Discursive practices of remedial organizational identity work: A study of the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration

Eric Breit

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2014, vol. 30, issue 2, 231-241

Abstract: This paper examines organizational identity work among members of publicly criticized and discredited organizations. It does so by exploring the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration (NAV), an organization that has been the object of considerable persistent public critique over the years since its foundation in 2006. Based on a discursive analysis of how members of NAV have interpreted the critique and constructed senses of organizational identity, the paper highlights four types of discursive practice: ‘accepting,’ ‘condemning,’ ‘distancing,’ and ‘positively calibrating.’ These practices demonstrate how the critique was incorporated into members’ organizational identity constructions in various ways and with various outcomes, and how members navigated and articulated ambivalent conceptions of the critique, the organization, and their role as organizational members. Based on the findings, implications for the role of discursive practice in remedial organizational identity work are discussed.

Keywords: Remedial organizational identity work; Discursive practice; Identity threat; Publicly criticized organization; Case study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956522113000870
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:scaman:v:30:y:2014:i:2:p:231-241

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/872/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/872/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2013.08.003

Access Statistics for this article

Scandinavian Journal of Management is currently edited by Janne Tienari

More articles in Scandinavian Journal of Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().