Collective Intentionality in Organizations: a Meta-ethnography of Identity and Strategizing

Sociologists often treat groups and organizations as if they had collective intentionality – that is, a collective impetus for action that exists semiindependently of the members of the group. At present, however, we lack a sound understanding of how collective intentionality is achieved or maintained. Furthermore, although organizations provide a well-defined and distinctive setting for an empirical and theoretical investigation of collective intentionality, organizational intentionality in its own right has received little attention. In this chapter, we seek to address the relationship between collective intentionality, organizational identity, and organizational decisionmaking, using the potentially powerful method of meta-ethnography: the comparison, contrast, and synthesis of multiple ethnographies. What does it mean to say that a group or organization has intentions? Is collective intentionality somehow distinct from the shared intentions of individuals? And, if it is, how do collective intentions come to exist and to be Advances in Group Processes, Volume 28, 59–95 Copyright r 2011 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0882-6145/doi:10.1108/S0882-6145 (2011)0000028006