Understanding organisational identity as a factor influencing organisational design

Abstract

Organisations function in a rapidly changing operating environment and business leaders are in constant search of solutions that will increase both the organisationÕs effectiveness and performance. Organisational design is often utilised as one such solution to create alignment within the organisation. However, one of the many challenges of organisational design is to create and maintain this alignment between the design (what work is delivered?) and the identity (who are we?) of the organisation. Prior research says little on how the constructs of organisational design and organisational identity interact with each other as research tends to focus on these constructs separately. Therefore, purpose of this research is to determine if organisational identity is a factor that influences the organisational design to gain deeper insight as to how these complex constructs manifests itself within the organisational. Based on the exploratory nature of the research, qualitative methods where used to investigate how organisational identity and organisational design interact using observations from participants who were either business leaders, HR practitioners or organisational design specialists within a variety of organisations across South Africa. Based on the rich data gathered from interviews with participants, thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The key findings of the research not only built on the existing literature, but new insights materialised. Firstly, the role of leadersÕ and individualsÕ identity influence on the organisational identity emerged as a consistent theme. Secondly, new insight regarding the nature of organisational identity and how it influences the organisational design process emerged. The findings, which are represented in the Organisational Identity Lenses model, suggest that organisational identity has four different lenses. These lenses are: Ôwho am I?Õ as an individual in the organisation, Ôwho are we?Õ as a collective, Ôwho are we becoming?Õ as a future-focused view of the organisation and finally Ôwho are we no longer?Õ as a reflection of the historical context of the organisation. These four lenses have a significant influence on the organisational design process and the implications of this research suggest that the organisational design process should be one that facilitates the process of articulating Ôwho are we becoming?Õ in a manner that encourages alignment within the organisation.