Past research focuses predominantly on self-enhancement as a motive underlying organizational identification even though there have been several calls for examining multiple motives of identification. Our research explores the interplay of the self-enhancement and the uncertainty reduction motives in shaping identification during a major organizational change: a merger of a business unit with its parent corporation. Based on analysis of survey responses collected from 751 employees of the merging business unit, we find that the self-enhancement motive, measured via attractiveness of perceived organizational identity and perceived external prestige, continues to influence identification during this merger. However, its effects are diminished when considering the effect of the uncertainty reduction motive. In particular, in addition to affecting identification directly, this latter motive, measured via agreement with projected identity of the business unit and identification with a distal target (i.e., the parent corporation), decreases the effect of perceived external prestige on business unit identification. Our research answers longstanding calls for understanding organizational identification motives beyond self-enhancement, and shows how multiple identification motives work during a major organizational change: a time when identification is strongly needed, yet hard to garner.

While the concept of organizational identity is regarded as a sanctuary for all the different voices and perceptions of an organization, the field itself seems to consist of deeply ingrained and dominant preferences for what constitutes meaningful organizational identity research. In this paper, I question two of these characteristics of the field: the lack of quantitative studies and the sole focus on the more socially constructed perceived organizational identity. I argue that a more open approach to organizational identity research is crucial, since it is only by straying off the main research paths that we will discover unexplored areas and develop new perspectives on organizational identity.

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