2VanTonder.qxd


The vast majority of contemporary scholarly contributions on

the matter of identity within organisational settings address

t wo forms of identity namely corporate identity and

organisation identity. These concepts emerged from distinctly

different intellectual traditions with the former originating

from within the corporate communications and marketing

disciplines (cf. Alessandri, 2001; Balmer, 2001; Van Riel &

Balmer, 1997), while the latter is a more recent artefact of the

organisation theory and management disciplines (see for

example the Special Issue of the Academy of Management,

volume 25, issue 1). Although rare, organisational identity

has been approached also from the discipline of psychology

and in this regard mostly from within a systems

psychodynamic (cf. Czander, 1993; Diamond, 1993) or social

psychological framework (Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Haslam,

2001; Haslam, Van Knippenberg, Platow & Ellemers, 2003;

Hogg & Terry 2000a). During the past two decades scholarly

contributions in the corporate and/or organisation identity

areas have increased steadily (cf. Balmer & Stotvig, 1997;

Kiriakidou & Millward, 2000), to the extent that the Academy

of Management Review, The European Journal of Marketing

and the British Journal of Management have devoted focused

attention to the notions of corporate and organisation

identity. Identity in and of organisations is now a well-

established, but diversified discourse. 

Both corporate identity and organisation identity of course

are derivatives of the root concept “identity” (Van Tonder,

1987) although the contribution of the latter is rarely, if ever,

acknowledged. It is nonetheless useful to note that the term

identity is generally assumed to be a derivative of the Latin

word “idem” meaning “the same” (Abend, 1974), while

contemporary Oxford dictionaries of English in addition

describe it as the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

The concept’s first known occurrence in colloquial language

however dates back to approximately 1570 AD when it was

used as an expression to convey the quality or condition of

being the same, being absolutely or essentially similar and to

embody a sense of unity (Van Tonder, 1987). Erikson (1959)

described it as the person’s inner sense of sameness and

continuity of character. It was really Erikson (1956, 1959,

1968) through his enduring work with identity development

during childhood and adolescence that ensured that identity

became a household term. These definitions are an important

point of departure as they informed the tacit meaning

generally associated with the term and legitimise the very

general and often cited view that identity is a response to the

question “who am I?” (Schley & Wagenfield, 1979). However,

the term is more often used to refer to a person’s uniqueness,

solidarity, autonomy, continuity over time, and discreteness

(Van Tonder, 1987). This author postulates that these attributes

are manifestations of a dynamic, self-referential cognitive

gestalt or schema, which is best referred to as the “fact of

identity”. The latter is differentiated from the “sense of

identity”, which refers to a person’s sense of having or

possessing an identity i.e. his/her identity awareness (Abend,

1974; Van Tonder, 1987; 1999). To an extent the fact of identity

can be viewed as a more descriptive and empirically

observable account of the identity phenomenon (for example

John’s identity as seen from an interpersonal and outsider-

looking-on perspective), whereas the sense of identit y

constitutes the subjective awareness of possessing an identity

or otherwise (e.g. John’s identity as sensed by him from an

intrapersonal, reflective perspective).

Applications of the identity concept within organisational

settings however is substantially removed from this individual

identity perspective and although elements of an individual

psychological theory of identity may be surfacing in the

theoretical accounts of corporate and organisational identity,

this is not acknowledged by scholars in the marketing and

management sciences. 

Application of identity in organisational settings: Alternate

intellectual frameworks

Distinct literature streams have developed in respect of both the

constructs corporate identity and organisation identity and both

are characterised by the co-existence of several alternate

intellectual frameworks. 

With reference to the popular and highly commercialised

notion of corporate identity Balmer (1995) initially identified

seven conceptual groupings within the corporate identity

literature, but views of corporate identity have since clustered

around three (Van Riel & Balmer, 1997) and more recently two

literature streams or groupings (cf. Balmer & Wilson, 1998;

Van Tonder, 1999; Van Tonder & Lessing, 2003). From this

analysis of the literature it will be argued that these two

perspectives are differentiated on the basis of where they place

the emphasis and are therefore not considered to be mutually

exclusive. The first, which is also the more traditional,

established and prominent view, accentuates the visual and

design elements of the organisation as being the essence of

corporate identit y. It is t y pically defined as the visual

manifestation and projection of a desired identity – notably

through means such as the company’s name, logo, corporate

colours, tagline, slogans, and symbols, but also the physical

CL VAN TONDER1

clvt@eb.rau.ac.za

Department of Human Resources Management 

University of Johannesburg

ABSTRACT
During the past two decades a steady increase in scholarly contributions in the area of organisation identity have

been observed – to the point that the phenomenon is now the subject of a sustainable discourse in several disciplines.

Many theoretical and conceptual dilemmas however remain, largely as a result of the low incidence of empirical

research in the area. This study reports the results of an exploratory investigation that adapted Schley and

Wagenfield’s (1979) concept of identity for use in an organisational setting. Interviews were conducted with 152 top

managers representing 10 companies. The results indicate that organisational responses to the question “who am I?”

elicit distinctive organisational self-descriptions and some awareness of identity issues. 

Key words

Organisation, organisation identity, sense of identity

EXPLORING THE IDENTITY AND 

‘SENSE OF IDENTITY’ OF ORGANISATIONS 

12

SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 2006, 32 (3), 12-25

SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 2006, 32 (3), 12-25

1 Helpful comments by Prof Alexander S. Haslam on an earlier draft of this paper, and the constructive comments of the anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged.



facilities of the organisation. These visual elements or

components provide the leverage through which the

perceptions of various stakeholders can be intentionally

influenced and it is argued, perhaps over simplistically, that

when stakeholders identif y and accept the organisation’s

visible identity, sales of its products and services (in fact its

market position in general) are greatly improved, which in

turn enhances medium term success prospects. The second

school of thought equates corporate identit y to the

organisation’s innate or distinct personality or character (cf.

Balmer, 1995; Glover, 1993; Olins, 1996; Van Rekom, 1997; Van

Riel & Balmer, 1997) and tends to emphasise the organisation’s

mission, philosophy and culture as core components of the

corporate identity. Those who support this view argue that the

visual attributes of the organisation (the primary focus of the

first school of thought) are merely manifestations of the

underlying, distinctive character of the organisation and

consequently alignment and congruence bet ween innate

organisation character and outward appearance is a central

concern. Generally though, corporate identity is viewed as

those attributes of the organisation that are purposefully

employed to project and portray the organisation to various

stakeholders, predominantly through planned and persuasive

visual means. 

Calls for a greater emphasis and focus to be placed on the
organisation’s innate or distinct personality or character (the
second school of thought) have been made regularly and it has
been argued that who and what the organisation is, is more
than the mere visual attributes of the organisation (Balmer,
1995), … that too much emphasis has been placed on the world
outside the company and not enough on the world inside it
(Olins, 1996, p. 18). Glover (1993) suggested this relationship
bet ween the t wo distinct schools of thought with his
metaphor of a “reversible raincoat”; the external surface of the
raincoat relates to the visual elements of corporate identity
(the first school of thought) while the internal surface is
concerned with the innate character of the organisation. Apart
from the relatedness of the inside and the outside, which
conveys absolute alignment and seamless integration between
the foci, the author also suggests that the “internal” should
enjoy precedence when he argues that the inside should
become the outside. 

