organizational identity

Authentic or Not?: A Men’s Organization with a woman member

June 5, 2008

Recently, I told you about an organizational situation that raises some interesting questions about whether the organization is being authentic. The organization, a Men’s Chorus, has up to 249 male members and 1 woman member, my neighbor Joan Garry. I proposed that this organization is either very special or very inauthentic” how else could the [...]

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Authentic Food Organizations: Why I love my CSA

May 29, 2008

Spring is here, and I’m in love again… with my CSA. CSA as in “cyber-spouse avatar”? No, CSA as in Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a group of us — 55 families, Farmer John (that’s John, below), the five or so employees of John’s Starbrite Farm, and 20 weeks of organic produce. [Quick introduction: Community Supported [...]

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B Corporation Identity: An Opportunity for Organizational Authenticity

May 1, 2008

What are for-profit organizations to do, if they want to pursue social purposes and be authentic? Up until this point, organizations facing this authenticity dilemma had three options. They could: Attempt to manage the incongruence between their actions and their identity, and forgo authenticity, Resolve the inconsistency by giving up for-purpose actions and become an [...]

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Authentic Organizational Partnerships: Co-Branding and The Abercrombie & Fitch Trauma Center

March 27, 2008

(photo from TheConsumerist) In an earlier post we considered how the new name of the Abercrombie & Fitch Trauma Center might affect the Center’s employees. Here, let’s consider why a partnership between Abercrombie & Fitch and the Columbus Children’s Hospital is inauthentic. And, let’s consider what criteria should be used to evaluate whether a partnership [...]

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5 (More) Reasons Why Being Authentic Can Be Bad for Your Organization

March 13, 2008

Being authentic limits who your organization can attract as partners. Not every organization wants to do business with an organization that’s authentic, because authentic organizations can be demanding partners. Authentic organizations need partners who will support the organization’s dedication to authenticity, who will appreciate why the organization dedicates its resources to sustaining authenticity, and who [...]

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5 Reasons Why Being Authentic Can Be Bad For Your Organization

March 5, 2008

Being authentic requires constant vigilance. Authentic organizations need constantly to monitor the relationship between their identity, their image, and their actions. Ideally, the organization wants to catch (and fix) any misalignments before others notice, because these misalignments can easily be interpreted as signs that the organization isn’t authentic or isn’t intending to remain authentic. This [...]

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It’s not that hard to recognize an organization’s authenticity. Even a child can do it.

February 16, 2008

“Mom, this company really shows their believingness.” So said my nine-year-old daughter. She had just noticed that the tag hanging from the T-shirt I gave her for Valentine’s Day was made from “100% post-consumer waste”. She already knew that the T-shirt was from a company called PositiviTee, that the graphic image printed on the T-shirt [...]

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