From Hopeful Heroes to Cynical Martyrs: Identity Work and the Path‐Dependent Identification with Maladaptive Logics
基于对某保护组织反偷猎运动的五年田野调查，揭示了危机下新逻辑的采用如何通过身份工作的自我强化机制，使成员从充满希望的英雄主义滑向愤世嫉俗的殉道者，并固执坚守不适应逻辑，导致组织僵化。
Abstract Scholars have long attended to both the persistence and change of institutional logic–identity constellations, but we know less about why and how organizational members might cling to a logic despite its evident maladaptive character and the resulting emotional upheaval. Based on a 5‐year ethnography of a conservation organization’s paramilitary campaign against rhino poaching, we induct a process model to show how the crisis‐induced adoption of a new logic and the corresponding identity work can have path‐dependent effects that tip hopeful heroism into cynical martyrdom and a dogged commitment to a maladaptive logic, with negative organizational implications. We identify three forms of identity work that act as self‐reinforcing mechanisms of this path dependence: polarizing , normalizing , and cynical coping . Elaborating the intersection of scholarship on institutions, identity work, identification, and path dependence, we explain how an initially valorized identity can twist into a darker, dysfunctional version of itself, with path‐dependent mechanisms contributing to organizational rigidity in the face of crises.