Stakeholder identity orientations: understanding the perceptions of a public university’s identity through the lenses of students, faculty, and staff

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the organizational identity orientations (IDOs) of members in the higher education context. We conducted a survey of students, faculty, and staff at a large public university to explore their perceptions of the university’s identity at a time of organizational change under new leadership and investigated how they compared on the individualistic, relational, and collectivistic IDOs. Analysis revealed that faculty and students perceived the university more positively and shared similar rankings of its values in comparison to staff. Additionally, the level of students’ collectivistic IDO was higher than that of faculty, and students’ relational IDO was higher than that of both faculty and staff. Lastly, the frequency of interaction among members of the same stakeholder group was negatively related to the relational IDO. The theoretical and practical implications of this study contribute to the literature on organizational identification and identity orientation among university stakeholders.