Employee alignment with conscientious brand promises: exploring participatory mechanisms of brand promise co-creation

Conscientious corporate brands are guided by ethical principles and a commitment to stakeholder co-creation. This study investigates employees’ alignment with conscientious brand promises and explores participatory mechanisms that facilitate their co-creation. Specifically, it addresses the research questions: 1) What factors influence employees’ alignment with conscientious brand promises? And 2) Through what participatory mechanisms do managers and employees co-create conscientious brand promises? A case study, combined with a service design-inspired participatory action research approach, is conducted in an elderly care unit of a non-governmental healthcare organization that explicitly incorporates conscientiousness in its brand promises. Qualitative data were collected from 13 workshops and in-depth interviews with 27 managers and employees. The findings reveal three factors influencing employees’ alignment with conscientious brand promises: (1) clarity of promises, (2) time to uphold promises and (3) employee agency in promise co-creation. Additionally, three participatory mechanisms supporting co-creation are identified: (1) collaborative reflections, (2) resource inventory, (3) and artifact creation. The study advances research on conscientious brand promises, internal branding, and promise management by demonstrating how organizations may adopt a promissory lens to enhance employee–brand alignment and brand promise co-creation. Furthermore, it offers a contextual contribution by analyzing a healthcare brand through the perspective of brand conscientiousness.