Same but Different: Meta-Organization and Collective Identity Dynamics

Abstract

This article analyzes how a meta-organization (M-O) can shape a coherent collective identity over time. Previous foundational work on identity formation in M-Os has provided fragmented but insightful ideas on several activities that this process entails. However, we currently lack a dynamic, integrative, and empirically supported model that demonstrates how these activities interrelate to shape a coherent collective identity over time. Using an in-depth case study of an association of cider producers in Québec (Canada) over a 23-year period, we develop a model of collective identity dynamics, in which an M-O plays an orchestrator role that is both dual and continuous. On the one hand, an M-O balances the internal identity claims of its organizational members through alignment and differentiation. On the other hand, an M-O builds an externally coherent identity by assembling and positioning legitimacy among institutional actors. Our paper provides new insights into activities performed by an M-O during identity creation by analyzing whether this process includes both organizational and institutional actors, thereby reinforcing the intermediary nature of an M-O. Furthermore, it contributes to the collective identity dynamics literature by elaborating the stabilizing role of a bounded organization in collective identity dynamics at the interorganizational level.

Obstacles to collective action during a crisis: A meta‐organizational perspective

“…The EU's diffuse response to the COVID‐19 pandemic specifically in air travel restrictions highlights an additional issue: Not only are crises difficult to manage for a meta‐organization, but they are also nearly impossible if the required action goes directly against the shared system‐level goal that the meta‐organization was supposed to protect and especially where no preparation was done for such an eventuality. As Laviolette et al (2022, p. 45) note, a meta‐organization can “balance the internal identity claims of its organizational members through alignment and differentiation [and] … build an externally coherent identity by assembling and positioning legitimacy among institutional actors.” Examining the evolution of the EU, the Schengen Area of free movement was a crowning achievement of the common market and a goal that a large majority of EU members were committed to defending. By contrast, fighting the coronavirus pandemic via restrictions on air travel would have meant going back precisely on that shared system goal, actually deconstructing the externally coherent identity (commitment to free movement), without a plan to balance the internal alignment of the member states.…”

Meta-Organizations: A Clarification and a Way Forward

“…Some of the tensions between members and their meta-organizations around identity, autonomy, resources, and goals have been addressed in this special issue and in other studies (Laviolette et al, 2022;Roux & Lecocq, 2022), but more needs to be understood, particularly in relation to layering (Grothe-Hammer et al, 2022). The talk, decisions, and actions of organizations may be systematically inconsistent as a result of the inconsistent demands of their specific environments, implying organizational hypocrisy (Brunsson, 2007, Ch.7).…”

“…But there is an increasing number of studies that are using meta-organization theory for understanding these organizations - Roux and Lecocq (2022) for business cooperatives, for instance, or Megali (2022) and Laviolette et al (2022) (this issue), Berkowitz et al (2017), Spillman (2018), or Dumez and Renou (2020) for industry associations. Some studies of social movements have used the meta-organization concept (Karlberg & Jacobsson, 2015;Laurent et al, 2020).…”

“…Metaorganizations set organizational boundaries for and around their members regarding identity, categories, and resources. As Ahrne and Brunsson (2008) have argued, meta-organizations establish a collective identity or family name, although they may face obstacles in developing these 'meta-level' identities (Laviolette et al, 2022;Patvardhan et al, 2015). Many meta-organizations seek to construct, adapt, and reinforce their collective identity.…”

“…In the third paper, Laviolette et al (2022) analyze collective identity formation. Using an in-depth case study of a meta-organization of cider producers in Quebec, the authors reveal the complex processes at the heart of a meta-organization's collective identity.…”