How much should “reputation” actually matter nowadays?
There are a good deal of concepts in “the modern world” (I only put that in quotes because it kind of sounds like a buzzword) that we seem to assign a lot of value to, but maybe we should rethink that. One major example for me is the whole idea of professionalism. It’s extremely important as a baseline concept, yes, but often bosses start to use it as a weapon — against promotions, against greater opportunity/responsibility, etc. That’s not the intended reason it emerged in professional society. Another example would be the idea of “always being customer-first.” That, too, is super-important on face — your customers buy your products and thus make you money — but when you go whole hog on the customer, you tend to ignore your employees. That’s going to create turnover. The end game won’t be amazing. Same thing goes for the concept of “hiring for cultural fit.” People toss that expression around a lot, assign a lot of value to it — same as “hiring with intention” — but in reality, very few people know what it even means.
Here’s another example: the idea of “reputation.” There’s a long, but very good article about this over at Northwestern’s business school website. It brings in some economic and social science theory, which can…
