This article seeks to develop our understanding of how management concepts are translated by examining the role of identity work in this process. Rather than a sole focus on changes in a management concept, we examine tensions and congruences between agents’ orientations towards that concept and how they see the broader organizational engagement with it. Through an examination of qualitative data from a study of those specifically tasked with the implementation of Lean in hospital contexts, we identify their narratives of self in relation to the concept. We show how, through four different types of translation-as-identity-work – externalizing, professionalizing, rationalizing and proselytizing – both the concept and the agent are constructed simultaneously. In recognizing interconnectedness, diversity and dynamism in these actors’ involvement, we seek to integrate, contextualize and broaden existing perspectives on agency in translation research.
AbrahamsonE.PiazzaA. (2019). The lifecycle of management ideas: Innovation, diffusion, institutionalization, dormancy and rebirth. In SturdyA. J.HeusinkveldS.ReayT.StrangD. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of management ideas (pp. 42–67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2.
AlvessonM.WillmottH. (2002). Identity regulation as organizational control: Producing the appropriate individual. Journal of Management Studies, 39, 619–644.
3.
AshforthB. E.HarrisonS. H.CorleyK. G. (2008). Identification in organizations: An examination of four fundamental questions. Journal of Management, 34, 325–374.
4.
AshforthB. E.HumphreyR. H. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. Academy of Management Review, 18, 88–115.
5.
AshforthB. E.SchinoffB. S. (2016). Identity under construction: How individuals come to define themselves in organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 111–137.
6.
AtewologunD.KutzerR.DoldorE.AndersonD.SealyR. (2017). Individual-level foci of identification at work: A systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19, 273–295.
7.
BalogunJ.GleadleP.HaileyV. H.WillmottH. (2005). Managing change across boundaries: Boundary-shaking practices. British Journal of Management, 16, 261–278.
8.
BendersJ.Van GrinsvenM.HeusinkveldS. (2014). Tussen verbeteren en continu verbeteren. In RouppeM.van derVoortBendersJ. (Eds.), Verder met Lean in de zorg (pp. 25–35). Amsterdam: Boom uitgevers.
9.
BendersJ.VerlaarS. (2003). Lifting parts: Putting conceptual insights into practice. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 23, 757–774.
10.
BoxenbaumE.BattilanaJ. (2005). Importation as innovation: Transposing managerial practices across fields. Strategic Organization, 3, 355–383.
11.
BoxenbaumE.Strandgaard PedersenJ. (2009). Scandinavian institutionalism – a case of institutional work. In LawrenceT. B.SuddabyR.LecaB. (Eds.), Institutional work (pp. 178–204). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
BrownA. D. (2014). Identities and identity work in organizations. International Journal of Management Reviews, 17, 20–40.
13.
BrownA. D. (2017). Identity: Identity Work and Organizational Identification. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19, 296–317.
14.
BrunerJ. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31, 21–32.
15.
BurgessN.RadnorZ. (2013). Evaluating Lean in healthcare. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 26, 220–235.
16.
CallonM. (1984). Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. Sociological Review, 32, 196–233.
17.
CassellC.LeeB. (2016). Understanding translation work: The evolving interpretation of a trade union idea. Organization Studies, 38, 1085–1106.
18.
ClarkT.SalamanG. (1998). Telling tales: Management gurus’ narratives and the construction of managerial identity. Journal of Management Studies, 35, 137–161.
19.
CurrieG.ProcterS. J. (2005). The antecedents of middle managers’ strategic contribution: The case of a professional bureaucracy. Journal of Management Studies, 42, 1325–1356.
20.
CurrieG.FinnR.MartinG. (2010). Role transition and the interaction of relational and social identity: New nursing roles in the English NHS. Organization Studies, 31, 941–961.
21.
CzarniawskaB.JoergesB. (1996). Travels of ideas. In CzarniawskaB.SevónG. (Eds.), Translating organizational change (pp. 13–48). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
22.
DavidR. J.StrangD. (2006). When fashion is fleeting: Transitory collective beliefs and the dynamics of TQM consulting. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 215–233.
