Endurance in the face of environmental transformations: a practice-oriented perspective on organizational identity

The effect of environmental transformations on organizational identity in universities has been addressed from different perspectives, yet considering micro-dynamics and impact on actual practices of academic work has been neglected. This article addresses this gap by analyzing how institutional field prescriptions relative to an environmental transformation have been internalized into organizational members’ practices and what effect it has on the collective understanding of organizational identity. Our analytical context is represented by two schools at the biggest Dutch higher education organization. While most studies emphasize contestation and fragmentation with multiple interpretations of organizational identity within the same higher education organization during or as a consequence of environmental transformations, the analyzed case presents contrary results. Organizational members were consistent in describing their own organizational practices across schools. The stable and shared identity is strengthened via anti-identity through two distinct mechanisms: the process of socialization and contrasting to academia. Additionally, we show how through a third mechanism (association to the professional field) organizational members draw on the institutional field prescriptions to legitimize their teaching and research practices. Thus, this paper demonstrates that organizational identity can be stable and non-fragmented even when higher education organizations face and implement changes