The mass media, press and television have always been central in the formation of corporate identity and the promotion of business image and reputation. This volume provides a new perspective into the interrelationships between media and organizations across three dimensions: Media as Business, Media in business and Business in the media.

Public relations has been swift to grasp social media, yet its impact on public relations practice remains relatively unexplored. This book focusses on a way of understanding organizational identity construction in a virtual context, developing scholarship on the importance of a virtual presence in PR management, and further, to make sense of these identities as authentic, legitimate or plausible. Through a diverse group of empirical case studies, this book explores the global perspective on organizational identities which transcend global boundaries via the internet including Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and Monsanto and organized social media protests. It also explores crowdfunding – an emerging form of capitalist development constructed through sensemaking in social media. By looking at the emergence of organization in today’s social media environment, it identifies how the interactive is created on a digitally mediated platform, sharing knowledge and engaging individuals in organizational identity construction. Viewing the social construction of organizational identities through this lens, this innovative book locates how identities are plausible, authentic and legitimate - or not – through their ongoing communication via social media. It will be of great interest to academics teaching and researching in public relations, organisational communication and social media.

This volume fills a significant gap in the current understanding of the relationship between media and organizations, by looking at three dimensions of their interplay: (1) how the media industry changes through the use of new technologies (Media as Business), (2) how organizational identity is re-shaped by the media (Media in business) and (3) how business logic penetrates broader socio-cultural identities through press, television and new technologies (Business in the media). Drawing on a variety of disciplines, from organizational theory and corporate communication to branding, sociology and cultural studies, the volume proposes a novel, interdisciplinary approach to the media-business interplay and offers a much-needed account on the contemporary configurations of organizational identity under conditions of mediated visibility.

The question “who am I?” represents one of the key challenges of contemporary life in a globalized world. For most of us, organizations play a key role in answering that question. In this book, Gregory Larson and Rebecca Gill explain how identities are formed, managed, and regulated in our interactions with organizations, and why identity has become so relevant in modern life. Their examination includes frameworks for organizing and understanding identity scholarship, the nature of multiple identities and how these are managed, and the use of identity as a way to control workers. Organizations and Identity introduces a discursive approach to the topic, highlighting what is unique and consequential about studying identity from a communication perspective. It is essential reading for students and scholars of organizational communication.

Organizational Identity presents the classic works on organizational identity alongside more current thinking on the issues. Ranging from theoretical contributions to empirical studies, the readings in this volume address the key issues of organizational identity, and show how these issues have developed through contributions from such diverse fields of study as sociology, psychology, management studies and cultural studies. The readings examine questions such as how organizations understand who they are, why organizations develop a sense of identity and belonging where the boundaries of identity lie and the implications of postmodern and critical theories' challenges to the concept of identity as deeply-rooted and authentic. Includes work by: Stuart Albert, Mats Alvesson, Blake E. Ashforth, Marilynn B. Brewer, George Cheney, Lars Thoger Christensen, C.H. Cooley, Kevin G. Corley, Barbara Czarniawska, Janet M. Dukerich, Jane E. Dutton, Kimberly D. Elsbach, Wendi Gardner, Linda E. Ginzela, Dennis A. Gioia, E. Goffman, Karen Golden-Biddle, Mary Jo Hatch, Roderick M. Kramer, Fred Rael, G.H. Mead, Michael G. Pratt, Anat Rafaeli, Hayagreeva Rao, Majken Schultz, Howard S. Schwartz, Robert I. Sutton, Henri Taijfel, John Turner, David A. Wherren, and Hugh Willmott. Intended to provide easy access to this material for students of organizational identity, it will also be of interest more broadly to students of business, sociology and psychology.

How do people identify with organizations? What role does organizational identity play in organizational strategy? Identity in Organizations investigates the fundamental character of organizational identity and individual identification with an organization. Through the use of an unconventional, conversational format the reader is drawn into a provocative discussion among key organizational scholars that focuses on three different paradigmatic views of identity: a functionalist perspective, an interpretive perspective, and a postmodern perspective. Similarities and distinctions among these ways of understanding are explored and numerous theoretical and practical insights are gained. This groundbreaking book concludes with a discussion of the relevance of identity as a construct in organizational study and observations on conversation and theory building. Many well-known scholars participate in the conversation, including Jay Barney, Denny Gioia, Mary Jo Hatch, Stuart Albert, Anne Huff, Judi McLean Parks, and Rod Kramer. Identity in Organizations will be of interest to professionals and students of organizational studies, human resource management, industrial psychology, sociology of work, psychology, and organizational communication.

An understanding of identity is fundamental to a complete understanding of organizational life. While conventional management textbooks nod to in-groups, cohesion and discrimination, this text offers instead a deeper, more nuanced understanding of why people, groups and organizations behave the way they do. With conceptions of identity perhaps less stable than they have ever been, the authors make complex theoretical issues accessible to the reader through the use of lively examples from popular culture. The authors present an overview of the key issues, as well as an examination of cutting-edge research and topical forces currently re-defining identity, such as globalisation, the fair trade movement and online identities. This text is a succinct, relevant and exciting overview of the field of identity studies as it relates to business and management and applied social sciences, an is an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of management on any course that has an identity component.