Organizational Identity the Foundation for Organizational Culture

Much has been written about culture and how it plays into the DNA of an organization. As a student of organizational structure and leadership, I have read and studied how culture becomes a foundational piece of an organization. Whether it is John Coleman’s article for HBR about the six factors of vision, values, practices, people, narrative, and place to Keith Richards’ piece about value alignments necessity in corporate culture, I have felt a piece missing.

This was until I read Andres Hatum and Luciana Silvestri’s article about FCBarcelona.  The interest in the article came from my love of football and reading about the business behind one of the largest and most successful football clubs in the world. However, what I read turned my thinking about organizational culture on its head. The basic premise that Hatum and Silverstri put forth is that culture comes from identity of the organization. They state:

While culture tells us how to behave, identity tells us who we are. That services two purposes. By serving as a lens, identity helps make sense of the environment. It also informs action by guiding employees’ responses. Together, these dimensions allow organizations to maintain a sense of balance between “who we are” and “what we do.”

Even though this concept hit a new chord in my organizational thought, Stephen Downey wrote about this idea in 1986 for Public Relations Quarterly in his article “The Relationship Between Corporate Culture and Corporate Identity.” Downey was remarking that the identity is not the brand or image of the organization, instead the identity was the “why” of the organization. This is still an issue that permeates organizations, and specifically leadership.

Current understanding still views identity as coming from culture. It is in the creation of culture in an organization that identity, or image, can be realized. However, this can lead to an organization operating in a manner that is counter to its true identity. A leader must help define and create the “who” of the organization so the behavior of the organization is in unison. If the “who” and the “what” do not become synced then mission and vision can become confusing and lead to a dysfunctional and poorly operating organization.

As many organizations continue to build on their success or, on the other hand, deal with issues, leadership should re-examine the organization’s identity. When identity is realized throughout an organization, beginning with the executive leadership and weaving through the entire structure, that is when the “real culture is understood. This leads to better processes, products, and ultimately revenue for the organization.

As a leader, do you know your organization’s identity? Or, do you operate in a culture that might be contrary to the true nature of “who” the organization was created to be? If you do not know the identity of your organization or its relationship to the organizational culture as a leader, then it is time to discover the identity of the organization you lead. Discovering the identity might set the organization back on to a path of success and growth that you have been to trying to find. You owe it to your organization.