Organizational Identity Between Practice and Significance: The Case of an Educational Organization

• In Event: Socialization and Identity Development in Educational Organizations: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives on Instructional Improvement Efforts

Abstract

"Identity work" is an ongoing construction of narratives as reflected by the organizational structure, practices and field. Sometimes narratives are so powerful that they illustrate, orient and explain organizational behavior even if the behavior goes against the organization's values.
This study deals with the dynamics of identity construction and development in a national educational organization. The findings show how organizational narratives express identity by being dissonance mitigators between contradicting social and educational logic, and economic logic in the organizations actions. "Identity work" in a narrative perspective is found to possess a parallelism between narrative structure and practices. This work has the potential to furnish the connection between narratives and action to the educational organizations and organizational life.

Author

• Nitza Roskin, Mandel Foundation