Organizational Faultlines: Social Identity Dynamics and Organizational Change

TLDR: In this article, the authors explored the role that social identity dynamics play during organizational change in a grounded theory study of a rural hospital undergoing major change, and the authors' organizational faultline model, which shows how non-explicit social identities, when triggered by organizational change, can result in poor intergroup dynamics and decreased job satisfaction.

Abstract: The role that social identity dynamics play during organizational change is explored in a grounded theory study of a rural hospital undergoing major change. The faultline concept, from small group research, is applied at the organizational level to explain how professional identity group dynamics act as a barrier to change. The main contribution is the authors' organizational faultline model, which shows how non-explicit social identities (i.e. small town membership), when triggered by organizational change, can result in poor intergroup dynamics and decreased job satisfaction. This study contributes to our understanding of social identities and organizational change by illustrating how organizational change may have activated latent social identity faultlines.