The second organisational application of the identit y concept

is centred on the construct organisation identit y, which is

capt ured by the “inside” of Glover’s “raincoat”. Theoretical

diversit y is also a hallmark of the literat ure stream associated

with this application of the identit y concept. Four salient

streams of thinking were initially identified from the sparse

organisational identit y literat ure base (Van Tonder, 1999) but

more recently these were narrowed down to three i.e. the

psychoanalytic, social identit y, and classical approaches to

organisat ion ident it y (Van Tonder, 2004a). The

psychoanaly t ic approach, for example Czander (1993),

Diamond (1993), and more recently Brown and Starkey

(2000), is probably more appropriately referred to as a

systems psychodynamic perspect ive that applies

psychoanalytic concepts and theories to the organisation and

views organisation identit y inter alia as the unconscious

foundat ion of organisat ion cult ure, an inter pretat ive

framework from which the organisation can be analysed and

the motivation and behaviour of its members can be

understood, and an unconscious defence against anxiet y. The

social identit y approach (cf. Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Haslam,

2001; Haslam, Van Knippenberg, Platow & Ellemers, 2003;

Hogg & Terry, 2000a) argues that the individual and by

implication also the organisation (when viewed as the unit of

analysis) seeks a positive social identit y and does so by

attempting to affiliate with a group or groups (or industries

or associations if at the organisational level) that are

sufficiently attractive to seek belonging to it. The classical

approach (which comprises work by Albert & Whetten, 1985;

Dutton & Dukerich, 1991; Van Tonder, 1987, 1999) was

described as such (cf. Van Tonder, 1999; Van Tonder & Lessing,

2003) because it more closely approximates (and is grounded

in) one or more of the psychological parameters of Erikson’s

(1959, 1968) original concept of identit y, and is more

pertinently concerned with the identit y of the organisation-

as-organisation (as unit of analysis). Most scholars residing

within this category t ypically take Albert and Whetten’s

(1985) definit ion of organisat ion ident it y as point of

departure and it is usually defined as those feat ures of 

the organisat ion that are considered core, dist inct ive 

and enduring. 

Contemporary organisational and management practice

invests heavily in corporate identity and increasingly in the

related concept of corporate branding while awareness of

organisation identity is exceptionally limited (Van Tonder,

2004b). From the extant literature, however, several parallels

can be observed for example between those corporate identity

scholars who view identity as the innate personality or

character of the organisation, and those proponents of the

classical approach who equate organisation identity to the

core, distinctive and enduring features of the organisation

(see Table 1). Indeed, Alessandri (2001) has commented on the

“striking similarity” between Van Rekom’s (1997) view of

corporate identity and the widely accepted definition of

organisation identity proposed by Albert and Whetten (1985)

approximately t wo decades ago. Hecht’s (1993) commu-

nication theory of identity, which views organisation identity

as a process of organisational communication and self-

expression through which the organisation exchanges

messages about itself, was initially viewed as a separate theory

stream (Van Tonder, 1999). When compared to the existing

theory streams, Hecht’s theory appears to represent a bridge

between the more polarised theory platforms of corporate and

organisation identity. 

Relevance of identity concepts in an organisational setting

Identit y within organisational settings has become a

consequential issue for several reasons. With corporate identity

SENSE OF IDENTITY 13

TABLE 1 

TWO PRIMARY LTERATURE STREAMS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Literature Stream 1: Corporate Identity Literature Stream 2: Organisation Identity

1. Visual & design focus 2. Innate or distinct Bridging perspective 1. The psychoanalytic 2. Social identity school 3. Classical school

personality school

Halloran (1985) Ackerman (1984) Hecht (1993) Diamond (1993) Ashforth & Mael (1989) Albert & Whetten (1985)

Olins (1990) Abratt (1989) Czander (1993) Haslam (2001) Dutton & Dukerich 

Balmer & Stotvig Balmer (1995) Brown & Starkey (2000) Haslam, Van  (1991); Dutton, Dukerich 

(1997) Knippenberg, Platow & & Harquail, (1994)

Ellemers, (2003)

Melewar & Navalekar Kiriakidou & Millward Hogg & Terry (2000a) Van Tonder (1987, 1999)

(2002) (2000)



changes more often than not commanding astronomical

financial resources (cf. Kohli & Hemnes, 1995), the risk of

ineffectual utilisation of otherwise valuable corporate resources

would certainly warrant more attention. A particularly strong

argument is the taken-for-granted and implicit association of

corporate and organisation identit y with improved

performance, financial rewards, and organisational success and

failure (e.g. Ackerman, 1984; Balmer & Dinnie, 1999; Chajet,

1989; Labich, 1994; Melewar, Saunders & Balmer, 2001; Simões &

Dibb, 2001). One of the more prominent assertions in this

regard is that which argues that identity performs a critical role

in organisational survival and could facilitate hyper longevity

(De Geus, 1997; Van Tonder, 2004b, 2004c). These views accord

a more profound role to identity in organisational settings than

has previously been the case and clearly underscore the

relevance of organisational concepts of identity. Except for

preliminary empirical observations (De Geus, 1997; Van Tonder,

1999) support for this identity-performance relationship is yet to

be demonstrated (Van Tonder, & Lessing, 2003). 

Following in part from this generally assumed relationship

between notions of identity and organisational functioning

and performance, we furthermore note a significant upsurge of

interest in identity in both scholarly and business quarters,

evidenced in part in the prolific writing on the subject (Balmer

& Stotvig, 1997; Christensen & Askegaard, 2001; Kiriakidou &

Millward, 2000). Several reasons have been proposed for this

heightened interest in corporate identity. Balmer and Gray

(2000) for example argued that this greater “identit y”

awareness among senior business managers follows from

environmental trends such as accelerating product life cycles,

deregulation, privatisation, an increasing competition, and

several others. Most scholars however view it as a response by

companies to differentiate themselves in a changing and

increasingly competitive environment, and through which the

many benefits assumed to be associated with a positive and

strong corporate identity in the marketplace, can be secured

(Balmer & Gray, 2000; Melewar & Navalekar, 2002; Melewar,

Saunders & Balmer, 2001). An equally plausible reason for the

salience of the identity issue in managerial quarters has been

suggested by Christensen and Askegaard (2001), who argued

that marketing scholars and practitioners have worked

consistently at keeping identity on the managerial agenda. The

reasons for a similar upsurge of interest in organisation

identity, in turn, were suggested to relate to the rediscovery of

the importance of “meaning” in organisational functioning

(Albert, Ashforth & Dutton, 2000), and the insight into the

character and behaviour of organisations that the identity and

identification concepts offer (Gioia, Shultz & Corley, 2000).

While the reasons for this upsurge in interest are diffuse and

multifaceted, the fact remains that identity is beginning to

occupy a level of prominence in corporate settings that calls

for increased scholarly attention. 

Inherently problematic identity concepts: The need for

empiricism

Regardless of the reasons advanced, the rapidly growing interest

in identity within organisational settings is posing a substantial

challenge, for it is accompanied by a mushrooming yet largely

anecdotal and quasi-theoretical literature base (Balmer & Gray,

2000; Melewar, Saunders, & Balmer, 2001) which is

substantially deficient in the area of empirical research

(Alessandri, 2001; Melewar, 2001; Van Riel, Van den Ban, &

Heijmans, 2001). This is of concern as it suggests that

organisational applications of identit y are premised on

assumptions and a weak scientific platform. This is in fact borne

out by the literature… scholarly work in both the areas of

corporate identity and organisation identity are beset with

conceptual and definitional problems, which Van Tonder and

Lessing (2003) asserted, stemmed largely from the inherent

ambiguity of the root concept “identity” but also arise from the

lack of a coherent and integrative theory framework. 

Divergent views on the meaning of the corporate identity concept

and definitional problems were a consistent feat ure of

contributions past and present (Balmer & Greyser, 2003; Balmer

& Wilson, 1998; Burrows, 1988; Shee 1988, Van Rekom, 1997; Van

Riel & Balmer, 1997; Van Tonder, 1999). These criticisms are also

noted for the organisation identity concept, which is not only

abstract and inherently ambiguous but lacks an adequate

theoretical framework to guide research and practice (Albert &

Whetten, 1985). Contemporary scholars acknowledge the

complexity of the organisation identity concept (Gioia et al.,

2000; Hogg & Terry, 2000b), and comment on its ambiguous

nature (Albert et al., 2000; Pratt & Foreman, 2000a), as well as

the lack of clarity on the role and purpose of the organisation

identity concept in a broader theoretical framework (Van Tonder

& Lessing, 2003). The observed diversity in perspectives is

probably the most consistent point of concurrence among

contemporary organisation identity scholars (Hogg & Terry,

2000b; Pratt & Foreman, 2000a), who are essentially still

concerned with the meaning parameters of a complex, abstract

and vague organisation identity concept (Albert et al, 2000;

Hogg & Terry, 2000b; Scott & Lane 2000; Van Tonder, 1987, 1999;

Van Tonder & Lessing, 2003).

