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