There is a great deal of academic research around the topic of organizational identity in a corporate setting and an increasing level of interest in the area amongst practitioners. This study considers an under-researched area of identity scholarship in the UK charitable sector, specifically the degree to which internal stakeholders (employees) in two small to medium-sized UK charities, share an internally common understanding of organizational identity. An explicitly internal organizational perspective is explored to illuminate the communicated perceptions of employees in the participating organizations. A qualitative methodology was employed, using sixteen in-depth, one-to-one, unstructured interviews with a purposive sample of employees from the two organizations. Interview data is explored via a thematic template comprising codes emerging concurrently with analysis. Secondary data is provided to add depth to research discussion and conclusions. Findings indicated some interesting features in the ways that particular groups of UK charity employees understand organizational identity. Managers and non-managers expressed a broadly consistent group of themes, in articulating their understanding of organizational identity. One participating organization had a more internally-diverse understanding of identity than the other, which might suggest links between organizational performance and understanding organizational identity. Employees with less than two years’ service expressed their understanding in a clearly distinct manner from employees with long service. Whilst acknowledging the limitations of the study in terms of generalizability, the researcher proposes areas, around which practitioners might focus their efforts to develop, or improve, a shared understanding of organizational identity in their workforce, including induction and internal communication. Understanding of organizational identity for UK charity employees is notably under-researched. This study makes a number of contributions to the field of academic knowledge: directly addressing a deficiency in the existing topic literature; making some observations on methodology; highlighting areas of interest for future scholarly activity; and suggesting areas of focus for practitioners, around approaches to managing organizational identity.

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between an organization's identity and its corporate reputation. The organization in focus is a Swedish travel agency. Although identity and reputation has been studied separately before, they are closely connected and have synergistic effects, in that they affect each other. Connecting the two fields can benefit both the profession and research. Not only that, it is also expected to occur as a result of the development of technology, where the internet has made it possible for organizations to communicate through their own channels and describe how they think about themselves, and thus affect the way they want to be perceived. To analyze the organization's identity and corporate reputation, and the relationship between them, the study uses a model developed by Huang-Horowitz and Freberg. To achieve the purpose, data is collected by two methods, qualitative text analysis and semi-structured interviews. The result shows that the organization's identity and reputation interact in a succesful way in two of three categories. A challenge for the object of study is to distinguish itself from its competitors, as the results shows.

<p>This explorative study address the concept of organisational identity described by Albert & Whetten and takes their concept from the individual level to the industry level. When doing so the lack of empirical research and theoretical knowledge within this area becomes clear. Although an unexplored area we argue that if Albert & Whetten interpreted, the members’ perception to an organisational level we believe that it is also possible to aggregate the perceptions of the members/managers to an inter-organisational/industry level. When taking the identity to the industry level questions like, who are we at an inter-organisational level or with other words is there an industry identity and how does the industry identity affect the actions within an industry?</p><p>In this thesis, we will try to fill this gap of knowledge and contribute to theoretical concepts of industry identities, by gathering empirical data to substantiate the concept of industry identity. We will try to fill the theoretical gap concerning identities within an industry; explaining the content of these identities and how they are defined, in line with the contribution by Albert & Whetten, the same way as individuals organisational identity arises. Whenever he or she asks the question, who are we and what kind of business are we in (Albert & Whetten 1985), it is the same way as for an organisation within an industry to ask questions like – which industry do I belong to and what kind of industry are we in. The processes stressed by Hatch & Schultz also raises questions like how does the industry identity affect the interactions/actions between identities within an industry or how does the actions by one identity affect another identity within an industry? One industry that can be assumed to have developed an inter-organisational identity over time, due to a long history and clear cultural anchoring the last 10-years has been faced with both radical change and crisis is the Swedish alcohol industry. The empirical data in this study is based on eight semi-structured telephone interviews with importers (managers or top team) in the Swedish alcohol industry.</p><p>Consequently, we approach this explorative study by stating the following question; Is there an industry identity within the Swedish alcohol import industry, and if so, what is the content of this identity and how does this identity affect the actions taken within the industry? The main purpose is to answer the question stated in this thesis by; to describe the central and distinctive characteristics/aspects of the Swedish alcohol importers identity and to find commonalities and differences within these industry identities. To relate to these central and distinctive aspects of the industry identity in relation to the actions taken by the organisations within the industry.</p><p>The conclusion of this thesis is; yes, there is an industry identity based on two orientations; the product or market orientation and the content of these identities are based on how their importers believe that you as an importer should act in selling wine to the customers. Further conclusion is that; yes, industry identity (i.e. product or market) does affect action or rather some types of actions.</p><p>The possibilities to extend and further explore this industry seem endless. The changes in the industry and the settings of the environment that it exists in are continuously and a constant on-going process even though Sweden still has a monopoly. Our study has raised many questions that would be interesting to investigate in another study, for example if these two approaches can co-exist or if one of them would be dominant. Or if they actually need each other.</p>

