Trapped in conformity? Translating reputation management into practice

•The translation of management ideas occurs through specific translation rules.•Translations do not necessarily lead to increased heterogeneity in an organizational field.•Translations create homogeneity when the same translation rules are employed.•Context-specific factors are important in order to understand why translation yields homogeneity.•In this case, the translation of reputation management leads to a similar outcome, but does not imply a conformity trap.

SummaryThis study investigates the translation rules used by Norwegian hospitals to adapt reputation management to their context. Drawing on a linguistics-inspired approach to organizational translations developed by Røvik (2007), the study identifies the application of three such rules, copying, omission, and addition. The study contributes to our understanding of organizational translations by pointing to their regularities, challenging the Scandinavian translation theory assumption that every translation leads to the emergence of new and unique local versions. The findings show that the hospitals intentionally remove from and add components to the reputation management idea in a strikingly similar way. In so finding, the study also challenges the assumption often put forward by branding and reputation textbooks that similarity implies being trapped in conformity.