Organizational Identity Development

Organizational identity is a self-classification based on organizational members’ responses to the question, “Who are we as an organization?” It exists at the level above the individual as a collective understanding that considers context and comparison to other organizations. Drawing on theories of institutionalism and organizational culture, Garcia (2017) conceptualized an HSI identity as grounded in meaning structures about student outcomes and organizational culture and proposed a Typology of HSI Organizational Identities that includes four types of HSIs. Seven years later, members of the HEART Lab developed a chapter for Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research that provides an overview and critique of organizational identity research conducted across disciplines including organization studies, management, sociology, and higher education and reviews the research on HSI organizational identity.

 

The chapter titled Influences on Organizational Identity Development in the Context of Hispanic-Serving Institutions also reviews student development theory and explores the ways this body of research can inform organizational identity development. Through this review, organizational identity development is theorized as being influenced by internal processes of change and external isomorphic influences as illustrated in the proposed Model of Multiple Dimensions of [Organizational] Identity (MMD(O)I). With 600 colleges and universities now enrolling over 25% Latine students, the need for a collective HSI identity is pressing, with this chapter proposing the mechanisms for organizational identity development.

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