The Identity Paradox and an Expanded Framework of Organizational Identity

This conceptual paper is guided by three objectives: First, to bolster the argument for organizational identity as a defined concept, as compared with a metaphor or paradigmatic perspective. Second, articulate a clearer and more fully developed connection between the concepts of individual identity and organizational identity. Third, specify a distinctive, defensible conceptual domain for the concept of organizational identity and align the definition of organizational identity with that domain. Guided by these objectives, we argue that the tension between being similar and different is a fundamental and distinguishing feature of identity – and that this “identity paradox” exists at both the individual and organizational levels. We then propose a two-dimensional form of this identity paradox and suggest that the resulting framework serve as the conceptual domain of organizational identity. In the end, we examine the implications of the proposed conceptual space for Albert and Whetten’s (1985) definition of organizational identity and propose two new definitional elements.