Identity Ambiguity and Change in the Wake of a Corporate Spin-off
研究一家财富100强公司分拆其顶级业务单元时，组织身份标签和含义的变化过程，揭示身份模糊性如何驱动身份变革，并发现“变革超载”和时间身份差异等新现象。
We report on the findings of an inductive, interpretive case study of organizational identity change in the spin-off of a Fortune 100 company's top-performing organizational unit into an independent organization. We examined the processes by which the labels and meanings associated with the organization's identity underwent changes during and after the spin-off, as well as how the organization responded to these changes. The emergent model of identity change revolved around a collective state of identity ambiguity, the details of which provide insight into processes whereby organizational identity change can occur. Additionally, our findings revealed previously unreported aspects of organizational change, including organization members' collective experience of “change overload” and the presence of temporal identity discrepancies in the emergence of the identity ambiguity.