Organizational identity scholarship has largely focused on the mutability of meanings ascribed to ambiguous identity labels. In contrast, we analyze a case study of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to explore how leaders maintained a meaning ascribed to an ambiguous identity label amid successive identity threats. We found that heightened dissensus surrounding meanings attributed to the organization’s “reform group” label at three key points spurred theoretically similar manifestations of two processes. The first, meaning sedimentation, involved leaders invoking history to advocate for the importance of their preferred meaning while mulling the inclusion of others. The second, reconstructing the past, occurred as leaders and members alike offered narratives that obscured the history of disavowed meanings while sharing new memories of those they prioritized. Our work complements research on identity change by drawing attention to the processes by which meaning(s) underlying ambiguous identity labels might survive.
AlvessonMats (1990). Organization: From substance to image?Organization Studies, 11, 373–394.
2.
AntebyMichelMólnarVirag (2012). Collective memory meets organizational identity: Remembering to forget in a firm’s rhetorical history. Academy of Management Journal, 55, 515–540.
3.
AshforthBlake E.MaelFred A. (1996). Organizational identity and strategy as a context for the individual. Advances in Strategic Management, 13, 19–64.
4.
AshforthBlake E.ReingenPeter H. (2014). Functions of dysfunction: Managing the dynamics of organizational duality in a natural food cooperative. Administrative Science Quarterly, 59, 474–516.
5.
BasqueJoelleLangleyAnn (2018). Invoking Alphonse: The founder figure as a historical resource for organizational identity work. Organization Studies, 39, 1685–1708.
6.
BattilanaJulieDoradoSilvia (2010). Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1419–1440.
7.
CannonSheila M.KreutzerKarin (2018). Mission accomplished? Organizational identity work in response to mission success. Human Relations, 71, 1234–1263.
8.
ChreimSamia (2005). The continuity–change duality in narrative texts of organizational identity. Journal of Management Studies, 42, 567–593.
9.
CorbinJulietStraussAnselm (2008). Basics of qualitative research (3rd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
10.
CoraiolaDiego M.DerryRobin (2020). Remembering to forget: The historic irresponsibility of US big tobacco. Journal of Business Ethics, 166, 233–252.
11.
CoraiolaDiego M.BarrosAmonMacleanMairiFosterWilliam M. (2021). History, memory, and the past in management and organization studies. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 61, 1–9.
12.
CorleyKevin G.GioiaDennis A. (2004). Identity ambiguity and change in the wake of a corporate spin-off. Administrative Science Quarterly, 49, 173–208.
13.
DeAngeloSteve (2015). The Cannabis Manifesto: A new paradigm for wellness. Berkley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
14.
De CuyperLienClarysseBartPhillipsNelson (2020). Imprinting beyond the founding phase: How sedimented imprints develop over time. Organization Science, 31, 1579–1600.
15.
DuttonJane E.DukerichJanet M. (1991). Keeping an eye on the mirror: Image and identity in organizational adaptation. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 517–554.
16.
EisenhardtKathleen M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14, 532–550.
17.
ElsbachKimberly D.KramerRoderick M. (1996). Members’ responses to organizational identity threats: Encountering and countering the Business Week rankings. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 442–476.
18.
GioiaDennis A.ChittipeddiKumar (1991). Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation. Strategic Management Journal, 12, 433–448.
19.
GioiaDennis A.CorleyKevin G.HamiltonAimee L. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 16, 15–31.
20.
GioiaDennis A.PatvardhanShubha D.HamiltonAimee L.CorleyKevin G. (2013). Organizational identity formation and change. Academy of Management Annals, 7, 123–193.
21.
GioiaDennis A.PriceKristin N.HamiltonAimee L.ThomasJames B. (2010). Forging an identity: An insider–outsider study of processes involved in the formation of organizational identity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55, 1–46.
22.
GioiaDennis A.SchultzMajkenCorleyKevin G. (2000). Organizational identity, image, and adaptive instability. Academy of Management Review, 25, 63–81.
23.
HatchMary JoSchultzMajken (2002). The dynamics of organizational identity. Human Relations, 55, 989–1018.
24.
HatchMary JoSchultzMajken (2017). Toward a theory of using history authentically: Historicizing in the Carlsberg Group. Administrative Science Quarterly, 62, 657–697.
25.
Howard-GrenvilleJenniferMetzgerMatthew L.MeyerAlan D. (2013). Rekindling the flame: Processes of identity resurrection. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 113–136.
26.
HsuGretaHannanMichael T.KoçakÖzgecan (2009). Multiple category memberships in markets: An integrative theory and two empirical tests. American Sociological Review, 74, 150–169.
27.
KreinerGlen E.HollensbeElaineSheepMathew L.SmithBrett R.KatariaNiyati (2015). Elasticity and the dialectic tensions of organizational identity: How can we hold together while we are pulling apart?Academy of Management Journal, 58, 981–1011.
28.
LangleyAnn (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24, 691–710.
29.
LoftusElizabeth F.HoffmanHunter G. (1989). Misinformation and memory: The creation of new memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 118, 100–104.
30.
NavisChadGlynnMary Ann (2010). How new market categories emerge: Temporal dynamics of legitimacy, identity and entrepreneurship in satellite radio, 1900–2005. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55, 439–471.
31.
OliverDavidVoughHeather C. (2020). Practicing identity in emergent firms: How practices shape founders’ organizational identity claims. Strategic Organization, 18, 75–105.
32.
PatvardhanShubha D.GioiaDennis A.HamiltonAimee L. (2015). Weathering a meta-level identity crisis: Forging a coherent collective identity for an emerging field. Academy of Management Journal, 58, 405–435.
33.
PrattMichael G. (2016). Hybrid and multiple organizational identities. In PrattMichael G.SchultzMajkenAshforthBlake E.RavasiDavide (Eds.), Oxford handbook of organizational identity (pp. 106–120). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
34.
PrattMichael G.KaplanSarahWhittingtonRichard (2020). The tumult over transparency: Decoupling transparency from replication in establishing trustworthy qualitative research. Administrative Science Quarterly, 65, 1–19.
35.
RavasiDavideRindovaViolinaStiglianiIleana (2019). The stuff of legend: History, memory, and the temporality of organizational identity construction. Academy of Management Journal, 62, 1523–1555.
36.
SaldanaJohnny (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
37.
SchultzMajkenHernesTor (2013). A temporal perspective on organizational identity. Organization Science, 24, 1–21.
38.
StanskeSarahRauchMadelineCanatoAnna (2020). Anti-identity strategizing: The dynamic interplay of “who we are” and “who we are not.”Strategic Organization, 18, 136–170.
39.
SuddabyRoyFosterWilliam M.Quinn-TrankChristine (2016). Organizational re-membering: Rhetorical history as identity work. In PrattMichael G.SchultzMajkenAshforthBlake E.RavasiDavide (Eds.), Oxford handbook of organizational identity (pp. 297–316). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
40.
TienariJanneVaaraEero (2016). Identity construction in mergers and acquisitions. In PrattMichael G.SchultzMajkenAshforthBlake E.RavasiDavide (Eds.), Oxford handbook of organizational identity (pp. 455–473). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
41.
TripsasMary (2009). Technology, identity and inertia through the lens of “The Digital Photography Company.”Organization Science, 20, 441–460.
42.
TsoukasHaridimos (1989). The validity of idiographic research explanations. Academy of Management Review, 14, 551–561.
43.
YinRobert K. (2015). Applications of case study research (3rd edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
