Identity Trajectories: Explaining Long-Term Patterns of Continuity and Change in Organizational Identities
追踪四家非营利组织的长期身份变化，发现两种轨迹，由创始时身份主张的目的一手段结构及后续身份工作模式解释。
In this study, we track long-term patterns of continuity and change in the organizational identities of four nonprofits. Our findings reveal two trajectories, explained by the different means–ends structure of identity claims at each organization’s founding and the different pattern of identity work that they subsequently carry out. Our observations suggest that not all the attributes members use to make and give sense of “who we are” as an organization are equally consequential for members’ decisions. Claims used to define organizational ends are more likely to shape long-term patterns of identity change and continuity than are claims used to define the means used to pursue these ends, because they affect members’ relative compulsion to conform to categorical expectations as well as the latitude of their pursuit of opportunities for growth.