REFRAMING ORGANIZATIONAL REPUTATION IN THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATION ERA WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TOOLS AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

Abstract

The landscape of digital communication technologies and innovations has evolved, presenting opportunities and challenges for organizations seeking to build and maintain trust with their stakeholders. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools might change the management of organizational communication and help sustain trust with stakeholders. In particular, this study aims to develop a conceptual framework for organizational reputation and to examine the relationships among AI tools, stakeholder engagement and organizational reputation in the evolving field of digital communication in Malaysian higher education institutions. Concurrently, this conceptual paper proposes a framework that derives a model or theory from an exhaustive interdisciplinary review of the literature. This study explores organizational reputation through a framework that integrates Stakeholder Theory, Relationship Management Theory, and the Modality, Agency, Interactivity, Navigability (MAIN) Model. At the same time, this study's findings explain how AI tools are reshaping organizations to build, sustain, and measure stakeholder relationships by introducing new modes of personalization, responsiveness, and interaction. Overall, the findings contribute to university management and communication practitioners in developing a structured process or guideline to strengthen the positive impact on organizational reputation. In addition, this study offers valuable knowledge and perspective on a trending topic in the discipline, as well as fresh theoretical insights for communication studies. This paper also provides an outline of avenues for future research on how AI-mediated engagement can strengthen or challenge an organizational reputation in the digital communication era.