Rhetorically Constructing an Identity at Multiple Levels

A Case Study of Social Entrepreneurship Umbrella Organizations

Bibliographic Data

ID12800525
AuthorsSarah Bonewits Feldner (Marquette University, corresponding author), Jeremy P Fyke (Marquette University)
Year2016
Volume10
Issue2
Pages101-114
Publication date2016-03-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Strategic Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1553-118X • E-ISSN: 1553-1198
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1553118x.2016.1144188
OpenAlexW2325467767
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited36

To gain support for their programs, mission, and aims, organizations engage in identity work to establish and communicate who and what an organization is. We argue that identity work is a core strategic communication effort, and furthermore that rhetoric is central to the process. To better understand such identity work, we engage in a case study of an emerging organizational form, social entrepreneurship (SE), by analyzing the identity rhetoric of three large SE umbrella organizations (Ashoka, The Skoll Foundation, Echoing Green). We find that SE identity work is constructed at both the organizational level and at the level of SE as a whole field or sector. Our contributions highlight the tensions brought about in communicatively constructing identity at multiple levels, and the need for further strategic communication scholarship that critiques identity work as arguments for a vision for social change agendas

Aesthetics · Entrepreneurship · Field (mathematics · Identity (music · Organizational commitment · Organizational identity · Political science · Public relations · Rhetoric · Scholarship · Social group · Social identity approach · Social identity theory · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Corporate Identity and Reputation · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social Psychology

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