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Organizational identity is a field of study in organizational theory, that seeks the answer to the question: "who are we as an organization?"[1][2] The concept was first defined by Albert and Whetten (1985) and later updated and clarified by Whetten (2006) and has been the philosophical study of many social scientists and organizational administrators.

According to Whetten (2006) the attributes of an organizational identity are central, enduring, and distinctive/distinguishing (CED).

A central attribute is one that has changed the history of the company; if this attribute was missing, the history would have been different.

Enduring attributes are deeply engrained in the organization, often explicitly considered sacrosanct or embedded in the organizational history.

Distinguishing attributes are used by the organization to separate itself from other similar organizations, but can also set minimum standards and norms for that type of organization.

According to Albert and Whetten an attribute of a company must satisfy all three of these requirements in order to be seen as a part of their true organizational identity.

As a research topic, organizational identity is related to but clearly separate from organizational culture and organizational image (Hatch and Schultz, 1997).[3] It assumes a larger perspective than work identity (the identity individuals assume when in a work-related context) and organizational behavior (the study of human behavior in organizational settings).

Managing Organizational Identity

According to the work of Albert and Whetten, the task of managing organizational identity is often neglected until an organization reaches a point where it is unavoidable. This may happen in situations when an organization has experienced significant growth, downsizing, or fostered multiple identities that have become irreconcilable.  When addressing this question, an organization must undertake the task of identifying which of their aspects truly define themselves and how they should react to those characterizations. This may result in various actions such as setting an agenda to change an identity that has become negative, building on an identity to promote growth or influence in a community, or deciding which aspects to preserve while making budget cuts.

Changes in an organizations identity often take years to manifest into observable results. This can be attributed to many factors such as deeply rooted cultures in an organization and strong leaders that are resistant to change. While an organization can quickly change its mission statements and marketing techniques in the short term, altering the actual cultural interworking of an organization to correlate with these new goals and images is usually much more of a long-term project. It requires members to buy in to the organizations new goals and desired direction, and for members who are unwilling to conform to either gradually retire or be pushed out of the organization.

There are multitudes of external factors that may influence an organizations identity. For example, a city with oppressive civil rights laws is likely to affect the diversity of an organizations identity within its jurisdiction accordingly and vise-versa. Factors such as competition also play a major role in the identity an organization may assume. This is observable in the way that companies often point out distinct characteristic in their products when compared to others that may be almost entirely the same. For example, a burger chain may point out it’s antibiotic free meat compared to its competitors.

Managing Multiple identities

Much like individuals, organizations can often have multiple identities. This exists when there are more than one conceptualization of what is central, distinctive, and enduring to an organization. Multiple organizational identities may or may not be conciousley held by organizational leaders and can be holographic or ideographic. Holographic being an identity that is universally accepted throughout an organization, and ideographic being an identity that is assumed only in one department or sub-group of an organization. The existence of multiple identities in an organization can provide benefits such as increased flexibility when reacting to complex environmental factors and greater appeal to multiple internal stake holders, or become negative when identities conflict and cause inaction or inconsistencies. When addressing the task of managing multiple identities there are two strategic concepts organizational managers should address:

• Identity Plurality- The multiplicity of identities within an organization.
• Identity synergy- How well multiple identities complement each other.

When addressing the plurality of identities in an organization a manger may evaluate the significance and impact each identity has on an organization. If certain identities are not seen as essential, they may be left unattended with intention of essentially letting go of the identity in order to consolidate the ones that are more important in order to create a lower plurality of identities. However, if each identity is seen as essential and necessary for adapting to different environmental factors and stakeholders, managers may emphasize the need to attain a high plurality of identities. When undertaking this task, managers must evaluate the amount of resources and funding they have and what is practical to take on in terms of funding their organizational approaches to obtaining and fostering their identities.

When addressing the synergy of identities in an organization, managers must determine how much interaction between differing identities is desirable and feasible. If it is essential for two identities to cooperate with each other for the well being of an organization, a manger may seek to create a high amount of synergy between the two. If two identities are not seen as essential or productive when interacting with each other, a manager may seek to departmentalize each identity withing an organization to limit the amount of synergy between the two in order to reduce conflict.

