More than a Metaphor: Organizational Identity Makes Organizational Life Possible
批判将组织身份仅视为隐喻的局限,基于社会认同理论论证组织身份既是外部协商产物又是集体自我内化方面,对理解组织生活至关重要。
Recent papers by Cornelissen (2002a, 2002b) and Gioia, Schultz and Corley (2002a, 2002b) have debated the utility of organizational identity as a metaphor for understanding organizational life. In the present paper we argue that this debate is limiting because it frames issues of organizational identity purely in metaphorical terms and fails to explore the social psychological basis and consequences of the discontinuity between personal and organizational identity. Extending this debate, we argue that the power of organizational identity as a theoretical and applied construct derives from the fact that it has the capacity to be both an externally shared and negotiated product and an internalized aspect of the collective self. Consistent with recent research informed by the social identity approach to organizational psychology, we discuss how an appreciation of the identity-based dynamic between the social facts of organizations and the socially-structured psychology of organizational members is essential for both theoretical and practical understanding of organizational life.