The Dynamics of Organizational Identity

By Mary Jo Hatch, Majken Schultz. 2002

1,061 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Although many organizational researchers make reference to Mead’s theory of social identity, none have explored how Mead’s ideas about the relationship between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ might be extended to identity processes at the organizational level of analysis. In this article we define organizational analogs for Mead’s ‘I’ and ‘me’ and explain how these two phases of organizational identity are related. In doing so, we bring together existing theory concerning the links between organizational identities and images, with new theory concerning how reflection embeds identity in organizational culture and how identity expresses cultural understandings through symbols. We offer a model of organizational identity dynamics built on four processes linking organizational identity to culture and image. Whereas the processes linking identity and image (mirroring and impressing) have been described in the literature before, the contribution of this article lies in articulation of the processes linking identity and culture (reflecting and expressing), and of the interaction of all four processes working dynamically together to create, maintain and change organizational identity. We discuss the implications of our model in terms of two dysfunctions of organizational identity dynamics: narcissism and loss of culture.

Subfields: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c1bbe755b467c35fb87754ce25fbb587e3756016

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In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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Citations in the corpus

Identity in Organizations: Exploring Cross-Level Dynamics (2011, background): “As one artist said, “We had the spirit of Art; we came every morning with a feeling that something big was happening In the new Art, we, the original staff of creators, are left out” (Drori et al. 2009, p. 728).”
A Temporal Perspective on Organizational Identity (2013, background): “…perception of identity as emerging from the ongoing process of " how we are becoming an organization " rather than defining " who we are, " as also indicated in the work on ongoing identity dynamics by Ashforth and Mael (1996), Gioia et al. (2000), Hatch and Schultz (2002, 2008), and Pratt (2012).”
Responding to Organizational Identity Threats: Exploring the Role of Organizational Culture (2006, background): “According to the two authors, the tacit assumptions and beliefs of organizational members constitute the organizational context for the more aware reflections of “who we are as an organization” and can be seen as the conceptual parallel to the “organizational I” ( Hatch & Schultz, 2000, 2002 ).”
Struggling with Lack: A Lacanian Perspective on Organizational Identity (2009, background): “…to be more opportunities for those different answers to be noticed as organizational members become concerned with what others think about the organization, (Dutton and Dukerich 1991) and more conscious of potential gaps between internal and external identity perceptions (Hatch and Schultz 2002).”
The impact of silo mentality on team identity: an organisational case study (2012, background): “Organisational psychology yields a substantial amount of research in this field (Randel, 2002; Hatch & Schultz, 2002; Meyer, Bartunek & Lacey, 2002), mostly conceptualised from the humanistic view.”
Reflections on Organizational Memory and Forgetting (2011, background): “These areas stem from recent developments in theorizing of collective constructs (Kozlowski & Klein, 2000; Morgeson & Hofmann, 1999) and organizational knowledge as well as process approaches to concepts such as organizational identity (Hatch & Schultz, 2002) and culture (Hatch, 2004).”
Who will Lead and Who will Follow? a Social Process of Leadership Identity Construction in Organizations (2010, methodology): “…particular, we draw from theories of symbolic interactionism (Goffman, 1959; Mead, 1934) to propose that identity work is undertaken both by an individual projecting a particular image and by others mirroring back and reinforcing (or not) that image as a legitimate identity (Hatch & Schultz, 2002).”
Defined by Outcomes or Culture? Constructing an Organizational Identity for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (2017, background): “Organizational members at NSU constructed their Latinx-serving identity based on cultural cues, or tacit understandings of the values and beliefs that lie deep within the structures of the organization (Hatch & Schultz, 2002).”