Identity reflexivity:A framework of heuristics for strategy change in hybrid organizations

Purpose: The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between (dual) organizational identity and individual heuristics – simple rules and biases – in the process of strategy change. This paper offers a theory on identity reflexivity as a cognitive mechanism of strategy change in the context of organizational hybridity. Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on a 2-year ethnographic study at a Dutch social housing association dealing with the process of strategy change. The empirical data comprises of in-depth semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations as well as secondary sources. Findings: Conflicting identities at the organizational level influence heuristics at the individual level, since members tend to identify with their department's identity. Despite conflicting interpretations, paths of cognitive shortcuts – that the authors define as internal and external identity reflexivity – are shared by the conflicting identities. Research limitations/implications: The findings of this research are subject to limitations typical of a qualitative case-study, such as possibly being context dependent. The authors argue that this research contributes to the understanding of how individual heuristics relate to organizational heuristics, and suggest that the process of identity reflexivity can contribute to the alignment of conflicting identities enabling strategy formation in the context of a dual-identity organization. Practical implications: Understanding how managers with conflicting identities achieve agreements is important to help organizational leaders to pursue sustainability-oriented strategy change. Social implications: Given the pressure experienced by mission-driven organizations to integrate multiple sustainability demands in their mission, understanding managers' decision-making mechanism when adapting to new, often conflicting, sustainability demands is important to accelerate societal sustainability transitions. Originality/value: This paper addresses the process of new strategy design in the context of a socially driven business. This context fundamentally differs from the one addressed by the existing heuristics literature with respect to organizational environment and role, and specific competing demands

A Hierarchical Model of Organizational Identification

This research study examined the organizational identification process in an organization whose identity claims appeared to be congruent and mutually reinforcing. The study sought to understand members’ identification with each of the identity claims or a subset of the claims over time. A qualitative case study design was employed to understand the individual nature of the identification process. Results showed that as identification emerged, participants responded to a set of multiple identity claims in a hierarchical manner. This study helps foster an understanding of the process of member choice to identify with organizational claims and the shifting hierarchy of organizational identity claims in the process

Attention to Competition: The Role of Managerial Cognition in Shaping the Response to Competitive Actions

The competitive dynamics literature has examined various characteristics of actions/response dyads (e.g., new product release, market entry, marketing campaigns) along with their antecedents and competitive outcomes. For the most part, the emphasis has been on objective and structural factors that influence the dynamics of competition. What is often overlooked is that organizations’ actions are a result of individual level perceptions and interpretations. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of competitive dynamics, I integrate micro and macro perspectives in the study of competition. By drawing from theories in managerial cognition, organizational attention, and behavioral strategy, I examine how mental structures of decision-makers can influence the way competitive moves by a rival are perceived, which in turn shapes the subsequent responses to those moves. The main mechanisms linking cognition to competitive decisions are rooted in the literature on organizational attention and the processes that explain how and why managers notice and act on some competitive moves and ignore others. I develop and test hypotheses that link managerial regulatory focus, perception of identity, and external/internal orientation to the likelihood and speed of response to competitive actions. I also examine how the salience of a competitive action within the industry can moderate these relationships. The Awareness-Motivation-Capability framework in competitive dynamics is used as a theoretical bridge between cognition and the nature of response to competitive moves by rivals. Using data from one industry, I test the proposed relationships and discuss the implications for research and management practice. The results show that while perceptions regarding identity and external/internal orientation influence the likelihood of response, regulatory focus seems to have no effect. The salience of the competitive attack also influenced likelihood of response and positively moderated the relationship between external/internal orientation and the likelihood of response. None of the hypotheses related to the speed of response dependent variable were supported

Organizational Identity Implications of Cross-Sector Partnerships: A Nonprofit Perspective

Nonprofit organizations frequently cooperate with profit-oriented businesses in order to fulfil their goals and mission. Although collaborative activities such as nonprofit-business partnerships can benefit both non- and for-profit organizations, they are also a potential source of inter- and intra-organizational controversy, conflict, and even disruption when social objectives clash with business interests. Taking on the perspective of nonprofit organizations and their members, this tripartite dissertation investigates one particular risk associated with nonprofit-business partnerships: organizational identity threats (i.e., experiences that call into question members’ perceptions of their organization’s identity). Building on and connecting research on inter-organizational collaboration, nonprofit organizations, and organizational identity, this dissertation first develops a conceptual model that outlines the conditions under which nonprofit-business partnerships may arise as organizational identity threats. Second, a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews explores nonprofit members’ sensemaking and organizational identity threat appraisal processes in the context of nonprofit-business partnerships. Third, a subsequent qualitative study investigates how nonprofit members manage potential identity-related tensions arising from these partnerships through identity work. Taken together, this dissertation provides insights into how members of nonprofit-organizations perceive, evaluate, and manage potential identity threats in cross-sector partnerships with corporate actors

Hehkuva nuotio vai tulosalue? : Julkisen organisaation identiteetti organisaatiomuutoksen jälkeen

Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, miten johtajat ja henkilöstö ymmärtävät organisaatiomuutoksen kautta syntyneen organisaation identiteetin. Tarkastelun kohteena ovat Vaasan kaupungin opistot -organisaation palveluyksiköiden johtajien ja opetushenkilöstön käsitykset. Tutkimusaineisto muodostuu 27 dokumentista, joita ovat teemakyselyn kautta tuottaneet viisi johtajaa ja 73 pää- tai sivutoimista opettajaa helmi– maaliskuussa 2018. Tutkimus rakentuu käsitykselle identiteetistä organisaation arvojen ja ydinpiirteiden ilmaisuna sekä prosessina, jota organisaation jäsenet konstruoivat. Analyysivälineinä tutkimuksessa sovelletaan narratiivien tilallisuuden, ajallisuuden, mentaalisuuden ja pragmaattisuuden rakenteita sekä kulttuurihistoriallisen toiminnan teorian rakenteellisen jännitteen käsitettä. Tapausorganisaation identiteetti näyttäytyy pluralistisena ja sisäisesti jännitteisenä. Identiteettejä tunnistetaan kolme: toive- tai uhkakuviin painottuva yhteinen identiteetti, yhteistyötä eri tavoin preferoiva ehdollisesti yhteinen identiteetti ja omaa itsenäisyyttä korostava erillinen identiteetti. Substanssiin, sidosryhmiin ja toimintatapaan liitetyt arvot mukailevat yksiköiden tarpeita ja kulttuureja. Rakenteellisia jännitteitä esiintyy hallinnon ja substanssin välisenä, valta-asetelmiin ja valta-asenteisiin liittyen, taiteen perusopetuksen ja vapaan sivistystyön lakeihin ja traditioihin liittyvinä sekä omaa alaa tai kulttuuria koskevien ihanteiden ja ympäröivän todellisuuden jännitteisinä kohtaamisina. Löydöksissä kuvastuu organisaation yhteisen arvotyön vähäisyys sekä yksiköiden välisen yhteistyön organisoimattomuus. Julkisorganisaation muutoksesta välittyy kuva tietoista suuntaa vailla olevana prosessina, mitä osaltaan selittää muutostyön resurssien puute. Hallinnollisista lähtökohdista toteutuva organisaatiomuutos ei automaattisesti tue organisaation toiminnallista näkökulmaa. Yhteistoiminnan edistäminen edellyttää johtajien jaettua näkemystä organisaatiosta sekä ajan ja resurssien panostamista koko organisaatiota koskevaan arvotyöhön. Yhteisten arvojen perustalta on mahdollista aloittaa uuden, yhteisen identiteetin määrätietoinen rakentaminen

What’s the Story Here? How Catholic University Leaders are Making Sense of Undocumented Student Access.

This study examines how leaders make sense of an unsettled, contemporary issue facing higher education. It deepens our understanding of how stories may operate in the process of sensemaking, which has been described as “the experience of being thrown into an ongoing, unknowable, unpredictable streaming of experience in search of answers to the question, ‘What's the story?’” (Weick, 2008, para. 1). Sensemaking is a powerful tool for understanding how people engage volatile issues. The study addresses two research questions: How are Catholic university leaders making sense of undocumented student access? and What role do stories play in the sensemaking of these leaders? Situating the study in Catholic higher education, with its own unique history— serving as a vehicle for assimilation into American society, especially for immigrants—allows us to explore the spiritual and religious values that operate differently within this sector than elsewhere in U.S. higher education. That the issue remains unsettled in policy and practice highlights the effects of volatility on sensemaking. To learn more about how leaders respond to the challenge of this situation, I conducted 55 interviews in 12 Catholic universities in regions of the U.S. with relatively high undocumented populations. I find that identity, social context, extracted cues, and stories play especially important roles in leader sensemaking. Leaders engaged in “constructing Catholic identity,” a process of reflection upon the espoused mission values in their institutions which led to the decision to admit undocumented students. Because of the volatility of undocumented access and leaders’ fear of negative consequences resulting from engaging the issue, leaders employed numerous behaviors to manage their commitment (Salancik, 1977). This resulted in strategic ambiguity that provided some protection for leaders; it also led to communication breakdowns in universities and the alienation of important institutional leaders. Canonical stories played an important role in sensemaking, as leaders referred to “community narratives” and “dominant cultural narratives” (Rappaport, 2000), often alluding to them in shorthand. Because their meaning is shared among group members, canonical stories were especially useful as leaders reflected on the link between institutional histories and charisms and the decision to admit undocumented students.PhDHigher EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111516/1/djpcsc_1.pd

Identity dynamics and the emergence of new organizational arrangements: A multi-level study

Organizational and institutional scholars have advocated the need to examine how processes originating at an individual level can change organizations or even create new organizational arrangements able to affect institutional dynamics (Chreim et al., 2007; Powell & Colyvas, 2008; Smets et al., 2012). Conversely, research on identity work has mainly investigated the different ways individuals can modify the boundaries of their work in actual occupations, thus paying particular attention to ‘internal’ self-crafting (e.g. Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Drawing from literatures on possible and alternative self and on positive organizational scholarship (e.g., Obodaru, 2012; Roberts & Dutton, 2009), my argument is that individuals’ identity work can go well beyond the boundaries of internal self-crafting to the creation of new organizational arrangements. In this contribution I analyze, through multiple case studies, healthcare professionals who spontaneously participated in the creation of new organizational arrangements, namely health structures called Community Hospitals. The contribution develops this form of identity work by building a grounded model. My findings disclose the process that leads from the search for the enactment of different self-concepts to positive identities, through the creation of a new organizational arrangement. I contend that this is a particularly complex form of collective identity work because it requires, to be successful, concerted actions of several internal, external and institutional actors, and it also requires balanced tensions that – at the same time - enable individuals’ aspirations and organizational equilibrium. I name this process organizational collective crafting. Moreover I inquire the role of context in supporting the triggering power of those unrealized selves. I contribute to the comprehension of the consequences of self-comparisons, organizational identity variance, and positive identity. The study bears important insights on how identity work originating from individuals can influence organizational outcomes and larger social systems