Alumni Management and Temporal Spatial Distance: A Theoretical Investigation

Over the last several years, scholars have become increasingly interested in how alumni relations are managed for the purposes of capitalization. This challenges the notion that organizational membership must be dichotomous—it may instead be a matter of degrees and perceptions. Former members (alumni) may remain on the organizational periphery as business partners, advocates, brand ambassadors, or even return as boomerang employees. This study applies Social Identity Theory to argue that alumni management creates a peripheral group of alumni that is temporally and spatially distanced from the organization’s core social group. This distance can hinder the organization’s ability to benefit from its alumni. The study therefore investigates the role of temporal spatial distance in alumni management and how it is addressed through organizational activities. It demonstrates the importance of temporal spatial distance, because of its effects on social interactions, identity regulation, and alumni role learning and enactment. Furthermore, it systematizes typical alumni management activities according to their effects on temporal-spatial distance, thereby contributing to the existing literature on Social Identity Theory and alumni management.