Identity Management in an Institution of Higher Education: A Case Study Using Structural Coupling and Fractal Enterprise Model

Abstract

There are several ways of defining organizational identity and identity management. This article considers a less exploited one, namely, defining identity as a set of structural couplings that the organization has, and identity management as an activity aimed at maintaining these couplings. The concept of structural coupling comes from biological cybernetics, and it means that a system during its evolution becomes entangled with few other systems. The system at hand evolves together with these systems, adapts to them and causes them to adapt to it. The concept of structural coupling is applied in a study of an institution of higher education. To identify structural couplings, the authors use a so-called Fractal Enterprise Model that presents both internal structure of an organization and its business environment. The article analyzes to which elements of the environment an institution of higher education is structurally coupled and how the identity maintenance is arranged. The article provides examples of how well maintaining identity works in practice based on reflections on the authors' experience of working in the department. The article concludes with suggesting a generic procedure for identifying structural couplings and defining a strategy of maintaining these couplings.

Factors that enhance the perceived quality and student satisfaction of specialized postgraduate programs: the role of identity

“…The concepts of social identity (Haslam, 2017;Platow et al, 2017), organizational identity (Bider and Perjons, 2021;B€ uk et al, 2017;de Miranda Junior et al, 2021;Levin et al, 2018) and corporate identity (Cach on-Rodr ıguez et al, 2021;Mohamad et al, 2016;Mohamad and Raji, 2021) have been used interchangeably in identity research on educational settings. This is due to these concepts' overlap in research on social, organizational and corporate identities (Corlett et al, 2017), which supports the argument that these identities are compatible (Cornelissen et al, 2007).…”

“…The concepts of social identity (Haslam, 2017; Platow et al. , 2017), organizational identity (Bider and Perjons, 2021; Bük et al. , 2017; de Miranda Junior et al.…”

Kepuasan Pengguna Jasa terhadap Kualitas Lulusan Program Doktor Ilmu Ekonomi

“…Pemangku kepentingan disini antara lain adalah dari asosiasi, pengguna jasa (user), praktisi, alumni dan juga dari pihak internal seperti dosen dan organisasi mahasiswa. Upaya ini ditujukan agar kualitas kurikulum maupun implementasinya senantiasa up to date dan proses pembelajaran berjalan secara berkualitas sesuai visi dan misi yang telah dicanangkan (Cheng et al, 2019;et al, 2021).…”