Strategy and Identities in Organizations

Abstract

This chapter reviews the literature on strategy and identities comparing three perspectives on their nature and mutual relationships. The first ‘entitative’ perspective considers both strategy and identity as elements that organizations, groups, and individuals ‘have’. The second ‘narrative’ perspective treats both strategies and identities as stories. Finally, the third ‘work’ perspective adopts a processual lens and views strategy and identity as constructed in interaction. While the entitative and narrative perspectives are well-established, the authors suggest that the most promising avenues for future research lie with the ‘work’ perspective, which offers a more fluid and dynamic vision of the nature of strategy and identity and their interaction. This perspective will also benefit from methodological innovations that can capture naturally occurring interactions.