Abstract
<p class="apa">Acknowledging that the external context visibly affects any organization, this investigation seeks to constitute a specific contribution to the study of the importance of public image in organizational administration. To that end, a collection and documentary analysis of news stories from the newspaper <em>O Fayalense</em> on the <em>Asylum for the Disadvantaged Children of Horta</em> [<em>Asilo de Infância Desvalida da Horta</em>], an institution located on Faial Island, Azores, Portugal, covering the time period of 1858 to 1895, is performed. In the presentation and discussion of the results, a comparison is made between two periods that involve a single president because they vary in the type of news stories published (at the level of sources and subjects). It is concluded that the news stories published cover three large types of references, which, given the period in question, vary substantially: factual information (on the celebrations occurring in the asylum, communications about donations received and appreciation of benefactors, or institutional information on the elections of the asylum directorate), praise (regarding the asylum’s mission, operation, or administration), and censures (including responses to external criticism, criticism of previous managements, and stories regarding the asylum’s precarious circumstances). The implication of the study is that the importance of a positive public image, especially a positive image that is supportive of the leadership, should not be overlooked for the organizational administration to have greater chances of success.</p>
Highlights
1.1 Organizations and their SurroundingsAn organization is a complex collective unit with a formal and an informal dimension
2.1 Objectives of the Investigation. This investigation was conducted to meet the following research objective: how important is the AIDH’s public image in its organizational administration? This objective was subdivided into two objectives: the first is more descriptive in nature, related to understanding the public image, and the second is more interpretive in nature, seeking, whenever possible, to analytically relate the importance of this public image in the Asylum’s operation
Based on the information collected, the difference in the public image facilitated its action: in the third period, the management of the Asylum counted on manifest support, as opposed to the situation perceived by the president in the first period, Father João Pedro d’Ávila, which consisted of a heated dispute, in part published by O Fayalense, concerning the possibility that, in 1872, the management of the AIDH would be awarded to the Love of the Fatherland Society [Sociedade Amor da Pátria] (Historical report about the asylum for the disadvantaged children in the city of Horta, 1884; Serpa, 2015d)
Summary
An organization is a complex collective unit with a formal and an informal dimension. In the operation of any organization, whether in the delimitation of its organizational design or in the activities that occurs within it, the need to establish some type of relationship with the outside to succeed should always be considered (Alvesson, 2013; Crozier & Friedberg, 1992; Friedberg, 1993; Hofstede, 2003; Lima, 2011b; Schein, 2010). These types of relationships include, for example, institutional relations with the legal body that regulates the organization’s activity, competition with other organizations, and the search for legitimacy of the actions taken by the organization, including how the organization is viewed in the environment where it operates based on its social recognition. In organizations that are highly dependent on the outside world in particular, their external image, as one of the elements of the relationship with the outside, can foster a specific strategy on the part of the directorate because “little attention is extended to the link between communication and strategy” (Hilman & Siam, 2014, p. 143)
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