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The idea of ‘identity politics’ has become quite prominent in news commentary. It has been referred to in explaining the 2016 US Presidential election result, the 2016 Brexit vote and a variety of other events in contemporary social life. The idea emerged under that title in the late twentieth century, and refers to political conflicts where groups unite and act on the basis of some shared identity. While the term initially referred to action by groups seeking to remedy past oppression, ‘identity politics’ may now refer to a wider range of cases where there is contestation based on recognition of some shared identity. Individuals’ identity is central to resurgent modern virtue ethics, but it has been suggested that virtue ethics is less relevant to political conflict than utilitarian views or theories of justice. However, an important distinction can be made between narrative identity, on the one hand, and social identity that emerges from individuals’ self-perceived group membership, on the other hand. It is narrative identity that figures in major accounts of virtue ethics. In many situations, narrative identity is importantly affected by group identity, but it is still only narrative identity that has intrinsic ethical weight. This suggests that virtue ethics has relevance to identity politics just because it urges attention to individuals’ narrative identity rather than to group identity.

The concept of (self-)identity has become increasingly central to institutional theory’s microfoundations, yet remains relatively underdeveloped. In this chapter, the authors use an autobiographical interview with a gay Protestant minister in the US to explore the role of narrative conventions in the construction of self-identity. The analysis of this chapter offers the basis for a new understanding of the relation between institutions, self-identity, and agency: how we agentically engage institutions depends not only on who we narrate ourselves to be, but also on how we narrate ourselves into being. This suggests that narration as a specific modality of micro-institutional processes has important performative effects.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the repertoire of narrative resources relevant in the creation and maintenance of entrepreneurial identity, and to explore the implications for understanding entrepreneurial behaviour.

The empirical research is based on a two and a half year ethnographic study of a small UK industrial firm.

The study describes how clichés used by aspirant entrepreneurs are significant elements in creating entrepreneurial self‐identity. In contrast to entrepreneurial metaphors, the study of which has highlighted and revealed the extraordinary components of an entrepreneurial narrative identity, examination of the clichés provide us with a means by which to understand the everyday and ordinary elements of identity construction in entrepreneurs.

Further qualitative research in other entrepreneurial settings will be required, exploring the generality of cliché use amongst entrepreneurs.

Applying the implications of our findings for pedagogic and business support uses is not explored and will need further development; we do however suggest that narrative approaches that make sense of entrepreneurship as an achievable aim may have some practical use.

The application of cliché as a distinctive linguistic feature of entrepreneurial self‐identity construction is highly original and reflects analogous work on entrepreneurial metaphors. Because of its ethnographic data, the paper develops empirically and conceptually rich insights into entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of organizational identity through an analysis of shared identity narratives at the UK‐based specialist tour operator Laskarina Holidays.

Predicated on a view of organizations as linguistic constructs, it is argued that individual and collective identities are narrative accomplishments, and that organizations tend often to be characterised by identity multiplicity.

A case study is presented featuring three distinctive but interwoven collective identity narratives (which are labelled “utilitarian”, “normative” and “hedonic”), and these are contrasted with some “dissonant” voices. It is argued that change in organizations is, at least in part, constituted by alterations in people's understandings, encoded in narratives, and shared in conversations.

The research contribution that this paper makes is twofold. First, it makes an argument for theorizing organizational identities as narratives, constituted within discursive regimes, and continuously changing as they are created and re‐created by all participants. Second, it suggests that the narratological approach to theorizing and researching organizational identities is important because it both assists one's efforts to analyze identities as the outcomes of processes of hegemonic imposition and resistance, and allows one to read polysemy back into ethnographic research.

Corporate identity has become one of the major topics in the field of corporate marketing studies, but the relationship between corporate marketing management and corporate‐identity building seems still stuck at the stage of operational rather than strategic considerations. Corporate identity is understood largely in terms of instrumentality for enhancing competitive advantage, and corporate marketing is mostly discussed as only an execution part in representing corporate identity to the stakeholders. To address this issue, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model which explicates the strategic roles the corporate marketing manager plays in building effective corporate identity.

The paper explores strategic management of the corporate‐identity construction process and marketing communication management of corporate‐identity representation from the perspectives of sociology, organisational psychology and corporate marketing communication, primarily based on the narrative paradigm. Detailed theoretical exploration, coupled with several conceptual propositions as well as analyses of exemplary cases, provides academic and practical implications for corporate marketing researchers and managers.

The proposed model conceptualises that the corporate marketing manager assumes three strategic roles for building effective corporate identity: narrative coordinator to manage the narrative construction process, narrative‐network weaver to manage the narrative network, and narrative co‐author to manage the external communication programmes. These roles define the strategic relationship between corporate marketing management and corporate‐identity building.

The paper contributes to furthering the understanding of how to use the narrative paradigm for effective corporate‐identity building, which may help enhancement of business performance.

The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of identity play process by including the stories we live by in depth. Over the past decade, identity play literature has placed more emphasis on the role of self-narratives. Yet, the “stories we live by”, including the told or untold stories of past and imagined events of the future, have not been considered in depth in these self-narratives.

This conceptual paper draws on the personal construct theory, narrative identity and constructivist psychotherapy literatures and attempts to include the stories we live by in scholarly conceptualizations and explorations of identity play processes.

