Branding, Public Relations, Emotional Labor, and Authenticity in Organizational Communication Professionals

Abstract

Branding and public relations have become central to contemporary organizational communication, shaping how institutions construct identity, legitimacy, and trust in complex social environments. Within this field, current research primarily emphasizes strategic frameworks and measurable outcomes, with limited attention to how these practices are experienced by professionals in their everyday work. However, little is known about how practitioners interpret, negotiate, and experience branding and public relations as lived and meaning-driven processes. Here, an interpretive phenomenological approach is used to explore the lived experiences of professionals engaged in branding and public relations, revealing how they sustain organizational identity through continuous negotiation, emotional engagement, and ethical consideration. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with experienced practitioners (n = [insert number]) who had [insert key participant characteristics, e.g., at least five years of professional experience in branding and public relations across public and private organizations] and analyzed using interpretive thematic procedures to identify essential experiential meanings. To enhance trustworthiness, the study employed [insert procedures, e.g., member checking, peer debriefing, and an audit trail] throughout the research process. The findings show that branding is experienced as a dynamic process of meaning negotiation, while public relations work involves emotional and reputational labor under conditions of uncertainty. In addition, practitioners navigate a persistent tension between maintaining strategic consistency and adapting to situational demands, with authenticity emerging as a central guiding principle. These findings deepen understanding of branding and public relations by highlighting their experiential and human-centered dimensions, offering important implications for future research that seeks to integrate subjective experience into the study of strategic communication.