From future-making to future-blocking: identity work in a tension-filled organizational context

This paper offers a novel perspective on the strategy-identity nexus by examining organizational identity work through the lens of future-making practices. While prior research predominantly emphasizes retrospective accounts rooted in tradition and past narratives, this study foregrounds the proactive role of identity in shaping possible futures. Drawing on the concept of future-making—defined as the specific ways in which actors produce and enact the future—we investigate how identity work unfolds in new organizations where established past narratives are absent or insufficient. By focusing on practices such as planning events, envisioning, and boundary-setting, we highlight how identity work not only reflects who the organization is, but also who it seeks to become. This future-oriented perspective enriches our understanding of identity formation as a dynamic, anticipatory process and contributes to ongoing debates about how organizations navigate identity under conditions of uncertainty.

DDC Class

330: Economics

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From future-making to future-blocking: identity work in a tension-filled organizational context