The good, the bad, and the ambivalent: Managing identification among Amway distributors

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Pratt, MG
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• 刊物名称: ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-8392
• DOI: 10.2307/2667106
• 发表日期: 2000
• 页码: 456-493
• 关键词: SOCIALIZATION TACTICS; COMMITMENT; ORGANIZATION; IDENTITY; motivation; work; mechanisms; image; self

摘要

An ethnographic study of distributors for Amway, a network marketing organization, examines the practices and processes involved in managing members' organizational identification. It shows that this organization manages identification by using two types of practices: sense-breaking practices that break down meaning and sense-giving practices that provide meaning. When both sense-breaking and sense-giving practices are successful, members positively identify with the organization. When either sense-breaking or sense-giving practices fail, members deidentify, disidentify, or experience ambivalent identification with the organization. A general model of identification management is posited, and implications for both theory and practice are offered.