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Members' Identification with Multiple-Identity
Organizations*
Abstract
In the field of organizational identity, theory development has far outpaced theory testing. Specifically, several researchers have proposed identity-based models of organizational identification but few have operationalized and tested them. Furthermore, virtually no research has explored how members identify with multiple-identity organizations. This study addresses these gaps and makes three specific contributions to identity theory. First, we operationalize and test a model in which a member's organizational identification is conceptualized in terms of an identity comparison process, i.e., a cognitive comparison between what a member perceives the identity to be and what they think it should be. Second, we extend current thinking by operationalizing organizational identification in terms of multiple and competing identities. Third, as a theory-building exercise, we explore the possibility that a similar identity comparison process operates at the organizational form level of analysis, affecting members' identification with the encompassing form or social institution. We test our model via a survey of members of rural cooperatives-a prototypical "hybrid" identity organizational form, embodying elements of both "business" and "family" identities. Results of the analyses show that organizational identity congruence has a significant effect on member commitment, and form-level identity congruence has significant effects on both cognitive and pragmatic legitimacy, lending support for the use of identity as a multilevel construct. These results provide empirical support for current identity-based models of organizational identification and expand their generalizability to include multiple-identity organizations.
(Organizational Identity: Identification; Identity Conflicts; Multiple Expectations)
Organizational identity has grown over the past decade to become an established means of analyzing many aspects of organizations. Identity is essentially the set of beliefs or meanings that answer the question, "Who am I?" (Mead 1934), or in the case of an organization, "Who are we?" Since Albert and Whetten's (1985) seminal paper, a steadily growing volume of research has demonstrated the utility of the identity construct, employing it in a variety of ways to explore and explain a range of organizational phenomena. For example, organizational identity has been used to show how organizations and their managers interpret issues (Dutton and Dukerich 1991), identify threats (Elsbach and Kramer 1996), perceive and resolve conflict (Golden-Biddle and Rao 1997), establish competitive advantage (Fiol 1991), manage change (Reger et al....