Extending and Advancing Theories of Organizational Identity

Changes to the study of organizational identity over the past three decades show a clear pattern of maturation. The papers in this special issue reflect this maturation and help illustrate how the field has moved from discussing traditional issues such as ‘what is identity?’ to more contemporary issues such as how identity, through its paradoxical character, is a useful concept for addressing managerial choices and dilemmas. Taken together, these papers demonstrate how further integration of existing theories can help develop the field and give scholars and practitioners food for thought about where we are and where we are going in advancing knowledge and insight on the identity of organizations

An Examination of the Antecedents of Readiness for Fine-Tuning and Corporate Transformation Changes

This study examined employee readiness for fine-tuning changes and for corporate transformation changes. It was proposed that employees would report different degrees of readiness for these two types of change and that different variables would be associated with readiness for the two types of change. Results of regression analyses indicated that trust in peers and logistics and system support displayed strong positive relationships with readiness for fine-tuning changes, while trust in senior leaders and self-efficacy displayed strong positive relationships with readiness for corporate transformation changes. The implications of this study focus on the appropriateness of traditional change management strategies in light of findings that multiple change readiness attitudes exist within an organization

Strategy content and organizational performance: An empirical analysis

This study presents the first empirical test of the proposition that strategy content is a key determinant of organizational performance in the public sector. Strategy content comprises two dimensions: strategic stance (the extent to which an organization is a prospector, defender, or reactor) and strategic actions (the relative emphasis on changes in markets, services, revenues, external relationships, and internal characteristics). Data were drawn from a multiple-informant survey of 119 English local authorities. Measures of strategy content are included in a multivariate model of interauthority variations in performance. The statistical results show that strategy content matters. Organizational performance is positively associated with a prospector stance and negatively with a reactor stance. Furthermore, local authorities that seek new markets for their services are more likely to perform well. These results suggest that measures of strategy content must be included in valid theoretical and empirical models of organizational performance in the public sector.link_to_subscribed_fulltex