Insight into Daimler : Applying Erving Goffman to Public Relations

Roxana MaiorescuPurdue University, USA

Purpose: • To analyze the reflection of the corporate values on the

employees’ perceptions of their workplace• To determine convergence between internal communication

and corporate cultureInternal communication:

• The way in which employees create/co-create and give meaning to their workplace; how they experience the organizational culture and identity

• The way in which internal stakeholders participate in meaning making can shed light on the degree to which they identify themselves with a specific corporation

Organizational identity:• A social aggregate of perceptions (Fombrun, 1996)• “Provides a cognitive and emotional foundation on which

members of organizations build attachments and with which they create meaningful relationships with their organizations” (Hatch et al., 2000; Tkalac- Verčič & Verčič, 2007).

• Ascribed vs. avowed identity

Methodology: interpretative approach, grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), framing theory (Goffman,1967)

Units of analysis: 159 articles from Das Daimler- Blog “ Einblicke in einen Konzern”

Literature review:• Johansson (2007): framing theory provides a deeper

understanding of internal communication‘If PR is defined as the process of establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between an organizations and its publics on whom it depends, the establishment of common frames of reference about issues of mutual concern is a necessary condition for effective relations to be established” (Johansson, 2007).

Goffman’s concept of framing:• The context/background through which individuals make

sense of a certain situation• Individuals perceive and understand situations based on

rules and values that are more or less rooted in a larger structure, i.e., a frame

• Frames of reference are projected on a situation in an attempt to give meaning, to makes sense of what is going on

• Institutional structures can control the distribution of frames through power, prestige, and social skills

Primary frameworks:• Natural frames (no intentionality, agency, no + or –

criteria from which to judge an event)• Application to PR: the macrosystem (politics, legislation,

culture, society, etc.)• Social frames (agency, intention, motivation, will, rules)• Power is limited by the natural conditions• Success is measured by the degree to which the agent

exploits the natural conditions

Results:

• Daimler’s values: innovation, sustainability, safety, diversity, CSR, commitment to employees

• Innovation (n=42) highest frequency in the astounding complex frame (64.28%), cosmological interest frames (21.42), muffing frames (26.19%)

• Sustainability (n=12) in the muffing frames (41%), astounding complex frames (5.41%)

• Safety (n=16) astounding complex frames (43.75%), cosmological interest frames (25%)

• Diversity (n=21) connected to CSR (n=14)-promoting the German culture

“ I still cannot realize that, next week I will not be able to speak a word of German or walk along the nice quarters of Berlin” (21 year-old intern). “Our presence in many countries around the world gives us the chance to play a role in shaping the social environment and promoting dialogue between cultures” (Daimler’s mission statement)

• Astounding complex frames (33.3%)

• CSR predominant in astounding complex frames (42.85%)

• Commitment to employees in muffings (33.3%): employees perceived it as having been triggered from the outside, astounding complex frames (28.57%)—Daimler’s commitment in times of global economic crisis

Future research should: •Test the framing theory through an ethnographic study•Compare the results with statistical data