The ambiguity and formlessness of the identity concept 

were restated with monotonous regularity over the past 

two decades and inconsistency in the meaning and application

of identit y concepts in organisational settings persist

(Christensen & Askegaard, 2001). The lean empirical 

harvest in both the corporate and organisation identity 

fields is a major contributing factor to the observed

theoretical diversity and the proliferation of a variety of

identity definitions that differ substantially in meaning. To

escape from the somewhat sterile conceptual debates that have

characterised the identity discourse to date (and with it the

tendency to become ensnared in these debates), a concerted

focus on empirical research appears to be needed most (Van

Tonder & Lessing, 2003). 

Focusing on organisation identity in particular, it is clear that

the dilemma, with which the researcher wrestles, is one of an

increasingly popular yet abstract and vague concept. This

situation is further complicated by the existence of multiple

theoretical positions and interpretation perspectives for which

very little in the form of an empirical platform is available. It is

reasonable to conclude that these considerations would have

severely hampered the operationalisation of the organisation

identity concept and hence inhibited empirically oriented

research. Ultimately the search for appropriate theoretical

parameters and a focused and coherent theory leads through

empirical confirmation and disconfirmation i.e. the process of

‘selecting’ and ‘deselecting’ theoretical claims on the basis of

empiricism. Judging by the current state of the extant literature,

it seems that an appropriate point of departure would be to

empirically explore and delineate the meaning parameters of the

organisation identity concept. Mindful of the diversity in

theoretical perspective, this is bound to entail a series of studies.

The latter in turn should provide the platform from which to

consider the structural relations of the concept and in this

manner pave the way for the development of empirically-

substantiated theories of organisation identity. Against this

setting the modest purpose of this study was to engage in an

initial empirical exploration of the organisation identity

phenomenon. As such, it represents one attempt at introducing

some empiricism in the predominantly conceptual character

that has become a hallmark of the discourse on the subject. The

ensuing discussion further elaborates on the scope,

methodology and findings of the study. 

VAN TONDER14



RESEARCH DESIGN

Approach to the research

The paradigmatic framework from within which the study was

approached derives predominantly from the interpretive

sociological research paradigm (Burrell & Morgan, 1979).

Although not entirely clear from the theoretical positions

highlighted earlier, most of these theoretical positions

suggest, indeed some implicitly assume, that organisation

identity is concerned with meaning in and of organisations. It

is therefore primarily a social phenomenon – one that is

construed and enacted through the perceptions, cognitions

and interactions of organisational members. It is presumed to

be constructed, more specifically, during social discourse and

interaction among colleagues in the organisational setting.

Consequently, and as Morgan (1997) argues, reality is more a

result of members’ (employees’) actions than they may

recognise. Accordingly, whether an organisation possesses an

identity (or otherwise), depends on how it is viewed by those

who constitute the “organisation” and who are engaged in its

activities. Evidence of the organisation identity phenomenon

is encapsulated in employees and other stakeholders’ views

and feelings about the organisation and will manifest in the

statements, comments or expressions they provide, for

example, in response to broad open-ended questions relating

to the organisation and the research topic. Subjectivity in the

traditional sense is not a concern as it is precisely the

idiosyncratic meanings that each employee constructs from

repeated exposure to social interactions within the

organisation over time that ultimately converge to define the

collectively shared meaning str uctures from which an

organisation and therefore organisation identity is defined

and enacted. 

From this vantage point the research objective is best pursued

in a naturalistic setting where the phenomenon is “lived” and

reified (assuming it exists). The support base on which

conclusions with regard to the existence of organisational

identity (or otherwise) will hinge, can be strengthened by

engaging more rather than less organisational “respondents”.

Methodologies that generate identity-relevant data and enable

the identification of socially constructed meanings that have a

bearing on the phenomenon, supplement this approach.

Consistent with a modernist value-framework (cf. Denzin &

Lincoln, 2005), the study combines an open-ended, semi-

structured interview technique with careful and rigorous

quasi-statistical analysis of the data so obtained (cf. Becker,

1958; 1998). 

Operationalising organisation identity

Our theoretical point of depart ure is informed by the

‘classical’ school of thought as it more closely approximates

the time-honoured and well-established psychological

tradition with regard to the meaning of individual or personal

identity, and the more common meaning ascribed to it in

colloquial language. Of particular importance, is that this

approach focuses on the organisation as unit of analysis and

not the individual or group. From within this tradition

organisation identity has been defined variously as those

features of the organisation that are distinctive, core, and enduring

(Albert & Whetten 1985), and the organisation’s distinctive

character (Van Tonder, 1999). Closely related to this position, is

the school of thought hailing from the corporate identity

tradition (cf. Table 1), that views identity as the organisation’s

distinctive or distinguishing attributes (Balmer & Gray, 1999;

Balmer & Stotvig, 1997; Elsbach & Kramer, 1996). None of these

definitions were previously subjected to formal testing or used

in an empirical setting. Indeed, although concept ual

parameters of the phenomenon are suggested by these scholars,

the essential nature of the phenomenon and indeed its

existential position remain unclear. 

Of the definitions residing within the classical tradition, that of

Albert and Whetten (1985) is more clearly structured and

popularly subscribed to. However, given the fairly specific

boundaries that this definition imposes on what identity is and

is not, it was considered as potentially too delimiting at 

this preliminary stage – given the broad exploratory objective 

of this study. 

Schley and Wagenfield’s (1979, p. 20) open-ended view of

identity as the totality of the response to the question “who am

I?”, applied to the organisation, is widely accepted by both

corporate identity and organisation identity scholars as a valid

definition of identity (Albert et al., 2000; Badaracco, 1998;

Balmer, 1995; Pratt & Foreman, 2000b; Van Tonder & Lessing,

2003). It is sufficiently open-ended to avoid imposing any

meaning parameters on potential respondents (for example

those implicit in the Albert et al., 1985, definition) yet may prove

too broad to be of any practical or theoretical significance. The

Schley and Wagenfield (1979) definition was consequently used

as base definition and modified to incorporate the notion of

“distinctive character” (Van Tonder, 1999). For this study

organisation identit y was consequently defined as the

organisation’s distinctive character as conveyed by its (the

organisation’s) response to the question “who am I?”. Other than

limiting the “who am I”-answer, to statements that convey

“distinctive character”, this articulation does not impose

constraints on how the respondent wishes to define or articulate

this distinctiveness. 

Respondents

Organisation identity is considered an organisation-level

phenomenon i.e. an attribute of the system-as-whole (Wells, 1980)

or the holistic organisation (the organisation as unit of analysis).

To establish whether organisations do possess such identities, a

number of respondents or organisations are required. Being a

social collective, an organisation cannot be substituted for or

indeed be represented by any individual employee. The latter,

technically, cannot provide a valid perspective on an organisation-

level phenomenon (e.g. identity) that hitherto has been unknown,

with uncertain parameters and which previously has not been

demonstrated to exist in any convincing empirical sense.

Moreover, conducting interpretive phenomenological interviews

with an entire organisation is unpractical. The closest

approximation of an organisation in holistic terms would be a

constituency that is part of the organisation and who, in focus and

activity, engages and hence understands the organisation to some

extent in this holistic sense. It was argued that the top

management team of an organisation (the group Chief

Executive/Managing Director and immediate subordinates) best

fit this requirement. By virtue of their position and role these

individuals have an overarching view of the entire organisation

and interact on a daily basis with the broader operating context

(e.g. similar institutions, competitors, stakeholders and

regulators). When compared to less senior employees, they are in

a better position to perform valid inter-organisational

comparisons – a necessary platform for arriving at conclusions

about organisational distinctiveness or otherwise. 

Using a purposive sampling method, the current study

attempted to secure a sample of organisations from excellent and

poor performing stock exchange listed companies. A list of

possible participating companies was compiled on the basis of

the financial performance rankings provided by the Business

Times Top 100 Companies Survey, which rank orders the top

performing and worst performing companies on the

Johannesburg Stock Exchange on an annual basis. Using rank

order positions for a 4-year period, a total number of 221 eligible

companies were identified and each was approached for

participation in the study. Ultimately the participation of only

10 companies from seven industries was secured, which were

rank ordered on the basis of their citation in top performing and

worst performing categories for the 4-year period. 

