Managing Complexities through Identities: A Case Study of a Taiwanese Healthcare Organization

Abstract

This research explores the question how individual identities come to inform and shape ways organizations manage complexities within the organizational environ-ment. The focus of interest was placed on how individual-level identities influence the process of managing organizational identities. Different members are likely to identify with different groups within the organization. Through an investigation of the rela-tionship between individual and organizational identities, the researcher attempted to understand how individual identities may be linked to the identities of the organiza-tion in which one is a member, and examined how this relationship influences organ-izational process of managing complexities resulting from conflicts between multiple organizational identities. A single healthcare organization in Taiwan was selected as the main setting for the study. Qualitative techniques of the ethnographic tradition were the main method of inquiry. Data collection consisted of observations over time of predictable activi-ties, behaviors, and roles members engaged in. Interview with 17 key members pro-vided valuable source for identifying the main identities present at the organization under study. Members’ expressions of how they coped with multiple identity conflicts validated most of Pratt and Foreman’s scheme, with some variations that may be due to the different structural and cultural environment.

This research explores the question how individual identities come to inform and shape ways organizations manage complexities within the organizational environ-ment. The focus of interest was placed on how individual-level identities influence the process of managing organizational identities. Different members are likely to identify with different groups within the organization. Through an investigation of the rela-tionship between individual and organizational identities, the researcher attempted to understand how individual identities may be linked to the identities of the organiza-tion in which one is a member, and examined how this relationship influences organ-izational process of managing complexities resulting from conflicts between multiple organizational identities. A single healthcare organization in Taiwan was selected as the main setting for the study. Qualitative techniques of the ethnographic tradition were the main method of inquiry. Data collection consisted of observations over time of predictable activi-ties, behaviors, and roles members engaged in. Interview with 17 key members pro-vided valuable source for identifying the main identities present at the organization under study. Members’ expressions of how they coped with multiple identity conflicts validated most of Pratt and Foreman’s scheme, with some variations that may be due to the different structural and cultural environment.