Who Are We? The Social Construction of Organizational Identity Through Sense-Exchanging

Using Pennsylvania State University’s responses to an identity threat, this article discusses the social construction of organizational identity as a negotiated outcome between various stakeholders. The authors propose four main characteristics of the social construction of organizational identity—intentional, temporal, relational, and external—that extend Ran and Duimering’s demarcation of two identity construction processes: the linguistic and the social construction. The authors also provide some guidance for public institutions, universities, or nonprofit organizations as they construct, maintain, and negotiate a positive identity in the context of threatening changes.