When Strategy Needs Identity and Vice Versa: A Temporal View of the Strategy-Identity Interplay

Although strategy and identity are recognized as having different time orientations, research has yet to show how their temporal differences influence their interplay in organizations. Based on a longitudinal case study of a brewery Carlsberg Group – the talk suggests how the temporal differences between strategy and identity can be conceptualized as differences in their temporal structures, defined as their past and future time horizons and the temporal depth expressed as the overall span between past and future considered by actors. The study shows, how different combinations of temporal structures can explain changes in the strength of interplay between strategy and identity over time. It argues when strong interplay occurs implying that strategy becomes meaningfully framed by identity, while identity becomes more useable in setting directions for strategizing. The talk discusses multiple implications of taking a temporal view.

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Interview and editing by emlyon Ph.D. student Su Lyn Cheng.