This course demonstrates the importance of reputation management as a practice to better ensure organizational health and mitigate risk by augmenting crisis/risk management work. Often environmental scanning – a key reputation management practice – can make strategic communications professionals aware of potential crises, so they can head them off before they occur.

Of particular significance is understanding how the advent of digital media presents a new reputational risk where anyone with a social media account or website can attack or support an organization.

This course explores reputation management through an ethical lens. Not only are ethics an important human quality, but if organizations behave ethically, they are more apt to steer clear of reputational dilemmas. We also approach this course taking diversity and inclusion into account and working to incorporate these important values into reputation management practices.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Discuss the fundamental theories and concepts of reputation management.
• Assess their understanding of the relationship between organizations and stakeholders.
• Analyze the role of the spokesperson and of effective media relations approaches to support and advance organizational reputation.
• Discuss how digital media has altered the reputation management landscape.
• Examine reputation management through an ethical lens.
• Demonstrate how to engage in reputation management in an inclusive and diverse manner, including at a global level.
• Compare and contrast reputation management efforts across for-profit and non-profit sectors.
• Describe reputation management’s connection to crisis communications and risk/crisis management.