HIJACKED BY HOPE: DYNAMICS OF MISSION DRIFT AND IDENTITY DILUTION IN A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION

Cappelen, Sophie Marie; Pedersen, Jesper Strandgaard

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FORUM • Rev. adm. empres. 61 (1) • Jan-Feb 2021 • https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-759020210104 copy

HIJACKED BY HOPE: DYNAMICS OF MISSION DRIFT AND IDENTITY DILUTION IN A NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

This article addresses how organizational identity and mission are constructed and reproduced over time through processes of remembering and forgetting. Building on literature that views organizational memory as a strategic resource, this paper showcases the enabling effects of history, memory, and the past for organizational resilience and survival. Although temporal narratives may be employed as rhetorical tools to construct coherency between the past, present, and future, we find they also have the potential of sidetracking and hijacking an organization’s direction. Our study shows how an excessive focus on the future can cause mission drift and identity dilution. However, the identity dilution can be resolved through revisiting and remembering the past. The organizational past is not merely a strategic resource for identity construction, it is also a temporal anchor from which the organization may (re)discover its original purpose. The findings are based on a qualitative, in-depth, ethnographic case study of a nonprofit organization whose goal is to establish a national network of local school gardens.

KEYWORDS |
Organizational identity; organizational memory; historical narrative; temporal focus; nonprofit organization

Type of data collected	Specification	Data use
Observations: ca. 150 h.	Workshops and meetings: 80 h. School garden networking events: 30 h. School garden visits: 43 h.	Provided us with narrative cues, as we were able to observe shifts in identity and mission over time.
Interviews: 20	Organizational management team: 6 interviews conducted in person; notes taken. Duration: 1-2 h. Organizational founder and chair of the board: 1 interview conducted in person; notes taken. Duration: 1-2 h. School garden representatives: 13 interviews conducted in person; notes taken. Duration: 1-2 h. Foundations: 5 interviews in person: notes taken. Duration 30 min. -1 h. 15 min.	Interview statements were used to identify organizational memories and narratives. These provided insight into how actors made sense of the organization's past, present and future.
Examples of organizational documents	Project applications: 227 pp. Project evaluations: 212 pp. Organizational strategy proposals: 6 p. Organizational statutes and description: 63 p. School garden manuals: 90 pp. Press releases: 16 pp. Email correspondence with organizational members Webpage material w/descriptions of organizational vision, mission, educational concept etc.	Project applications and evaluations provided insight into how temporal focus developed over time. We consider both the number of applications and their content. Organizational statutes, descriptions and strategy proposals provided insight into organizational changing organizational mission and shifts in temporal focus and identity over time. Email correspondence between observations allowed us to probe organizational members on emerging themes in our data. Public material (i.e. press releases and webpage material) provided depictions of organizational mission, vision and self-presentation in the public domain to supplement narratives collected via observations and interviews.
Media material	Press clippings containing interviews and portrayals of the organization from 2003-2019 from mainly national sources.	Providing external audiences' view on the organization and used to provide contextual understanding of historical background and present political and socio-economic context.
Examples of photographic material	Self-captured photos during observations.	Documented physical-material manifestations of the activities during meetings and events.

Year	Major events, transitions and turning points	Temporal focus
2003	Nonprofit founder initiates activities on the company's ground that later will evolve into the nonprofit organization	Present
2006	Nonprofit is established.	Present -future
2013	Major batch funding attained. Founding company mentioned 16 times in the application. Depicted as synergistic, close relationship Focus on outside recognition and (local) legitimacy	Past-present-future orientation
2014	Complete turnover in the organization. New hiring (without lived experience of the org. past).	Present-future orientation
2015	New project(s) added to the portfolio.	Future orientation
2016	New major project. Funding organization never mentioned (partly based on wishes of the funder, meeting with foundation later, legitimacy of funders). Organizational psychologist hired to help shape the development of the organization. A new administrative leader is hired.	Future orientation
2017	Workshops initiated. Expressed wishes to further focus on development. Vision expressed as too narrowly focused on children. Need to find the core of the organization; an idea and concept developer? Promise of establishing another five pilot projects New employees unaware of organizational past Top management dismissed UN development goals and school garden history becomes part of the identity narrative	Shift from (short) future to past-present-future to long past-present-future orientation

Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de S.Paulo Av 9 de Julho, 2029, 01313-902 S. Paulo - SP Brasil, Tel.: (55 11) 3799-7999, Fax: (55 11) 3799-7871 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: rae@fgv.br

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