Managing Social Identity During Organisational Change
This paper considers the relationship between communication, social identity, and knowledge management in a large city hospital.
Through a study of nursing and allied staff experiences with the introduction of a new ICT-enabled patient management system it investigates the perceptions of changes in organisational communication and social realties.
Social identity theory (SIT) proposes that individuals understand their self concept through identification with particular social groups such as gender, profession, work group. (Tajfel, 1978). From this perspective, organisations such as hospitals can be seen as cultures, with embedded subcultures: individuals derive satisfaction and self-worth from belonging to sub cultures (in-groups), that they tend to compare favourably to other sub-cultures (out-groups). This SIT theoretical framework provides insights into how individuals respond to, absorb and manage ICT enabled changes in this setting and in the process identifies successful practice.
Keywords: Social Identity, Change, ICT, Communication
Sandra Jane Barnett
Programme Leader, School of Communication Studies, Manukau Institute of Technology
|
Sandra is currently Programme Leader of the Bachelor of Applied Communication at Manukau Institute of Technology. She regularly presents at international conferences on communication and organisational studies. Her research interests are interpersonal communication, organisational communication and e-communication and she has published research papers in these areas and is co-author of Barnett, S. and O’Rourke(2006). S. Communication: Organisation and Innovation. Auckland: Pearson Longman
Ref: M06P0407