Corporate rebranding and Employee Engagement: Perspectives from South Africa's Professional Services Industry

Corporate rebranding, the adoption of new brand names by companies, can affect many stakeholder groups. Nevertheless, the extant management literature on corporate rebranding vastly concentrates on its effects on one... [ view full abstract ]

Corporate rebranding, the adoption of new brand names by companies, can affect many stakeholder groups. Nevertheless, the extant management literature on corporate rebranding vastly concentrates on its effects on one stakeholder group: consumers. Although recent and growing numbers of published papers have started to investigate the effects of corporate rebranding on other stakeholder groups such as suppliers, shareholders, and employees; a deep focus on employee engagement and on the professional services sector still remains scant.

To address this gap, we integrate research on corporate rebranding, employee engagement and the social exchange theory. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with employees of two leading professional services companies and the application of the Saks (2006) model, we closely examine how corporate rebranding impacts on employee engagement.

Our study shows that job satisfaction had no impact on employees’ engagement level. This finding is inconsistent with Saks (2006) model. Further, our research reveals that employees with strong loyalty to the brand are more inclined to staying with the brand and see the change through.

Our study provides marketing practitioners with insights on the factors that need to be strengthened during corporate rebranding.

Key words: Corporate rebranding, employee engagement, SAKS model, social exchange theory.