The importance of corporate identity to organizations is increasing, which has led to the conceptualisation of corporate identity orientation. This paper challenges existing thinking by suggesting that if corporate identity orientation exists, so could corporate identity disorientation. Using a complexity theory perspective this conceptual paper explores how orientation/disorientation could emerge, and how the two could be related. The paper concludes that a combination of orientation and disorientation could be beneficial for corporate identity development, and that disorientation need not be wholly negative. This is relevant because the environment organizations find themselves in increasingly causes identity disorientation, so exploring this further helps address this crucial issue. As such, this paper opens new directions for researchers to look at corporate identity development, and also for practitioners to embrace elements of disorientation and how it may help unlock new opportunities.

Introduction

The importance of identities within organizations has risen in prominence (Brown, 2014; Powell, 2011; Suvatjis, Chernatony, & Halikias, 2012). Corporate identity elements (e.g. values, purpose) are playing a bigger role within organizations and technological developments have allowed organizations to express themselves in many new ways (Devereux, Melewar, & Foroudi, 2017). They also have potential to drive the distinctiveness of organizations (Balmer, 2012), which can in turn be a strong brand builder (Romanuik, Sharp, & Ehrenberg, 2007; Sharp, 2010). The environment that organizations exist in is also rapidly changing and the management of such change has become increasingly important (Waddock, Meszoely, Waddell, & Dentoni, 2015). The aforementioned technological developments and an increasingly complex world (Nyuur, 2015; Olins, 2014) raise the potential for confusion regarding the organization’s identity (Olins, 2014). Identity within the context of an organization therefore holds significant strategic potential (Balmer, 2017). This is due to corporate identity being able to create “favourable corporate reputation, customer loyalty, employee commitment etc” (He, 2012, p.610). Melewar, Karaosmanoglu, and Paterson (2005) found that it boosts employee motivation aiding recruitment and staff retention, provides a strong base for organizational culture, increases transparency, brings competitive advantage, develops better relationships and aids investment in the company. Corporate identity has also been shown to aid differentiation (Balmer, 1998) and distinctiveness (Balmer, 2012). Distinctiveness has been shown to strongly impact on brand building (Romanuik et al., 2007; Sharp, 2010). Further, corporate identity has important relationships with areas such as corporate brand, image and reputation. Due to these numerous and interdependent benefits and their foundational importance, corporate identity should be an important part of any business agenda. Whilst corporate identity has numerous associated constructs such as corporate personality, brand, image, and reputation, discussing these in depth is beyond the scope of this paper. We do, however, provide a background of how corporate identity is related to these constructs.