From Hopeful Heroes to Cynical Martyrs: Identity Work and the Path-Dependent Identification with Maladaptive Logics

Journal of Management Studies · 2025 · Volume 62 · Issue 8

Abstract

Scholars have long attended to both the persistence and change of institutional logic–identity constellations, but we know less about why and how organizational members might cling to a logic despite its evident maladaptive character and the resulting emotional upheaval. Based on a 5-year ethnography of a conservation organization’s paramilitary campaign against rhino poaching, we induct a process model to show how the crisis-induced adoption of a new logic and the corresponding identity work can have path-dependent effects that tip hopeful heroism into cynical martyrdom and a dogged commitment to a maladaptive logic, with negative organizational implications. We identify three forms of identity work that act as self-reinforcing mechanisms of this path dependence:polarizing,normalizing, andcynical coping. Elaborating the intersection of scholarship on institutions, identity work, identification, and path dependence, we explain how an initially valorized identity can twist into a darker, dysfunctional version of itself, with path-dependent mechanisms contributing to organizational rigidity in the face of crises.

Keywords

cynicism, emotion, grand challenges, identity work, institutional logics, organizational crisis, path dependence

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