Impacto de la comunicación en la percepción de la identidad y la imagen corporativa. Estudio de caso de una cooperativa líder colombiana

Abstract

The impact of the communicational management on the correspondence between identity and corporate image in a market leading Colombian Credit Union rekindle the debate about the distinction that must be perceived between the banks and the cooperatives, from the social accountability implicit to these types of organizations of the tertiary sector. Thus, the strategic communication promotes the awareness of the associates about the cooperative’s identity and image. In order to establish the impact of the communicational management in the associateses’s perception regarding the cooperative’s social accountability, a detailed and relational case study was prepared with a mixed approach, relying on interviews, documentary review and conducted surveys that as from the inferential statistic point of view allow to contrast the coherence between the different kinds of identities (real, preferred, planned and perceived) and the mental picture build by the associate. The outcomes enable us to underline the gaps among the analyzed categories when the communication has proven unsuccessful in the case of the associates, in contrast to the favorable perception of the employees who were impacted by the institutional communication. A communication model is then proposed to reduce the gaps and highlight its contribution to the strategic business goals, with a more active involvement of the cooperative’s members to ensure the positioning of these organizations in adverse market conditions.