Results from the Centre’s 2012 State of Australian Public Affairs survey show that many organisations are still not measuring their reputation amongst key stakeholders.

There has not been a great leap forward in respect to the proportion of organisations implementing structured internal systems to measure their reputation in almost a decade. The complacency in respect to reputation measurement is particularly evident amongst the ranks of Australian listed/dual-listed companies.

Some of the key findings to support this analysis include:

• In 2012, 52 per cent of respondent organisations report they have a structured internal system to measure their reputation. This is slightly down from 54 per cent in 2009.

• While boards are receiving reports on reputational standing or measurement on an annual (28% of respondents) and quarterly (23%) basis, a significant 21 per cent of boards governing respondent organisations ‘never’ receive such information.

When we view the results by organisation type, 85 per cent of overseas publicly listed companies manage a structured internal system to measure reputation, compared with 38 per cent of Australian publicly listed/dual-listed companies.

By not integrating such measurement and reporting into regular board reporting processes, boards of many significant Australian/dual-listed companies have revealed a blind spot in respect to their organisation’s reputation and the issues and stakeholders that may have a significant impact on shareholder value.

Any views why corporate reputation hasn’t made it onto many board agendas in Australia?