No longer second-class citizens: Redefining organizational identity as a response to digitalization in accounting shared services
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In: Journal of Professions and Organization, Vol. 9, No. 1, 23.02.2022, p. 115-138.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - No longer second-class citizens
T2 - Redefining organizational identity as a response to digitalization in accounting shared services
AU - Klimkeit, Dirk
AU - Reihlen, Markus
PY - 2022/2/23
Y1 - 2022/2/23
N2 - New technologies can become an identity-challenging threat for organizations. While there is a growing literature on how new technologies challenge fundamental questions of organizational existence such as 'who are we?', 'what do we do?', and 'what do we want to be?', this literature has largely overlooked how new technologies can become drivers of organizational identity change. In this article, we investigate the impact of digitalization, especially Robotic Process Automation, on organizational identity. Drawing on the analysis of shared service centers in Asia and Eastern Europe, we explored how these organizations respond to identity-challenging technologies. While traditionally, work in shared services has been characterized by a combination of standardization, controlling the labor process, and deskilling, we found in this study that shared service organizations are responding to the digital challenges by moving up the value chain to more complex, knowledge-intensive work. As a result, shared service organizations in our study began to redefine their organizational identity by, among others, professionalizing their workforce.
AB - New technologies can become an identity-challenging threat for organizations. While there is a growing literature on how new technologies challenge fundamental questions of organizational existence such as 'who are we?', 'what do we do?', and 'what do we want to be?', this literature has largely overlooked how new technologies can become drivers of organizational identity change. In this article, we investigate the impact of digitalization, especially Robotic Process Automation, on organizational identity. Drawing on the analysis of shared service centers in Asia and Eastern Europe, we explored how these organizations respond to identity-challenging technologies. While traditionally, work in shared services has been characterized by a combination of standardization, controlling the labor process, and deskilling, we found in this study that shared service organizations are responding to the digital challenges by moving up the value chain to more complex, knowledge-intensive work. As a result, shared service organizations in our study began to redefine their organizational identity by, among others, professionalizing their workforce.
KW - case study
KW - digitalization
KW - multinational corporation
KW - organizational identity
KW - shared service center
KW - Management studies
KW - Entrepreneurship
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126370176&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/5acb80f7-e1f2-3975-b301-c0868a0c97b9/
U2 - 10.1093/jpo/joac003
DO - 10.1093/jpo/joac003
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85126370176
VL - 9
SP - 115
EP - 138
JO - Journal of Professions and Organization
JF - Journal of Professions and Organization
SN - 2051-8803
IS - 1
ER -