The crafting of organizational identity and the role of history

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Simon Oertel; Professorin Dr. Kirsten Thommes
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 398074981

Most research in the field of organizational identity focuses on the evolution and development of identities. The question of which claims organizational members and organizations use to construct identity, however, has received considerably less attention. In our research project, we will focus on this research gap by analyzing the crafting of organizational identities in a sample of 30 watchmaking firms located in two clusters in western Germany and eastern Germany. We will deepen our understanding of organizational identity in two ways. First, by applying a multilevel approach in studying the layers of organizational identity, ranging from the employee level to the corporate and organizational-field levels, our project´s findings will allow for a more comprehensive understanding of organizational identity. Considering the notion of scripted identities, we will complement existing research on identity crafting by taking the perspectives of the organizational member, the organizational actor, and the organizational field into consideration. Thereby, we will also focus on how organizations manage the differences between identity elements at the member and the corporate levels. Second, by explicitly considering the roles of firm- and cluster-level history in identity construction, we will contribute to the literature on organizational identity. Moreover, we will analyze the role that radical institutional change plays in identity construction by comparing firms from eastern and western Germany. The research project´s findings will allow a more comprehensive understanding of the elements that constitute organizational identity, the ways in which contextual factors such as firm history and organizational-field history affect these elements and their combination, and the extent to which organizations and their members actively frame and utilized history in constructing their identities. Our results will be relevant for political decision makers and society at large as we improve the understanding of identity crafting and the relevance of clusters in this context.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants