l mean, these are three piece suits with little gold pins in the lapels.

Glen: They offer their people so much. They must be one of the great employers in the whole country . . . I have friends, my golf friends and I know them because of all the mechanics out of the locals that work for them, you know, building buildings or the con- struction business.

Dave: They provide their employees with a lifestyle most people don't have if it weren't for State Farm. There would be more unem- ployment, and lifestyles here would be different . . . I have heard nothing hut good about how they treat their employees. They give them cost-of-living raises, insurance, other things. All around, they're pretty good. . . They take care of the employees. And I think the employees look up to them, at least the people I know do.

Anita: I remember when I was a dental assistant, before I got married. I thought that their employees never got into trouble for taking off work. I always admired that-that they approved if they had to take time off.

Another related image to emerge from the responses is that State Farm contributes good things to the community. Following are comments represent- ative of this strong image received through direct experiences with the charita- ble work of State Farm and through the experiences with their friends.

30: They have always played fair, gone the extra mile for the commu- nity. To make the community happy, we'll do it this way . . . I don't know about philanthropies. They probably do a lot and I don't know. . . My husband works for State Farm. We have very good friends who work for State Farm. When they have training schools, the men come to know each other and then they get together with the wives. You find friends all over the country who work for State Farm. It's a big family.

Anita: Well, I think, on the whole, they have a good image in the community. You know, you hear they're buying up all the land and I say, yes, hut is that a negative thing? You know, they pay taxes. They're supporting the community . . . And when they do

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58 MOFFITT

something, the beauty they put into it! You know, when they helped Jewel move [Jewel grocery store's site was purchased by State Farm], that berm State Farm put behind the grocery a l l the trees and scrubs. You know, they didn't have to do that.

They've been real active in United Way. A couple of their top executives headed it for a couple of years. They've been working with SADD. I think they do a lot of things that they just don't put out to the public.

A retired vice president relates, from first-hand experience:

Warren: They just gave $150,000 to MADD. They also give matching funds to all the universities, of people who give to their univer- sities. Like, they match what I give to Lake Forest [University]. They give a lot to ISU and Wesleyan. So many of our employ- ees are graduates of Wesleyan.

And with the war [Desert Storm] now, when people come back, they'll get jobs, maybe not the same one but with a comparable wage.

There is the House for Habitat [women's shelter]. The guy who's running it is retired, but from State Farm. A lot of people from State Farm are helping him. Another executive is cur- rently head of Home Sweet Home Mission. Another one is on the Board of Directors of Brokaw Hospital. Very prominent people. In fact, I know that State Farm pushes that.

The two strong and positive images of State Farm, of a generous and benevolent employer and of a good public citizen, are articulated to the infor- mants because the intersecting social factors articulating these images are similar experiences to all the informants. The examples offered as to thc generosity and charity of State Farm may be personal, individual experiences or stories, but the consistency of the examples suggests that State Farm does demonstrate how--through the social relations of its employees and through its decisions on what effects it wants to have on the community- the organiza- tion serves as an intersecting factor in the image-building process. The shared experiences of the community's residents with the organization's activities, the shared work experiences of employee and nonemployee, the social relations through friends, and the organization's behaviors all intersect and articulate a positive image of State Farm being a caring employer and good puhlic citizen to this sample.

One final example of a consistent image among several informants illus- trates the constancy of an image when similar intersecting factors come to- gether to articulate an image. Joyce expresses an image of State Farm fbund

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 59

in a few respondents who were nonemployees. When asked to explain her images of State Farm, she notes the feeling that State Farm employees are close-knit, to the point of exclusion of others.

Joyce: You know, the employees who work for them-it's like one big family, but very clique-ish, very nepotistic. If you're with the "Farm," it's okay . . . I don't want to denigrate them hut if you are the other element-like Karen [daughter] said, "It's not for everybody."

Tom: They do a lot of things for the community, but they seem a bit self-centered. They're big enough to spread out. They're, like, very family-centered in that way, hut they definitely look out for their own.

For Joyce and Tom, their experiences of State Farm through family mem- bers-Joyce's daughter and Tom's wife-and other social relations articulate an image of State Farm as "clique-ish" and nepotistic.

Other comments hint at a feeling of slight resentment toward this very powerful and influential organization, hence the articulation of another nega- tive image to the nonemployees. A look at the personae assigned to State Farm by these informants suggests this image clearly.

Interviewer: Outside of its image or reputation in terms of its product1 service, what do you think is the persona of State Farm, in terms of personal characteristics or character traits?

Pam: The rich old granddaddy in the South holding the purse strings over you!

Dave: Big brother, in the way they take care of the employees. Pauline: They are the backbone of the city. They're big, and they're

powerful. When they want something done, it gets done. If State Farm says, "Jump," the city says, "How high."

