"We need a certain mindset”: Operational and Strategic Drivers of Identity Formation in EUI Alliances

Meta-organisations such like the European Universities Initiative (EUI) alliances require complex processes of institutional cooperation where the structural differences of the participating universities are translated into similarity, common aims and thus organisational identity. This article analyses how different actors within an EUI alliance project – namely operational academic staff and university rectors from nine Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) – shape an organisational identity with regard to the goals and transformations to be achieved. Based on qualitative group and expert interviews, we show that their organisational identity is formed bottom-up by inward and outward processes that aim at managing change and transformation by maximizing institutional value, whereas university leaders play a rather symbolic role at the time of the interviews. Our findings suggest that the organisational identity approach offers an analytical framework for analysing change and impact putting forward the importance of project benefits management within EUI alliances.