Personal brand & the branding process: From hype to actual benefits for human resources and talent management leaders

Personal branding has grown over the last two decades into an area of significant interest for individuals looking to realize their career aspirations. This is evidenced by the proliferation of self-improvement books, articles, websites, blogs, and consultancy services focused on the topic. While much has been written about how a person benefits from developing a strong personal brand, the prevailing literature has little to say about organizational benefits. This exploratory qualitative research explored this topic with the goal of accomplishing two main developments for the field. First, based on critical scrutiny of prevailing literature and practice, the research supports the development of a conceptual framework for personal brands by reviewing the emergence of the personal brand movement and examining relevant theories (such as identity, image, and reputation). Second, it creates the opportunity to explore potential connections between personal brand concepts pertaining to individuals and organizational interests managed by senior human resources and talent management executives. The secondary objective was particularly important as the research findings suggest that human resources and talent executives are able to make more effective decisions about employee development programs and processes that leverage the brands of staff members in the organization