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Abstract
In this qualitative field study, I explore how the construction of a cultural institution's identity is related to the construction of strategic capabilities and resources. I investigated the 1996 musicians' strike at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), which revealed embedded and latent identity conflicts. The multifaceted and specialized identity of the ASO was reinforced by different professional groups in the organization: the ideologies of musicians and administrators emphasized institutional resource allocations consistent with the legitimating values of their professions, i.e., artistic excellence versus economic utility. These identity claims, made under organizational crisis, accounted for variations in the construction of core competencies. I propose a model that explicates how the construction of core capabilities lies at the intersection of identification and interpretive processes in organizations. Implications are discussed for defining firm capabilities in cultural institutions and for managing organizational forms characterized by competing claims over institutional identity, resources, and core capabilities.
(Identity; Strategic Capabilities; Intergroup Conflict; Crisis; Qualitative Study)
Introduction
Symphony orchestras are "ensembles whose primary mission is public performance of those orchestral works generally considered to fall within the standard symphonic repertoire and whose members are compensated nontrivially for their services" (Allmendinger and Hackman 1996, p. 340). Orchestras are particularly important cultural institutions because they are one of the early organizational forms that produced and delivered art to the public (Americanizing the American Orchestra 1993, p. 2). However, while orchestras may be singular in their cultural contribution, they are multiprofessional in their identity.
Most cultural institutions have identities composed of contradictory elements because they contain actors (artisans and administrators) within the organization who come from different professions; as a result, different groups of actors cherish and promote different aspects of the organization's identity (Albert and Whetten 1985, Golden-Biddle and Rao 1997). Central identity elements in cultural institutions-artistic and utilitarian - hybridize the organization's identity because they colocate "two or more types that would not normally be expected to go together" (Albert and Whetten 1985, p. 270). Consequently, tension and conflict can erupt when, in response to environmental change or organizational retrenchment, one identity element is emphasized over another.
It is through their particular identity lens (artistic or utilitarian) that organizational actors, by virtue of their organizational position and/or professional affiliation, craft their particular...