Protecting The Reputation Of A Government And It's Institutions~Prince Eze Ugochukwu
The Reputation of any government has to do with it's credibility, trustworthiness, responsibility and reliability.
For any government to succeed, it must build, maintain and protect a reputation. Government is a brand, and every brand has a reputation which can be tarnished.
A government that is desirous of managing it's reputation must have the ability to listen to what the people are saying, and find out what the opposition is up to. It must endeavour to respond to issues before they escalate into crisis, it must deliver on promises and be authentic, consistent, timely and show character at all times.
Reputation comes from the actions of government. It is what makes the people and stakeholders decide whether to trust government and its appointees. Here the behavior, communication and relationship between the government and the governed becomes crucial. This is because reputation is trust on the ability of government to deliver on its promises.
Appointees form a critical part of the reputation of any government. Firstly, how do the appointees behave. How do they interact with the stakeholders and the population at large, and secondly what kind of ambassadors are they in the building and maintaining of government's reputation. Appointees must be conscious of their tone, style as well as attitude in their interface with the people.
In todays digital age, managing the reputation of government has become very troublesome, what; with everyone a publisher; with social media defining how governments are perceived; with the global reach and spread of negative stories. These have made the audience much more powerful.
Governments need to be proactive in managing its reputation. It must identify potential problems and risks before they arise, it must also mitigate and respond appropriately when problems arise. Government must be empathetic and understanding to the demands of the people and build a community of fans and supporters bearing in mind the volatility and unpredictability of people's opinions.
Like beauty, reputation is in the eyes of the beholder. So gaining the respect of the governed is critical. This can be achieved by creating positive media relationship with both local and national press, by engagement of social media influencers to help connect the policies and programs of government with the reading and listening public.
In doing this, a government must leverage on its best selling points to create a connection with the people. People support policies that touches their daily lives and wellbeing.This is the only thing that matters to the people and makes them engage the government. So government accomplishments must be openly, frankly and speedily communicated to the people to minimize damage.
Government communication is not only about the release of information to the press. Rather it is all about strategically crafting and presenting an image of government to help build a stronger reputation. Reputation is an asset that can be used as a defence to preserve the relationship with the governed.
Finally, a government must be able to holistically monitor its reputation by creating forums for interaction with the public, by going on fact finding missions into the local areas to understand what is happening, and by conducting independent opinion polls about peoples perception of the actvities of government.
Government should never under estimate the dangers and cost of a poor reputation. A reputation serves as a signal of the underlying qualities of a government. Investors value a government that enjoys good reputation. They place their trust in well regarded institutions.
Prince Eze Ugochukwu writes from Owerri. Imo State.