SENSE OF IDENTITY 15



The study was consequently restricted to top management teams

of the 10 companies and, where the organisation comprised

several independent business units that were still managed as

part of the “organisation” as opposed to a group or holding

company, the chief executive officers or managing directors of

these units were included in the definition of “top

management”. Four of the six companies that participated in the

research fitted this parameter and the number of interviews

typically ranged between 17 and 31.

Naturally this delimitation of participants meant that any

account of an organisation’s identity, if demonstrated, will only

reflect the views of this constituency and not that of the entire

organisation, but it should nonetheless provide a reasonable

approximation of the organisation-level phenomenon. Engaging

the entire organisation in a study of organisation identity would

be a productive avenue for future research once the essential

nature and/or general parameters of the phenomenon are

clearer. In anticipation of possible difficulties with the

availability of executives, the study attempted to include all

managers at these levels for the companies participating in the

study. In this manner 152 executives were engaged in the

research (see Table 2 for characteristics of participating

organisations and respondents). 

Method of data collection 

In order to generate identity-relevant data that will enable the

identification of socially constructed meanings that have a

bearing on the identity phenomenon, an in-depth interview

(semi-structured), incorporating the Twenty Statements Test

(Rees & Nicholson, 1994) was used. This method was considered

useful because the empirical reality of organisation identity is

an unknown parameter and, as Bridges (1992, p. viii) argues,

organisational character (which is often equated to organisation

identity or organisation personality) is enormously subtle and

complex and techniques for identif ying organizational character

are still evolving. At the same time its use is consistent with

previous organisation identity research among leaders (Wright,

1994), as well as Downey’s (1986, p. 8) emphasis on open-ended

investigative approaches for identity research. 

The Twenty Statements Test (TST) is essentially an incomplete

sentence instrument that requires the respondent to provide

twenty different statements in response to the question “Who

am I”. The instrument yields statements or “answers” (self-

identifications) that are amenable to content analysis (can be

coded and quantified). It was first used in 1950 with students at

the University of Iowa as part of a study on the effects of

unfavourable evaluations by others on the individual’s self-

concept, but has been used in different applications and contexts

(Rees & Nicholson, 1994). These authors argue that it is favoured

over other instruments because of its capacity to reflect the

salience of identity facets. Its appeal is enhanced by the fact that

it allows respondents to define the subject under review in a

personal and unconstrained fashion i.e. he/she can freely select

and nominate whatever information he/she regards as pertinent

or salient in response to the “who am I?” question. Of course the

particular frame of reference of the respondent may influence

the nature and content nominated in response to the question

and consequently the validity of the TST can be questioned. In

this study, however, the organisation is the unit of analysis and

individual managers’ responses will be pooled to establish trends

for the organisation on the basis of collective frequencies. This

procedure should minimise this source of variance and improve

validity. A primary benefit is that the instrument does not

impose interpretation categories in an a priori fashion. Content

analysis as a method for extracting meaning that relates to the

phenomenon can therefore be utilised and the researcher is

consequently not constrained in the use and application of

alternative interpretation categories. The TST was consequently

employed to elicit unaided, self-definitions from organisations

as represented by their top executives. To convey this focus on

the organisation the question “who am I?” was formulated as

“who am I (company X)?” where “company X” was substituted

with the name of the participating company. 

Procedure

At the onset of the interviews, executives of the participating

organisations were briefed on the purpose, nature and expected

duration of the interviews. A blank copy of the interview

schedule which incorporated the TST was provided to the

executive at the onset of the interview after which he/she was

provided with the single instruction to “Please describe your

company’s distinctive character by means of twenty different

statements in response to the question “who am I (company

X)?” Self-identif ying statements nominated by individual

executives were written down in a verbatim manner. Once the

interviewee has nominated the first five or so statements the

researcher read the provided statements back to the respondent

VAN TONDER16

TABLE 2

SUMMARY FEATURES OF PARTICIPATING COMPANIES

Company Performance Industry Core business Total assets1 Size of Number of 

Ranking workforce executives 

interviewed

CO1 5 Financial: Banks & other Controlling company of a number of banks and diversified 1545700 37000 31

financial services entities in the financial services field.

CO2 7 Industrial: Stores (retail) Holding company involved in retailing and distribution of 2592 1600 6

building materials. 

CO3 10 Mining:Gold producers Operating gold mines. 8599 11000 25

CO4 1 Mining producers – Coal Operating bituminous and anthracite collieries 30506 7500 6

CO5 2 Industrial:Stores (retail) Retailing of clothing, footwear, accessories and home textiles, 37455 17000 10

including the manufacturing of clothing 

CO6 9 Industrial:Food Processing of natural protein and related products (e.g. meat 7401 4000 17

and leather)

CO8 8 Industrial: Pharmaceutical Holding company which own and manage hospitals and 26298 14000 10

& Medical medical clinics

CO9 3 Industrial:Stores (retail) Investment holding company with supermarkets and 25261 28300 29

hypermarkets as subsidiaries

CO10 4 Financial:Banks & other Banking, controlling/holding of interests in several related 101145 1500 11

financial services businesses in the financial services field

CO12 5 Industrial:Food Trawling, processing and marketing of deep-sea fish 4965 3600 7

(primarily hake)

1 ZAR 100 000’s



to confirm accuracy and to establish confidence and trust in the

researcher’s procedure. This procedure was repeated when the

respondent appeared unable to contribute further statements

and to facilitate the conclusion of the interview. In essence the

TST allows the executives to provide a number of self-

identif ying statements which are then “pooled” for each

participating organisation and subjected to analysis. A few

randomly selected examples of self-identif ying statements

nominated by executives are provided in Table 3. 

Data Analysis

Basic content analysis (Crabtree & Miller, 1992) was selected

as vehicle for analysing the “who-am-I” statements generated

by the executives and standard coding practices were

followed. An evolving codebook approach was utilised to

organise observations for subsequent interpretation. In order

for descriptive categories to emerge, an open-ended approach

to analysis was followed, which in this study utilised a single

phrase (“short sentence”) as unit of meaning and analysis.

The code list was augmented with every new or unique

descriptive organisational feat ure that emerged and the final

consolidated codebook was used to revisit and code all

phrases/statements. As the focus of the st udy was on

organisations (as opposed to individuals), the quantification

of responses per organisat ion and the calculat ion of

frequencies of occurrence assumed a central role (cf. Miles &

Huberman, 1994). This was accomplished by allocating a

value of (“1”) for each occurrence of a descriptive feat ure in

a statement and the number of occurrences summated for

each respondent in each category. To compile company

specific frequencies, the frequencies per descriptive category

for all respondents from a specific company were combined

to arrive at “total company responses per categor y”. However, as

companies differed in terms of the number of respondents

who represented them in the research, the pooled frequencies

were converted and expressed as a proportion (percentage) of

that company’s total response set. This procedure was

followed for all descriptive categories for each of the 10

participating companies. In this manner the responses of 152

executives were consolidated into 10 “new” organisational

participants – each with a range of responses in various

descriptive categories. This “new” dataset now enabled what

Hofstede, Bond and Luk (1993, p. 487) refer to as an

ecological analysis - as opposed to a pan cultural analysis

where the data of all respondents are simply pooled with no

regard for the respondent’s organisational affiliation.

As a second stage, the company responses for the different

descriptive categories were subjected to cluster analysis – a

formal procedure for grouping variables or sampling units

(Rosenthal & Rosnow, 1991). Its main purpose is to define the

structure of the data by sorting the most similar objects

(observations, respondents or other entities) into categories or

groups according to natural relationships (Hair, Anderson,

Tatham & Black, 1998). Cluster analysis is similar to factor

analysis in the sense that it identifies the underlying structure

in the dataset and is effectively a data reduction procedure.

The two techniques do however differ in meaningful ways.

Unlike factor analysis which is primarily concerned with the

grouping of variables, cluster analysis groups objects. The

application parameters for the two procedures also differ. So,

for example, clustering does not require a minimum of five

observations or subjects per variable as factor analysis does

(Bryman & Cramer, 1994). Most important is that cluster

analysis is a descriptive, atheoretical and noninferential

procedure that regularly reveals relationships that are not

discernable through other multivariate techniques (Hair et al.,

1998) – it is, as Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 245) indicate, 

a methodology that helps “…the analyst see ‘what goes 

with what’”. It is therefore ideally suited as an explo-

ratory technique. 

