An understanding of identity is fundamental to a complete understanding of organizational life. While conventional management textbooks touch on in-groups, cohesion and discrimination, Understanding Identity and Organizations 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, Willmott, Whittle and Kenny 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 redefining identity, such as globalization, 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, and is an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of management on any course that has an identity component.