Handling Uncertainty of Strategic Ambitions—The Use of Organizational Identity as a Risk-Reducing Device

International Journal of Public Administration

Volumn 38, Issue 13-14, 2015, Pages 1030-1040

  Fumasoli, Tatiana ^a   Pinheiro, Romulo ^b   Stensaker, Bjørn ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OSLO   (Norway)

^b UNIVERSITY OF AGDER   (Norway)

Author keywords

identity management; organizational identity; strategic plan; university

Indexed keywords

EID: 84948716685     PISSN: 01900692     EISSN: 15324265     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2014.988868     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. S.Albert,, & D.A.Whetten, (1985). Organizational identity. Research in Organizational Behaviour, 7, 263–295.
2. W.G.Astley,, & A.Van de Ven, (1983). Central erspectives and debates in organization theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 245–273.
3. J.M.T.Balmer,, & G.B.Soenen, (1999). The acid test of corporate identity management™. Journal of Marketing Management, 15, 69–92.
4. F.J.Barnett,, & M.Finnemore, (1999). The politics, power and pathologies of international organizations. International Organization, 53, 699–733.
5. S.Breznitz,, & M.Feldman, (2012). The larger role of the university in economic development: Introduction to the special issue. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 37, 135–138.
6. H.Broms,, & H.Gahmberg, (1983). Communication to self in organizations and cultures. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 482–495.
7. N.Brunsson,, & K.Sahlin-Andersson, (2000). Constructing organizations: The example of public sector reform. Organization Studies, 21, 721–746.
8. A.D.Chandler, (1962). Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the American enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
9. B.Clark, (1972). The organizational saga in higher education. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 178–184.
10. B.Clark, (1983). The higher education system: academic organization in cross-national perspective. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
11. B.R.Clark, (1992). The distinctive college. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
12. T.Christensen,, & P.Lægreid, (Eds.). (2002). New public management. Aldershot: Ashgate.
13. B.Czarniawska,, & R.Wolff, (1998). Constructing new identities in established organization fields. International Studies of Management & Organization, 28, 32–56.
14. D.L.Deephouse, (1999). To be different, or to be the same? It’s a question (and theory) of strategic balance. Strategic Management Journal, 20, 147–166.
15. D.D.Dill, (1996). Academic planning and organizational design: Lessons from leading American Universities. Higher Education Quarterly, 50, 35–53.
16. P.DiMaggio,, & W.Powell, (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147–160.
17. K.D.Elsbach,, & R.M.Kramer, (1996). Members’ responses to organizational identity threats: encountering and countering the Business Week rankings. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 442–476.
18. J.Enders,, & H.Boer, (2009). The mission impossible of the European University: Institutional Confusion and Institutional Diversity. In A.Amaral, G.Neave, C.Musselin and P.Maassen, (Eds.), European integration and the governance of higher education and research (pp. 159–178). The Netherlands: Springer.
19. A.Farazmand, (2003). Chaos and transformation theories: A theoretical analysis with implications for organization theory and public management. Public Organization Review, 3, 339–371
20. P.Fiss,, & E.Zajac, (2006). The symbolic management of strategic change: Sensegiving via framing and decoupling. The Academy of Management Journal ARCHIVE, 49, 1173–1193.
21. R.Fleming,, & G.R.Lee, (2009). Canada: What’s in a title? I.N.GarrodIn N. and B.Macfarlane (Eds.), Challenging boundaries: Managing the integration of post-secondary education (pp. 93–110). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
22. Fumasoli, T. (2011). Strategy as evolutionary path. Five higher education institutions on the move. Lugano: USI. http://doc.rero.ch/record/23135?ln=it
23. T.Fumasoli,, & B.Lepori, (2011). Patterns of strategies in Swiss higher education institutions. Higher Education, 61, 157–178.
24. D.A.Gioia,, & K.Chittipeddi, (1991). Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation. Strategic Management Journal, 12, 433–448.
25. D.A.Gioia,, J.B.Thomas,, S.M.Clark,, & K.Chittipeddi, (1994). Symbolism and strategic change in academia: The dynamics of sensemaking and influence. Organization Science, 5, 363–383.
