A Critique of Organizational Identity Scholarship: Challenging the Uncritical Use of Social Identity Theory When Social Identities Are Also Social Actors

Significant advances in the field of organizational studies often involve “perspective-borrowing”—the practice of importing theoretical perspectives from related disciplines. Beginning with Ashforth and Mael’s (1989) landmark article, the study of identity and identification in organizations has been enhanced by the application of social identity theory (SIT) and its first cousin, self-categorization theory (SCT). This volume is an important addition to a growing library of SIT-SCT-inspired

organizational scholarship. In this concluding chapter, I’ve been invited to look broadly across this library, guided by two related questions: “What are the unique features of organizational identification?” and “How well-suited is SIT-SCT for the study of organizations-as-social identities, given that they are also social actors?”