Using Ward’s method (Hair et al., 1998), which employs

Euclidian distance in a stepwise hierarchical procedure,

cluster structures were extracted from the dataset which

comprised 164 categories or “variables”. Cluster scores 

were then calculated by summating proportional values

(response frequencies which have been expressed as

percentages) on all descriptive feat ures that constit uted 

a specific cluster. In this manner cluster scores were calcu-

lated for each participating company, on each and all 

clusters identified during the analysis. Descriptive features

that did not form part of the structure revealed by cluster

analysis were henceforth ignored.

RESULTS

Of the 7270 statements obtained from the 10 organisational

respondents in response to the “who am I” question, cluster

analysis retained 164 descriptive categories and produced a

dendrogram (note 2) consisting of six hierarchical layers (see

Table 4). 

SENSE OF IDENTITY 17

TABLE 3

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES OF RESPONSES TO THE QUESTION “WHO AM I (COMPANY X)?”

Company Line1 Statement2 Code(s)3 Category description

CO1 892 [CO1] is… A large and cumbersome organisation 15.16.2 Size: Large

CO2 3317 [CO2] is… Low profile 15.37 Low key/humble/low profile/understated

CO3 2721 [CO3] is… The work force generally is pretty multi-skilled 22.4.12 Human Resources: Multi-skilling

CO4 1584 [CO4] is… Has shown much growth over the past 26 years 8.8 History of growth

CO5 1567 [CO5] is… Best store for cosmetics in the country –  13.4.316.1 Differentiation: ”Best...”Range of products/services (wide)

offers the best range in terms of cosmetics

CO6 392 [CO6] is… Is in transition 30.5 Incomplete change/ongoing/in transition/constant change

CO8 3537 [CO8] is… Is a hospital company that manages private hospitals 4.1 Core business: description

CO9 26 [CO9] is… is noticeably different in terms of merchandising 15.3 Operational style: Differentiation

CO10 1024 [CO10] is… A niche player 15.2 Operational style: Niche player

CO12 421 [CO12] is… Internationally well known 7 Image (external/”corporate image”) and reputation

1 Corresponds with line/statement number in dataset

2 A total of 7270 phrases were identified and coded

3 Corresponds with category number in codebook



Returning to the 10 CE clusters (level E) it is noticeable that each

of the 10 companies dominated a specific cluster i.e. had the

highest score, comparatively speaking, on one of the 10 CE

clusters (see Table 5). Summary descriptions of these highest

score clusters per company, are presented in Table 6. These

cluster descriptions indicate the distinguishing features of each

participating organisation relative to the group of participating

organisations and reveal organisations as distinctive entities -

even within the same industry. Examples that illustrate this

principle are companies CO1 and CO10 (both in the banking

sector) and CO3 and CO4 (both from the mining sector). 

TABLE 6 

DISTINCTIVE ORGANISATIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTIONS (CE-CLUSTERS)

Company Company description derived from CE-clusters (cluster with

the highest score)

CO1 A company with a strong stakeholder focus and relations

emphasis (particularly on public relations) that is characterised

by consistency, democratic processes, a tendency towards

informality, a cost focus and hard work (Cluster CE10)

CO2 A focused, community-oriented, competitive company 

(Cluster CE1)

CO3 A vision driven, unique, risk-orientated, dynamic and charismatic

company with a strong results focus, but highly susceptible to

variation in economic conditions (Cluster CE5)

CO4 A company with clear character and a sense of unity, aggressively

on the acquisition trial, with a low key, understated profile

(Cluster CE3)

CO5 A stable, progressive and non-conforming company with a strong

market orientation and a solid history (currently in a

rejuvenation phase and undergoing change) (Cluster CE7)

CO6 A very large, diversified business with world-class quality

standards and products, struggling with past leadership issues

and current performance, and currently in a survival stage

(Cluster CE8)

CO8 A confident, powerful, and large company with a strong results

focus and which is honest / transparent in its conduct (Cluster

CE4)

CO9 A caring, people-oriented company, strongly focused on

relationships with consumers and stakeholders, and generally

regarded as a trendsetter (Cluster CE2)

CO10 A dominant Afrikaans, opportunistic, experienced and

technology driven company, with political undertones and

currently is undergoing restructuring. (Cluster CE9)

CO12 A sophisticated, continuously improving company with high

quality service/products and standards (Cluster CE6)

During open coding it was observed that respondents

occasionally used explicit “identit y” terminolog y. These

identity-responses were isolated within the overall dataset with

the objective of surfacing sub-categories of meaning, and

analysing relationships among these sub-categories of

meaning. For this purpose a further or second cluster analysis

was undertaken. Figure 1 displays the dendrogram generated

by this analysis (following Ward’s method and using Euclidian

distances in a stepwise hierarchical procedure with the 20

descriptive sub-categories). As these clusters appeared to reflect

the organisation’s awareness of its identity, they were labelled

sense-of-identity clusters – following Erikson’s (1968, p. 324)

use of the phrase not only with regard to individuals, but also

in terms of groups and nations (e.g. a national sense of

identity). The sense-of-identity categories are indicated on the

horizontal axis with codes ranging from 6 to 6.2.4, while the

VAN TONDER18

TABLE 4 

HIERARCHY OF CLUSTERS EXTRACTED FROM THE DATASET

Level of clustering1 Designated Label Number of clusters/ Cluster meaning Example Differentiation & 

categories Integration

6th clustering: G level CG clusters 4 Larger domains of economic Financial Services Convergence (greater 

activity similarity)

�

5th clustering: F level CF clusters 7 Industry Banking �

4th clustering: E level CE clusters 10 Organisation A specific bank e.g. CO 10 ��

3rd clustering: D level CD clusters 15 Major divisions/SBU’s Vehicle financing

2nd clustering: C level CC clusters 22 Operational divisions Retail banking �

1st clustering: B level CB clusters 37 Departments Capital management �

Data categories Categories (coded) 164 Not applicable - �
Divergence (greater 

dissimilarity)

1 Levels of clustering represent a continuum with bipolar extremities being maximum divergence and maximum convergence or dissimilarity among clusters. At the lowest level of clustering i.e.

at “B” level clustering, maximum divergence (or maximum dissimilarity) is observed between clusters. At levels C, D and higher, clusters increasingly converge i.e. reflect increasing similarity.

Near maximum similarity is observed at the G level of clustering while maximum similarity is obtained when all clusters collapse into a single cluster (the next higher level above G level clusters –

not indicated). 

TABLE 5 

CLUSTER SCORES (CE-CLUSTERS) PER ORGANISATION (EXPRESSED AS PERCENATGES) 

Company Cluster scores per company (proportions expressed as %)

CE1 CE2 CE3 CE4 CE5 CE6 CE7 CE8 CE9 CE10

CO1 10,83 33,16 1,64 3,28 2,46 5,74 3,28 13,95 8,37 17,07

CO2 23,74 21,58 5,03 2,15 2,15 2,87 4,31 7,91 3,59 10,79

CO3 8,58 10,01 1,78 6,08 10,91 2,32 4,47 11,27 4,29 11,80

CO4 4,43 13,92 12,65 3,16 2,53 1,89 3,16 10,12 5,06 6,96

CO5 3,53 26,10 1,76 1,76 5,75 7,07 11,94 17,25 2,21 5,30

CO6 6,44 21,56 2,52 3,64 5,88 3,36 5,60 38,65 3,36 13,72

CO8 9,30 29,76 1,39 10,23 8,37 4,18 2,79 13,02 2,79 8,83

CO9 15,35 45,00 2,98 4,32 3,42 2,68 2,23 7,30 1,93 10,73

CO10 11,15 23,04 1,48 4,08 7,06 7,43 2,23 7,43 12,63 10,40

CO12 15,38 28,44 4,14 0 3,55 18,34 1,18 15,97 0,59 8,28



categories Id-A, Id-B and Id-C represent higher level clusters.

