What drives employees to develop their personal brands at work? Appeal, authenticity, and influence

Qualitative Market Research. 2026. Vol. 29. No. 2. P. 184–211.

Nefedieva E., Плахотник М. С.

customer relations. Research has suggested that employees engage in personal branding to increase employability and promote career development. However, there is a lack of research providing evidence on what drives employees to create and develop their personal brands in the workplace. Drawing on impression management theory, this study investigates employee motivation for personal branding in the workplace. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 15 employees of a large multinational production company. Criteria and snowball sampling strategies were used to select the study participants. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was employed to analyze data. The study proposes a model of three meta-drivers of employee personal branding in the workplace: appeal, authenticity, and influence. The meta-drivers of appeal and authenticity provide the foundation for the brand-building process by creating the initial impression and committing the individual to perform consistently with it. This emerging brand influences others to act towards the individual according to what he or she projects. The influence meta-driver is not limited to impression management but is also related to employee proactive behavior.

Ключевые слова: personal branding, Impression management theory, Proactive behavior, Employee development