Managers en quête de sens: l'identité organisationnelle comme boussole?

In a situation of crisis or deep organizational disruption, organizational identity often appears as a critical dimension (Albert et Whetten, 1985 ; Alvesson et Empson, 2008 ; Dutton et al, 1994). It cannot be considered as monolithic: each stage of the evolution of the organization is marked by several interactions (different identity logics predominate each other at times). Even if within an organizational identity, a particular identity logic seems to prevail, other identity logics are nevertheless present, or appear in informal mode. Organizational identity is thus conceived as hybrid : on the one hand, the dominant identity logic, on the other hand, alternative identity logics consisting in different perceptions of the organization’s central, enduring and distinctive features, its values and running principles.
<br />Because of their formal authority and their access to resources, managers play an important role in organizational identification processes. They can first create meaning around a deliberate change (sensegiving). Such an approach emphasizes the role of organizational leaders (carriers of the dominant identity logic) in a cognitive process where they aim at providing to the members of the organization a coherent narrative in order to build a legitimate collective sense of self. As for the sensemaking-oriented approach (Weick, 1995), it adopts a different perspective: the shared understandings of the members about what the organization is, result of cognitive processes carried out by members of the organization when they are questioning the central, enduring and distinctive features of their organization.
<br />We draw from the second perspective. Through a case study conducted in 2010 within a large company facing critical change, we propose to empirically illustrate the meaning given by members of the organization to different constitutive dimensions of organizational identity. We focus especially on team managers, at the crossroads of all tensions in terms of identity and meaning at work.
<br />This case study illustrates in particular the disorientation of team managers, torn between a dominant organizational identity exploded from the top of the organization, and a radically changing organizational context, which they are struggling to make sense and to give sense for their team. It results in identity profiles marked by hybridity and transition.
<br />When such a situation is noticed, what managerial actions can be undertaken? Our aim in this article is to highlight the value of a polyphonic approach of change management (Pichault, 2009), and offer some thoughts on the development of a sensemaking articulated to the diversity of identities within the organization as well as the integration of this identity diversity concerns in the management practices.