Leadership Identity Construction During Organizational Transformation in Computer Engineering Companies
Keywords:
leadership identity, organizational transformation, identity work, qualitative research, managerial identity, change managementAbstract
This study aimed to explore how managers construct, negotiate, and revise their leadership identities during organizational transformation processes. A qualitative research design was used to examine the lived and interpreted experiences of managers working in organizations undergoing structural, technological, strategic, or cultural transformation. Participants were selected through purposive sampling from public and private organizations in Tehran. The final sample included 24 managers, including senior managers, middle managers, and team leaders who had direct experience of leading employees during transformation initiatives. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 45–75 minutes. Interviews focused on participants’ experiences of role change, leadership expectations, identity conflict, legitimacy, employee resistance, and personal meaning-making during transformation. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis with the support of NVivo software. Analysis generated four main categories: disruption of established leadership self-concepts, negotiation of legitimacy and recognition, identity work through relational sensemaking, and reconstruction of adaptive leadership identity. Participants reported that organizational transformation challenged their previous assumptions about authority, expertise, and control. Many managers experienced tension between inherited hierarchical leadership models and emerging expectations for participation, agility, transparency, and emotional support. Leadership identity was not constructed only through formal position, but through continuous interaction with employees, senior executives, peers, and organizational discourses of change. Participants described identity reconstruction as a gradual process involving uncertainty, self-questioning, experimentation, feedback, and redefinition of leadership effectiveness. The study suggests that organizational transformation is not only a structural or strategic process, but also an identity-forming experience for leaders. Managers construct leadership identity through a dynamic interaction between personal self-understanding, organizational expectations, relational recognition, and practical experiences of leading change. Supporting leaders during transformation therefore requires more than technical change management training; it requires reflective, relational, and identity-oriented development practices.
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