Organizational Identification and the Symbolic Shaping of Information Communication Technology

• Published in: Qualitative research reports in communication Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: Larson, Gregory S., Pepper, Gerald L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Disidentification; Geographically Dispersed Organizations; Identification; Information Communication Technologies
• ISSN: 1745-9435; 1745-9443
• DOI: 10.1080/17459435.2011.601519

Research on organizational identification and communication technologies has yielded contradictory results that may be partially explained by conceptualizing the relationship between technology and identification as mutually influential. Drawing on structuration theories of identification and technology, this article argues that identifications shape the way that communication technologies are symbolically created and used and, at the same time, technology use influences identifications. Interviews and focus groups conducted at a geographically dispersed organization showed how meanings associated with technologies were shaped in negative ways because of organizational identifications and disidentifications.