One size doesn't fit all: How construal fit determines the effectiveness of organizational brand communication

While increasing the organizational identification of employees has been describedas the ultimate goal of internal marketing and internal branding, one of its most common prac-tices is to communicate organizational values both internally and externally. However, very littleis known about the relative effectiveness of different types of organizational brand commu-nication. Drawing from construal level theory, the current research investigates whether thedegree of construal fit, defined as the extent to which the construal of communication matchesan employee’s construal of headquarters, determines the relative impact of organizationalbrand communication. A series of studies consisting of two cross-industrial multilevel fieldstudies and a lab experiment provide evidence that organizational brand communication withlow-level (high-level) construal is more effective to target employees with low (high) socialdistance to headquarters. These findings suggest that construal fit qualifies the effectivenessof organizational communication.