The distance between the identity categories (including that

between higher level clusters Id-A to Id-C) on the horizontal

axis, serve as a measure of similarity between the items or

categories (cf. Hair et al., 1998). The paired items “6” and

“6.1.2” for example are very similar because of their close

proximit y, yet differ substantially from cluster Id-A

(comprising items “6.2.4” and “6.1”). This specific example

suggests that identity in its most common organisational usage

(“6”) and corporate identit y (“6.1.2”) is perceived by

respondents as being effectively synonymous … that identity is

commonly associated with (or seldom differentiated from)

“corporate identity”. 

Quite distinct from this, is the organisational sense of unit y

or solidarit y (“6.2.4”) and possession of a clear and integrated

character or personalit y (“6.1”). These categories are more

closely aligned with the notion of “organisation identit y” as

conventionally defined (cf. Albert & Whetten, 1985; Schley &

Wagenfield, 1979; Van Tonder, 1999; Van Tonder & Lessing,

2003). Moreover, the three higher level clusters or categories

suggest different identit y stat uses where the first, Id-A,

appears to relate to a sense of adequate or healthy identit y

and therefore a “positive” identit y stat us, while Id-C suggests

an inadequate or deficient identit y. The Id-B cluster appears

to represent an intermediate state of diffused or unclear

identit y and is therefore suggested to be a less serious

condition as that indicated by the Id-C cluster. Both the Id-B

and Id-C clusters therefore appear to represent “negative”

identit y stat uses, which are differentiated only by the extent

or severit y of the identit y problem. This perspective is

bolstered by the data presented in Table 7, which conveys 

the frequency of explicit identit y-statements expressed 

as percentages (proportions) of overall company responses 

to the “who am I?” question. Generally these proportions

were very small, and in the case of company 12 

(CO12) nonexistent. 

Several prominent observations emerge from an inspection 

of the sense-of-identity cluster scores for each organisation

(Table 7):

� The greater salience of problematic identity issues (“negative”

identity statuses) suggested in Figure 1, emerges more

clearly in Table 7 with the total proportion of identity

responses that indicate a healthy or “positive” identity status

merely representing 3,48% (Id-A and Id4) of identity

statements. This is outweighed by the 7,44% of identity

statements that indicate deficient or “negative” identity

statuses (Id-B and Id-C). 

� If the performance rankings of the participating

organisations are considered (Table 2), broad alignment

between a high performance ranking and a positive or healthy

sense of identity (Id-A) is noted. The same is true for a lower

performance ranking and its alignment with a troublesome or

deficient identity (Id-BC). The suggested inverse relationship

between a healthy identity (Id-A) and an inadequate identity

(Id-C) is evidenced in companies CO4, CO8, CO9 and CO10

which display a positive identity status (varying proportions

of Id-A), and the absence of negative identity statuses (Id-C).

The same can be said for companies CO6, CO1, CO5, CO2

and CO3 which are characterised by the absence of, or a very

low incidence of a positive identity status (Id-A) yet present

with material evidence of a negative identity status (Id-C). 

� The distribution of identity responses across the sense of

identity categories (Table 7) suggests that finer nuances in

identity issues or problems can be distinguished with greater

precision, which may prove useful for remedial intervention. 

While Table 7 reveals the major foci of identity self-reports

(sense-of-identity clusters) for each company, Table 8 sheds

more light on the nature and direction of sense-of-identity

issues for the respective companies. 

Viewed in conjunction with Tables 5 and 6, the data in 

Table 8 highlights the relationship between the companies’

more embracive yet distinctive self-descriptions as derived

from the CE-clusters (Table 5), and the sense-of-identity

statuses (see identity categories, Table 7). The prominent

identity issues that confront each company (their experienced

sense-of-identit y) and their interrelatedness are revealed 

by the intercorrelations bet ween distinctive company 

self-descriptions and the identit y issues they reported. 

These identity dynamics align well with the background

information on the companies, which were conveyed by

respondents during the interviews. To illustrate, consider 

the following examples: 

� Company CO1, the product of four banking mergers, at the

time of the research had barely put the last of the four

mergers behind it (it did not exist independently prior to

these mergers) and was attempting to rise above the four

inherited organisational cultures through a pronounced

branding initiative. The organisation was indeed searching

for and working at establishing an identity as a result of

experienced identity loss/diffusion (a less intense form of

identity crisis). 

SENSE OF IDENTITY 19

Figure 1: Cluster analysis of identity statements from the 20 statements test (Ward’s method, Euclidean distances)



� Company CO5’s identity crisis emerged when declining sales

and loss of market share revealed that the profile of the

company’s consumer base had changed. On analysis it

emerged that the company’s established practice of the past

three decades of bringing the best international fashion and

design trends to the local market, were being shunned by

consumers in favour of competitors’ local flavour and design

content. The crisis that it found itself grappling with was one

of how it should view and position itself – given its past

profile (prevailing identity) and changing market sentiment

(suggesting a new or substantially altered identity). The

indicated identity status as one of crisis, without a search for

an identity, fitted prevailing realities in the organisation

quite well as it was not without identity but rather faced a

choice between identities at the time of the research. 

� A further illustration is offered by company CO6, a large

agricultural, food (meat supply) and luxury leather-goods

company and one of the poorest performers in the sample. It

received extensive negative coverage in the media and

enjoyed poor public relations for some time. This was largely

a consequence of poor leadership practices (the previous

chief executive) which resulted in consistently poor returns

to shareholders. In addition, the company was struggling

with its (outdated) image as an agricultural cooperative on

the one hand and an acclaimed world class manufacturer of

luxury leather products on the other (e.g. a sought after

VAN TONDER20

TABLE 8 

CORRELATION OF DISTINCTIVE ORGANISATIONAL SELF-DESCRIPTIONS (CE-CLUSTER SCORES) WITH SENSE

OF IDENTITY STATUSES (IDENTITY CLUSTER SCORES)

Sense of identity clusters

Company Descriptive Sense of Enduring Identity- Corporate/ Working at/ Identity Unclear & Identity Identity Deficient

(CO) clusters1 unity & character relevant general developing search inappropriate loss/ crisis/ identity

character (anchored qualities identity an identity (Id2) identity vacuum diffusion (Id-BC)

(Id-A) in founding (Id9) (Id5) (Id7) (Id-B) (Id8) (Id3)

member 

attributes 

(Id4)

CO1: Banking CE10 -0,331 0,035 0,041 0,387 0,715 0,787 0,767 0,695 -0,029 0,528

CO2: Building CE1 -0,382 0,260 0,747 -0,295 -0,069 -0,074 -0,054 -0,002 -0,469 -0,068

(retail)

CO3: Gold CE5 -0,191 -0,214 -0,367 0,295 0,039 -0,305 -0,315 -0,330 -0,086 -0,211

Mining

CO4: Coal CE3 0,833 -0,057 0,153 -0,159 -0,269 -0,222 -0,216 -0,194 -0,297 -0,295

Mining

CO5: Clothing CE7 -0,241 -0,218 0,022 0,181 -0,069 -0,048 -0,062 -0,097 0,835 0,547

(retail)

CO6: Food & CE8 -0,287 -0,265 -0,242 0,875 -0,069 0,248 0,173 -0,012 0,367 0,415

Leather

CO8: Hospital CE4 0,148 0,056 -0,218 0,059 0,071 -0,082 -0,081 -0,075 -0,293 -0,268

Group

CO9: CE2 -0,309 0,703 -0,130 -0,300 -0,012 0,242 0,255 0,281 0,133 -0,001

Supermarkets

CO10: Banking CE9 0,173 -0,251 -0,087 -0,115 0,344 0,349 0,362 0,384 -0,042 0,091

CO12: Fishing CE6 -0,332 -0,201 -0,195 -0,231 -0,107 -0,034 -0,021 0,011 0,057 -0,161

See also Tables 5 and 6

TABLE 7

SENSE OF IDENTITY CLUSTER SCORES PER ORGANISATION

Company Sense of identity cluster scores per company (proportions expressed as %)

Id-A Id2 Id3 Id4 Id5 Id-B Id7 Id8 Id9 Id-C Id-BC

Sense of unity Identity Identity Enduring Corporate/ Unclear & Working at/ Identity Identity- Overall Deficient

& character search (Id2) crisis/ character general inappropriate developing loss/ relevant inadequate Identity

(Id-A) diffusion (anchored identity identity an identity vacuum qualities identity (Id-B + 

(Id3) in founding (Id5) (Id-B) (Id7) (Id8) (Id9) (Id-C) Id-C)

member 

attributes 

(Id4)

CO1 0,16 0,98 0,49 - - 2,79 0,32 0,49 - 1,31 4,10

CO2 - - - - - - - - 0,71 0,71 0,71

CO3 0,17 - - - 0,17 - 0,17 - - 0,35 0,35

CO4 1,89 - - - - - - - - - 0,00

CO5 - - 0,88 - - - - - - 0,88 0,88

CO6 - 0,28 0,28 - 0,56 0,56 - - - 0,84 1,40

CO8 0,46 - - - - - - - - - 0,00

CO9 0,29 - - 0,14 - - - - - - 0,00

CO10 0,37 - - - - - - - - - 0,00

CO12 - - - - - - - - - - -

Total 3,34 0,14 3,35 4,09 7,44



manufacturer of automobile leather upholstery). From this

context it seems appropriate that the company’s corporate

identity and the lack of a clear identity will surface as

substantial concerns and hence it is logical that an identity

crisis and a search for an appropriate identity emerged from

the data.

