Institutional complexity and organizational identity: A research in the Turkish banking sector

This study aims to clarify the relationship between institutional complexity and organizational identities by examining the transformation in management of public banks after 2001 in Turkey through institutional logics perspective. In the study, this relationship was investigated in two ways by considering the effect of multiple institutional logics on organizational identities and the effect of organizational identity type on strategic responses, as well. Accordingly, the study examined whether public banks display hybrid or multiple organizational identities under the effect of multiple institutional logics. How revised organizational identities affect strategic responses developed towards institutional complexity was also an issue investigated. The results of the document examinations and interviews as well as the coding based on them demonstrated that public banks own a hybrid organizational identity under the the influence of both developmental and commercial banking institutional logics. The elements paradoxically belonging to both institutional logics together in the characteristics of public banks adapting hybrid organizational identity indicates that responses towards institutional complexity occur through acquiescence and compromise strategies as described by Oliver (1991). Keywords: Organizational identity, institutional complexity, strategic responses,institutional change, Turkish banking sector