Two New York University public relations professors contend that while most companies view reputation as something “soft” and “intangible,” it actually has solid value that can be measured – as evidenced by the recent scandals involving Enron, Worldcom and other companies, which show that “reputations can surely be mismanaged.”

“Reputation Management,” co-authored by John Doorley, academic director of the MS in Public Relations and Corporate Communication at NYU, and Helio Fred Garcia, an adjunct professor of management at the school, defines RM as “Reputation = Sum of Images = (Performance and Behavior) + Communication.”

This definition, they say, “helps make it clear that performance and behavior, as well as communication, are critical components of reputation.”

The book also claims that many media relations practitioners “are not very good at their jobs because they are afraid of journalists” and especially afraid of being quoted. Senior officials provide “constant scrutiny and criticism” of what is said or not said by an organization in the press and they “often react out of all proportion to the slightest problem in a news report.”

The best way to abate such fears, the book advises, is to figure out a reporter’s perspective in advance. Beat reporters who become expert in an industry - sometimes developing insights that are “even deeper than a company’s management may have at a given time” - can serve as an early warning system of trouble ahead.