This explorative study address the concept of organisational identity described by Albert &amp; Whetten and takes their concept from the individual level to the industry level. When doing so the lack of empirical research and theoretical knowledge within this area becomes clear. Although an unexplored area we argue that if Albert &amp; Whetten interpreted, the members’ perception to an organisational level we believe that it is also possible to aggregate the perceptions of the members/managers to an inter-organisational/industry level. When taking the identity to the industry level questions like, who are we at an inter-organisational level or with other words is there an industry identity and how does the industry identity affect the actions within an industry? In this thesis, we will try to fill this gap of knowledge and contribute to theoretical concepts of industry identities, by gathering empirical data to substantiate the concept of industry identity. We will try to fill the theoretical gap concerning identities within an industry; explaining the content of these identities and how they are defined, in line with the contribution by Albert &amp; Whetten, the same way as individuals organisational identity arises. Whenever he or she asks the question, who are we and what kind of business are we in (Albert &amp; Whetten 1985), it is the same way as for an organisation within an industry to ask questions like – which industry do I belong to and what kind of industry are we in. The processes stressed by Hatch &amp; Schultz also raises questions like how does the industry identity affect the interactions/actions between identities within an industry or how does the actions by one identity affect another identity within an industry? One industry that can be assumed to have developed an inter-organisational identity over time, due to a long history and clear cultural anchoring the last 10-years has been faced with both radical change and crisis is the Swedish alcohol industry. The empirical data in this study is based on eight semi-structured telephone interviews with importers (managers or top team) in the Swedish alcohol industry. Consequently, we approach this explorative study by stating the following question; Is there an industry identity within the Swedish alcohol import industry, and if so, what is the content of this identity and how does this identity affect the actions taken within the industry? The main purpose is to answer the question stated in this thesis by; to describe the central and distinctive characteristics/aspects of the Swedish alcohol importers identity and to find commonalities and differences within these industry identities. To relate to these central and distinctive aspects of the industry identity in relation to the actions taken by the organisations within the industry. The conclusion of this thesis is; yes, there is an industry identity based on two orientations; the product or market orientation and the content of these identities are based on how their importers believe that you as an importer should act in selling wine to the customers. Further conclusion is that; yes, industry identity (i.e. product or market) does affect action or rather some types of actions. The possibilities to extend and further explore this industry seem endless. The changes in the industry and the settings of the environment that it exists in are continuously and a constant on-going process even though Sweden still has a monopoly. Our study has raised many questions that would be interesting to investigate in another study, for example if these two approaches can co-exist or if one of them would be dominant. Or if they actually need each other.

Vår tid präglas av valmöjligheter, kunskap och reflexivitet där människans identitetsprocess tyck relatera till livsstilsplanering. Syftet för denna studie är att undersöka hur utvalda företag genom sina hemsidor uttrycker och presenterar en identitet kopplad till företaget. För att söka synliggöra min problemställning är teoretiska utgångspunkter för denna studie Giddens (2002) teori om människans reflexiva identitetsskapande samt Goffmans (2009) teori om presentation och idealisering. Det som studeras i denna studie är fyra olika företag som utgörs av Manpower, Poolia, Billabong samt Louis Vuitton och deras tillhörande hemsidor. De två förstnämnda företagen representerar tjänsteföretag och de två sistnämnda varuföretag. Studien är vidare kvalitativ och metoden är en observerande bild - och textanalys. Resultat för studien pekar på att de undersökta företagen via sina hemsidor kommunicerar ut tydliga reflexiva beslut kring exempelvis miljö och etikfrågor som inte på ett direkt vis anknyter till företagets tjänster eller produkter utan visar mer på en anknytning till samhälle och omvärld. Varuföretagen visar tydligare upp detta beteende än tjänsteföretagen genom att visa text och bild på sina hemsidor som relaterar till hur förbättringar och satsningar kan ske kring exempelvis miljön. Som resultat visar vidare de undersökta företagens hemsidor på att det de väljer att kommunicera ut på hemsidorna ligger till grund för en viss bestämd identitet. Detta tycks vara en av de vägar en företagsidentitet blir skapad på. Den identitet som uppsatsen beskriver relaterar även till begreppet livsstil och det blir tydligt hur dessa två begrepp bygger upp varandra.

