Creating an Identity in Community-Based Organizations

The organizational landscape created by modern communication networks such as the internet has created a new architecture of organization – the C-Form (Seidel and Stewart 2001). The C-Form is characterized by a lack of formal boundaries, a community of volunteer labor, and inexpensive and efficient communication. The unclear formal boundaries of the C-Form lead to two major challenges: (1) explicitly defining who is in and who is outside of the organization, and (2) establishing a clear identity for the organization. These two issues are linked such that the identity of the organization emerges as critical players coalesce around the central, distinctive, and enduring attributes (Albert & Whetten, 1985) used to define the organization. Since the definition of who these “critical players” are cannot be resolved by formal boundaries, those individuals who provide guidance as to what the organization stands for, and what it does not stand for, may ultimately influence the identity of the organization. In this research we study the process of creating an organizational identity focusing on two C-Form organizations: Linux and Destination Imagination. Both of these organizations have discussion groups whose communications are open to the public. We coded the messages that these volunteer members have posted in terms of their identity-relevant language as well as conducted a network analysis of the key actors who have shaped the identities of the organizations. The findings indicate dual processes are involved: disidentifying (with a competitor organization) as well as identifying what the organization should be about.