Drawing on the personal construct theory, narrative identity and constructivist psychotherapy literatures this paper offers a comprehensive conceptual model of how the stories we live by infuse individual identity construction processes. The model highlights the inter-connectivity among stories we live by, identity play, identity work, sensemaking and social validation. Looking through the lens of the personal construct theory and taking these inter-connectivities into account lead to the observation of temporality in identity construction and the plurivocality of self-narratives.

This paper looks at identity play through the lens of the personal construct theory. However, self-narratives are seen as a medium for manifestation of personal constructs. Thus, this paper also draws on the narrative identity literature and dialogical-self concept, which helps access the multiplicity of the self-narratives to widen our grasp of personal constructs. This paper combines discourse of deconstruction with the dialogical-self concept and provides more means for the explication of identity play.

This study aims at a better understanding of parents’ identity work when their parenting skills are questioned, in an organizational setting. The parents in this study were assessed as at risk of unsatisfactory parental functioning because of problems related to drugs, mental health and/or psychosocial functioning, and they were observed and offered guidance at an extended health centre in Norway. The study explores how individual self-presentations are interwoven with and dependent on organizational narratives of identity.

Based on an analysis of 16 qualitative interviews, three exemplary cases are analyzed in detail. Narrative identity and professional gaze constitute the theoretical framework.

Parents and service providers negotiate which organizational narratives of identity are available, and the narratives are integrated in parents’ self-presentations in different ways. The most common strategy is to accept the organizational narratives offered, but they are also transformed and rejected. The experience of being seen by an empathic professional gaze contributes to the creation of an acceptable self-narrative.

Tending to parents’ identity needs should be an integral part of services provided. If parents are to cooperate with state services and engage in interventions, their needs for preserving an acceptable and coherent self-narrative must be considered.

This paper adds to the understanding of how identity work is a central feature of service provision. It also adds to the literature on relationships between identity narratives at different levels of society.

The paper aims to contribute to the discussion about how SIEs articulate narratives as cognitive efforts to expand, restrict or adapt their repertoire of identities in highly regulated environments.

Drawing from a social constructivist positioning, the paper explores situated social and relational practices using a qualitative framework that relied on primary data gathering through semi‐structured interviews. Qatar is a context of particular interest for exploring identity narratives of SIEs given the highly regulated environment and the large numbers of non‐nationals within the overall workforce. The study was conducted in an anonymous Qatari public shareholding company.

Findings suggest that narratives of self are framed in relation to structural constraints and patterns of adaptation. These reveal the interplay between identity, careers and self‐initiated expatriation at macro‐country and micro‐individual levels. As part of these themes, narratives of mobility and opportunity emerged in reference to career experiences and discussions about themselves (lives, identities, and expectations).

The paper contributes to our current understanding of SIEs and encourages us to consider the importance of context in shaping the SIE experience. Similarly, the scarcity of literature about SIEs in GCC countries makes this paper a timely contribution. These contributions have significant implications not only for theoretical discussions about SIEs, but also for discussions on the interplay between migration, identity and global careers.

Virtual organizations present numerous challenges for managers, especially in regards to organizational identity formation. This paper aims to address this gap in the extant literature by exploring how organizational narratives can foster identification with the virtual organization. Moreover, information technology can further catalyze the positive effects of narratives on identity formation.

Qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 18 members of a nonprofit, virtual organization – DiverseCS – were collected. Participants were asked about their roles in the organization, challenges and collaborative efforts. Grounded theory methodology was used to analyze the data.

Efforts to instill a sense of identity and community through the adoption of information technology was met with resistance. Rather, senior leaders encouraged and institutionalized the creation of organizational narratives. Novel use of information technology – social media and hyperlinks – became a means to amplify the positive effects of narrative creation and sharing by organizational members.

This study investigates how some members of a virtual organization use information technology in novel ways to further spread organizational narratives to other organizational members and also to external collaboration partners. This research contributes to the extant literature on virtual organizational identity and also proposes a research agenda.

Situated in scholarship on narrative and antenarrative, the purpose of this paper is to develop central assumptions of an (ante)narrative approach to collective identity research and to reflexively address the methodological questions such an approach raises for producing and analysing (ante)stories. (Ante)stories include proper stories with chronology and plot as well as antestories which are fragmented and incomplete.

Based on a concrete research project exploring collective identity as narratively constructed in negotiation between organizational insiders and outsiders, emphasis is placed on elements related to the production and analysis of (ante)stories. Challenges of the applied (ante)narrative methodology are addressed focusing on three central questions: where do (ante)stories come from? Whose (ante)stories are told? And whose storied constructions of collective identity are explored?

The (ante)narrative methodology allows for a broad approach to producing and analysing (ante)stories. Consequently, it provides a rich understanding of the narrative practice of constructing collective identity. However, it also raises questions relating to the role of the researcher in the analytic process.

Implications include the necessity of developing analytic methods that take the fragmented, incoherent and dynamic nature of storytelling into account as well as reflect the researcher as a co-teller. Moreover, it is suggested that there is a need for developing a set of alternative evaluation criteria to accompany such methods.

To present and reflexively discuss (ante)narrative as a research methodology within collective identity research.