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.