Once again, if the company performance rankings in Table 2 are

borne in mind, the data in Table 8 alludes to a relationship

between sense-of-identity and organisational performance. To

an extent this is also suggested by the summary perspective

provided in Table 9. 

In this table the distinctive self-descriptions (CE-clusters, Table

6) as well as the sense-of-identity descriptions (Id clusters; Table

7) of the two top performing and two worst performing

companies are juxtaposed. Struggling companies appear to

present more complicated and confusing perspectives on their

identit y while the top performing companies have less

complicated and very clear identit y positions. Granted,

company CO5 experiences an identity crisis but no other

evidence of identity difficulties are recorded. The suggestion

that a “positive” or healthy sense of identity goes hand-in-hand

with good to excellent organisational performance and vice

versa, is one of several hypotheses generated by this study and

the subject of further research. 

DISCUSSION

In view of the paucity of empirical research on organisation

identity, the modest purpose of this study was to engage in an

initial empirical exploration of the organisation identity

phenomenon. It sought to obtain an empirical response to the

question of whether or not an organisation possesses an identity.

A commonly accepted yet largely nondescript concept of

organisation identity was used to guide the choice of the initial

sample and data-gathering method. This entailed presenting

executives with a single question that implored them to describe

their organisation’s distinctive character by providing as many

relevant descriptive statements about it in response to the

question: “Who am I?” – where the “I” was defined as their

organisation. A mass of individual statements that described the

organisations were obtained. These were subsequently combined

and reconstituted to reflect organisational responses i.e.

organisational self-descriptions. The results surfaced t wo

distinct organisation identity constructs namely the somewhat

more descriptive account of identity (the CE-clusters) and the

organisation’s experience and awareness of its identity status

(the sense-of-identity clusters). 

At first glance these results are unsurprising and intuitively

logical, yet from a more considered viewpoint they are

somewhat more striking. Several considerations inform this

position. The different literat ure streams to date have

consistently portrayed identit y and organisation identit y

constructs as tacit, ambiguous and abstract phenomena. It is this

nature of the organisation identity phenomenon that suggests

that it is improbable that organisation identity will be the

subject of everyday discourse among employees in the

workplace. The concept is simply too intangible and

conceptually too far removed from daily workplace realities.

Secondly, the emergence of distinctive patterned self-

descriptions for the respective organisations is to be expected

when “who-am-I” responses of managers are pooled. However,

patterns and their relative salience and hence significance can

only emerge when the collective is constituted and the data is

processed as such. It is a statement of the obvious to argue that

these “emergent” properties cannot be reduced to, and hence be

discerned from any individual protocol. 

The extraction of patterned self-descriptions is contingent on the

existence of a commonly held understanding of who and what the

organisation is – certainly among those representatives of the

organisation that were sampled. Distinctive self-descriptions in

turn is contingent on the existence of a common belief among

these same respondents that who and what the organisation is, is

indeed distinctive and as such it implies some form of inter-

organisational comparison. These arguments assert that notions

of organisation identity and organisational distinctiveness are

unlikely to emerge spontaneously in any workplace discussion

because of its intangible character and the fact that it requires

effort investment at a cognitive level (mostly tacit). In this study

the surfacing of distinctive organisation identity concepts was

further constrained through the use of cluster analysis, a form of

re-descriptor (Rosenthal & Rosnow, 1991) that seeks out

underlying communality (patterns or structure) in the data set. In

SENSE OF IDENTITY 21

TABLE 9 

CONSOLIDATED IDENTITY PERSPECTIVE ON TOP PERFORMING AND WORST PERFORMING COMPANIES IN THIS POPULATION

Company Performance Industry Core business Distinctive description (CE Clusters) Dominant Sense-of-identity status 

Rank order (Id-clusters)

CO4 1 Mining: Operating bituminous and A company with clear character and a Strong sense of unity and character

Coal producers anthracite collieries sense of unity, aggressively on the 

acquisition trial, with a low key, 

understated profile (Cluster CE3)

CO5 2 Industrial: Retailing of clothing, A stable, progressive and non- Experiencing an identity crisis/ 

Stores (retail) footwear, accessories and conforming company with a strong Identity diffusion

home textiles, including the market orientation and a solid history 

manufacturing of clothing (currently in a rejuvenation phase and 

undergoing change) (Cluster CE7)

CO6 9 Industrial: Processing of natural protein A very large, diversified business with Pronounced preoccupation with 

Food and related products (e.g. world-class quality standards and corporate identity, some sense of 

meat and leather) products, struggling with past  identity diffusion/identity crisis and  

leadership issues and current  in search of identity

performance, and currently in a 

survival stage (Cluster CE8)

CO3 10 Mining:

Gold producers Operating gold mines A vision driven, unique, risk-orientated, Some preoccupation with corporate 

dynamic and charismatic company identity; some overarching sense of 

with a strong results focus, but identity (some identity-relevant 

highly susceptible to variation in attributes, identity not unclear or at 

economic conditions (Cluster CE5) a loss, or consciously searching for 

identity)



the process a significant proportion of unique or organisation-

specific variance that is pertinent to the notion of organisation

identity, is consciously discarded. Paradoxically, cluster analysis

in its search for common underlying structure across the

different participating organisations, sacrifices unique variance,

yet through cluster scores reveal organisations to be distinctive.

The latter in a sense reifies Argyris’ (1956) statement that an

organisation is like all other organisations yet like no other

organisation. When these arguments are collectively considered,

the probability of unique organisational “who-am-I” responses

emerging from the dataset is reduced substantially. In view of

these constraints we argue that the response to the question

“who am I?” represents a lean and filtered account of perceived

organisational distinctiveness. Against this setting the notions of

identity and sense-of-identity as they were obtained in this study

are considered particularly meaningful.

The findings of the study are of course a function of how

organisation identity was defined and operationalised. For this

study it was defined as the organisation’s distinctive character as

conveyed by its (the organisation’s) response to the question “who

am I?”. To the extent that this is a valid articulation of the

phenomenon, the current study suggests it to be an empirically

relevant organisational construct. The distinctive, patterned self-

descriptions obtained for each of the participating organisations,

suggest some support for those conceptual accounts of the

organisation identity phenomenon that tend to view it in more

general and broad terms. These include those perspectives that

view organisation identity as the organisation’s response to the

question “who am I/we?” (Albert et al., 2000; Badaracco, 1998;

Pratt & Foreman, 2000b), emphasise the organisation’s

distinctive character (cf. Ackerman, 1984; Balmer, 1995; Wright,

1994), its distinctive or distinguishing attributes (Balmer &

Stotvig, 1997; Elsbach & Kramer, 1996), and/or its perceived

uniqueness (Ackerman, 1984; 1988; Downey, 1986). The findings

however also comment on the more focused definitions of

organisation identit y and for example suggest that the

distinctiveness dimension of Albert and Whetten’s (1985)

definition, which equated organisation identity to that which is

central, enduring, and distinctive about an organisation’s character,

may be borne out by more focused empirical studies of

organisation identity. 

