Where do we belong: An exploration of individuals' identity issues within temporary organizations

Abstract

Temporary organizations take on numerous forms and can be found within and across traditional organizational forms. With the rise of remote work, born-global organizations and collaborative work, temporary organizations are becoming more prevalent. They are playing critical roles in a host of situations and organizational leaders need to better understand the phenomena so as to be able to navigate and utilize them correctly. In this paper, a conceptual model intended to understand how temporary organizations partially embedded in multiple parent organizations are being faced with unique identity issues is proposed. The individuals involved with such boundary spanning temporary organizations have identity issues due to their multiple identities being at odds with each other. Using the theories of temporary organizational forms and the social identity, the given conceptual framework shows that the dilemmas related to multiple identities can be resolved by: buffering and ordering identities, self-selecting into temporary organizational forms, and acknowledging such multiple identities and allowing them to simultaneously be salient. Additionally, the consequences of a lack of resolution are explored, including reduced group cohesion, lower performance and the unethical behavior on the part of the pro-parent organization.