Identity Construction and Organizational Deconstruction
Building a Personal Sense of Identity and Allowing Organizational Chaos as Adaptive Measures Toward KM in the Information Age
Barbara Park
Friday, July 29, 2005
Introduction
In the information age, global influences, including re-structuring and downsizing, are having an impact on both individuals and organizations. For individuals, a key adaptive measure is to establish a personal sense of identity, no longer relying on identification with an organization. Organizations must also adapt, letting go of traditional structures and processes, and embracing what could be termed chaos as a means towards remaining competitive. Although adaptations provide no guarantee of success, this essay will demonstrate how failure to make these adjustments can lead to burn-out in individuals, and lack of creativity in organizations.
Identification with an Organization vs Establishing a Personal Sense of Identity
Identification with an organization is a fixed sense of one's role in relation to the organization. "When organizational members identify with their workplace, they define themselves in terms of the organization; they internalize its mission, ideology, and values, and they adopt its customary ways of doing things. Eventually the member may see him - or herself as an exemplar or microcosm of the organization. Organizational identification, in other words, suggests a feeling of oneness with the organization." (Cheney, p 114)
In the context of modern organizations, where change is constant, it has been found that over-identification with the organization is likely to produce rigidity in one's outlook and style of interacting, which is not conducive to organizational or individual health. At a time when roles and organizations are in constant flux "there are much higher demands placed on the individual in terms of being able to work with a variety of different people and not necessarily the same people today as yesterday, or as tomorrow." (Cheney, p 35) Those who rely heavily on a sense of self derived from an unchanging role may fail to accomplish the important relationship building activities with a wide range of stakeholders that is required in the information age. Involving a wide range of people on a deep level is important to capturing diverse knowledge. Diversity makes open organizational culture more rich, and insights and innovation more applicable to a wide range of contexts.
High levels of identification with an organization can limit diversity by reducing communication competencies in the area of social perception skills, including "the ability to pick up on the subtleties of social situations and adapt to them". (Cheney, p.149) This skill is essential in a cross cultural context. "High levels of identification among employees can also produce a lack of organizational flexibility and creativity, over-conformity to organizational dictates, and tyrannical behaviour on the part of leaders. Highly-identified individuals could experience a lack of risk taking, loss of an independent self, and burnout." (Cheney cites Ashforth and Mael, p. 115) Redding indicates that a focus on high-performance goals in a context of trust and openness make it easier for employees to manage the ambiguity of gaining their sense of identity from shared visions rather than from a physical structure. (Cheney, p. 96) Knowledge of self and openness in relation to shared goals create a safety zone in which people feel free to explore new ideas and new ways of approaching problem solving.
Relationships and Creativity in Organizational Culture - Chaos then Clarity
"We can't argue with the clear demands of knowledge creation - it requires time to develop. It matures inside human relationships. Relationships and creativity are always messy and inherently uncontrollable." (Wheatley)
One important reason individuals can no longer rely on organizations for a sense of identity is that organizations are no longer static and consistent. "Although inconsistencies often appear hypocritical, they allow organizations the flexibility to adapt to multiple audiences and to changing and conflicting norms and demands." (Cheney et al, p. 89) What is consistent is the trend in the literature citing the value of chaos, flexibility and inconsistency, qualities which would have been considered negative in the past. In letting go of survival as an overarching goal for organizations, (Cheney, p. 62) we become open to knowledge development. In pursuit of equifinality, (chapter 2, Cheney et al) "Weick argues for flexibility and complexity at each stage of the process so that an organization can adapt well to a changing world. He urges us to "complicate ourselves" in the sense of surrounding ourselves with many different pieces of information and many potential options." (Cheney, p. 62) Weber also advocated "crises of meaning" (Cheney, p. 33) as a way to see beyond processes to the underlying purpose of the work.
The correlation between an open organizational climate, one that embraces chaos, and knowledge management, (KM) is clear. Concepts aren't born in a vacuum but created in a context. A goal-driven organizational culture, supporting openness and trust, produces what McElroy calls the knowledge life cycle. McElroy views this as an important distinction made by the second generation of knowledge management theorists. "While practitioners of first-generation KM tend to begin with the rather convenient assumption that valuable knowledge already exists, practitioners of second generation KM do not. Instead, they – or we – take the position that knowledge is something that we produce in human social systems, and that we do so through individual and shared processes that have regularity to them."(McElroy, 2002) KM and organizational culture are dynamic processes. "Organizational culture (from a symbolist perspective) is seen as a complex and ever-evolving totality of people, goals, actions, experiences, and interpretations." (Cheney et al, p. 89) Cross germination of ideas occurs within working groups formed on the basis of members' expertise, availability and passion for the work. Such cultures can include alternative organizational structures, such as communities of practice, made up of individuals who assemble and dis-assemble, addressing business challenges as they arise.
Chaos Management
The criteria Redding has identified as indicators of the Ideal Managerial Climate (IMC) are well suited as a framework for explaining and critiquing the connection between chaos and knowledge management. "The five components of the IMC are supportiveness, trust, openness, emphasis on high-performance goals, and participative decision making. Based on his extensive research and experience as a consultant, Redding offered this model as a comprehensive way for an organization to be productive while having a healthy atmosphere. This model is very useful not just in evaluating management but in assessing an organization as a whole." (Cheney, p. 96) Redding is right, where there is openness and trust, people are productive. Communication processes are critical to address employees' needs for feedback, clarification, recognition and relationship in organizations. "Organizational communication researcher Cynthia Stohl reminds us that we need to establish clearly the bridge between organizational phenomena such as structures and interpersonal phenomena such as conversations between superiors and subordinates." (Cheney et al cite Stohl, p. 97) "Informal communication networks offer valuable feedback about how things are going at all levels of the organization: they help keep people "at the top" in touch with those "below" them. Informal dimensions of organizational life, thus, do not exist as separate and delimited spheres in organizations. Informality flows through all processes and infuses them with meaning and significance." (Cheney, p 97) Organizational and interpersonal links are vital.
