bowing before dual gods: how paradoxical frames sustain multiple conflicting organizational...

Wendy K. Smith

University of Delaware

Bowing Before Dual Gods: How Paradoxical Frames Sustain Multiple Conflicting

Organizational Identities

Marya L. Besharov

Cornell University

Alberta Institutions Conference

June 2015This research benefitted from funding from the University of Delaware General University Research Grants, University of Delaware Center for International Studies, Cornell University Institute for the Social Sciences, and University of Minnesota Center for Integrative Leadership.

Arts organizations (Glynn, 2000;

Glynn & Lounsbury, 2005)

Health care organizations(Reay & Hinings, 2009;Pratt & Rafaeli, 1997)

Universities(Albert & Whetten, 1985;

Kraatz & Block, 2008)

Microfinance(Battilana & Dorado, 2010;

Zhao & Wry, 2015)

Social enterprises(Pache & Santos, 2013;

Tracey et al., 2011)

Rise of Hybrid Organizations

Combine competing organizational identities, forms, and logics within a

single organization(Battilana & Lee, 2014)

Organizational Identity

“Who we are” and “what we do” as an organization(Albert & Whetten, 1985; Gioia et al., 2013)

• Orients members and guides strategic action (Pratt, 2000; Dutton & Dukerich, 1991; Gioia & Thomas, 1996)

• Hybrids combine multiple, competing identities within a single organization (Albert & Whetten, 1985; Foreman & Whetten, 2002)

Multiple Organizational Identities

Two Perspectives:

Stable and Enduring

• Source of internal tensions

• Often structurally separated

(Besharov, 2014; Elsbach, 2001; Foreman & Whetten, 2002; Glynn, 2000; Golden-Biddle & Rao, 1997; Pratt & Foreman, 2000; Pratt & Rafaeli, 1997; Voss, Cable, & Voss, 2006)

Fluid and Transitional

• Source of identity change

• Often become integrated

(Clark, et al., 2010; Corley & Gioia, 2004; Gioia, Schultz, & Corley, 2000; Dutton & Dukerich, 1991; Fiol, 2002; Gioia et al., 2010; Kreiner et al., In Press; Nag, Corley, & Gioia, 2007)

But, in “holographic” hybrids, multiple identities are neither completely separated, nor completely

integrated(Albert & Whetten, 1985)

Research Question:

How do organizations sustain competing identities over time, without fully integrating or structurally separating those identities?

Methods: Overview

• Qualitative Case Analysis (Yin, 1984; Siggelkow,

2007)

• Single case

• Longitudinal (10 years)

• Extreme, “unusually revelatory” case (Eisenhardt & Grabner, 2007)

• Runs labor intensive IT outsourcing business (e.g. digitization, web tagging)• Seeks to stop the cycle of poverty by hiring the most disadvantaged

Research Site: Digital Divide Data

Research Site: Digital Divide Data

Social• Over 2000 people hired• Over 650 “graduates” • >10x average salary

Business• $4.7M in revenues • Covering operational costs

since 2009

Data Collected

Multi-source triangulation (Jick, 1979)

• Interviews (34)Founder/CEO, board, managers, employees, external advisor

• Observation (7 days)Board and senior manager meetings

• Archival documents (over 3,000)

All board packets, minutes, business plans, news articles, marketing materials

Data AnalysisStage Output

1. Develop thick descriptions to generate initial insights (Langley, 1999)

Thick case description 3 key insights

o Contradictory yet interrelated identitieso Strategic tensions between identitieso Identity meanings and enactments shift

2. Identify and describe key strategic episodes (Maitlis, 2005)

Detailed accounts of 18 strategic episodes (58 single-spaced pages)

Focus on hiring and growth episodes (10)

3. Code episodes to develop core constructs (Gioia, Corley, & Hamilton, 2013)

Data structure

4. Integrate data and literature to build a theoretical model (Eisenhardt, 1989)

Model of how paradoxical frames sustain multiple, conflicting organizational identities

How Paradoxical Frames Sustain Multiple Conflicting Identities

Experimenting with Identity Enactment

Hitting Identity Guardrails

Multiple Identity Flexibility

Confronting Identity Tensions

Paradoxical Frames

Multiple Identity Commitments


“Jeremy and I need to make a living, but we can make a living in a lot of ways. The reason that we are in this is

because we see this as an opportunity to help people out of poverty... We don’t want to be just another company.”

– Board member

Contradictory Frames

“The social mission makes it very difficult. The goal line here is not to make tons of money and get the founder to the south of France. The goal is to provide as many jobs

and to touch as many lives as possible within the context of our being able to generate enough money… Boy that is

really complicated.” – Board member

Interdependent Frames

“So many young people will go through [training programs run by NGOs], but they won’t have the chance to actually do

it in the workplace…. [At DDD,] there’s a real client that wants to see quality work delivered. If we were just a learning program, it wouldn’t work.” – Board member



Paradoxical Frames



Who do we hire?“How can you run DDD with people typing 8 words per minute?”

How do we grow?Thatched hut dream or thatched hut nightmare?

Confronting Identity Tensions: Ten Key Episodes

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2007 2009 20102000

Disadv. vs. skilled Disadv. vs. skilled

Disadv. vs. skilled (Laos)

Disadv. vs. skilled

Rural vs. urban

Rural vs. urban

Rural vs. urban Scale social mission vs. improve operational efficiency

Graduate vs. promote to middle management

High vs. low

income countries

Gro

wth

Hiri

ng


• 5 friends from US/Canada spend 1 month in Cambodia to launch DDD

• Partner with CVCD to provide free English lessons/computer training

• Sponsor experimental training program at CVCD and hire top performers


• “Do you realize this company is bankrupt in less than three months?”

• Low quality, slow turnaround, unsuccessful RFP bids






Paradoxical Frames


“Part of the secret sauce may be having some flexibility around these issues…”– Board member






Paradoxical Frames






Paradoxical Frames


Theoretical Contributions

Competing identities sustained through identity flexibility• Extends work on identity labels and meanings (Gioia et al., 2000) to multiple identity context





Paradoxical Frames



Competing identities sustained through identity flexibility• Extends work on identity labels and meanings (Gioia et al., 2000) to multiple identity context• In multiple identity context, flexibility enabled by paradoxical frames and identity guardrails





Paradoxical Frames



Organizational identity as a key means of managing hybridity • Past research suggests creating an integrated identity (Battilana & Dorado, 2010)• Our study uncovers an alternative – identities are interrelated yet remain distinct

Thank you

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