The Organizational Identity of Göteborgs-Posten - An Old Man with a Hat?!

Abstract

In today’s competitive business climate organizational identification has been the espoused solution for many organizations over the last years. A model for deconstructing such identification, the Organizational Identity Dynamics Model suggests that the image and culture of an organization, together constitutes its identity. Understanding an organization’s culture is according to one perspective equal to understanding the entire organization. Another perspective suggests that culture is merely a variable and thereby a tool for controlling the organization. The same discussion goes for the image of the organization. Can the image be defined as the stakeholders’ general view of the organization, or is it a manageable tool for external use? With this thesis we have investigated the organizational identity at Göteborgs-Posten, one of Sweden’s largest newspapers. Our main focus is on the identity architecture, its building blocks, and their relation to each other. For this we analyze empirical data, taken from interviews from different layers at GP, documents and observations, and compare this material to theoretical approaches within the field. The results of this study are that Dan Kärremans description of the nature of the news agency, its organizational attributes and structure, can be well applied to the GP case. In line with his framework for defining the culture within this certain setting, we found the administration and the culture to be split between an editorial and a market section. Definitions of culture and brand supplied by Schein and Hatch et al, is adequate for defining and sorting our empirical data in this case. Furthermore, the Organizational Identity Dynamics Model provides a suiting framework for categorizing and understanding the interaction between culture and image, and when combined with the study on news agency identification we are provided with a more satisfactory view of the situation. Our main conclusions from this study are that the identity dynamics model can be well applied to the GP case and help describe how culture and image interacts. We however feel that the specific nature of a news agency, a semi-professional bureaucracy, affect the dynamics within the model and creates two sub-identities. The interaction is illustrated in an extended model presented in our analysis.