Less recognized is the additional necessary link, between a person's autonomous self identity, developed and maintained through self reflection, and their ability to be authentic, open and in relationship, qualities which contribute to organizational culture's KM capacity. The development of individuals' sense of self is critical because it is the foundation for effective internal organizational communications. Once established, strong individual and organizational communication practices build on each other. "Essentially, positive internal communication practices, such as training and performance appraisals, contribute to a positive communication climate in the organization, which in turn improves the communication between the organization and its customers." (Cheney, p 98) According to Wheatley, "Although we live in a world completely revolutionized by information, it is important to remember that it is knowledge we are seeking, not information. Unlike information, knowledge involves us and our deeper motivations and dynamics as human beings. We interact with something or someone in our environment and then use who we are-our history, our identity, our values, habits, beliefs-- to decide what the information means. In this way, through our construction, information becomes knowledge. Knowledge is always a reflection of who we are, in all our uniqueness. It is impossible to disassociate who is creating the knowledge from the knowledge itself." (2001) A sense of self-esteem, confidence and excitement is generated by ongoing learning and knowledge development. The opportunity to share and employ new concepts and ideas in the workplace generates feelings of shared identity, as people contribute unique pieces and share an experience of adapting policies and processes to support shared goals. As Frank Miller points out, without people to interpret and apply concepts, they have little value.
"Knowledge doesn't consist of stark isolated facts that can be kept in a safe. For years now, many organisations have taken 'quality' to mean compliance with documented processes intended to achieve 'fitness for purpose'. However, the very act of documentation transforms ideas - which can originate only in the minds of people (tacitly) - into databases of information which, if inappropriately interpreted, can result in unwanted outcomes indeed. Sadly, we seem not to have appreciated that attempts to 'capture' (i.e. make explicit) human intentions serves only to transform them into intrinsically meaningless symbols even if made efficiently accessible from procedure manuals, computer databases, intranets and other sophisticated information sources. Captured information always relies on responsible people (i.e. of quality) interpreting it within a context - and sharing and comparing interpretations where alignment to business purpose is a desired outcome. Information cannot interpret itself!" (taken from http://www.fernstar.com.au/publications/papers/i=o.htm July 22)
The implications for leadership in an environment recognizing 'tacit knowledge' may be that shared leadership is the most adaptive way to draw upon diverse viewpoints in the KM context. The Leader Member Exchange (LMX) Theory supports the concept of a number of leaders, and that some group members will more readily identify with one leader's values instead of another's. The LMX Theory is realistic in that it "assumes that organizational leaders have limited amounts of personal and organizational resources and distribute such resources among their followers selectively". (Cheney, p 206) Diverse group members will be drawn to a range of leadership styles, and each of the leaders will be working in a collaborative way, and with limited resources.
Conclusion
These are uncertain times in which rapid change is making many demands upon individuals and organizations. This essay demonstrates that in letting go of an identification with organization, individuals move toward a deeper sense of personal identity. The self awareness and acceptance of diversity that can accompany this shift is complementary to post-bureaucratic organizational structures. Increasingly, the value of chaos, the admission of loss of control, is recognized as a precursor to an organizational structure that fosters creativity. In priorizing a trusting and open way of interacting in which shared goals are the focus, organizations and their members trade security for creativity. This 'chaos' contributes to cutting edge ideas, which are in fact what produce a competitive edge, and more 'security' in the long run. This is the irony related to work in the information age, that in adopting uncertainty, we increase certainty.
References:
Author Unknown. (September, 2003)."Building a values-driven organization." Approaching Change On-Line Journal,Vol. 4(2), Downloaded on July 29, 2005.
http://www.stresscosts.com/AC/V4/AC41_Organization_Values_1.htm
Cheney, G., Christensen, L., Zorn, T., Ganesh, S. (2004). Organizational Communication in an Age of Globalization: Issues, Reflections, Practices. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press.
Cheney cites Ashforth and Mael (1996); Janet M. Dukerich et al., "The Dark Side of Organizational Identification," Identity in Organizations: Developing Theory through Conversations, ed. David Whetten and Paul C. Godfrey (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1998) p. 245 - 256.
Cheney cites Cynthia Stohl, (1995). Organizational Communication: Connectedness in Action (Thousand Oaks: Sage)
Cheney cites Arlie Russell Hochschild, (1985). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling (Berkley: University of California Press)
McElroy, M. (2002). "The New Knowledge Management: Complexity, Learning, and Sustainable Innovation." Downloaded on May 21, 2005 from
http://www.macroinnovation.com/images/McElroy_nkm.pdf
Miller, Frank, "I = 0 (Information has no intrinsic meaning)"
Downloaded on July 22, 2005 from http://www.fernstar.com.au/publications/papers/i=o.htm
Wheatley, M. (2001). "The Real Work of Knowledge Management." IHRIM Journal, Vol. 5(2), pp. 29-33. Downloaded on July 15, 2005 from http://margaretwheatley.com/articles/management.html