Annotated Bibliography- Organizational Identity

Kjærgaard, Annemette L. "Organizational Identity and Strategy: An Empirical Study of Organizational Identity's Influence on the Strategy-Making Process." International Studies of Management & Organization 39, no. 1 (2009): 50-69. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.txstate.edu/stable/40397751.

This article discusses how an organizations identity can affect the behavior of its employees and the process of creating strategies to achieve the organizations goals. This is a good article for assessing how identity can affect the overall performance of an organization and its ability to change when addressing new goals.

Gioia, Dennis A., Majken Schultz, and Kevin G. Corley. "Organizational Identity, Image, and Adaptive Instability." The Academy of Management Review 25, no. 1 (2000): 63-81. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.txstate.edu/stable/259263.

This article argues that organizational identity is a constantly changing social construct rather than being constant in nature. This view provides an alternative to more traditional views of organizational identity that argue identity impacts an organizations behavior by instead arguing that an organizations behavior effects its identity.

Ravasi, Davide, and Majken Schultz. "Responding to Organizational Identity Threats: Exploring the Role of Organizational Culture." The Academy of Management Journal 49, no. 3 (2006): 433-58. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.txstate.edu/stable/20159775.

This article discusses how organizations may change their identity when faced with external influences that threaten their well being because of the way they have historically operated. Based on the authors' study, they argue that the historical culture of an organization will ultimately determine how they adapt shift their identities in the face of environmental threats. This is a good source to reference when examining how organizational identity changes overtime to adapt to a constantly changing world.

Diamond, Michael A. "Dimensions of Organizational Culture and beyond." Political Psychology 12, no. 3 (1991): 509-22. doi:10.2307/3791759.

This source discusses the intricacies of organizational culture. This source could be very helpful in understanding how organizational identity is ultimately formed around the culture that an organization has developed over time.

Voss, Zannie Giraud, Daniel M. Cable, and Glenn B. Voss. "Organizational Identity and Firm Performance: What Happens When Leaders Disagree about "Who We Are?"" Organization Science 17, no. 6 (2006): 741-55. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.txstate.edu/stable/25146074.

This article discusses how disagreements about an organizations identity among managers can have a negative impact on the organization. This article is a good source to examine how important it is for an organization to have a clear identity to ensure it operates consistently when pursuing all of its goals and that employees and customers are treated equally.

== Evaluation: ==

The first thing that grabs my attention in the "Issue network" article is how short it is.It only consists of 2 sections. One serving as an introduction and the second addressing the relationships between issue networks and Iron Triangles. After doing some research it became apparent as to why the article is so lacking in length; there is very little written data on what an Issue Network is. However, it is likely that what data is available could still serve to expand this article pertaining to specific details of issue networks in order to create a more comprehensive and respectable article.

For instance, when the article states, "Issue networks are an alliance of various interest groups and individuals who unite in order to promote a single issue in government policy" perhaps the word "various" can be elaborated into specific interest groups and their causes. The next sentence then follows to state that,"... many are active solely within the domain of the internet." It should be expanded on what the word "many" means in this situation. How many interest groups only work in the domain of the internet? What kinds of interest groups only work in the domain of the internet? What interest groups work outside the domain of the internet? Why do some interest groups work solely in the domain of the internet and others don't? These are just a few questions that could be addressed in order to eliminate the vague word "many" and provide a more complete article. Perhaps a whole new section could be dedicated towards identifying the Internet's role in the operation of Issue networks.

That sentence is then followed with, "Usually, issue networks push for a change in policy within the government bureaucracy. An example includes the wide ranging network of environmental groups and individuals who push for more environmental regulation in government policy." What is meant by "usually"? How often is usually and how do they push for a change in government bureaucracy? Are they often more successful than not in changing bureaucratic policy? What is the "wide ranging network" of pushing environmental regulation? Do they have names? It's apparent in the first few sentences of the article that there is plenty of room to expand and this sort of vagueness continues throughout the article.

In addition to the conflict of vague words the page has a notice that additional citations are needed, so that should be addressed. There is also a link to another page called policy network but it is broken. There is no article for policy network when it is clicked so this link should either be eliminated, or a substantial article must be written on policy network as well if it is to serve any purpose to the article of Issue network. Overall, the article needs a lot Bof work.