Title: Organizational identity in the public sector during times of crises Date of submission: 2021-06-01 Authors: Lowe Björklund and Jakob Boyer Advisor: Josef Pallas Course: Master’s thesis 30 credits Purpose: Organizational identity (OI) has gained attention due to its feasibility in several organizational respects. Swedish healthcare is a well-debated area, and there is an ongoing discussion on how it should be managed. Crises can spark discussions about OI, opening up the possibility to gain insights related to the concept. Therefore, OI may work as a tool for making progress in understanding management within Swedish healthcare. The research might show if a prominent crisis can produce alternative views of how OI is affected during times of crises. Design/Methodology: To investigate OI, a qualitative method was chosen together with semi-structured interviews as a data collection method. The motivation for the particular research design and methodology stems from prior research investigating OI, where qualitative semi-structured interviews were used. Findings: The findings showed that the OI of the Swedish hospital had been highlighted and reinforced after Covid-19's introduction. The hospital had developed a more congruent idea of their OI, while the temporary nature of the connection between hospital staff indicated that the connection had not become stronger. The findings also indicated a relationship between the motivation of hospital staff and management’s actions. Many of the effects forced upon the hospital by the crisis had produced many positive changes (e.g., less territorial thinking and increased digital measures). However, part of these changes was thought to stay only temporarily; thus, the hospital’s OI was considered fixed and fluid. In addition, the research indicated that the hospital’s OI was shaped in an ongoing process of interactions between organizational members internally rather than external factors. The findings also suggest that organizational members had viewed the crisis both as a threat and an opportunity, while perceiving gaps between the present and the future along with costs not to change. Research limitations: The findings may have a questionable level of generalizability due to the case study approach.

