Who are we now? : an exploration of the organisational identity re-constructing process in an established care charity : informed by care-receivers and applying an ethic of care

• Main Author: Ross, Zara E. M.
• Published: University of Bristol 2015
• Subjects: 361.7
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.684641

Social care charity organisations with long histories face an 'identity crisis' regarding who they are today in the context of the current UK social care marketplace. This empirical research addresses issues of organisational identity (OI) and its re-constructing (OIRC) as 'work' (Alvesson and Sveningsson, 2003: 1165) over time. Based on a longitudinal case study of a care provider charity, this study integrates a range of OI theory and interpretivist approaches. It explores OI formation, and identifies early OI 'content' at founding which evolves over eighty years through a 'process' of translating the original 'proto-identity attributes' (Kroezen and Heugens, 2012). Central to this are the contributions of care-receivers: stakeholders who are often underestimated members of the organisational audience, but who offer resources in the organisational identity re-construction process. In the case study, innovative methods were developed to explore how care-receivers (including people with dementia) contributed to the evolution of the charity's spiritual identity and spiritual care practices within a nested case (Yin, 2003). The study offers three contributions to the management and organisational studies literature concerning OI in a care charity. Firstly it addresses the significance of OI 'content' at founding: the DNA constituting 'who we are in the organisation'. Secondly, it connects OI 'content' and OI 'process' by proposing that the work of OJRC involves 'translating' this OI substance into contemporary contexts to address: 'who are we now?' and 'who we are becoming?' The third contribution is that the framing of OIRC within an 'ethic of care' (EOC) enables a critical approach to understanding the contribution of care-receivers to OIRC in care charities as a care 'practice' (Barnes, 2012:6). The study adds to the growing literature in respect of the application of an EOC in management and organisational studies and opens up possibilities for 'concept development' (Gioia et al, 2012).