A Study on Employee Experience and Brand Ambassadorship in IT and ITES Companies

Abstract

In today’s transparent, socially connected, business ecosystem, employees critically mediate an organization’s brand credibility. Employees serve as everyday brand ambassadors for the organization, going above and beyond any formal marketing or communication efforts in the way they behave, interact with others, and the stories they share. This research presents an agenda for studying employees as brand ambassadors from a humane perspective, considering the organizational and psychological boundaries that enable or disable their authentic brand ambassadorship.
The researchers are motivated to discover which organizational boundaries enable or disable employees choosing to advocate on behalf of the organization’s brand, such as firm leadership, psychological safety, employee welfare, empowerment, and values alignment. Bridging the fields of internal branding, employee engagement, organizational behavior, and employer branding, the researchers build on a wealth of theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence to articulate the role of the employee experience as a mediator in the relationship between an organization’s humane approach and employees’ brand ambassadorship.
The researchers will employ a mixed-methods research agenda involving qualitative interviews and focus groups and quantitative survey data from employees in various sectors. The qualitative study investigates how employees experience life as brand ambassadors. The quantitative study focuses on the relationship between organizational boundaries, employee experience, and brand ambassadorship. Structural Equation Modeling is used to confirm the existence of a conceptual model that provides evidence of a pathway between humane organizational practices and the voluntary, credible brand ambassadorship of employees.
The study outcomes will demonstrate that it is humane workplaces characterized by trust, psychological safety, ethical leadership, and engagement that enable employees to become powerful brand ambassadors for an organization, rather than coercive branding practices. The contribution to knowledge will be a unified conceptual model for managing all brand-related boundaries concerning employees. The researchers provide valuable insights into the strategic value of treating employees as humans instead of tools of the brand. At a practical level, organizational leaders can use the study results to build brand credibility and enhance their employer brand by adopting humane yet sustainable employee practices.