TY - JOUR
T1 - IDENTITY TRANSITIONS VIA SUBTLE ADAPTIVE SENSEMAKING
T2 - THE EMPIRICAL PURSUIT OF THE INTANGIBLE
AU - Rerup, Claus
AU - Gioia, Dennis A.
AU - Corley, Kevin G.
N1 - Funding Information:
San Antonio (2011), and the second symposium on process organization studies (PROS II), Rhodes, Greece (2010). We acknowledge with deep gratitude the time our informants dedicated to this project. The first author is grateful to Martha Feldman, John Lafkas, Dan Levinthal, Jim March, and Mark Zbaracki for conversations and advice throughout his engagement with Rebelient. This work was supported by the Danish Social Science Research Council (SSF) [grant number 24-02-0142], Rebelient, the Management and Organization Department at Penn State University, Ivey Business School, the Western University Faculty Fellow Award, and Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Academy of Management. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - We conducted a 10-year longitudinal study of the formation and change of an organiza-tion’s identity over its complete life cycle, from birth to death. Over this time, the organization (“Rebelient”) went through several identity transitions wherein members of the organization came to understand that who they wanted to be as an organization was not possible because of differing expectations held by various inside and outside stakeholder groups. Discrepancies arising from those difficult-to-meet expectations led to repeated cycles of adaptive sensemaking, as members sought to understand what was happening. Our analysis of Rebelient’s identity transitions focuses primarily on a subtle form of adaptive sensemaking (semantic sensemaking) as a way not only to advance our understanding of intangible processes involved in identity transitions, but also to investigate an underexplored realm of sensemaking. Our findings have implications for the study of both organizational identity and adaptive sensemaking.
AB - We conducted a 10-year longitudinal study of the formation and change of an organiza-tion’s identity over its complete life cycle, from birth to death. Over this time, the organization (“Rebelient”) went through several identity transitions wherein members of the organization came to understand that who they wanted to be as an organization was not possible because of differing expectations held by various inside and outside stakeholder groups. Discrepancies arising from those difficult-to-meet expectations led to repeated cycles of adaptive sensemaking, as members sought to understand what was happening. Our analysis of Rebelient’s identity transitions focuses primarily on a subtle form of adaptive sensemaking (semantic sensemaking) as a way not only to advance our understanding of intangible processes involved in identity transitions, but also to investigate an underexplored realm of sensemaking. Our findings have implications for the study of both organizational identity and adaptive sensemaking.
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U2 - 10.5465/amd.2019.0212
DO - 10.5465/amd.2019.0212
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85152411227
SN - 2168-1007
VL - 8
SP - 608
EP - 639
JO - Academy of Management Discoveries
JF - Academy of Management Discoveries
IS - 4
ER -