23.
EdwardsP.CollinsonM.ReesC. (1998). The determinants of employee responses to total quality management: six case studies. Organization Studies, 19, 449–475.
24.
EllisN.YbemaS. (2010). Marketing identities: Shifting circles of identification in inter-organizational relationships. Organization Studies, 31, 279–305.
25.
EtzioniA. (1961). A comparative analysis of complex organizations. New York: Free Press.
26.
FrenkelM. (2005). The politics of translation: How state-level political relations affect the cross-national travel of management ideas. Organization, 12, 275–301.
27.
GiddensA. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
28.
GondoM. B.AmisJ. M. (2013). Variations in practice adoption: The roles of conscious reflection and discourse. Academy of Management Review, 38, 229–247.
29.
GroßC.HeusinkveldS.ClarkT. (2015). The active audience? Gurus, management ideas and consumer variability. British Journal of Management, 26, 273–291.
30.
HeinzeK. L.SoderstromS.HeinzeJ. E. (2016). Translating institutional change to local communities: The role of linking organizations. Organization Studies, 37, 1141–1169.
31.
HelinS.SandströmJ. (2010). Resisting a corporate code of ethics and the reinforcement of management control. Organization Studies, 31, 583–604.
32.
HeusinkveldS.SturdyA.WerrA. (2011). The co-consumption of management ideas and practices. Management Learning, 42, 139–147.
HuisingR. (2016). From adapting practices to inhabiting ideas: How managers restructure work across organizations. In CohenL. E.BurtonM. D.LounsburyM. (Eds.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations (Vol. 47, pp. 383–413). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
35.
IbarraH.BarbulescuR. (2010). Identity as narrative: Prevalence, effectiveness, and consequences of narrative identity work in macro work role transitions. Academy of Management Review, 35, 135–154.
36.
KelemenM. (2000). Too much or too little ambiguity: The language of total quality management. Journal of Management Studies, 37, 483–498.
37.
KirkpatrickI.BullingerB.LegaF.DentM. (2013). The translation of hospital management models in European health systems: A framework for comparison: translation of hospital management models. British Journal of Management, 24, 48–61.
38.
KnightsD.MorganG. (1991). Corporate strategy, organizations, and subjectivity: A critique. Organization Studies, 12, 251–273.
39.
KostovaT.RothK. (2002). Adoption of an organizational practice by subsidiaries of multinational corporations: Institutional and relational effects. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 215–233.
40.
KreinerG. E.HollensbeE. C.SheepM. L. (2006). Where is the “me” among the “we”? Identity work and the search for optimal balance. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 1031–1057.
41.
LatourB. (1986). The powers of association. In LawJ. (Ed.), Power, action, and belief: A new sociology of knowledge?London: Routledege.
42.
LatourB. (1993). The pasteurization of France. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
MantereS. (2005). Strategic practices as enablers and disablers of championing activity. Strategic Organization, 3, 157–184.
44.
MantereS. (2008). Role expectations and middle manager strategic agency. Journal of Management Studies, 45, 294–316.
45.
McGivernG.CurrieG.FerlieE.FitzgeraldL.WaringJ. (2015). Hybrid manager-professionals’ identity work: The maintenance and hybridization of medical professionalism in managerial contexts. Public Administration, 93, 412–432.
46.
McInnesP.CorlettS. (2012). Conversational identity work in everyday interaction. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 28, 27–38.
47.
MilesM. B.HubermanA. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: A sourcebook. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications.
NicolaiA. T.DautwizJ. M. (2010). Fuzziness in action: What consequences has the linguistic ambiguity of the core competence concept for organizational usage? Fuzziness in action. British Journal of Management, 21, 874–888.
51.
O’MahoneyJ.HeusinkveldS.WrightC. (2013). Commodifying the commodifiers: The impact of procurement on management knowledge. Journal of Management Studies, 50, 204–235.
52.
O’ReillyC. A.ChatmanJ. (1986). Organizational commitment and psychological attachment: The effects of compliance, identification, and internalization on prosocial behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 492–499.