Widely viewed as under-valued and under-paid, yet sentimentalized as working more for love than money, the social care workforce is a fundamental economic and social resource; the importance of which is growing in line with the rapidly aging, global and national population (Care Quality Commission, 2012; DoH 2009; International Helptheaged, 2013). Classic motivation theories, which focus on economic and individualistic work motives, fail to fully account for the high rates of satisfaction and commitment among care workers, (Skills for Care 2007, 2013; Stevens et al 2010). Yet a growing body of empirical research demonstrates that health and social care workers’ motivation is related to patient/client satisfaction and wellbeing (Maben et al., 2012). Moreover the quality of the relationship between the carer and client contributes to the motivation and the wellbeing of both (Wilson, 2009; Wilson et al., 2009). Therefore this thesis seeks to better understand the collective and relational aspects of care workers’ motivation. It does this by detailing a program of research which examines care workers motivations through a social identity lens that asks ‘what’s in it for us’ as well as ‘what’s in it for me’ (Haslam 2004). A social identity perspective on motivation focuses on how workers experience themselves and their work at a personal, relational and organizational level (Ashforth et al 2008; Ellemers et al., 2004). In doing so it offers a multi-dimensional, theoretical framework through which to understand the dynamics of care workers’ motivations. Moreover, this framework offers an empirically proven psychological framework for explaining why adopting a relationship-centered approach to care is pivotal for organizations to achieve a compassionate care culture. The first study explored care workers’ experience of work and inquired about what they did and why it mattered to them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 care workers who worked in residential and domiciliary care settings. A thematic analysis of the transcripts identified four overarching themes that contributed to care workers’ motivation, those of fulfillment’, ‘belonging’, ‘valuing’ and ‘pride’. These motives were found to be actualized in their shared experience of caring, particularly with clients and also with co-workers and as an organizational member. The findings of the study shed light on the content of care workers’ personal, relational and social identities and the interactions between them. Care workers primarily emphasized the meaningfulness of their work in terms of its caring nature. They expressed this is terms of their personal attributes, their relational role with clients and their perceptions of how the organisation treated them. This led us to hypothesize that their identification with the organisation is likely to increase to the extent they feel the organisation ‘cares’. Indeed to build on and harness care workers’ identities at work, the findings suggest that organisations need to place care workers’ relationships with clients at the heart of what they do. The second study was a longitudinal quantitative analysis of care workers’ motivations which consolidated and extended the findings of the first study. It had two parts, the first part was an examination of how care workers’ motivations are shaped by their sense of identity, and the second part tested how a professionalization intervention affected their motivation. To achieve this we administered an organisational survey at two time points, one year apart (T1 n = 643, T2 n = 1274, T1 & T2 n = 204). Analaysis of the survey responses assessed what it was that incentivized care workers (love and/or money), the relationship of this to work outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, pride, stress, turnover intentions and positivity about professionalisation) and the extent to which it was affected by patterns of identification. We also examined variation in responses over time as a function of whether or not people had undertaken professional qualifications in the intervening period (so that, in effect, undertaking a qualification constituted an experimental treatment). This meant that the study had a quasi-experimental design in which we could examine the putative impact of exposure to a professionalisation intervention on organizational identification and motivation (for a similar logic see Lim & Putnam, 2010). In line with the five main hypotheses that were generated from the findings of Study 1 and from predominant findings in organisational and social identity research; the results showed first (H1), that care workers’ collective identification with different groups at work, was positively related to their motivation (Ellemers et al., 2004). More specifically, their work motivation was predicted by their identification with (a) the people they care for (client identification), and (b) the care organization they work for (organisational identification). Furthermore, although care workers indicated strongest identification with clients, it was their identification with the organisation that was the most proximal indicator of increased motivation. Second (H2 & H3), although care workers were most incentivized by their relationships with clients and the least incentivized by the pay; the extent to which either led to improved work outcomes was mediated by client and organisational identification. Where being incentivized by relationships with clients led to improved work outcomes, client identification predicted organisational identification, whereas client identification played a lesser role in mediating the likelihood of being incentivized by pay leading to improved work outcomes. In addition (H4), care workers’ identity varied as a function of the work context. More specifically, whether they worked in residential / nursing home care or in domiciliary care affected the nature and extent of their relational identification with their clients and the congruence between client identification and organizational identification (Ashforth et al 2008, Haslam et al 2003). Finally (H5), care workers’ motivations were enhanced by the professionalization intervention of undertaking a qualification, to the extent that it built on and maintained meaningful work-related identities. In particular, the results showed that, care workers’ motivation increased as a result of undertaking a qualification to the extent that the training increased identification with the organisation and other groups at work (Pidd 2004). Study 3 further investigated the effects of identification on motivation, learning and performance by examining the likelihood of professionalisation training being transferred to the workplace. A 2 × 2 longitudinal study evaluated the effects of a new generic professionalisation (NGP) training program, that tapped into distal work identities, and a standard localized professionalisation (SLP) training program, which spoke more to localised identities, on participants’ identification and motivation at work. Overall the findings indicated that compared to the NGP, the SLP (H1) maintained and strengthened participants’ work identification. Furthermore compared to the SLP, the NGP was associated with (H2) a reduction in trainees’ perception of the relevance and usefulness of the training, (H3) a reduction in motivation to enact the training, and (H4) a reduction in trainees’ immersion in the program. Moreover the findings demonstrated that (H5) the reduction in motivation to transfer learning associated with the NGP relative to the SLP, was explained by the reduction in identification it engendered, which in turn reduced participants’ sense of relatedness within the training context. These findings imply that learning is more likely to be applied when it (a) has relevance to identities which are more meaningful to participants, in this case local identities, (b) is delivered by people with whom care workers identify, (c) is validated by others in the workplace environment with whom the participants’ identify. Taken together, this program of research demonstrates that care workers’ motivations can be understood through a social identity perspective that incorporates the collective, relational and personal dimensions of providing care. It concludes by considering how organisations can tap into, harness, strengthen and develop care workers’ identification at work as a means of enhancing their motivation and retaining professional care staff. Through bridging theoretical and applied concerns, this research has wide-reaching implications for developing and maintaining compassionate work cultures within care organisations and other helping professions.

This thesis investigates how New Zealand fashion designers construct and communicate a unique and fluid identity. There are two main focuses of the research. The first is how New Zealand fashion designers build and maintain a unique brand identity in the New Zealand market. This includes an in-depth analysis of the public relations and communication strategies both emerging and established fashion designers use. The second focus is how New Zealand designers communicate their brand identity to export markets. This includes an examination of how the New Zealand national identity has an effect on the communication of their identity in international markets. This research is important as there is little scholarly research on the creative industries in New Zealand, and none on the New Zealand designer fashion industry. Therefore, this research study has been developed to advance literature in this area and provide a basis for further research. While this research study will focus on the New Zealand designer fashion industry, it is hoped that the research will be applicable to other creative industries in New Zealand. A key element of this research is to use the in-depth analysis of the designer fashion industry to provide recommendations on identity management for the New Zealand designer fashion industry and creative industries. Ultimately, this research provides these industries with a practical guide to create and communicate a unique identity in both domestic and export markets. A collective case study method is used to collate the data and is analysed through an interpretive framework. The New Zealand fashion designers that comprise the case studies are Annah Stretton, Robyn Brooks, Jo Robertson, and Cyb le Wiren. Key conclusions are that organisations in the creative industries need to put together an in-depth communications plan as early as possible in their business. This should focus on the creation and communication of a unique and fluid identity in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors and allow them to actively respond to their environment. Industry bodies and New Zealand Trade Enterprise play a key role in the development and export of creative organisations. These organisations need to develop better resources and support systems for the creative industries in order for them to reach their maximum potential.

