Identity Trajectories: Explaining Long-Term Patterns of Continuity and Change in Organizational Identities

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.