DOI: 10.5176/2251-2349_HRM&PD17.31
Authors: Prof Theo H Veldsman ,Dr Dieter Veldsman
Abstract: The fast-paced knowledge economy has changed the operating landscape for organisations into an ever-changing setting where agility, speed to market, and intelligence are key ingredients for success [1]. Traditional organisational practices have come under scrutiny, with a dynamic, global workforce insisting on organisations providing, not just meaningful work, but also purpose. Organisational leaders are required to think broader than What we do, and consider questions such as Who we are? and Why do we exist? as part of defining organisational purpose. The concept of an organisational identity has become important [2], yet, there seems to be various perspectives in terms of defining the concept, how organisational identity relates to aspects such as vision, values, and culture, and the utility of organisational identity in the new world of work. The purpose of our paper is to explore, critically, the literature on organisational identity (and, by implication, individual identity) in the context of a multi-national organisation within the gaming and hospitality sector. The organisation under study embarked on a journey to craft a revised organisational identity as part of an organisational turnaround strategy. During this journey, collaborative inputs were gathered from 4 612 employees, through intense dialogue sessions, over a period of eight months. The adopted research design was located in the space of grounded theory. The design is conventional grounded theory, in that it was inductive — moving from data to theory. The design was also non-conventional grounded theory, in that the generated data were not used to build theory progressively, but rather to validate — critically, in an exploratory manner — existing theory (current literature) on organisational identity. Based on our empirical study, we endeavour to present an enriched understanding of organisational identity and the variables making up and impacting on the concept, and arrive at insights pertaining to the relevance and importance of the concept for knowledge-economy organisations and workers.
Keywords:organisational identity; individual identity; grounded theory; qualitative research; exploratory study
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