Construction of Organizational Self Theory by Expansion of Mead’s Social Self Theory

Abstract

This study clarifies the link between organizational identity and strategy by constructing an organizational self theory based on G. H. Mead’s social self theory. Mead demonstrated that an individual self is formed socially and composed of two aspects—the social “me” and the personal “I”—formed through modes of communication that utilize significant symbols among a society’s members. This study assumes that a firm’s organizational self is formed through communication with others in a market in the way that an individual social self is formed in accordance with human society. The organizational self that is constructed in this study is a metaphor of the individual social self and extends from Mead’s social self theory. In this case, human society corresponds to the market; others to buyers, competitors, or sellers in the market; and individuals to organizations. Furthermore, the individual “me” corresponds here to an organizational identity as an organizational “us,” and the individual “I”corresponds within organizational culture as organizational “we.” This study shows the close link between organizational identity and strategy by adopting the business model as the significant symbol of communication between organization and market.