A New Force Awakens? The Formation of the European Spallation Source as an Organisational Greenfield Project and the Influences of Identity

Sammanfattning: This qualitative study examines the interrelation of corporate, organisational and social identity within the European Spallation Source, a big research facility under construction. The greenfield project is characterised by ongoing change, in which we explored the influences of identity layers on the diverse and rapidly growing workforce. As future scientific breakthroughs are uncertain, the individual impact of work efforts is highly ambiguous and depicts a significant factor for the sensemaking of organisational reality and identities. From a symbolic interactionist perspective, we examined how employees perceived legitimacy efforts of the knowledge-intensive firm. By adhering to the hermeneutic circle, we analysed our empirical material consisting of eleven semi-structured interviews, observations and document studies. Our findings show the intertwined nature of identity layers and that the weakness of one layer may lead to dysfunctional outcomes, such as collaboration issues, in the early organisational stage. Further, verbal and non-verbal strategies to gain legitimacy, indicated as rhetoric and isomorphism are influencing and shaped by the employees’ perception. Additionally, we suggest that the orientation on a shared big picture could serve as an anchor for stability and alignment in uncertain environments. Our study encourages organisational researchers to engage more with non-mainstream organisations, in particular those with ambiguous purposes and objectives, like big research facilities.