Identity work as a strategic practice

David Oliver advances the perspective of ‘identity work’ as a form of strategic practice. The author begins by reviewing the literature on identity and identification at the individual, collective and organizational levels in the organization studies literature. He then examines existing research linking identity with strategy, organizing the respective work into three broad perspectives: identity as resource, identity as lens and identity as work. Each of the three perspectives is linked to one of the three focuses of strategy research, that is, strategy content, strategy process and strategy as practice. He finally draws on the growing number of processual studies of identity to elaborate the notion of identity work as a strategic practice, one which operates across different levels of analysis, and integrates past, present and future temporal orientations. A concluding discussion proposes five avenues of future research for strategy as practice scholars, namely identity emergence, identity across levels of analysis, identity and time, identity talk and identity and materiality.