A critical task in the formation of any political group is the determination and articulation of group identity, purpose and goals. In holding that identity is impervious to capture, much poststructuralist thought has little to contribute to an understanding of the precise processes and ongoing tensions involved in such drives for representation. The essentialism debate in feminist theory, for instance, has been primarily concerned with determining which conceptualisation of women's subjectivity will best facilitate feminism's political goals. However, under the influential feminist deconstructive perspective, a dilemma emerges regarding how an anti-essentialist notion of femininity might be reconciled with the essentialism required for a distinctly feminist voice. Alternatively, post-Lacanian psychoanalysis views subjectivity as an effect of fundamentally irresolvable antagonisms in language, allowing the emphasis to shift from the (attempted) reconciliation of irresolvable tensions to the identification of mechanisms that work to conceal those tensions, thereby permitting a sense of subjectivity to be articulated. This thesis explores the methodological implications of these theoretical debates, examining how the psychoanalytic line of questioning might be used to analyse feminist identity in an empirical setting. Research was conducted with the Women's Resource Centre (WRC) based in Auckland, New Zealand, an organisation originally established to provide feminist theology resources to women undergoing theological education. Using a conversational methodology and the observation of material expressions of identity, the research attempts to view the Centre's identity 'askew.' In doing so, it considers the creative yet eventually regressive impact of the postmodern privileging of difference and multiplicity on the feminist identity of the Centre. Referring specifically to the changing expression of the Centre's identity (in promotional material, funding applications and the WRC Story), the thesis traces the effects of ideological tension (in incorporating more inclusive notions of justice with feminist politics) and organisational change (dispersion of the original community, high staff turnover, shift in organisational culture, funding difficulties). Wider implications of the research for voluntary and feminist organisations are indicated, along with an evaluation of post-Lacanian psychoanalysis for the empirical study of identity and for the overarching theoretical concerns of the thesis.

<p>Organisational Identity (i.e. OI) could be described as an employee theory of who the organisation is. The concept is seen as one of the most problematic concepts to define. One of the main reasons for that is its close relation to the concepts of culture and image, as they are seen as defining each other. As expressed in previous research there is a need for theoretical clarification and investigations in practice in this area.</p><p>We aim to contribute to an OI concept clarification and theoretical understanding by investigating OI in a single case at a Swedish company; Sapa Heat Transfer. The aim is fulfilled by a focus on research questions concerning how different employee groups perceive the organisational identity at this company, how the organisational identity can be described at the company and how the sum of these answers may develop the organisational identity concept further.</p><p>In order to investigate OI at Sapa Heat Transfer we have used four qualitative methods; one to one informational interview with key personnel, observations, desk research and focus groups, where focus groups was the main data collection method. A key for this triangulation was to generate a deep contextual understanding in order to facilitate a separation between identity, culture and image making a definition of the OI possible.</p><p>Our findings show the organisational identity at SHT as being built on four cornerstones; Responsibility, Engagement, Willingness and Energy. The OI at SHT is to be considered as weak rather than strong regarding the OI strength. There is a strong culture resulting in an "industrial mentality" regarding the employees. Our results are showing that the culture might appear as OI, i.e. false OI, if the present OI is weak. There might be multiple OIs at the company, which we are rejecting. Instead our results are showing an existence of multiple cognitive perspectives, functioning as cognitive platforms creating the employee perceptions of the OI. At SHT the perspectives are demonstrated to be developed by vocations, positions, departments, units/divisions and/or work groups. The individual perspective taken is dependent on the employee perceived belongingness. An alignment of all existing employee perspectives will define the true OI at a company. Further, the OI perspective framework presented could facilitate a separation between OI and culture if a time perspective is applied, since our results is indicating culture to be connected to a past time perspective and OI seems to be related to a present. Our results are presenting OI as changeable within limits, developed within a culture frame, possible to make explicit but at the same time occurring mainly unconsciously. Finally, our results have defined a need for a complementing category, regarding behaviouristic characteristics, among the categories presented as potential OI content characteristics within the Balmer and Greyser (2002) framework.</p>