Branded Lives: The Production and Consumption of Meaning at Work

Description

Branded Lives explores the increasingly popular concept of employee branding as a new form of employment relationship based on brand representation. In doing so it examines the ways in which the production and consumption of meaning at work are increasingly mediated by the brand. This insightful collection draws on qualitative empirical studies in a range of contexts to include services, retail and manufacturing organizations. The contributors explore the nuances of employee branding from various disciplinary standpoints such as: organization studies, marketing, human resource management and industrial relations. They take a critical perspective on work and organizations and document the lived experience of work and employment under branded conditions. In investigating the extent to which a variety of organizational strategies seek to mould workplace meanings and practices to further build and sustain brand value and the effectiveness of these in terms of employee responses, the authors question whether the attempt to brand workers lives actually enhances or diminishes the meaning and experience of work. Based on in-depth qualitative, ethnographic and case study research this compendium will prove essential for researchers working within the general area of employment studies and specifically on branded employment and work. Students in marketing, human resource management and management as well as HR and marketing practitioners interested in employee branding will also find this book relevant and stimulating. Contributors include: S. Bennett, M. Buchanan-Oliver, J. Cushen, M. Edwards, S. Hurrell, E. Kelan, C. Land, S. Russell, D. Scolarios, M. Simms, V.V. Tarnovskaya, S. Taylor, H. Willmott Copyright Contents Contributors Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Considering the 'bigger picture': branding in processes of financialization and market capitalization 3. Be who you want to be: branding, identity and the desire for authenticity 4. The branded self as paradox: polysemic readings of employee-brand identification 5. The trouble with employer branding: resistance and disillusionment at Avatar 6. Internalizing the brand? Identity regulation and resistance at Aqua-Tilt 7. Recruitment and selection practices, person-brand fit and soft skills gaps in service organizations: the benefits of institutionalized informality 8. The brand I call home? Employee-brand appropriation at IKEA 9. Appropriating the brand: union organizing in front-line service work 10. Employer branding and diversity: foes or friends? 11. Placing branding within organization theory Index