Rana Zamin Abbas

Role of Identity and Image in Organizational Leadership Perceptions in the Face of Strategic Change: An empirical account

The need of strategic thinking and acting becomes the imperative for higher education institutions under the conditions of change, specifically in the context of Pakistan. The role of identity and image in organizational leadership perceptions becomes the focus of this research, specifically when the models developed in advanced countries need to be refined and extended in developing countries before implementing in the delicate context of academia. Using Gioia and Thomas’s (2000) questionnaire and collecting responses on 7-point likert scale on 60 variable across 104 universities in Pakistan, this paper executed AMOS, analyzed their model using confirmatory factor analysis, and highlights the role of image and identity in developing organizational leadership perceptions, on theoretical and empirical grounds, in the face of strategic change in academia. This study not only confirms the insights of Gioia and Thomas (1996) model but also highlights their concepts conceptually as well as empirically. In this way extends their insights in the context of Pakistan and provides fresh insights discussing the role of image, identity, desired future image, and their inter-relationship on one hand and suggests means to accomplish change by adopting fluid identity on other hand in both conceptual and empirical terms. This study found that present image, desired future image, and present identity are key in making organizational leadership perception, specifically in academic institutions in Pakistan.

Exploring the Issues and New Insights of Global Branding and Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): A Case of Pakistani Organizations

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the concept of global branding, what it stands for being socially responsible, and what its link with leverage is. It also highlights the range of social responsibility issues with reference to Pakistani brands and explores the relevant issues and deep insights from strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature and global branding literature in the context of Pakistani organizations. It also suggests future implications for theorists, practitioners and academicians with reference to effective strategic CSR and global branding. This paper embarks on the intellectual journey with the concept of CSR and global branding in local context of Pakistan, while reviewing the relevant literature and addressing the issue of complexity in Pakistani context. This study gives insights about the issue of complexity at the time of strategically integrating CSR into global band and sorts out three strands of complexity namely, 1) issue complexity, 2) organizational complexity, and 3) communication complexity in the context of Pakistan. The limitation of this paper is due to the limited academic literature, giving insights about how global organizations in corporate CSR initiatives for the development of brands, and insights dealing with the issues needed to be taken into account at the time of integrating into branding strategies. This paper gives fresh enquiry to the issue complexity, organizational complexity and communication complexity with reference to global brands and CSR activities in the context of Pakistan which has been applied so far.

Organization Theory and Poetry: A Not so Elusive Link

Since the times of Western modernity, knowledge is compartmentalized as different fields. This has however, not mitigated the influence of natural science model of theorizing on social sciences. As a result the discipline of organization theory has grown without the influence of abstract, ephemeral and metaphysical fields such as; religion, history, mystic philosophy, arts and literature. With the rise of organizational cultural studies and the emergence of symbolic-interpretive view of organizing during the last three or four decades, the trend is however gradually shifting. Corporate aesthetics is one such field within organization theory which places value on the aesthetical aspects of managing and organizing. Taking lead from corporate aesthetics, this paper highlights the link between organization theory and literature (poetry, both English and Urdu). The linguistic and conceptual instrument of metaphors is isolated as the underpinning tool of this link. The role of metaphors in organization theory assumes further importance since the emergence of ‘social construction’ and ‘sense making’ view of organizations. The paper reinforces the views of contemporary writers of organization theory that the field draws from multiple and diverse disciplines by highlighting the link between organization theory and poetry through employing metaphoricity.

New Horizons of Debate 'Environment - Selects or Selected': An Exploratory Account

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the assumptions underlying the population ecology theory, to point out its major weaknesses and also to suggest a solution. Design/methodology/approach: This study reviews the literature from the fields of political economy, organizational research and international management and identifies common threads pointing towards the fallacy of basic ecological assumptions. Findings: The literature from different fields suggests that not only organizations are being selected by the environment, but the environment is also being intentionally controlled, shaped or ‘selected’ and even created by the organizations. Generalizing this argument, it is proposed that all such unidirectional approaches that fail to account for the multi directional influences should be replaced with a multidirectional approach in which all of the concerned variables are given some causal authority. Originality/value: The paper provides some insights into the unwarranted and taken for granted assumptions underlying the popular approach to organizational theorizing. It offers a guideline for organizational theorists to critically evaluate existing theories and to formulate balanced theories in future. Paper type: Viewpoint