53.
ÖzenŞ.BerkmanÜ. (2007). Cross-national reconstruction of managerial practices: TQM in Turkey. Organization Studies, 28, 825–851.
54.
PallasJ.FredrikssonM.WedlinL. (2016). Translating institutional logics: When the media logic meets professions. Organization Studies, 37, 1661–1684.
55.
PhillipsN.HardyC. (2002). Discourse analysis: Investigating processes of social construction. London: SAGE Publications.
56.
PrattM. G.SchultzM.AshforthB. E.RavasiD. (2016). The Oxford handbook of organizational identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
57.
RadaelliG.Sitton-KentL. (2016). Middle managers and the translation of new ideas in organizations: A review of micro-practices and contingencies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18, 311–332.
58.
ReayT.ChreimS.Golden-BiddleK.GoodrickE.WilliamsB. E.CasebeerA.. . . HiningsC. (2013). Transforming new ideas into practice: an activity-based perspective on the institutionalization of practices. Journal of Management Studies, 50, 963–990.
59.
RouleauL. (2005). Micro-practices of strategic sensemaking and sensegiving: How middle managers interpret and sell change every day. Journal of Management Studies, 42, 1413–1441.
60.
RøvikK. A. (2016). Knowledge transfer as translation: Review and elements of an instrumental theory: Knowledge transfer as translation. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18, 290–310.
61.
SahlinK.WedlinL. (2008). Circulating ideas: Imitation, translation and editing. In GreenwoodR.OliverC.LawrenceT. B.MeyerR. B. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 218–242). London: SAGE Publications.
62.
SergiV.HallinA. (2011). Thick performances, not just thick descriptions: The processual nature of doing qualitative research. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 6(2), 191–208.
63.
SnowD. A.AndersonL. (1987). Identity work among the homeless: The verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. American Journal of Sociology, 92, 1336–1371.
64.
SpyridonidisD.CurrieG. (2016). The translational role of hybrid nurse middle managers in implementing clinical guidelines: Effect of, and upon, professional and managerial hierarchies. British Journal of Management, 27, 760–777.
65.
SpyridonidisD.CurrieG.HeusinkveldS.StraussK.SturdyA. (2016). The translation of management knowledge: Challenges, contributions and new directions. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18, 231–235.
66.
SturdyA. (2004). The adoption of management ideas and practices: Theoretical perspectives and possibilities. Management Learning, 35, 155–179.
67.
SveningssonS.AlvessonM. (2003). Managing managerial identities: Organizational fragmentation, discourse and identity struggle. Human Relations, 56, 1163–1193.
68.
TeulierR.RouleauL. (2013). Middle managers’ sensemaking and interorganizational change initiation: Translation spaces and editing practices. Journal of Change Management, 13, 308–337.
69.
Van MaanenJ.SørensenJ. B.MitchellT. R. (2007). Introduction to special topic forum: The interplay between theory and method. Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1145–1154.
70.
WaeraasA.SataøenH. L. (2014). Trapped in conformity? Translating reputation management into practice. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 30, 242–253.
71.
WaringJ.CurrieG. (2009). Managing expert knowledge: Organizational challenges and managerial futures for the UK medical profession. Organization Studies, 30, 755–778.
72.
WatsonT. J. (2003). Strategists and strategy-making: Strategic exchange and the shaping of individual lives and organizational futures. Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1305–1323.
73.
WatsonT. J. (2008). Managing identity: Identity work, personal predicaments and structural circumstances. Organization, 15, 121–143.
74.
WilhelmH.BortS. (2013). How managers talk about their consumption of popular management concepts: Identity, rules and situations. British Journal of Management, 24, 428-444.
75.
WhittingtonR. (1992). Putting Giddens into action: Social systems and managerial agency. Journal of Management Studies, 29, 693–712.
76.
WomackJ. T.JonesD. T. (2003). Lean thinking: Banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. New York: Free Press.
77.
ZilberT. B. (2006). The work of the symbolic in institutional processes: Translations of rational myths in Israeli high tech. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 281–303.
