The Role of Employee Identification and Organizational Identity in Strategic Communication and Organizational Issues Management about Genetic Modification

Abstract

This article examines the organizational identities and strategic communication of two New Zealand primary export organizations as they managed intense public debate surrounding the potential impacts of genetic modification. We examine the similarities and differences in identifications at multiple levels in these organizations, illustrating the value and, by implication, policy positions held simultaneously by individual organizational members, groups, and the organizations as collective entities. These positions also serve as points of reference in public discourse about genetic modification. Our empirically grounded, critical interpretive analysis reveals the roles played by employee identification and organizational identity formation in strategic communication and organizational issues management about controversial public policies. In these ways, the analysis makes important connections between “the organizational voice” typically represented in issues management and individual members’ identifications, and offers evidence for how the latter might be taken into account in the development of strategic communication.