“Everybody Identitiefies with Smokey the Bear”

Abstract

This article is a study of employee responses to identification inducements in a newsletter at the U.S. Forest Service. A systematic analysis indicates that the Forest Service attempts to induce identification through strategies and tactics embedded in the newsletter. The data revealed four employee responses to the newsletter content. Nonidentification responses do not produce feelings of identification. Textual identification responses manifest feelings of identification, as readers link themselves to the organization through newsletter depictions. Contextual identification requires evoking memories of past organizational participation if the person is to manifest feelings of membership in response to the newsletter. Finally, disidentification responses are associated with feelings of separateness from the organization. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Conflicted Identification in the Sex Education Classroom

“…Their response to this dilemma either led them to put their job in jeopardy (and thereby risk their sense of organizational identification) or teach sex education in a way they believed was less than effective for their students, thus putting their students’ health at risk (and thereby risking their sense of professional identification). In this respect, this study not only supports previous research suggesting identifications are multiple (Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Scott, 1999; Scott et al, 1999; van Knippenberg & van Schie, 2000) and fluid (Ashforth & Johnson, 2001; DiSanza & Bullis, 1999; Dukerich, Kramer, & McLean Parks, 1998; Elsbach, 1999; Kreiner & Ashforth, 2004; Pratt, 2000), but it also begins to explore how one identification (in this case, professional identification) may cause a conflict in identification with another source while still preventing disidentification.…”

Using social science to understand and improve wildland fire organizations: an annotated reading list

“…This section begins with several articles that introduce how identification occurs, how identification relates to decision making, and how individual versus professional identities compare (Tompkins and Cheney 1985). The next set of readings provide a more detailed explanation of the impact of identity and identification on organizations in terms of decision making and control (Bullis 1991;Bullis and Bach 1991;Cheney and Tompkins 1987;DiSanza and Bullis 1999;Kaufman 2006;Tompkins and Bullis 1989). This section concludes by looking at how identification is created and maintained through communication (Barker and Cheney 1994;Barker and Tompkins 1994;Larson and Pepper 2003).…”

Directives and Dialogue: Examining the Relationship Between Participative Organizational Communication Practices and Organizational Identification Among IT Workers

“…Although insight into how various organizational communication practices affect OI is still somewhat limited, a few studies (e.g., Bartels, Peters, de Jong, Pruyn, & van der Molen, 2010; DiSanza & Bullis, 1999; Redding, 1972; Scott, 1997; Wiesenfeld, Raghuram, & Garud, 1999) have suggested that adequate and open organizational communicative practices can enhance employees’ identification with the organizations for which they work. While adequate and open organizational communicative practices can entail or include several different practices (e.g., supportive communication, efficient meetings, supervisor-subordinate bonding, etc.…”