Comments of employees of State Farm reveal significantly different descrip- tions of State Farm's persona(e). Contrasting, positive portrayals of personae by employees are not unexpected. The positive experiences and feelings of (perhaps) insider or privileged social status within State Farm articulate the positive personae of State Farm to the employees, and in the remarks of Anita and Jo noted subsequently, to the wives of State Farm employees.

Anita: [The image] is good, overall . . . I think, as a whole, they're well thought of. I think especially-I hate to say "classes"-but in the upper classes, they're well thought of. People who are unedu- cated or unemployed can't afford insurance, and they hate all insurance companies.

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Jo: Well, their slogan is. "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." I can attest to that, from agents to everybody, they are for the person.

For Jo and Anita, the suggestion of "clique-ishness" is articulated instead as an image of family, of belonging to the organization.

This section privileges the notion of shared images of State Farm across the sample. Respondents' comments reveal that through similar, positive experi- ences with family members, friends, work, and the organization, similar mean- ings and images are received. Through similar, negative intersecting experiences, negative images are articulated. Following the articulation framc- work, conversations with friends or family or colleagues, witnessing of friends' good treatment by State Farm, direct and indirect experience with the organi- zation, and personal knowledge of State Farm's charitable work in the com- munity are the cultural texts and the cultural terrain embodying the struggle for image. For Pam, Dave, and Pauline, conversations with others and per- sonal observations, together with their social position of outsider and nonem- ployee articulate a feeling of resentment toward this powerful company, an image of all-powerful, granddaddy persona. For Anita and lo , personal obser- vations intersect their social positions as insiders, as members of the family, and articulate a positive persona, a good friend. The conversations, observa- tions, felt experiences of mch individual, together with the organization's messages are the cultural terrain over which the intersecting factors struggle for meaning and image.

DISCUSSION

The previous section's privileging of shared images of State Farm across the sample, together with the initial argument for plural images by one individual. calls into question earlier, recognized concepts of image. The notion of one relatively stagnant or institutionally controlled image is given up when images are conceived as many and when any image, at any time, is recognized to have the potential to overdetermine another image. At any intersection of image, personal, social, environmental, and organizational factors struggle for mean- ing over the terrain of these very messages, activities, and experiences. Further, overdetermining factors articulate, at any intersection, the received image. The important finding to the question of where is image is that image is in all or any of these factors, not only in the organization, the receiver, or culture.

Corporate images are fluid articulations of meaning and subject to change in the subjects who receive them. The articulation model's recognition that any meaning may be strong or weak, intended or unintended, positive or negative, demonstrates that in understanding corporate image also, any image may he

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 61

strong or overdetermined (weak), positive or negative, intended or unintended, depending on the unique intersection of other factors determining image at that moment.

For public relations study, the importance of these findings on image are particularly enlightening. The inherent nature of our field dictates that re- searchers communicate to multiple populations. As evidenced in the interview findings with a population of community residents, we must acknowledge that each population has the potential to share similar image(s), and also that members of a population may have multiple images of the organization.

Findings of this study also confirm the utility of the articulation model for conceptualizing image and the ethnographic methodology as consistent with this theoretical framework. It incorporates earlier findings on image as source, receiver, or historical and social concept, and extends these to recognize image as a concept outside the receiver but, nevertheless, partly determined by the receiver, by the organization, and by culture.

Some qualifications of this study should be noted. I do not privilege the findings of this study or this sample's process of image-building directly to any other audiences or populations of other organizations. The ethnographic methodology asserts findings primarily to the sample under study. At the same time, however, I believe that even this initial ethnographic study of corporate image demonstrates future contributions of critical theory to the understand- ing of corporate image in the receiver.

My plans for future study involve more data collecting on the images of State Farm in the Bloomington-Normal community; certainly, the need for more data to establish certain images and to point to those consistent social practices and relations articulating corporate image is evident. A final qualifi- cation-I contend that meanings are not infinite hut bound to the cultural and social setting that frames them. The next task should he to identify them and explain their role in the image process.

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APPENDIX

PUBLIC RELATIONS STUDY: MAJOR EMPLOYERS IN BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL

Interview Questions

Presentationlintroduction to interview. I am a professor in the Commu- nication Department of Illinois State University who teaches and conducts research in public relations. We are interested in the major organizations in the Bloomington-Normal area and would like to ask you to respond to some questions about them. I am not selling anything. I am not working for any businesses. Your responses are important to this study and are totally anony- mous.

This study is researching the public relations process, or more specifically, the process of how an organization gains an image in the eyes of the public. This study tries to understand this process of receiving an image by questioning members of the general public as to their opinion of certain organizations in their community.

