Abstract
In a study conducted by Kevin Murray and Jon White (2005) that consisted of qualitative interviews with 14 CEOs and chairmen from leading UK corporations and international organizations, several findings established the role of reputation management and public relations as perceived by executive managers. Most of the interviewees recognized reputation as one of the most important assets that a company can possess. On an academic perspective, reputation and its associated concepts, identity and image, have been discussed by scholars for many years now. If lately researchers have developed several models that clearly distinguish the terms, they have often been used interchangeably. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations' (CIPR) definition of public relations states that "Public relations is about reputation, the result of what you do, what you say, and what others think about you? (CIPR, 2008). This broad definition does not include all the components that will create a company's reputation, as they have been described in several different models of reputation/image management. This analogy has been developed by scholars as a way to give a better image to a field that has developed an ambiguous reputation (Hutton, 1999).
