Organizational Identity and Culture in the Context of Managing Change

Mary Jo Hatch

Abstract: This article explores the experiences and perceptions of top and middle managers regarding how organizational identity and culture intertwined with transformational change over a five-year period at Carlsberg Group. By combining ethnography, grounded theory, and engaged scholarship, the research bridges theory and practice, directly addressing managerial experiences while analyzing organizational identity and culture processes. The study shows that reflecting, questioning, and debating their organization?s identity caused middle managers and employees to both support and resist new identity claims from top management. These processes often tied new identity claims to organizational culture. Further analysis revealed tensions around intention, pacing, and focus between the ?old? culture and new claims, as well as evidence of cultural change mechanisms such as dis-embedding, dis-enchanting, and dis-respecting the old culture. We conclude that organizational identity and culture are interconnected in complex ways that previous research has overlooked. Our focus on this relationship and its evolution introduces new opportunities for research and practice.

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