Employer brand management as boundary-work: a grounded theory analysis of employer brand managers' narrative accounts

This article aims a spotlight at the relatively new and increasingly significant organisational role of employer brand managers. Based on a grounded theory analysis of employer brand managers' descriptions of their work, practices of creating, controlling, promoting, protecting and policing an ideal employer brand are identified as core dimensions of their narrative accounts. The specific contents of these activities present employer brand managers' work as an ongoing process of demarcation with regard to who is allowed to contribute to the employer brand's contents, along with what information and which interpretations and practices are to be considered a valid, legitimate part of the employer brand. Based on these findings, the theoretical perspective of boundary-work is applied to further explore organisational contexts of employer brand management, as well as to discuss its political characteristics and their implications.