Ambulant Stability: Organizational Identity Change and Community Memory

This research builds on theory about how and why identity simultaneously changes and remains the same at the individual and organizational levels. Scholars have debated on the fluid versus enduring nature of organizational identity. Most empirical researches have been following and reinforcing the underlying assumption that change excludes stability and vice versa. This dichotomy inhibits practical and theoretical questions about stability during change. What remains when identity changes? How can organizational identification be preserved when identity changes? Recent studies considering organizational identity in time have suggested links with organizational memory while others are fomenting an ‘historical turn’. We distinguish the deliberate recollection of the past by leaders from emergent remembering embodied by a community of workers through the passage of time - which we term community memory. We contribute to this literature by establishing a phenomenological link between memory and identity and by providing an overarching model of the dynamics between memory, history and identity evolution at the organizational level. We suggest novel propositions and implications for organizational identity research and for related practices.