26. D.A.Gioia,, K.N.Price,, A.L.Hamilton,, & J.B.Thomas, (2010). Forging an identity: An insider-outsider study of processes involved in the formation of organizational identity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55, 1–46.
27. M.A.Glynn, (2008). Beyond constraint: How institutions enable identities. In R.Greenwood, C.Oliver, R.Suddaby & K.Sahlin (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 413–430). London, UK: Sage Publications.
28. C.T.Goodsell, (2011). Mission mystique: Strength at the institutional center. The American Review of Public Administration, 41, 475–494.
29. R.Grant, (2003). Strategic planning in a turbulent environment: Evidence from the oil majors. Strategic Management Journal, 24, 491–517.
30. D.C.Hambrick,, & J.W.Fredrickson, (2005). Are you sure you have a strategy? Academy of Management Executive, 19, 51–62.
31. M.J.Hatch,, & M.Schultz, (2002). The dynamics of organizational identity. Human Relations, 55, 989–1018.
32. H.He,, & Y.Baruch, (2009). Tranforming organizational identity under institutional change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 22, 575–599
33. G.Hsu,, & M.T.Hannan, (2005). Identities, genres, and organizational forms. Organization Science, 16, 474–490.
34. J.Huisman,, J.D.Norgård,, J.Rasmussen,, & B.Stensaker, (2002). Alternative’ universities revisited: A study of the distinctiveness of universities established in the spirit of 1968. Tertiary Education and Management, 8, 316–332.
35. P.Jarzabkowski, (2004). Strategy as practice: Recursiveness, adaptation, and practices-in-use. Organization Studies, 25, 529–560.
36. J.-E.Johanson, (2009). Strategy formation in public agencies. Public Administration, 87, 872–891. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9299.2009.01767
37. G.Johnson, (1990). Managing strategic change; The role of symbolic action. British Journal of Management, 1,183–200.
38. G.Keller, (1983). Academic strategy. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
39. D.Kirp, (2003). Shakespeare, Einstein, and the bottom line: The marketing of higher education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
40. M.S.Kraatz,, & E.S.Block, (2008). Organizational implications of institutional pluralism. In R.Greenwood, C.Oliver, K.Sahlin, & R.Suddaby (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 243–276). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
41. G.Krücken,, & F.Meier, (2006). Turning the university into an organizational actor. In G.S.Drori, J.W.Meyer, & H.Hwang (Eds.), Globalization and organization: world society and organizational change (pp. 241–257). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
42. P.Laredo, (2007). Revisiting the third mission of universities: toward a renewed categorization of university activities? Higher Education Policy, 20, 441–456.
43. S.Maguire,, & C.Hardy, (2005). Identity and collaborative strategy in the Canadian HIV/AIDS treatment domain. Strategic Organization, 3, 11–45.
44. P.Maassen,, & J.P.Olsen, (2007). University dynamics and European integration. Dodrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
45. P.Maassen,, & H.Potman, (1990). Strategic decision-making in higher education. Higher Education, 20, 393–410.
46. J.G.March, (1978). Bounded rationality, ambiguity, and the engineering of choice. The Bell Journal of Economics, 9, 587–608.
47. J.G.March, (1996). Continuity and change in theories of organizational action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 278–28.
48. S.Marginson,, & M.Considine, (2000). The enterprise university. Power, governance and reinvention in Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
49. M.H.Moore, (1995). Creating public value: Strategic management in government. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
50. C.Musselin, (2006). Are universities specific organizations? In G.Krücken, A.Kosmützky, & M.Torka (Eds.), Towards a multiversity? Universities between global trends and national traditions (pp. 63–84). Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript.
51. J.P.Olsen, (2007). The institutional dynamics of the European university. In P.Maassen & J.P.Olsen (Eds.), University dynamics and European integration (pp. 25–54). Dodrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
52. J.S.Pedersen,, & F.Dobbin, (2006). In search of identity and legitimation: Bridging organizational culture and neoinstitutionalism. American Behavioral Scientist, 49, 897–907.
