Identities in Organization Studies

New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition, 2022

Although the organizational identity (OI) construct (Albert & Whetten, 1985) is now in its fourth decade, research in the field has been somewhat uneven, particularly with respect to an essentialist view and hypothetico- deductive type of studies. Believing that this stems in large part from insufficient construct clarity (Suddaby, 2010), this theory-development initiative presents an expanded conceptual framework. The authors exploit several key elements of individual identity and make the case for using these as the basis for conceptualizing an organizational-level equivalent. Starting with the premise that an individual’s identity is the product of comparisons, two dimensions are identified: the type of comparison (similarity, difference), referred to as the “identity conundrum,” and the object of comparison (self–other, self–self), referred to as the “identity perspective.” The authors then propose a four-cell distinctive conceptual domain for OI and explore its implications for scholarship. Keywords: Organizational identity; individual identity; construct clarity; identity construct; identity conundrum; CREAD framework

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 2023

HOW THE HANDBOOK CAME ABOUT Handbooks, like other scientific publications, have their own history. Narrating the history of this Handbook, we want to share with you-the readers-the story behind its development. This includes information on how the idea for this Handbook came about and an illustration of the various decisions we had to make in the process of creating it. Handbooks, as we will explain later, are social creations and hence products of social interaction. Therefore, we believe it will be of value for you to gain some insight into why and how the Handbook came into being, how we came to identify as editors, and how we composed it together with the authors, the reviewers and the publisher. In this sense, the introduction provides information on the background, rationales, decisions we made, and also the obstacles we had to overcome. The motivation for the Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Identity In and Around Organizations emerged from a webinar entitled 'Identity inquiry: beyond the usual suspects', which was organized by the Special Interest Group (SIG) 'Identity' of the British Academy of Management (BAM). The event in June 2020 aimed to broaden the methodological focus of identity research in organizational contexts in accordance with the group's interdisciplinary focus. The webinar featured three speakers who introduced the repertory grid technique, characterization sketches and identity drawings, respectively, as innovative research methods for studying identity in and around organizations. After the webinar, the idea to deepen and broaden the discussion of research methods in identity studies gained momentum. In November 2020, the members of the SIG decided to develop an edited collection that would bring together some established and more innovative research methods that have been used to fruitfully study different levels and aspects of identity in and around organizations. Taking charge, Ingo Winkler formulated a call for papers that was distributed amongst the SIG members and the wider BAM community. The initial feedback was very positive, and various scholars indicated their interest in contributing to the collection. At that point, Rosalía Cascón-Pereira and Stefanie Reissner joined what would become the editorial team, enabling us to pool both our respective editorial experiences and methodological interests. We were very pleased to excite Francine O'Sullivan at Edward Elgar Publishing about our idea and contribute to their growing range of research methods handbooks. These were the initial steps of socially constructing this Handbook, and soon afterwards, authors, reviewers and editors contributed to co-creating it through their engagement with a wide range of research methods and approaches. Although you, the reader, now have the finished product in your hands or on screen, we hope the matter does not end here. Indeed, we hope that the Handbook contributes to the social construction of the field of identity research

2012

This conceptual paper is guided by three objectives: First, to bolster the argument for organizational identity as a defined concept, as compared with a metaphor or paradigmatic perspective. Second, articulate a clearer and more fully developed connection between the concepts of individual identity and organizational identity. Third, specify a distinctive, defensible conceptual domain for the concept of organizational identity and align the definition of organizational identity with that domain. Guided by these objectives, we argue that the tension between being similar and different is a fundamental and distinguishing feature of identity – and that this “identity paradox” exists at both the individual and organizational levels. We then propose a two-dimensional form of this identity paradox and suggest that the resulting framework serve as the conceptual domain of organizational identity. In the end, we examine the implications of the proposed conceptual space for Albert and Whette...

Human Relations, 2021

There is an emergent identity work perspective that draws on multiple intertwined streams of established identities theorizing and identities-related research. This perspective is characterized loosely by five broad sets of assumptions: (i) selves are reflexive and identities actively worked on, both in soliloquy and social interaction; (ii) identities are multiple, fluid and rarely fully coherent; (iii) identities are constructed within relations of power; (iv) identities are not helpfully described as either positive or authentic; and (v) identities are both interesting per se and integral to processes of organizing. Recognition of an emergent identity work perspective is valuable in part because this may act as a counterbalance to centrifugal tendencies – fed by myopia, insularity and ethnocentrism – which might otherwise lead to blinkered research and fragmentation. The contribution of this article is to provide a baseline for identity work scholars, and to promote collective cr...

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2013

The notion of organizational identity was introduced in management studies in 1985. In the following 25 years, a vibrant debate about how to conceptualize organizational identities and related themes (multiple identities, identity change, interrelations between identity, image and culture) does not seem to have corresponded to explicit reflections about specific methodological issues. In this paper, the authors inductively review research methods adopted by studies of organizational identity published in top-level journals, with the purpose of deriving insights about the current status of research practices, uncovering their often tacit ontological and epistemological assumptions, and stimulating discussion about their possible evolution.

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2015

Identities, people’s subjectively construed understandings of who they were, are, and desire to become, are implicated in, and thus key to understanding and explaining, almost everything that happens in and around organizations. The research contribution that this review paper makes is threefold. First, it analyses the often employed but rarely systematically explored concept identity work, and argues that it is one metaphor among many that may be useful in the analysis of professional and more generally work identities. Second, it focuses on five fundamental, inter-connected debates in contemporary identities research centred on notions of choice, stability, coherence, positivity, and authenticity. Third, it outlines the roles that the concept identity work may play in bridging levels of analysis and disciplinary boundaries, and sketches some possible future identities-focused ideas for further research. Under-specification has meant that ‘identity’ has not always fulfilled its analytical promise in either theoretical explorations of identities issues or in empirical studies of identities in practice; and it is to these ends that this paper seeks to contribute.

In this paper, I analyse five approaches to identity work - discursive, dramaturgical, symbolic, socio-cognitive, and psychodynamic - and show how these are helpful in exploring the ways people draw on their membership of organizations in their constructions of self, processes generally referred to as organizational identification. Collectively, these approaches constitute a distinctive perspective on identities and identifications which suggests that they are ‘worked on’ by embedded social actors who are both constrained and enabled by context. In so doing, I draw attention to issues of agency and process, the always dynamic and complex, often fractured, and sometimes contradictory nature of identities and identifications, and raise a series of issues and questions for further research.

Corporate Reputation Review, 2014

Purpose-This paper provides a comprehensive and integrative review of academic literature analyzing identity in business. The literature review proposed by the authors helps clearing up theoretical and practical understanding of this concept. Design/methodology/approach-A review of existing literature in organizational behavior and marketing fields is proposed to clarify the meaning of organizational and corporate identity. Based on this review, the authors also identify an integrative perspective proposed for managers to identify and effectively manage all dimensions of their business identities. Findings-Literature on the identity of businesses is extensive and blurred, failing to provide useful guidance for practitioners to manage this concept. A new approach proposes understanding this kind of identity as a global concept that integrates proposals from diverse research fields in order to take advantage of cross-fertilization. Practical implications-This research allows identity and communication managers to understand dimensions of business identity for a more effective management of this concept in their organizations. Originality/value-The line of research that proposes an integrative multidisciplinary approach to the study of identity in business is quite new and, as so, it still needs further contributions to clarify this nascent domain. In this paper, the authors also classify previous studies on business identity according to the theoretical approach they assume (Table 3) just as no other research has done before.

British Journal of Management, 2003

Recent papers by Cornelissen (2002a, 2002b) and Gioia, Schultz and Corley (2002a, 2002b) have debated the utility of organizational identity as a metaphor for understanding organizational life. In the present paper we argue that this debate is limiting because it frames issues of organizational identity purely in metaphorical terms and fails to explore the social psychological basis and consequences of the discontinuity between personal and organizational identity. Extending this debate, we argue that the power of organizational identity as a theoretical and applied construct derives from the fact that it has the capacity to be both an externally shared and negotiated product and an internalized aspect of the collective self. Consistent with recent research informed by the social identity approach to organizational psychology, we discuss how an appreciation of the identity-based dynamic between the social facts of organizations and the socially-structured psychology of organizational members is essential for both theoretical and practical understanding of organizational life.

