An Issues Management Perspective on Corporate Identity: The Case of a Regulatory Agency

This paper gives a multidisciplinary approach to identity management, considering the organization's identity under the light of an issues management perspective. The approach is to consider the organization's identity not only as an important element to match internal needs and external expectations, but environmental changes as well. In the 1990s, many models considering the importance of environmental forces were developed, but so far there are neither empirical studies nor methods aimed at revealing the ideal identity of an organization through a real consideration of environmental changes. For these reasons, this paper develops a theoretical identity model to face external changes as well as an audit model to shape identity around changes, ie identity measurement including environmental changes. The model and the processes were applied in an actual project auditing the identity of a regulatory agency in order to prepare it for its future challenges. The illustration of the case shows the practical feasibility and usefulness of the measurement tools. Even though this contribution is practical, it gives an insight into how identity management can serve as a real strategic tool in helping to survive changes. It thus introduces a new multidisciplinary perspective on research, which could be developed in further studies. © 2004, Palgrave Macmillan.