This interview is divided into three parts. The first is a short life history; the second is questions on your opinion of one employer; and the third section is a bit more personal, with questions about your feelings and opinions on social problems, personal issues you feel, etc.

Part I Life History

In order to explore your opinions of organizations in Bloomington-Normal, I want to ask you, first, some questions about your life history. In order to find out how you might have received certain images of employers in this commu-

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nity, I need information on past, lived experiences that might have brought you to the opinions and images you hold of certain organizations.

1. Where born? Childhood? 2. Grade school? 3. High school? 4. College? 5. Adulthood? 6. Family life? Parents? Brothers and sisters? 7 . School experiences? 8. Other information?

Part I 1 Opinions of Major Employers

This part of the interview notes your opinions on the major employers in Bloomington-Normal and notes what images you feel these organizations have.

1. What are the three major employers in Bloomington Normal, employ- ers who have the greatest impact on the Bloomington-Normal area?

2. Which one is first, second, and third? 3. Why is first influential? Why is second influential? Why is third influen-

tial? What effects of each? 4. Since you have mentioned State Farm Insurance, I want to ask you some

more questions about State Farm.

How do you feel State Farm Insurance rates as an employer in this community?

5. In your opinion, does State Farm have a negative or positive image? Why?

6. What do you think the Bloomington-Normal community holds as a image of State Farm-negative or positive? Why?

7. If you could assign a persona to State Farm, what would this h e i n terns of its productlservice?

8. Outside of its image or reputation in terms of its productlservice, what is the persona of State Farm-~-(personal characteristics or character traits). Why?

9. What do you think is the quality of the service or the product of Statc Farm? What have you experienced personally or known through others' experiences? Do you know anything about their servicelproduct through the media?

10. What is your opinion of the image of the entire insurance industry'! Of other insurance companies'?

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UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE IMAGE 65

11. How does State Farm compare to other insurance companies, in terms of its image and/or in terms of its productise~ice?

12. How do you think you have come to know State Farm? What are the most important ways?

Through family members'! Through friends'? Through the media?

Radio? Television? Printed media?

13. Which influence listed above has been the most influential in forming your opinion, do you believe?

14. How would you rate State Farm as a public citizen? In terms of its impact on the Bloomington-Normal community? In terms of the na- tion? Other effects'?

15. How would you describe the social consciousness of State Farm? 16. Are you aware of any philanthropic activities of State Farm? What

specifically? 17. Can you remember the first time you heard of State Farm? 18. What are the ways you most often hear about State Farm today? 19. Has State Farm ever had an impact on you personally? 20. What do you think is the impact of State Farm on the Bloomington-

Normal community? 21. Is there anything you can add about your image of State Farm Insur-

ance that I have not asked you? Anything about the local or national reputationlimage of State Farm?

Part I l l Social Pressures and Social Problems

These final questions explore the social and the individual pressures you feel in your life today. These questions are intended to measure whether any personally felt pressures of society have any influence in how you might perceive an organization such as State Farm, or, in other words, how these pressures might influence the image you hold of an employer such as State Farm.

22. What are all the social pressures you feel in your life today? 23. What are all the social roles you LIVE in your life today? (You could

think of social roles as IDENTITIES.) 24. What are all the gender pressures you feel, in connection with work or

in connection with your private life? 25. Do you feel any demands of society to conform to a certain PHYSI-

CAL or PERSONALITY or GENDER ideal? What exactly? Do you

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feel you come close to the ideal or are markedly different from society's ideal? In what ways?

26. If you consider your (a) family relationships, (b) work relationships. (c) gender (same gender) relationships, (d) personal relationships. etc. as separate "worlds" that you live in.

Which one do you live in the most? Is most important to you? Has the most problems for you? 1s the most rewarding? You are in the most control in? You are least in control in? Are most uncomfortable in? Which "world" would you want to change the most? How?

27. What do you want the most in your life that you cannot have? What do you think are things that are holding you back from success in your life'!

28. Do you consider yourself a basically happy or sad person'? Would you want to change anything about yourself!

29. If you could do any other occupation or have another career, would you want to change occupations? What would your desired occupation be'!

30. For each of the following 1 name, tell me any pressures you might or might not feel in connection with social areas.

Health pressures? Age pressures? Work pressures'? Self-esteem pressures'? Family worries? Problems with friends?

31. What is your favorite social role or identity to be'! 32. What do you do for leisure activities? What are your favorite things to

do for fun?

Demographic Data

Occupation- -- ~p

Age: 31 -40, 41-50. 51 -60, 60+ How long live in Bloomington-Normal: 1-5 years, 6-15, 16 25. 2 6 t Sex

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