Transforming organizational identity under institutional change
Journal of Organizational Change Management
ISSN: 0953-4814
Article publication date: 14 October 2009
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this paper is to report a case study investigating how organizational identity evolves during institutional change within a UK building society.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper employs an inductive case study, which is appropriate for examining such change processes. It builds on grounded theory, considered appropriate for such an explanatory research.
Findings
The paper finds that: institutional change, especially regulation and practice changes, serves as the trigger to increasing salience of identity issues, i.e. identity ambiguity, legitimacy crisis and perceived identity obsolescence; leadership, organizational culture and strategic exercises are salient apparatuses to tackle identity problems caused by external pressure; and a new identity is formed as a result of the managerial interventions, characterised by the rediscovery of historical roots, modernization and dualism.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides an account of identity change, given a broader business environment change context within which the organization operates. Utilizing qualitative study of one case may be taken as a limitation.
Originality/value
The theoretical contribution reflected in the findings has implications for the interfaces between identity and institutional environment and organizational culture.
Keywords
Citation
He, H. and Baruch, Y. (2009), "Transforming organizational identity under institutional change", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 575-599. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810910997014
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited