The majority of scientific papers on the topic of organizational identity deal with its development. However, the question of the specific building blocks of an organizational identity has only rarely been the subject of research. In our research project, we want to focus especially on this are of research. Our project is empirically oriented both qualitatively as well as quantitatively, and is based on data gathered from companies of two clusters: the watch industry clusters in the Black Forest and in Glashütte, which comprise a total of 30 companies. Our research project is characterized by a high degree of novelty, as it will expand the previous research on organizational identity mainly in two areas:

(1) We use a multi-level approach to analyze elements of the respective organizational identity, which includes the perspective of the employees, the perspective of the organization and also the level of the organizational field. This way, our project enables a unique understanding of elements that define organizational identity. Following the previous findings on the research of „scripted identities “, we investigate how the elements of organizational identity vary and are used differently, based on the levels of organizational members, the organization as an independent actor, and the organizational field. Additionally, we analyze how the organization deals with differences in identity elements between the three levels.

(2) We explicitly consider the role of the history of companies, clusters and the region, a field of research that has so far been insufficiently addressed in the context of organizational identity. Furthermore, by comparing companies and clusters in West and East Germany, we are able to examine the role of radical institutional change within the context of organizational identity.

The expected results of our project will contribute to the formation of theory in organizational identity research and are also relevant in practice, since the role of identity formation in the context of organizational existence and the establishment of clusters in regional economic systems play an important role.

Supported by the DFG, 01st November 2018 to 31st October 2021

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Contributions to conferences:

European Academy of Management 2022: "The Relationship between Organizational Identity and Organizational Pride: An Explorative Study" by Karin Knorr.

WK Org 2022: "The Relativity of Time: Patterns of Utilizing Past in the Context of Rhetorical History" by Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel und Kirsten Thommes.

Crafting World Leading Outputs in Management Research: Building Bridges & Breaking Boundaries 2022: “The Relationship between Organizational Identity and Organizational Pride: An Explorative Study” by Karin Knorr

Crafting World Leading Outputs in Management Research: Building Bridges & Breaking Boundaries 2022: “The Relativity of time: Patterns of Utilizing Past in the Context of Rhetorical History” by Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel und Kirsten Thommes.

WK Org 2021: “Crafting Organizational Identity: Differences in the Orchestration of Identity Claims by Organizations as Social Actors and the Organization’s Members” von Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel und Kirsten Thommes

American Sociological Association Annual Meeting 2021: "Incongruent Patterns of Organizational Identity Crafting by Different Organizational Actors: Reasons for Multiple Organizational Identities" von Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel und Kirsten Thommes

Academy of Management 2021: “Incongruent Patterns of Organizational Identity Crafting by Different Organizational Actors” von Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel und Kirsten Thommes

Academy of Management 2021: “Rhetoricians of the Past: Rhetorical History and the Crafting of Organizational Identity” von Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel und Kirsten Thommes

Academy of Management 2021: “Since Albert and Whetten. The Dissemination of Albert and Whetten’s Approach to Characterize Organizational Identity” von Karin Knorr und Franziska Hein-Pensel

European Group for Organizational Studies 2021: “Near and distant past: Differences in the application of rhetorical history in crafting organizational identity” von Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel und Kirsten Thommes

European Academy of Management 2020: "Is corruption imprinted? A study on preconditions of corruption in Central and Eastern European countries" by Thorsten Auer, Karin Knorr and Kirsten Thommes.

Academy of Management 2020: "Is corruption imprinted? A study on preconditions of corruption in Central and Eastern European countries" by Thorsten Auer, Karin Knorr and Kirsten Thommes.

European Group for Organizational Studies 2020: "The crafting of organizational identity: Similarities and differences between the organization and its members as rhetoricians of the past"  by Karin Knorr, Franziska Hein-Pensel, Simon Oertel and Kirsten Thommes.

European Group for Organizational Studies 2020: "Communication of emotions in craft-based firms – Identity construction between innovation and tradition" by Karin Knorr and Kirsten Thommes.

Crafting World-Leading Outputs from Qualitative Research Workshop 2020: “The crafting of organizational identity: Similarities and differences between the organization and its members as rhetoricians of the past” by Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel and Kirsten Thommes.

Crafting World-Leading Outputs from Qualitative Research Workshop 2020: "How do concepts spread? The dissemination of Albert and Whetten’s approach to characterize organizational identity” by Franziska Hein-Pensel and Karin Knorr.

Tagung „Aus der Zeit gefallen? Die deutsche Uhrenindustrie im Bann der Krise“ 2020: "Wettbewerbsvorteil durch rhetorische Vergangenheitsinterpretation – die Rolle von Akteuren der organisationalen Umwelt" by Franziska Hein-Pensel, Karin Knorr, Simon Oertel and Kirsten Thommes.

European Group for Organizational Studies 2019: “Organizational identity crafting in new ventures: The role of rhetorical history” by Franziska Hein and Simon Oertel.