Social science research can play a valuable role in enabling people to understand how their personal predicaments relate to the broader structures and historical circumstances in which they arise. This was argued by Wright Mills (1970, originally 1959) with his concept of the sociological imagination, a notion of considerable relevance to the identity issues which arise in relation to organizational involvement. Using a rare combination of ethnographic, autobiographical and interview research material, a close examination is made of two managers' identity work and the part played in this by their involvement in one specifi c organization in particular structural and historical circumstances. In the course of carrying out this study the concept of 'identity work' has been developed and refi ned. This incorporates a clear analytical distinction between internal personal 'self-identities' and external discursive 'social-identities' with socialidentities being seen as a link or bridge between socially available discourses and self-identities. 'Managerial identities' take their place among the multiplicity of social-identities to which any particular manager may relate in both their 'inward facing' and their 'outward facing' identity work.

Scandinavian Journal of Management

‘Identities’ (organizational managerial, professional and occupational) are currently a key focus for research in management and organization studies (Alvesson, Ashcraft & Thomas, 2008; Brown, 2001; Ybema et al., 2009). While the rise to prominence of identity has many antecedents, it has in part been associated with the metaphor of ‘liquid modernity’, which seeks to capture contemporary trends: in particular the fluidity, unpredictability and flexibility of a more transient and porous world (Bauman, 2000; Clegg & Baumeler, 2010). Today, organizations mutate more rapidly, commitment and loyalty are less evident and identities are less secure, more open and increasingly differentiated. That is, researchers have turned to identity as identities, and the contexts in which they are formed, have become more interesting.

How the organizational 'I' and 'me' are constructed within the processes of the Organizational Identity Dynamics Model Mary Jo Hatch (PhD, Stanford, 1985) is Professor of Commerce at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia (USA). Her research interests include organizational culture, identity and image; corporate branding, and narrative and metaphoric approaches to management, organizing and organization theory.

Sa Journal of Industrial Psychology, 2006

During the past two decades a steady increase in scholarly contributions in the area of organisation identity have been observed-to the point that the phenomenon is now the subject of a sustainable discourse in several disciplines. Many theoretical and conceptual dilemmas however remain, largely as a result of the low incidence of empirical research in the area. This study reports the results of an exploratory investigation that adapted Schley and Wagenfield's (1979) concept of identity for use in an organisational setting. Interviews were conducted with 152 top managers representing 10 companies. The results indicate that organisational responses to the question "who am I?" elicit distinctive organisational self-descriptions and some awareness of identity issues.

Corporate Reputation Review, 2003

The constructs of organizational identity and identification are attracting greater and greater recognition among scholars and practitioners. An increasing number of researchers in organizational behavior, organizational theory and strategic management are turning to these concepts to improve their understanding of the behavior of organizations and their members. In May 2002, David Whetten and Cees van Riel invited a group of researchers to a workshop in order to take stock of the current state of the field and to discuss future directions. This paper summarizes the fundamental issues discussed at that meeting: the various intellectual roots of organizational identity and identification theory, the interplay between different levels of analysis, the conceptualization of organizational identity, its measurement, and finally, its relevance. Identity appears a promising concept to bridge different levels of analysis, and to analyze apparent paradoxes that arise when organizations confront simultaneous pressures for similarity and uniqueness, sameness and differentiation.

Academy of Management Review, 2000

Identity and icJentification are powerful terms. Because they speak to the very definition of an entity-an organization, a group, a personthey have been a subtext of many strategy sessions, organization development initiatives, team-building exercises, and socialization efforts. Identity and identification, in short, are root constructs in organizational phenomena and have been a subtext of many organizational behaviors.