Reflecting on the organization: introducing engineers to corporate identity, image, brand, and culture

Engineers are expected to understand the structure, goals, and values of the organizations for which they work. Only then can they contribute effectively to these organizations through the production of appropriate goods and services as well as routine communications. Based on the work of Hatch and Schultz (2000), the author offers four concepts (identity, image, brand, and culture) for conducting organizational analysis from varied internal and external perspectives and presents composing practices that follow from this analysis. An advertisement for Ford Motor Company is the primary artifact through which the concepts are examined. As students of engineering enter their respective fields, they must be well equipped to provide not only technical knowledge and skills but also effective communication to the organizations they join. Part of this preparation involves teaching students how to analyze (and critique, if necessary) the goals, values, and priorities of the environments in which they will work, since the context of an organization influences document concerns ranging from audience assumptions to visual layout to language use. This paper addresses some of the ways in which students of engineering might be better prepared to enter the profession through increased knowledge of the workplace, as we as how seasoned engineers might be re-introduced to the purposes behind their work for a particular organization.