Constructing Identity in and around Organizations

Constructing Identity in and around Organizations is the second volume in Perspectives on Process Organization Studies, a series which explores an emerging approach to the study of organizations that focuses on (understanding) activities, interactions, and change as essential properties of organizations rather than structures and state - an approach which prioritizes activity over product, change over persistence, novelty over continuity, and expression over determination.

The constructing of identities--those processes through which actors in and around organizations claim, accept, negotiate, affirm, stabilize, maintain, reproduce, challenge, disrupt, destabilize, repair or otherwise relate to their sense of selves and others--has become a critically important topic in the study of organizations. This volume attempts to amplify--and possibly refract-- contemporary debates amongst identity scholars that question established notions of identity as "essence," "entity," or "thing". It calls for alternative approaches to understanding identity and its significance in contexts in and around organizations by conceptualizing it as "process"--that is, being continually under construction. Based in diverse theoretical and philosophical traditions and contexts, contributions by leading scholars to this volume offer new perspectives on how individual and organizational identities evolve and come to be constructed through ongoing activities and interactions.

Majken Schultz, Professor, Copenhagen Business School,Steve Maguire, Associate Professor, the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Canada,Ann Langley, Professor of Management, HEC Montreal,Haridimos Tsoukas, Professor, the University of Cyprus and Warwick Business School

Majken Schultz is Professor of Organization Studies at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School; International Research Fellow at the Centre for Corporate Reputation at Oxford University, Said Business School; and partner in the Reputation Institute. Her research focuses on the construction and expression of identity in theory and practice with a special interest in the interplay between culture, identity, and images, and the implications for corporate branding processes. She has published several books and more than 40 international articles.


Steve Maguire is Associate Professor of Strategy and Organization in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. His research focuses on institutional and technological change resulting when commercial, scientific and political struggles intersect around social or environmental issues.


Ann Langley is Professor of Management at HEC Montreal and Canada research chair in strategic management in pluralistic settings. Her research focuses on strategic change, leadership, innovation and the use of management tools in complex organizations with an emphasis on processual research approaches. She has published over 50 articles and two books.



Haridimos Tsoukas holds the Columbia Ship Management Chair in Strategic Management at the University of Cyprus, Cyprus and is a Professor of Organization Studies at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. He obtained his PhD at the Manchester Business School (MBS), University of Manchester, and has worked at MBS, the University of Essex, the University of Strathclyde, and the ALBA Graduate Business School, Greece. He has published widely in several leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Studies, Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies, and Human Relations. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Organization Studies (2003-2008).

Constructing identity in and around organizations: Introducing the second volume of Perspectives on Organization Studies, Majken Schultz, Steve Maguire, Ann Langley, Haridimos Tsoukas
Part I: Identity and Organizations
1. Rethinking Identity Construction Processes In Organizations: Three Questions to Consider, Michael G. Pratt
2. Identity as Process and Flow, Dennis A. Gioia and Shubha Patvardhan
3. Exploring Cultural Mechanisms of Organizational Identity Construction, Mary Ann Glynn and Lee Watkiss
4. Organizational Identity Formation: Processes of Identity Imprinting and Enactment in the Dutch Microbrewing Landscape, Jochem J. Kroezen and Pursey P. M. A. R. Heugens
5. Narrative Tools and the Construction of Identity, James V. Wertsch
6. Villains, Victims and the Financial Crisis: Positioning Identities through Descriptions, Frank Mueller and Andrea Whittle
7. Identity and Time in Gilles Deleuze's Process Philosophy, JamesNBWilliams
Part II: General Process Perspectives
8. The Bakhtinian Theory of Chronotope (Time-Space Frame) Applied to the Organizing Process, Philippe Lorino and Benoit Tricard
9. The Momentum of Organizational Change, Elden Wiebe, Roy Suddaby and William M. Foster
10. Management Knowledge: A Process View, Simon Grand and Adrian Ackeret
11. Aligning Process Questions, Perspectives and Explanations, Andrew H. Van de Ven and Harry Sminia