Corporate vs Individual Authenticity

A friend sent me an interesting post on branding authenticity at the corporate level, and how it relates to the attitudes and behaviours of individual employees of the company. The main point is that the two are barely related, and that it doesn't much matter what an employee believes or does, as long as the brand identity is upheld:

If one of your companies brand messages is "to be green" then as long as the company is upholding that promise they are being authentic, it doesn't matter that half of the employees drive Hummers and throw trash out their car window.  They are not being held to that brand ideal, the company is.

I don't necessarily agree. A serious brand needs to be delivered through all possible vectors, and it undermines the brand if employees are visibly behaving in opposition to the brand's values. Yes, there has to be room for privacy and freedom -- Pepsi employees can drink Coke at home if they like -- but it would look really bad if, for example, the parking lot at Seventh Generation was full of Hummers and the trash can by the door had Burger King wrappers spilling out of it.

Like it or not, all employees are brand ambassadors, which is why most strong corporate brands have rules about employee behaviour, even offsite. It is also why there is a serious disconnect between corporate branding and nation-branding -- unlike corporations (and totalitarian states), democratic states can't make everyone wear a uniform or hew to the party line.