53. B.Perry, (2012). Excellence, relevance and the construction of regional science policy: Science frictions and fictions in the North West of England. In R.Pinheiro, P.Benneworth, & G.A.Jones (Eds.), Universities and regional development: A critical assessment of tensions and contradictions. (pp. 105–123). Milton Park, UK: Routledge.
54. R.Pinheiro, (2012). The regional dimension in the High North. In M.Kwiek & P.Maassen (Eds.), National higher education reforms in a European context: comparative reflections on Poland and Norway (pp. 179–208). Berlin, Germany: Peter Lang.
55. R.Pinheiro,, & B.Stensaker, (2013). Designing the entrepreneurial university: The interpretation of a global idea. Public Organization Review, 14(4), 497–516. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9299.2009.01767
56. J.F.Porac,, H.Thomas,, & C.Baden-Fuller, (1989). Competitive groups as cognitive communities: The case of Scottish knitwear manufacturers. Journal of Management Studies, 26, 397–416.
57. M.Power, (1997). The audit society: Rituals of verification. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
58. M.G.Pratt,, & M.S.Kraatz, (2009). E Pluribus Unum: Multiple identities and the organizational self. In L.M.Roberts & J.Dutton (Eds.), Exploring positive identities and organizations. Building a theoretical and research foundation. New York, NY: Routledge.
59. F.O.Ramirez, (2010). Accounting for excellence: Transforming universities into organizational actors. In V.Rust, L.Portnoi, & S.Bagely (Eds.), Higher education, policy, and the global competition phenomenon (pp. 43–58). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillian.
60. D.Ravasi,, & M.Schultz, (2006). Responding to organizational identity threats: Exploring the role of organizational culture. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 433–458.
61. D.Ravasi,, & N.Phillips, (2011). Strategies of alignment. Organizational identity management and strategic change at Bang & Olufsen. Strategic Organization, 9, 103–135.
62. V.Rindova,, E.Dalpiaz,, & D.Ravasi, (2011). A cultural quest: A study of organizational use of new cultural resources in strategy formation. Organization Science, 22, 413–431.
63. F.M.Santos,, & K.M.Eisenhardt, (2004). Multiple case study. In M.S.Lewis-Beck, A.Bryman, & T.F.Liao (Eds.), (2004). Encyclopedia of social science research methods. (Vols. 1–3). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
64. P.Selznick, (1957). Leadership in administration. A sociological interpretation. Berkeley, CA: Harper & Row Publishers.
65. B.Stensaker,, & L.Harvey, (2011). Accountability in higher education: Global perspectives on trust and power. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
66. B.Stensaker,, & J.D.Norgård, (2001). Innovation and isomorphism: A case-study of university identity struggle 1969–1999. Higher Education, 42, 473–492.
67. M.C.Suchman, (1995). Managing legitimacy – strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20, 571–610.
68. T.Tapper,, & D.Palfreyman, (2011). Oxford, the Collegiate University: Conflict, consensus and continuity. Dodrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
69. J.D.Thompson, (2003/1967). Organizations in action. Social science bases of administrative theory. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
70. J.D.Toma, (2010). Building organizational capacity: Strategic management in higher education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
71. L.Trotter,, J.Cutt, & C.E.Lee, (1996). Public accountability in higher education and health: An international perspective. International Journal of Public Administration, 19, 1979–2005
72. C.B.M.Van Riel,, & J.M.T.Balmer, (1997). Corporate identity: the concept, its measurement and management. European Journal of Marketing, 31, 340–355.
73. L.Wedlin, (2006). Ranking business schools. Forming fields, identities and boundaries in international management education. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
74. D.A.Whetten, (2006). Albert and whetten revisited: Strengthening the concept of organizational identity. Journal of Management Inquiry, 15, 219–234.
75. R.Whitley, (2008). Constructing universities as strategic actors: Limitations and variations. In L.Engwall & D.Weaire (Eds.), The University in the Market (pp. 22–37). London, UK: Portland Press.
76. L.Zechlin, (2010). Strategic planning in higher education. In E.Baker, B.McGaw, B., & P.Peterson (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (pp. 256–263). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier.
77. E.W.Zuckerman,, T.-Y.Kim,, K.Ukanwa,, & J.von Rittmann, (2003). Robust identities or nonentities? Typecasting in the feature-film labor market. American Journal of Sociology, 108, 1018–1074.