Annotated Bibliography:

Rodrigues, Maria Guadalupe. "Environmental Protection Issue Networks in Amazonia." Latin American Research Review 35, no. 3 (2000): 125-53. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.txstate.edu/stable/2692044.

The purpose of this article is to describe the role and importance of EPINs in Latin America. It focuses on how they interact in the community to promote environmental regulations with the government regimes and private interests in their communities.

Overman, E. Sam, and Don F. Simanton. "Iron Triangles and Issue Networks of Information Policy." Public Administration Review 46 (1986): 584-89.

This article describes the role of issue networks in influencing public policy within the constraints of iron triangles. It focuses particularly on the subject of automated data processing.

Sikkink, Kathryn. "Human Rights, Principled Issue-Networks, and Sovereignty in Latin America." International Organization 47, no. 3 (1993): 411-41. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.txstate.edu/stable/2706982.

This article focuses on the Human rights groups fighting for better treatment from governments of Latin America. The argues and supports the causes by arguing that the cause of human rights in the modern world has gained a sovereignty that is above that of government regimes.

Gormley, William T. "Regulatory Issue Networks in a Federal System." Polity 18, no. 4 (1986): 595-620.

This article focuses on the role and scopes of different issue networks in passing regulatory policies on a federal level. It also addresses the lack of informative studies to actually analyze the effects and impacts of these issue networks.

Young, Tamara V., Wayne D. Lewis, and Marla S. Sanders. "Structural Location and Reputed Influence in State Reading Policy Issue Networks." American Journal of Education 117, no. 1 (2010): 25-49.

This article focuses on the impacts of state policies and existing influences of local iron triangles on funding and influence over how reading should be taught and emphasized within a state’s educational policy.

Issue Network Intro

*I re-did the intro and I think it's a little better. Tell me what you guys think.*

Issue networks are an alliance of various interest groups and individuals who unite in order to promote a common cause or agenda in a way that influences government policy. Issue networks can be either domestic or international in scope depending on their collective goal. With the rise of the internet, many interest groups have turned to online resources, such as blogs and social media, to promote and spread their cause because of its low cost and high efficiency in outreach. An interest group’s tactics vary depending on their goals and purpose. In developed countries, issue networks often push for a change in policy within the government bureaucracy. An example includes the wide ranging network of environmental groups and individuals who push for more environmental regulation in government policy. Other issue networks may revolve around such controversial issues as abortion, gun ownership rights, and drug laws. In the most extreme circumstances issue networks may seek to achieve their means through violence, such as terrorist organizations looking to overthrow existing governments all together. In the U.S, the most common tactic of effective issue networks is the role they play in what is called Iron Triangles. This is the term used to describe the three way back and forth communication process between Congress, Bureaucracies, and the interest groups that make up an issue network where they discuss policy and agendas in order to compromise on solutions to satisIfy each others goals.

Interest groups

Interest groups are organizations that may be formed by constitutes of an issue network to help promote their cause. They usually focus on tactics of raising money to donate to political campaigns and lobbying politicians already elected into office. Forming these these organizations are often the most effective way for an issue network to influence government policy. Without them, it can be hard for the members of issue networks to unite as a whole in order to effectively make their demands heard. Interest groups play an integral part of Iron Triangle networks. They act as the voice of the people in the constant communication between themselves, legislatures, and bureaucracies.

Evaluation of Organizational Identity

The article for Organizational identity is so small at its current state that it is difficult to do much evaluating. Obviously the article needs to be expanded. I'm confident that a multitude of sections can be added to shed more light to readers on what exactly organizational identity is. In what is written in the article, there are a couple things that appear to need improvement. First, the bullet points need to be eliminated. They seem unnecessary and awkward in an opening summary. In doing so the opening summary should also be reworded to make the flow of the article more appealing to readers. Overall, the article needs a lot of work to serve as a legitimate reference to the subject matter of Organizational identity. On a positive note the opening paragraph does have three credible sources attributed to it, so there is at least a few good sources to serve for a starting point in research.