Overall the self-descriptions obtained for each of the

participating organisations reveal unique variance, such that

organisations within the same sector are clearly differentiated

from one another. While this is to be expected it is also

remarkable in view of the arguments presented earlier and

provides an encouraging platform from which to pursue the

identity phenomenon in a more focused empirical manner. 

Perhaps more important is that the TST technique also surfaced

a small number of self-descriptive statements that incorporated

explicit identity-terminology. The inclusion of identity-specific

terminology (e.g. company X is experiencing an identity crisis)

set these self-descriptive statements apart from the majority of

the statements generated by the respondents. Their unique

contribution appears to be that they reveal that organisations (as

collectives and as perceived by management teams), to some

extent are aware of their identity status. These statements, we

suggest, convey the organisation’s sense of its identity (refer

Figure 1, Tables 7 and 8) and are important because they suggest

parameters of an organisation identity phenomenon, which to

date, have not yet been the subject of the mainstream

organisation identit y discourse. This awareness of the

organisation’s identity reveals parallels with earlier research by

psychologists (cf. Van Tonder, 1987) that argued that a notion of

individual or ego-identity cannot be adequately construed

without the incorporation of the person’s subjective experience

and interpretation of his/her identity. 

It is particularly meaningful that a cluster analysis performed on

these explicit identity statements produced categories that

appear to articulate various identity statuses. These statuses

again are broadly consistent with those empirically

demonstrated in Marcia’s (1966; 1967; 1976) early work on the

operationalisation of ego-identity status (based on an Eriksonian

concept of ego-identity). Marcia’s work revealed identity to

reflect a continuum with various identity statuses conveyed by

different positions on this continuum. These typically ranged

between an identity crisis and a clear identity. Although the

extension of the individual identity metaphor to organisations

can not be done in an unrestrained and uncritical manner, the

organisation is viewed in this study as a social collective, which

legitimises this practice somewhat. Moreover in this early stage

of exploring the empirical expression of organisation identity,

metaphorical extension may open up further avenues for

conceptualising the phenomenon. 

The sense-of-identity results provide a tentative platform for

hypothesising that the organisation’s sense of identity is a

continuous yet variable phenomenon that assume different

statuses at different times and which may vary between a more

positive and healthy and a generally deficient or “negative” sense

of identity. At this preliminary stage the findings on sense-of-

identity suggest that common sense notions of identity crises

among organisations, may have some theoretical and empirical

validity... that concepts of individual identity and identity crisis (cf.

Abend, 1974, Van Tonder, 1987) align with theoretical positions

on organisational identity crises (Van Tonder, 1999, 2004bc). It

further alludes to the possibility that the hypothesised construct

of an identity crisis, viewed from within the framework of

organisation identity theory (Van Tonder, 2004b, 2004c) has a

strong probability of being revealed by future empirical research.

Such a construct could have important implications for how

organisations and management view and approach large scale

change such as mergers. At the same time it will imply that the

theoretically postulated relationship between an organisation’s

identity and its performance will become a more urgent research

priority. In a similar vein, the sense-of-identity categories such as

enduring character, identity-relevant attributes, a sense of unity,

and identity search offer substantial scope for a different view of

organisational dynamics. Consider for example that over the past

three decades management has systematically embraced and

internalised an intangible, tacit and collectively held

(organisational) schema, popularly operationalised as “the way

we do things around here” (organisational culture). The current

study suggests that “who I am” or “who we are”, in an

organisational sense, could fit with this notion of an intangible,

tacit and collective organisational schema, but substantial further

research is required to arrive at firm conclusions in this regard. 

In conclusion: the definition of organisation identity utilised

in this study and premised on Schley and Wagenfield’s (1979)

notion of identity being the total response to the “who am I?”

question and Van Tonder’s (1999) notion of organisation

identity being the distinctive character of the organisation,

proved useful in revealing a broad yet unsophisticated concept

of organisation identit y. From the perspective that top

executive teams are representative of their organisations (cf.

Kets de Vries, 1991), and viewed from a social constructivist

position, organisations in this study appear to have developed

a collective, yet largely tacit sense of who and what they are

and how they differ from similar organisations. Given this very

broad open-ended operational definition of organisation

identity, we conclude that organisations as social collectives do

indeed possess and display distinctive identities. Moreover, the

finding that organisations as collectives display some

awareness of their identity condition, significantly raises the

ante for an encompassing, systemic and coherent theory of

organisation identity in organisational settings. The results

generated by this study nonetheless remain tentative. At best it

creates a powerful platform for cautiously extending the

anthropomorphic vehicle (individual identity) in a more

focused empirical pursuit of organisation identity phenomena

in organisations. 

VAN TONDER22



The study attempted to empirically explore an uncharted terrain

characterised by several methodological challenges. Quite often

all of these cannot be suitably resolved. For this reason the

results have to be interpreted with some caution. In this regard

note that the population from which organisations were drawn

facilitated a heterogeneous sample and consequently variance in

responses is to be expected. A counter argument however is

precisely that the cluster analysis methodology established

common structure before unique variance was identified.

Moreover, although care was exercised to minimise possible

researcher “bias” and interviewer effects, and to maintain

consistency in presenting the research question during the

interviews with executives, the possibility of such effects cannot

be ruled out. 

These caveats underscore the need for continued research on the

phenomenon. In this regard the present study generated broad

and tentative parameters of what can be termed organisation

identity. This in itself suggests a substantial need for further

empirical research, which should preferably proceed in two

directions. The first, in particular, will have to focus on

alternative conceptualisations of organisation identity. The

purpose would be to reduce the ambiguity that was created by a

proliferation of conceptual contributions. This purpose will be

served when the range of available definitions can be narrowed

down and content parameters of the phenomenon are validated

and / or rejected on the basis of empirical observation. 

The second avenue of research should direct attention at the

sense-of-identity concept and attempt to elaborate on the initial

observations generated by the current study. If future empirical

research supports the hypothesis that the sense-of-identity is

indeed a continuous phenomenon, then it may well serve a

useful and important diagnostic and monitoring purpose in

organisations. The suggestion that organisations may alternate

between stages of clear and strong identity on the one hand and

identity diffusion and crisis on the other, open up many avenues

for future research. It certainly offers the opportunity of

establishing the relevance of organisation identity, and its

derivative the sense-of-identity, in organisational settings. Such

relevance was argued by most theoretical perspectives but was

not yet subjected to empirical testing. Research directed at the

relationship between organisation identity and organisational

wellness and in particular its relationship to short and medium

term performance indicators, may prove substantially beneficial

from a relevance perspective. For example, if the relationship

between sense-of-identity status and organisational performance

suggested by the results of this study but also hypothesised in

Organisation Identity Theory (Van Tonder, 2004b, 2004c) is

borne out, the organisational sense-of-identity, among other,

may serve as an early notice of impending performance decline

and provide an opportunity for proactive and preventative

remedial action. While these types of considerations suggest

that organisation identity may have an important utility value,

this ultimately depends on further research. 

In closing, although the research reported here suggests a

specific notion of organisation identity, it marks a very tentative

first step and scholars are still unavoidably confronted with the

question: does an organisation possess an identity? Theorists

suggest organisations do possess identities, but empiricists have

not yet spoken. The paucity of empirical evidence regrettably

has been a hallmark of the predominantly conceptual discourse

on identity in organisational settings. This tradition of engaging

the identity phenomenon at a conceptual level has progressed

substantially, however …”In the end, any conceptualization is

only as adequate as its empirical support” (Maddi, 1980, p. 443).

Notes

1. It is beyond the scope of this article to provide a

comprehensive overview of the relevant theory, current status

and contemporary focal issues in the domains of identity,

corporate identity and organisation identity. In this regard

Balmer (2001) provides a comprehensive perspective on

developments in the corporate identity field while Whetten

and Godfrey (1998), Van Tonder (1987; 1999) and Van Tonder

and Lessing (2003) respectively deal with the phenomenon of

organisation identity at some length. Balmer and Greyser

(2003) in turn provide an anthology that incorporates several

classical and contemporary works spanning both the

corporate and organisation identity literature streams. 

2. Compiled with the aid of the SAS statistical software (SAS

Institute, 2000). The scope and magnitude of this

dendrogram precludes meaningful reproduction of the

diagram in the format of this study.

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