Organizational Image and Employee Engagement: Exploring the Inter-Relationships Between Construed External Image and Perceived Organizational Identity

Organizational image, defined as internal members’ evaluations of their organization, is a critical managerial issue since it influences employee work attitudes and subsequent performance. While the public administration discipline has observed an increasing scholarly interest in the influence of organizational image on employee engagement, it leaves the potential inter-relationships between two distinctive organizational image dimensions—construed external image (CEI) and perceived organizational identity (POI)—unexplored. We examine the influence of these two organizational images on employee engagement, with an emphasis on both the mediating and moderating role of POI between CEI and employee engagement. Empirical results show that both image dimensions positively influence employee engagement. More importantly, we find that POI acts as a moderator in the CEI–employee engagement relationship, that is, the positive influence of CEI on the outcome depends on the level of POI. Empirical findings imply that public employees treat two dimensions of organizational image differently and weigh POI more than CEI. In particular, the findings suggest that attractive or positive POI may serve as a catalyst to reinforce employee engagement even in the presence of a long-lasting negative external image for public organizations.