An Assessment of Corporate Reputation Management in Parastatal Companies: Evidence from ZESCO Ltd, Zambia

Abstract

This paper discusses results of a study which explored corporate reputation management as a critical strategic asset for public utilities whose survival and legitimacy depend on sustained public trust, service reliability and transparent stakeholder engagement. The data were collected from 50 residents of Kapiri District in the Central Province of Zambia by means of structured questionnaires. This data were subjected to quantitative analysis using the Social Sciences Statistics Package. The study adopted a pragmatic research philosophy and employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design to enhance the depth and validity of findings. At the qualitative phase semi-structured interviews with seven ZESCO Public Relations personnel and two commercial farmers who relied heavily on electricity for production activities were conducted. These qualitative data were analysed thematically to explore internal reputation management practices, institutional constraints and stakeholder experiences during the crisis. The results of the study demonstrated that frequent load shedding, delayed fault resolution, inadequate transparency and continued billing during outages significantly undermined stakeholder trust and organisational credibility of ZESCO. The main conclusion of the study was that ZESCO’s reputational challenges were driven primarily by misalignment between service delivery and communication strategies rather than the absence of reputation management mechanisms while recommending that the organization needed to decentralise communication structures, enhance operational responsiveness and institutionalise customer service charter to restore stakeholder trust and strengthen public utility legitimacy.