The Influence of Organizations’ past Behavior on Disbandment of Women’s Voluntary and Activist Organizations

Examining the importance of categorization of actors (e.g., organizations, individuals, products) in the construction of identity, existing work in the organizational ecology tradition has generally focused on the present state of actors’ category memberships. Yet, recent work has started to emphasize actors’ membership histories in the construction of identity. With insights from this recent literature, I highlight the importance of organizations’ past behavior in understanding how organizational identity is constructed and how it ultimately influences their risk of disbandment. In analyzing the disbanding rate of women’s voluntary and activist organizations between 1955 and 1985, I focus on consistency and change in the organizations’ tactical and goal repertoires. I propose that the more consistent organizations are in their tactical and goal repertoire, the easier it is for audiences to make sense of their identity and thus organizations’ leave a stronger imprint on the minds of audience members. This will increase the reliability of organizations’ future behavior, leading to increase in support, and ultimately a decrease in the risk of disbandment. However, when organizations display changes in the size and makeup of their tactical and goal repertoires, this will dilute the concept audiences had in regards to organizations’ identities, and such uncertainty and confusion will weaken their support to the organizations. This, in turn, will increase the likelihood of organizational disbandment. Results show mixed support for these ideas.